Sporting goods stores in Salt Lake sell out of bocce sets. Three public bocce courts recently opened in Salt Lake City's Pioneer Park, where the newly formed nonprofit Utah Bocce Association is hosting tournaments. Last week, police kicked out players whose games outlasted the 10 p.m. curfew.

I can easily understand the new Palazzo di Bocce in Michigan (450k IAs), and bocce pubs in Illinois (744k IAs), but with less than 60,000 Italian Americans in Utah?

It's appeal for those from 9 to 90 is it requiring little physical prowess, but rather strategy, mental-concentration, and hand-and-eye coordination.

Therefore Clara, (with the Italian maiden name of Capraro) can hold her own with her father-in-law, Vernon Law, former 1960 Cy Young Award pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and her brother-in-law Vance Law, former major league all-star and coach of the Brigham Young University baseball team. :)

Bocce ball players feel compelled to share their Italian connections. Either they are Italian. Or they married an Italian. Or they know an Italian.

   The justification is becoming less necessary. The modern version of the centuries-old sport that originated in Italy and been mainly played by the Italian community in the United States. But it's gaining popularity among an urban crowd.

   There's a new Palazzo di Bocce in Michigan and bocce pubs in Illinois. A catalog company, Spilsbury, reports brisk sales among young adults of glow-in-the-dark sets. The World Bocce Association says 25 million Americans have played at least once.

   And now it is catching on in Utah. Sporting goods stores sell out of bocce sets. Three public bocce courts recently opened in Salt Lake City's Pioneer Park, where the newly formed nonprofit Utah Bocce Association is hosting tournaments. Last week, police kicked out players whose games outlasted the 10 p.m. curfew.

    So what is this game?

    Pronounced "botchee," the aim is to roll or lob a grapefruit-size ball (the bocce) closest to a smaller ball, called a pallino. It's played on a rectangular court lined in gravel, sand or clay, or on any patch of grass or dirt. It's akin to lawn bowling and feels like billiards or horseshoes.

   "It used to be a game for old Italian men," says Tony Zucca, Utah Bocce Association president and one such older Italian man. The 68-year-old Zucca learned from his father and has taught his son. Now in a wheelchair because of complications from diabetes, Zucca still plays.

   "If a guy of 70 can play bocce, anyone can."

   Last week, during one of the association's tournaments, players ranged from 70 to 9 years old. They praised the game for taking little physical prowess but at least a bit of strategy.

   "It's not a sport that's going to require you to run 26 miles or lift 400 pounds," says Al Hughes, conceding he isn't Italian. "It's a mental-concentration, hand-and-eye [sport]."

   Hughes plans to create a tournament for senior citizens at the Liberty Senior Center, where he works. "It helps people to forget about aches and pains."

   The World Bocce Association says the sport is gaining in popularity as baby boomers age, probably because they are losing their athleticism.

   It's also for those who never had much to begin with, including the 70-year-old Mario Caligiuri, also with the Utah Bocce Association. Even as a teenager growing up in Calabria, Italy, Caligiuri shied away from aggressive sports like soccer.

   "I was a skinny guy. Anybody could push me. I was taking no chances," he says, a thick Italian accent still present after 43 years living in the states.

   His bocce story starts during World War II. He says German troops who overtook his hometown left behind a bocce set that his father found. When the older men stopped playing to head to the bar for a glass or two of wine, Caligiuri picked it up.

   With bocce, "You don't have to fight. You don't have to be a tall or stronger guy," Caligiuri says.

   Or an adult. Bocce's fans like it because it is a family event, where a child's roll can win the game.

   Bocce's mellow reputation could scare away the more athletic. The joke is, you play bocce better with a beer or glass of wine in hand.

   But it's still competitive - enough to draw in one of Utah's more sporting families. Carla Law (who notes, in between playing rounds at the park, she has the Italian maiden name of Capraro) married into a baseball family.

   Her father-in-law is Vernon Law, former 1960 Cy Young Award pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Her brother-in-law is Vance Law, former major league all-star and coach of the Brigham Young University baseball team.

   Still, she holds her own.

    "This is the one contribution I brought to the sports family," she says, "and now they all play bocce."

Salt Lake Tribune - Outdoors
http://www.sltrib.com/outdoors/ci_2380237
hmay@sltrib.com