Freddie P's Blog

August 28, 2007 @ 08:00

Yes, it was a huge weekend at the trailer. To some, the most important weekend of the year.

It was The Fourth Annual Jeff Laird Memorial Bocce Tournament. A unique brand of bocce played on a gravel road and introduced to us by our good buddy Jeff who passed away suddenly in 2004 at the ridiculous age of 41.

It involves both genders and to the winner goes the most coveted title a trailerite could ever want. Even those who've won Stanley Cups.

I've mentioned a few times that Boston Bruins assistant coach Craig Ramsay is among the friends I have at the trailer.

Craig bought a beautiful unit three years ago, right after he won the Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and since then has fit in quite nicely.

Over the past week or so I took it upon myself to work with Ramsay on his game in preparation for the touranment and it culminated with his winning his first round match.

Both Craig and I lost in the second round and it was especially bitter for me, because after winning the big prize in both 04 and 05 I've been ousted in the early rounds the past two years.

This year I lost to Pam Kimber. Yes, Pam is a woman but there is no shame in losing to this gal, she can bring it. If there's any shame it should go to her husband Mike who I beat in the first round.

I contemplated my setback with my good friend Dan Bonchek who lost in round one and we realized the key to failure.

The two finalists were my good friends Bruce Mallory and Dan Duran.

Bruce has been nipping at the heels of the front-runners for years, while Dan Duran has made an early exit every stinkin' year since we started this thing way back in 1996.

But this year, Dan played steady and he played patient and he mastered the weight of his ball all afternoon until it came down to this.

Here is the gracious loser.

And later that night The Fourth Annual Jeff Laird Memorial Bocce Tournament ended with the presentation of the Golden Shoes and the Murial Batley Trophy.

The Golden Shoes have become emblematic of the tournament - the shoes were actually worn by the first ever champion, Donny Patterson. (no relation)

We took the worn out sneakers off his feet, painted them gold and from that day on they've been the most coveted object in the trailer park.

The Murial Batley Trophy was added a couple of years later. We have no idea who Murial Batley is - we just found a softball trophy at a garage sale and rather than take her name of it we thought it would be cool to leave it on.

Here's the presentation - and please note, John McLeod finished third.