Bocce!

Lisa Sciortino

Friday, July 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

"Awww, look at that ball!"

Peering out from beneath his white cap, John Galli's eyes are fixed on the softball-sized, blue-and-white-swirled orb as it glides across the sandy surface.

It's headed straight for the target: a smaller, red ball that's been pitched to the other end of the long lane.

The 58-year-old blackjack dealer was in the middle of a laid-back bocce ball game at Jaycee Park on a recent weeknight.

Galli, who picked up bocce six years ago, plays for the Riviera Big Wigs, a team organized to compete in last spring's Corporate Challenge games.

Now the seven-member team belongs to the city of Las Vegas' bocce league, which plays twice a week on the park's 11 courts.

"It's poor man's bowling," the Brooklyn-bred Galli says.

But it's not your Italian grandfather's game.

The rules of the game, also known as lawn bowling, have pretty much stayed the same since it originated in ancient Greece.

But the tools have changed: Synthetic balls are preferred over the old wood ones these days.

So have the players: They're younger and more are female.

Joan Bryans, a customer service representative, got hooked after competing in Corporate Challenge bocce.

"I had no idea what bocce was," the 58-year-old recalls. "I thought, 'Oh, this looks like an old people's game.' But it's a lot of fun and there are a lot of young people doing it."

The game has invaded the nation's public parks, where novices and veterans are "shooting" balls side by side.

Altogether, more than a million Americans have picked up the habit, according to the U.S. Bocce Federation, located in the bocce capital of the world, Martinez, Calif.

"Once it got out of the old Italian clubs, it caught on like wildfire," says Donna Allen, editor of the federation's magazine. "You see a real cross section: judges and attorneys and garbage men and housewives. There is just no one that can't play the sport."

Eddie Jolley, who has muscular dystrophy, doesn't let his electric scooter get in the way of bocce mastery.

"I've never participated in a sport," says the 28-year-old benefits specialist for the MGM Grand. "Yeah, this isn't (as challenging as) baseball or football, but it's a sport. I can't believe I'm actually playing."

It helps that bocce's premise is fairly simple.

Teams (of no more than four players at a time) take turns rolling the 2-pound balls from either end of the bocce court (10-13 feet wide, 60-92 feet long) toward the target ball, called a pollino.

Bocce in Italian means "to kiss." Hence, the object of the game is for the balls to "kiss" the pollino, or at least give it a little love tap.

Once all of the balls are rolled, play is over. Then it's time to eyeball (or if they're especially close, measure) how near each team's balls are to the pollino. Each ball that's closer than the other team's is worth a point. The team with more points wins the frame.

At least, that's how the 150-member Las Vegas league plays the "open" variety of bocce at the park.

Other versions of the game -- "volo," "punto" and "raffa" -- are played with heavier brass and metal balls and have stricter rules. All four brands of bocce are played in domestic and international competition.

Marilyn Louden, center coordinator at the Dula Gym and organizer of the city league, has played bocce for 10 years.

She's also won a pair of gold medals -- one in raffa, the other in volo -- playing in national bocce tournaments.

Her theories on bocce's boost in popularity: "It's a very inexpensive form of recreation and it's something you can do with your neighbors, your spouse, your grandchildren," she says.

"Bocce is very social," Louden says. "It's not just a game, it's creating a whole atmosphere."

A highlight of the midweek meets are often tasty treats -- barbecued burgers, ice cream -- that players munch on during games. In fact, the summer and fall leagues conclude with potluck playoff parties.

It's usually Mario Intino's job to provide the eats. The retired chef and 20-year bocce veteran heads up the "Gourmet Bombers" team that plays on Wednesday nights.

"Even though I'm the captain of the team, I've got to bring something for everybody to eat," he says with a laugh.

Ironically, the bocce courts at Jaycee Park back up to those at the Italian-American Club of Southern Nevada, 2333 E. Sahara Ave., where the game has been a favorite pastime of members for about 20 years.

In 1975, baseball great Joe DiMaggio contacted the club about putting on a celebrity bocce tournament at Caesars Palace, piquing interest in the sport at the Club, as it's called.

Since then, other celebs, Rodney Dangerfield and Robert Goulet among them, have stopped by to roll a few bocce balls with members.

One member, Nick Rossi, a retired Air Force sergeant, has played in bocce tourneys in five countries, including Australia, Switzerland and Monacco, and won three medals.

And Lucio Zanin, a longtime member, has a collection of bocce medals and won several thousands of dollars in prizes during the three decades he's been playing.

You might say bocce's been bery, bery good to him.

"If I play for a trophy or I play for money, I play for blood," Zanin says. "If I play in an international tournament, I don't want anybody to even talk to me, not even my wife."

Zanin and Louden sit on the U.S. Bocce Federation's board of directors. The pair, accompanied by two Las Vegas players, recently traveled to this year's week-long U.S. Bocce Ball Championships in Martinez.

But because the players competed in different divisions, each participated on teams from other cities.

"We had a real close game," Louden says of her stint with a Chicago team that lost by a mere two points. "It didn't matter, the game was really good."

Better luck next year, when the national tournament will be held in Las Vegas for the fourth time since 1980, this time at Jaycee Park.

Zanin says he may help coach some city players in order to form a Las Vegas team in time for the tourney.

He knows he's got his work cut out for him.

"You need to bring up new blood, a new generation to learn how to play bocce within the international rules and regulations," he says. "You don't learn that overnight."