Adesso!
The FIERI Boston Newsletter
Edizione Year in Review 2000

Team FIERI Bocce battles State Champs!
by Sal Di Stefano and Bob Yantosca

It was a cold Sunday morning in September as the car, piloted by Jim Leccese, sped through the winding streets of Somerville, enroute to the annual Sons of Italy Bocce Tournament. Sal Onorato was grumpy from not having his daily caffeine fix, while Bob Yantosca was visualizing in his mind the shots he would make later that day. Meanwhile, Sal Di Stefano inspired everyone to think of our mentor and honorary coach, "Pasquale" of the North End, under whose guidance we had trained the week before. We were Team FIERI Bocce!

We arrived at the Italian-American Club in Walpole at about 8 AM, hoping to get in a couple of warm up rounds. Alarmingly, we noticed several vans pulling in, filled with uniformed bocce teams from all over the state, complete with mascots and fans. The official tournament board listed 40 teams divided into men's and women's brackets. The coveted prize was the Sons of Italy Bocce Cup, a prize which rivaled the Vince Lombardi Trophy. And that's when it hit us...we were in over our heads! This was a hardcore bocce tournament, and the word on the street was that the defending State Champs of Watertown Lodge were heavily favored to win.

The Italian-American Club had four regulation-size courts. At first glance we thought that they appeared to be in shoddy condition - certainly not up to par of our home courts in the North End. After sizing up the lay of the land, we found to our surprise that the groundskeepers swept the courts with a wire broom to make them fast and unforgiving. It was also immediately apparent that the backboards were dead and provided no ricochet action. Also, the house rules were different than what we were accustomed to. Two members of each team had to be stationed at opposite ends of the court and were not allowed to cross center court. These conditions were vastly different than anything we had experienced before, and put us at a definite disadvantage.

Before our match began, we saw a man dressed head to toe with an Italian Cowboy outfit, complete with hand painted Watertown Bocce Boots. As he passed us he growled "Don't get old you sons of guns!" This 80-something-year old man was none other than Watertown legend Vinny Massa, the mascot and spiritual leader of the championship team. We listened to his advice about bocce in particular, and life in general, and posed for several PR pictures with him.

We were seeded to play the juggernaut Watertown #6 team, who were the 1999 State Champs! These guys meant business. Each of them was very serious; one guy even smoked a pipe during the game. The crowd watched and cheered for Watertown. As the match began, many of the Watertown fans wondered among themselves who the heck the 4 guys in the FIERI T-shirts were, and if we were for real.

During the match, Jim and Sal O. were on one side of the court while Bob and Sal D. were on the other. As Bob started things off for Team FIERI, the first shot hushed the crowd as the ball rolled right next to the pallino, seemingly attracted by a magnetic force. Team Watertown missed their shots, giving us a 1-0 lead. Sons of Italy President Joe Russo was in awe as he saw his championship team trailing a bunch of young whippersnappers.

However, as the bocce war waged on, Team Watertown regained its composure and started to use their deadliest weapon, the Raffa shot (i.e. the "Anger Ball"). Time after time, we saw our precision shots displaced from the pallino, leaving Team Watertown to rake in the points. Our lead was fleeting and we eventually lost the match 12 to 4. However the four points we scored were more than many other teams made during the course of the tournament. In the end we did FIERI proud!

Team FIERI would like to thank Sons of Italy president Joe Russo and the Italian-American Club of Walpole for letting us participate in this great event. It created much publicity and good will between organizations that never worked together before. This event displayed an Italian tradition that will be carried on by our generation for years to come.

The best part of the experience was how we were treated to Team
Watertown's tailgate Italiano. Homeade Prosciutto and Suprasotta were washed down by homemade Vino! The championship team told us, "We beat you, now we have to feed you!" As Jim succinctly put it, "We lost like men, but ate like kings!"

Join Team FIERI as we prepare for next year's exciting Bocce season!

Also view the tournament pictures below: