De-bocce-ry
Competitive Bocce in Piedmont Park

Not to get all doomsday on you, but summer’s almost over.

Which means that Mr. Bluebird will soon be looking for a warmer shoulder, and your days of putting on Triple Lindy clinics at the governor’s mansion pool are slowly drawing to an end.

But hey, there’s always fall.

And this year, it involves bocce...

Which brings us to the Atlanta Bocce League, the city’s first and only full-season Italian stone-throwing league, now registering teams for its September 15 debut.

Your course of action should be as follows: first, assemble a crack team of cool old Italian guys in fedoras (or, in a pinch, a couple of friends). And once your selections have been made, slowly survey each one of them up and down before calmly saying the words... “It’s time.”

From there, you’ll want to decide on a team name (“Mission Imbocceball” has a nice ring to it) and head to the new bocce courts in Piedmont Park, bringing with you the requisite spread of salumi and burrata (you don’t bocce without salumi) before engaging in the evening’s first-to-15 battle, as you pave the road to the championship match at the end of the season.

We should also tell you that after each game night, you and the rest of the league will be heading to Ormsby’s, where you’ll make nice over a gratis Sweetwater or two.

And more bocce, of course.