The 2014 Optimus Beach Bocce Ball league championships Saturday at Oak Street Beach concluded with a leisurely throwdown between the two-man “My Other Partner” team of Tim Jacobs, Optimus ‘ national director of sales, and Andy “Fu” Fratini.
When the sand had settled, Jacobs and Fratini had bested Bob Jacobs, Tim’s father, and his partner Mary Lynn O’Connell’s “Tonga Tokers” with a total point score of… something that was higher than the other team. Jacobs the elder is former media sales director at John Blair communications.
Gathered at the beach to play the games Saturday were 22 teams. The three top team winners went on to bocce it out for the championship prizes of $200 for the top winner. Runners-up received $100 and $50.
Lollygagging around a giant container of “lemonade” near the action was a spirited group of losers who had been vanquished over the course of the three-hour tournament. Among them were players from such teams as Hooch and Bladder, Double Trouble, Chuck-E-Boccheese and La Bocce James.
The bocce ball season, played on summer Saturdays, officially starts on the first Thursday after the Fourth of July and runs for 9 weeks, until the first Saturday after Labor Day.
The Optimus Beach Bocce Ball League is known for providing a time and place for industry folk “to put down their computers and get their toes in the sand and get to know each other,” according to Jacobs.
Fittingly, there have been no reports of cheating or foul play during this or any other match in the league’s history. Adds Jacobs, “The balls don’t lie.”
Jacobs originally founded the league in 2004 in Venice Beach, when he worked for FilmCore in LA, with Dominic Bernacchi , partner/EP at Pet Gorilla production company. He revved up the Optimus league when he joined the post company last January.
See photos of the game players on our Facebook page.
