The Day of Games – Leagues, Gear, Awesome times.

Here at the Day of Games we play for fun, so although there are professional bocce teams, bocce balls, and leagues… we want you to play bocce so you can hang out with friends and have a good time.  Try and pick a bocce ball set that is the correct weight and size for you, not what the pros use.  Here is a great image that should help you decide which bocce ball size is right for you.  We currently offer 73mm, 90mm, 100mm, and 107mm.  The bigger the ball, the more they weigh.  We recommend the 100mm set for beginners, or the 73mm Petanque Bocce set.  The 107mm sets are quite large and heavy, but great if you enjoy playing with adult buddies at the beach or park.  If you’d like to see other bocce options, drop us an email!

The Day of Games Bocce Ball Sizes

The Day of Games is excited to announce that one our top sellers is back in stock and ready to ship for Spring and Summer.  You can grab this bocce game for a great price throughout 2013.  Don’t forget that each set comes with 2 can coolers and a bottle opener / tape measure!

Grab your set here –> Buy one today!

Gold Silver Bocce Game - Petanque Set

We are proud to announce that The Day of Games and Brent Wagner were featured in the USA Today Fall Special Edition of Your Life: Guide to Men’s Health. The Magazine is on newstands now. Go get one!

The article is entitled Outdoor Games and was written by Larry Weisman of USA Today. Here is what he had to say:
Quoted from article featuring The Day of Games foldable cornhole boards:

“Cornhole: Eight bean bags and two boards with holes in them make up the equipment. The object: Toss your bean bag (from a distance) through the hole in the board, then your opponent tries to do the same. Or knock your opponents’ bean bags off the board. Kind of like shuffleboard. Or horseshoes without the clanging.”

Additionally, there was some commentary from Brent:

“Brent Wagner: Founder of The Day of Games, a casual game manufacturer headquartered in Los Angeles

- “This all started in 2006 with eight of us who lived in or around Marina Del Rey, Calif. One weekend we would get up at 9a.m., stay up until midnight, party, and play every game. We called it The Day of Games. That whole concept spun into this brand.”
- “All the games are gaining in popularity. They give people a chance to get off the couch and be social, going out and hanging out and meeting new friends instead of watching TV after work with a bowl of cereal.”
- “Our target is the 20- to 30- something tailgaters and the college guys who are playing games. We feel people like playing games with one hand while having a cold beverage in the other.”"

Check out the magazine:

YOU CAN PURCHASE THE CORNHOLE SET FEATURED IN THE USA TODAY MAGAZINE HERE:
The Day of Games – Portable and Foldable Cornhole Game

We also sell professional sized cornhole boards and a variety of other tailgate games, leisure sports, and backyard games.  Take 30 seconds to shop through our website!

Possibly the best schools to visit for some high quality tailgating?
USC
Auburn
Colorado
UCLA
LSU
Ole Miss
Penn State
University of Washington
UNLV
University of Texas

Who did we miss?

It’s been a long wait to get more gear in this summer!

The games are finally on the way and we should be shipping our Out of Stock games soon~!

Stay Tuned!!

Here is a series of content that About.com requested to see in order to complete their application process to become an About.com Guide.  This was for the Darts and Bar Sports Category.

I didn’t listen to my own advice… and applied for the gig anyways.

Why was this stupid? I wasted a bunch of time that I should have spent on this existing company, and not monkeying around generating content at a low wage for a Google hoarding site.  I disclosed my company affiliation in the first sentence of my application.  Then I created solid content (many articles and blog submissions) and moved on the second round of the application process… which was a ridiculously time consuming task of creating websites utilizing their archaic system.  No drag and drop in there, just an old school HTML mess and a horribly formatted backend which was impossible to learn and use.  I finally perfected the site.  OK, lets get the show on the road.

3 weeks into the process I was asked if my writing was going to be biased based on The Day of Games background.  About.com… are you guys paying any attention whatsoever?  I disclosed that Day 1! Eventually they decided that the conflict of interest was too great.  I have no problem with that, but I have a huge problem with the timing.   Thanks for wasting my time About.com

I would suggest anyone considering applying for an About.com position to run the other way.  The recruiters are unprofessional and the pay is undermarket for the value you are generating from your postings.  Now I’m off to play some bocce ball.

The About.com work put in; for no pay whatsoever:

1 – How to Play Darts – Rules for 501

2 – How to Play Darts: Rules for Cricket

3 – How to Play Foosball

4 – Top 10 Must-Haves for Your Game Room

5- Big Sky, Montana – Game Room

6- Beach Golf – The Greatest Game in the World

7 – Foosball Strategy Tips

8 – Simple… Yet Addicting: The Game of Washer

9 – How to Write for About.com — Don’t.

10 – If this Blog covered it all…

PART X of the series… “Should I Apply to Become an About.com Guide? No.”

Here are the Category Suggestions that were suggested:

1. I. Bar Games
   1. Darts
      1. i.      Basic Rules
      2. ii.      Technique
      3. iii.      Popular games
      4. iv.      Strategy
      5. v.      Equipment
      6. vi.      Etiquette
      7. vii.      League play
   2. Foosball
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   3. Beer Pong
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   4. Air Hockey
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   5. Shuffleboard
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   6. Arcade Games
      1. i.      Big Buck Hunter
      2. ii.      Golden Tee
      3. iii.      Pac-Man
      4. iv.      Photo Hunt
      5. v.      Basketball Shootout
      6. vi.      Skeeball
      7. vii.      Pinball games
         1. (various pinball games)
   7. Bar Sport Culture
   8. Bar Sport Locations
   9. Other Drinking Games
      1. i.      Flip Cup
      2. ii.      Sink the Bismarck
      3. iii.      Quarters
      4. iv.      Card Games
         1. (list of all)
      5. v.      Dice Games
         1. (list of all)

1. II. Leisure Sports
   1. Bocce
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   2. Cornhole
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   3. Horseshoes
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   4. Polish Horseshoes
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   5. Ladder Toss
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   6. Washers
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   7. Croquet
      1. i.      (same list as above)
   8. Other tossing games
      1. i.      Lawn Darts
      2. ii.      Quoits
      3. iii.      Etc. etc.
   9. How to create your own?
   10. Where to play?
       1. i.      Tailgating
       2. ii.      Backyard sports
       3. iii.      Beach games

Leisure Sport Culture

PART IX of the series… “Should I Apply to Become an About.com Guide? No.”

Here was my original writing sample that was submitted for the gig:

I own a leisure sports company, The Day of Games, LLC.  I eat, drink, and breathe this stuff! We sell bar games, outdoor games, and beer pong items.  We are expanding our SKU’s to incorporate additional bar games (darts, washers, shuffleboard, etc.)   www.thedayofgames.com

I currently run the San Francisco “bar games” division of the DogDaze Sports Leagues here in San Francisco.  The last league we ran took place at Ireland’s 32 and we played Indoor Bocce and Cornhole. The league was featured in Urban Daddy and Thrillist.

I’m also the most competitive person to have ever applied for this gig and I would happily wager my acceptance over any bar game of your choosing.  I have spent WAAAAAAY too much time playing pool, darts, beer pong, and a zillion other games that my friends have encountered or invented on our own.

Random fact:
This past weekend, my girlfriend and I shattered our previous Photo Hunt score.
The days of mindless chit chat with the bartender and hours of texting random friends on my cell phone are thankfully over.  I’ve spent too many hours, at too many bars, simply wasting the evening away while enjoying some of San Francisco’s finest local offerings.  The beers are always spectacular, but the company is occasionally lacking. Enter ‘The Wreck Room’ in Nob Hill.  Boredom be gone!  This place is my dream bar.  They have embraced the bar sports mentality to the extreme.  Offering shuffleboard, a pool table, darts, basketball shootout, arcade games, and a variety of old-fashioned games as well (dominoes, cards, etc.).

The Wreck Room… what a clever name!  How could they possibly have known that I indeed wanted to spend my evening both getting wrecked, and playing as many recreational games as possible?

My first visit to the bar was fantastic.   The bar is located at California St. and Hyde, so it’s convenient to reach from the Marina, the Financial District, or pretty much any neighborhood whose inhabitants spend time at some of the shadier establishments along Polk St.  I strolled in around 5:15pm in an effort to spend some time with the after work crowd.  The bar had a dozen or so people hanging around tables and the bar itself, and there were three times that many toward the back of the bar.  That’s where all the fun is.

Grabbed a delicious porter and headed straight for the pool table.  This is definitely a casual bar game joint.  You shouldn’t be expecting any serious gambling action or arguments over the rules.  Everyone is here to have a good time, meet people, throw back cocktails with friends, and discuss the latest catchphrase from Charlie Sheen.  The pool table is pretty much your standard bar quality table. Although the bar is fairly new so the felt is still soft and the cues are all intact.  This probably won’t be the case in another six months, but maybe the owners will keep the gamers satisfied since it is truly the niche they are targeting.  I was able to squeeze in a quick game since one of the guys about to start needed a partner.  There was plenty of room to get off shots from all the corners, but I can’t say the same thing about playing after midnight.  The crowds pour in and the pool table becomes surrounded by the drunken sort who have taken a taxi all the way from Pac Heights in order to check out the new trendy spot in town.  Luckily we had tons of space so I rather enjoyed the pool play.

Over to the shuffleboard table where there was already a sizeable waitlist on the chalkboard.  This was a little troublesome for me.  Everyone in town has been ranting and raving about this shuffleboard table, but there is only one of them, and it appears to be too crowded to even play!  My frustration subsided as I downed my beer and moved from one Porter to another, and the dart board was open.  The darts area was very well done.  Excellent bristle board, there is a little quarantined area so nobody will accidentally stumble their face in front of your hand, and the darts were all brand new.  I ended up playing darts for over an hour with some friendly guys who lived down the street.   Good company.  Good times.

My name had come and gone on the shuffleboard waitlist so I instead moved over the basketball shootout game that I had been itching to tackle since I walked in. I’ll have to be honest here…   the “wreck” aspect of the Wreck Room was starting to take hold, so the rest of the night was ridiculously entertaining but I don’t exactly remember all the specifics.  I’ll have to go back again for a more thorough review!

PART VIII of the series… “Should I Apply to Become an About.com Guide? No.”

Recently I was in the city of Texarkana, which gets name from three states: Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. The city is split on the Texas-Arkansas border, but is a good 45 minutes from Louisiana, so I’m not sure why it isn’t called Texark, but I digress. We visited a bar on the Texas side that had shuffleboard, darts, a pool table and a game called Washer. The object of Washer was to throw a washer that was tied to a string dangling from the roof and have it land on a hook that was on the wall. Some noteworthy things about this game:

• The string attached to the roof should be halfway between where the hook is on the wall and where the throwing line is.

• The string can be any length, but if you have the room, the longer the string the better. It makes for an interesting contest the further back you have to stand from the hook.

• Throwing the washer directly at the hook is the mistake people often make when starting out. There needs to be a little bit of right-to-left or vice versa for the washer to stay on the hook.

• No matter how good you get at the game, there is always fun to be had engaging in a Washer match with someone. (The bar owner had hit 23 in a row at one point…my record was 2)

It’s one of those games that you can play with friends for hours and not realize that 10 minutes have gone by. Plus it goes to show you that people can make a game out of anything.

PART VII of the series… “Should I Apply to Become an About.com Guide? No.”

Playing 2-person foosball requires a real focus on strategy if you really want to win. Many people jump up to the foosball table at bars and don’t quite know what they are doing. If you want to actually notch some W’s on the foosball table, check out this collection of tips.

Teamwork:
It’s imperative to communicate with your teammate while playing the game.  The defense can move the ball up in one of two methods.  There is the full-field-kick attempt or the deliberate-passing style of play.  If the defense has decided to go for full-field-kicks, then the person controlling the offensive foosball players should turn the rod so that all of the players have their legs facing their own goal.  This will prevent them from blocking the ball moving forward and it will allow the players a quick 90 degree rod turn in order to get them back into position.  If the defense wants to try passing the ball forward to the midfielders, there needs to be some sort of verbal communication to achieve a completed pass.

Strategy for Offensive Play:

• Controlled ball movement is the best way to play the game, but it also requires the most amount of skill.  If your opponent never has the opportunity to touch the ball, then they will obviously be at a disadvantage!  As you get better and better, you will slowly move away from full-field-kicks and focus more on a controlled version of foosball.

• Take many shots on goal. The goalie usually cannot retain the ball so it will slowly dribble back toward the forwards.  It’s OK to have a happy trigger when it comes to shooting in foosball.

• A successful tool for goal scoring is to angle your shots. As mentioned above with the wall passes, you can use the corner of the player’s feet and take shots that will be very difficult for the goalie to stop.

Strategy for Defensive Play:

• Aligning your goalie and one defender to block the goal is a standard position for your defense to remain in as long as the ball is up toward your offense.  This provides the best chance to block a long shot that could come from your opponent.  Believe it or not, goalies score in foosball all the time because defenders are not in position!

• Once the ball is in your defensive zone and the forwards from your opponent are about to take a shot, revert from your standard position and try and keep your players in front of the ball.   Aimlessly sliding the goalie back and forth will not help you win.

• Keep your defenders feet to the ground! Too many goals are scored because the defenders bodies are parallel to the table.  It’s impossible to kick the ball if the defenders feet are not down.

• Angled passing is a great method to get the ball out of the defensive zone. Just like wall passes, and forwards attempting shots on goal, the defenders can use the angled pass in order to clear the ball.
If you can employ even half of the tips mentioned above, you should have a leg up on your opponents. Foosball tactics are easy to learn and even easier to execute. Go out there and win!