Tommy:
American Legion Post 346, Gully Rd., Neptune, has their own Bocce
Court, on their premises. The last Sunday in June, every year, The
Legion begins it's year with a Memorial at High Point, Sussex County.
The Bocce balls are brought up to High Point and Monmouth County
American Legion, has a "Y'all Come" match! I don't know how to play,
but I enjoy watching the others, yell and scream at each other, when
they lose! I also enjoy eating genuine "wedding soup", prepared by
their Auxiliary Members! Yummm!
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "justifiedright"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> BYE BYE TO BOCCE
>
> MATCH BETWEEN NEIGHBORING TOWNS' OFFICIALS ENDS 30-YEAR RUN
> Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 07/12/07
> BY CAROL GORGA WILLIAMS
> COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
>
>
> NEPTUNE CITY The signature event will conclude with matches among
> 52 teams Friday and Saturday at Memorial Park. The event kicks off
> Friday at 6 p.m. with the traditional celebrity match. The celebrity
> teams will be comprised of officials from Asbury Park, Belmar, Long
> Branch and Neptune City, among others.
>
> It is time to retire the horse's butt.
>
> After 30 years including almost a decade of rivalry between the
> governing bodies of Long Branch and West Long Branch the
> Anthony "Putt-Putt" Petillo National Bocce Tournament is fading into
> the sunset.
>
> The tournament, which began in 1977 in Asbury Park, is
> saying "arrivederci," announced organizer Sal Caliendo of Neptune
> City, who added "never say never" about a reprieve in a written
> history of the Shore tradition. Caliendo still will organize mini
> tournaments during the year to benefit local charities.
>
> The signature event will conclude with matches among 52 teams Friday
> and Saturday at Memorial Park. The event kicks off Friday at 6 p.m.
> with the traditional celebrity match.
>
> The celebrity teams will be comprised of officials from Asbury Park,
> Belmar, Long Branch and Neptune City, among others.
>
> It has been two years since officials from Long Branch played
> officials from West Long Branch, eight years of matches made
> resonant because the then-mayor of West Long Branch, Paul Zambrano
> would challenge his brother, then-Long Branch City Councilman
> John "Fazz" Zambrano.
>
> The losers would carry home reproductions of a horse's butt.
>
> But both men have since resigned their respective positions after
> being caught in a corruption sting and await sentencing to prison
> terms.
>
> Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider said the city challenged West Long
> Branch last year but the borough could not field a team. Long Branch
> played Neptune City instead but the magic of the rivalry was gone,
> said Long Branch City Councilman Anthony Giordano.
>
> In office for more than 13 years, he said nothing resonated with
> residents more than the annual bocce matches. Even he is at a loss
> to explain why.
>
> Giordano said it was an event that brought people together rooting
> for the home team no matter where on the political spectrum
> viewers fell the rest of the year.
>
> "I loved it," said Schneider. "It was always a good time. People
> wrote nice things about us, and that doesn't happen very often.
> There was always more coverage about the tournament than anything
> else we did."
>
> "Those were great times," agreed Giordano.
>
> "Year-round, as I talked to people throughout Monmouth County,
> people used to get a kick out of them," Giordano said of the rivalry
> games. "The years we lost, it was brutal around here for weeks. We
> used to joke that we got a harder time from constituents when we
> lost the bocce match than we did in a bad budget year."
>
> The tournament is named after Caliendo's cousin, a former Asbury
> Park police officer and special events director for the city who
> passed away on the eve of the event in 1987. Then-Gov. Thomas H.
> Kean declared it "the official bocce tournament of New Jersey," and
> it attracted participants from as far away as Staten Island. This
> year, teams are coming from remote locations like Ridgefield Park in
> Bergen County and Northfield near Atlantic City.
>
> The current tournament is being played in memory of Caliendo's
> brother, Ricky, who died Feb. 11 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
> or ALS, also referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
>
> Ricky Caliendo, 52, a former Asbury Park city worker, was one of the
> original tournament officials in 1977.
>
> Sal Caliendo will bring out one of those original courts to serve as
> the championship court this year, he said, along with an original
> scoreboard and bocce ball set. Sal's wife, Liz, has been preparing
> hundreds of photographs to display at the tournament. Those
> photographs are available for the taking as the Caliendos, who have
> a collection of thousands, hope some of the attendees see themselves
> or a cherished relative in the displays.
>
> "If you see a memory you like, take the picture," Caliendo said.
>
> Although bocce has become increasingly popular along the Shore in
> the last 30 years, that wasn't always the case, recalled Sal
> Caliendo, noting that at the time the tournament was created, bocce
> was largely confined to backyard barbecues at Italian households.
>
> The game mixes qualities of bowling, shuffleboard and marbles. The
> object is to roll colored balls as close as possible to a smaller
> white ball called the pallino, which is thrown first. In addition to
> smacking an opponent's ball out of the way, a strategic player can
> knock the white ball itself to a new location, redefining the
> playing area.
>
> Caliendo, who also founded the Al Natale Men's League, a softball
> fixture for 25 years before it disbanded in 2002, said it was
> Petillo who suggested the first bocce tournament.
>
> It proved more popular than organizers initially thought, leading to
> a second in 1978. They were held in Asbury Park and Belmar until
> moving to Long Branch in 1998. (The tournament had been cancelled in
> 1997 when organizers could not afford costly liability insurance.)
>
> In 1998, Long Branch invited the tournament to a new home in West
> End Park, building courts to accommodate players.
>
> The tournament was at home there until last year, when Neptune City
> gave it a place overlooking the Shark River.
>
> Everyone from congressmen, state legislators, mayors, council
> members and sports figures have played in the tournaments, Sal
> Caliendo said. Asbury Park's own Danny DeVito played one year.
>
> Among the more well known celebrity players have been John "The
> Count" Montefusco, the former New York Yankees pitcher, professional
> soccer player Kevin Gannon, professional bowler Marc Roth, former
> Oakland Raiders linebacker Phil Villapiano and pro wrestler
> Scott "Bamm Bamm" Bigelow.
>
> Caliendo said he will miss the tournaments but still plans on
> playing a lot of bocce.
>
> "It was just great, just fantastic," he said of the last 30
> years. "To go back and think of all the memories and the people who
> played (we know) it brought a lot of people together and a lot of
> friendships were made."
>
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
