Nashville Rules Bocce
October 26, 2007
When I worked at Pitt I was pretty close to Coach Majors. We'd go out and toss back a couple drinks, then start on the next fifth.
One night while carousing we ran into the coach of Pitt's biggest rival. We'll just call him "Joe", or "four-eyed putz". Joe was a bit grouchy that night, and even a few drinks did nothing to brighten his mood. Pretty soon he and Johnny began yelling at each other about a disputed call in their game the prior year. They almost came to blows, then wanted to find a way to settle their dispute via competition.
Joe, due to his Italian heritage, suggested a game of bocce ball. Johnny, who could barely stand by this point, agreed, but only if they played using the "Nashville Rules".
"Nashville Rules" bocce involved two men sitting 5 feet apart lobbing the bocce ball into each other's laps. When on the "receiving" end the competitor was not allowed to move, even if the bocce ball was headed straight for the lap.
Well, after a couple rounds Joe lobbed one quite high that landed almost dead square on Johnny's pain zone.
Johnny yelped and would up and delivered a slider that would have made Ted Williams flinch. He hit Joe right in the gut.
Both started yelling at each other and the bartender, a guy named Tony, came over to break up the argument. Eventually Tony volunteered to officiate the competition.
Joe tried a new approach, a softball style underhand rise ball. And that finished the competition, as Johnny had to be carted off to the local hospital. Tony yelled out "boy, he really busted your balls!" and thus was born the new drinking game known as "Ball Buster".
These days on gameday, young men all over the country entertain each other by hurling bocce balls at each other's groin, as "Ball Buster" has overtaken "Beer Pong" as the #1 game for the fraternity set.
As for Tony, he moved to New Jersey and eventually starred in an HBO documentary series, where he brought the gospel of ball busting to the entire nation.
And now you know the rest of the story.