Our friend will always live in our memories and hearts. Gone to Petaluma….playing bocce with the fellas in heaven.

From J&A Ross:

Michael Nicosia is a legend among legends in the world of bocce. For those of you who may not have had the privilege of meeting him or may not be aware of how important he was to our game, we would like to share a little bit about the Michael that we came to know and love.

When Campo di Bocce was built in 1997 the only game played back then in Los Gatos was Open, back wall dead. That is also the way the guys played the game on Saturday mornings at Oak Meadow Park. Michael single handedly changed all that. He was a long time member of the Peninsula Social Club in San Mateo and played there before Campo di Bocce was built.  He was a very skilled Volo and Raffa player with several gold medals in both sports that he had won in National Championships. He won many tournaments with his team from San Mateo and then with teams from Los Gatos. Tom Albanese made Michael the first life time member of Campo di Bocce in recognition of all that he taught us about bocce. Michael played in every Wednesday night league season from 1997 until he and his wife Grace moved to Sicily. 

He started playing with us at Oak Meadow Park about 24 years ago and introduced us to the game of Raffa. We never looked back on Open and played Raffa every Saturday morning until the pandemic closed both Campo and the Park. 

Michael also was a booster of the brass ball game of Volo and taught that form of the game to many of us. In 2002, Andrea qualified for the U.S. Women’s Volo Team to represent our country at the World Volo Championships in Saluzzo, Italy.  Michael offered to coach her and spent many hours teaching her strategy and  helping her nail her volo shots. He would set up situations and ask her what she would do. When she got it right he would say, “Very good, you right!”  When she answered wrong he would say, “Bad decision” in a voice only Michael could create and then proceed to show her the correct solution.  He was very happy when Andrea came home  seventh in the World in the Combination event!

Michael is known all over the United States as “The Old Man.”  People from Chicago, St. Louis, Florida, New York or even the Bay Area would ask, “How’s The Old Man?”  We all knew they were asking about Michael. He was that well known!

Many of us are fond of some of Michael’s sayings. This is but a small sampling:

“That ball goes bazook” when someone rolls a ball way off line. 

“Four bananas” when a team scores four points. 

“That ball goes to Petaluma” when someone lags too far.

“Close to the little one is okay”  describing the secret of bocce to a new player. 

“You play with eem” pointing to a teammate when divvying up teams at Oak Meadow Park after using the finger count to choose teams. 

One of our favorites – “Bocce is good for your sex life” describing the game of bocce to KNTV reporter Raj Mathai right before the Madden Mariucci Tournament many years ago!  His interview and comment actually made it into the nightly news that night. 

Our memories will last forever and we use the skills that he taught us every time we play the game he loves. If there is anything that we or our Club can do for your family please let us know.