(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - Well, I was born and raised here basically.

My father started the league in '79 and been carrying it through ever since.

I'm the president of the league the last 10 years or so.

Been secretary, been everything else, you know, maintenance along with other guys.

Well, the story goes, as they say, my father and a few of their friends were playing behind their house across the street from the courts here and they're just playing in the field behind the house.

And my father said we should start a league.

And 45 years later here we are, you know, the rest is history.

General rules.

There are no rules.

(laughs) Basically, each team gets four balls.

Each team is red or green, and there's a pallino ball.

That's the point ball.

So normally you flip a coin, whoever wins the coin toss will throw the first ball out.

The initiative is to get the ball closest to the pallino.

At the end of the round, it depends who's closest and how many balls are closest.

They alternate turns as whose point.

So if the red throw first, they're automatically in.

Now the green team has to beat that ball.

So it might take one ball, four balls or they might not beat it at all.

We have nine teams.

They all have four guys a piece.

So you got 36 guys and we always have someone around watching us.

Old players that don't play anymore, come down.

Friends of friends, guys that want to get in they want to see how it is.

Yeah, it's amazing.

36 guys for almost 40 some years.

It's intense.

Yeah, guys, you know, you get 36 guys, women on any sport, it's competitive.

I don't care what you're doing for fun or no fun, it's competitive.

Some guys are out to beat certain guys more than others.

You know, there's a handful of guys down here that say I'm only here for fun, but they're not here for fun.

They're, they wanna win as much as the next guy.

It's, lot of arguments over the years.

- [Player] Bene, Bene!

Open.

Try it again, Tony.

How's that Charlie?

- [Guy] We played on crushed seashells, we played on red ash.

That was our original courts, red ash.

The old coal that burnt in the mines.

They were selling it years ago and we took it, we had choke, manufactured sand, they call it.

This stuff is Har-Tru, this is the clay that they use on tennis courts.

It's either red or green and just comes out of Virginia.

So this is our last 13 years we've been using this.

We're on a waiting list.

There's average three to five guys every year trying to get in and basically someone has to die to get in.

(gentle music) - That's too hot.

Maybe not.

- [Guy] My son is two and a half years old.

He's Guy, and he's the third.

My father's Guy the first, and you know, I'm the second.

My grandfather was here every day working the courts in the summer.

He was retired and him and a lot of the local guys were back in the 80s into their early 90s, there was guys here seven days a week, all day long.

I mean, I remember when I was maybe 8, 10, 11 years old, it rained all day and they wanted to play at night.

So they got a five gallon gas can and they lit the courts on fire just to play their game.

(group chatters) At one point, for years and years and years, we only had one Irish guy.

It was all Italian.

It was my my uncle through marriage, he took a beating with the jokes, trust me.

But it's pretty neat to have a history like this and be part of something, you know.

(gentle music) We had several guys that came here for several years and watched until there was an opening.

Like I said, unless someone dies, it's hard to get in.

And we have a rule specifically, if someone gets sick, they're automatically back in.

Even if a new guy, you know, they're, you know you have to give them the right to come back.

Just because you're sick, you can't just throw them out forever.

We start the Wednesday after Mother's Day and we go right in through September.

This is my son Guy the third.

Yeah.

He's gonna be playing in a few years, I hope.

(laughs) (gentle music) (gentle music contines)