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/
