I like to throw things. When I was young, just like most every other kid, I particularly enjoyed throwing the baseball or football around the yard or street. On occasion, as my parents reminded me this past Mother’s Day, I also liked to throw a fit.

Yet during high school, as I waited anxiously for that elusive growth spurt to hit, I started to realize my arm was not really suited for either baseball or football. Not coincidentally, it was then that I discovered chucking a Frisbee to be both a less strenuous and more enjoyable alternative activity on a sunny afternoon.

But after I picked up a bocce ball and hurled my first toss at the pallino, I found a new throwing passion. Bocce ball not only helped get me through college, but more importantly, the game's basic elements became my key ingredients for reliable summertime fun.

If you want to guarantee a good time this summer, first, find an open space outside on a nice day. Next, spend the next several hours throwing some object at another, usually stationary, object. And then repeat.

With the plethora of games out there, we Houstonians have quite a few options for summer fun and frivolity.

War waits for bocce?

This past weekend I kicked off my annual summer extravaganza of lawn games by participating in the Chinquapin School’s third annual Bocce Ball Tournament. In the interest of full disclosure, I serve on the board of the Chinquapin School, and would have participated in whatever competition they deemed appropriate for one of their annual fundraising events. Bocce ball just happens to be a worthy choice for this worthy school.

After all, bocce is considered the “oldest known sport in world history.”

According to the United States Bocce Federation, “as early as 5000 B.C. the Egyptians played a form of bocce with polished rocks.” Greeks also got into the game by 800 B.C., but it caught on like wildfire once the Romans started throwing.

The Romans spread the game throughout the rest of the European continent, making bocce a popular sport while establishing the name of the game from “the Vulgate latin bottia," meaning boss." The game of bocce’s popularity waxed and waned in Europe until it arrived in England in the 16th century. There it became a favorite pastime of the English royals.

As a testament to the game’s popularity, and to the intensity of its matches, bocce lore asserts that Sir Francis Drake apparently delayed the defense of England against the Spanish Armada in 1588 because of a bocce game.

As the fleet of Spanish ships loomed near, Drake purportedly barked, “First we finish the game, then we’ll deal with the Armada!” I’m still a tad skeptical of this story. Then again, from my experience this past weekend, bocce games can be quite engrossing.

I did not find it hard to believe, however, that George Washington installed a bocce court on the lawns of Mount Vernon in the 1780s. Washington was first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen, and now apparently, first in bocce.

Bocce is played with eight balls and one pallino (or jack), and can be played on a litany of surfaces, including dirt, sand or grass. The object of the game is to get your team’s four bocce balls closest to the pallino and accrue points. The rules for bocce can be found at the international bocce organization Collegium Cosmicum Ad Buxeas, the World Bocce League, or the United States Bocce Federation.

Better yet, just head over to Hans Bier Haus or Discovery Green and start rolling on their courts. You’ll want to start practicing soon as the popularity of bocce is again on the rise. In 2008, there was some talk of making bocce an Olympic sport. Think of it as the Summer Games’ version of curling.

Kubbin'

Kubb is by far my favorite summer time lawn game. Pronounced “koob,” this is a thousand-year-old Viking game. Like bocce, it can be played on all sorts of surfaces, but unlike bocce, this game can be played in the winter as well.

Quite frankly, this game will change your life. Game play revolves around the familiar objective of throwing things (wooden sticks or casting pins) at other things (wooden blocks or Kubbs). But Kubb has real Viking flair.

Rules to games of Kubb vary, but the overall “objective is for players standing at their base line to topple all five of the opposing team’s Kubbs with an underhanded toss of the six kastpinnar (casting pins).” The game looks like this. One quirk to the game is that you can only throw the kastpinnars underhand and end over end, not in a “helicopter-like horizontal or sideways rotation.”

After all the opposing team's Kubbs are down, you try to “topple the Kung (King) which is placed in the center of the playing field.” Think of the Kung as the eight-ball in pool.

If you pay a little extra, as I did, you can impress friends and family alike by bedazzling the Kung. You can also spend a little more and purchase Thor’s Mjolnir (hammer) for driving in the corner boundary pins to frame the court. Now does that sound like fun or what?

The history of Kubb is a tad murky, however. One explanation I find particularly intriguing, and more fun to tell inquiring bystanders, is that Vikings played Kubb with the bones of those who they pillaged. A less frightful explanation asserts that the game originated when Viking kids were playing with firewood.

My good friend Scott Hall, who brought the game stateside and to our attention one summer after living in Sweden, noted that the game of Kubb today is particularly well-suited for those community-minded Swedes.

“It is considered a game all can play together,” Hall said. “This is good for Swedes,” he explained, as “no one is better than anyone else in Sweden."

Such an egalitarian game spawned not only quite a following in Sweden, where the world championships are held each August, but here in the United States as well. I have played in tournaments in Florida and in Pennsylvania, as well as in far off places like Marfa, Texas. And no matter where I play, the competition and camaraderie of Kubb are tough to match.

A little quirkier than baseball

If you still can't fathom asking your friend to hand over the "kastpinnar," or you still believe bocce should only be played by octogenarians in Italy, you might find these more common games, in addition to horseshoes and washers, to be a more perfect fit for your summer afternoons:

Quoits: This is the game that inspired horseshoes, but is played with four-pound steel rings instead. Growing up, I was privileged to spend many Fourth of July holidays with my grandparents and their Amish neighbors. Quoits was the Amish game of choice.

The big difference between quoits and horseshoes is that a quoit is "smaller in size but much heavier than a horseshoe," and it is "tossed underhand into 'pits' — wooden boxes set in the round and filled with soft clay — at a 4-inch high Hob or pin centered in the pit." Another difference between the two pitching games, according to the Quoits Pit of Eastern Pennsyvlania, is that "horseshoe pitching was a boy's game; quoits was for men."

Bean Bag Toss, Tailgate Toss or "Cornhole": While the name of this game has been lampooned most publicly by Stephen Colbert, it is still a favorite here in Texas. Houstonian and good friend Bert Turner is one of the most passionate players of "cornhole" I know.

He describes "the feel of the bag, the sound of the bag hitting the plywood, and the sight of a nothing but grass toss (bag through the hole without touching the board)" to be truly a unique experience in all of pitching sports. Outside of parking lot tailgates, Taps House of Beers on Washington Avenue is a popular spot to play the game.

Ladder Golf or Hillbilly Golf: Advertised as a "lightweight and portable enough game to bring to any tailgate party, barbecue, picnic, campground or day at the beach," ladder golf, or "hillbilly golf," is another gem of a game.

Each team takes turns throwing "bolas" at a three-rung ladder made of PVC pipe. A bola "is two golf balls attached by a nylon rope," and "the object of the game is to wrap your bolas around the steps of the ladder." The "ladder consists of three steps, a top, middle and a bottom step," with each step assigned three, two and one point, respectively. The goal is to get to 21 without going over.

For over 7,000 years, people have been throwing objects at other objects for sport. So if you find yourself devoid of ideas for fun this summer, don't throw in the towel.

Instead, find something else to throw and let the good times roll.