B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 5, Issue 36 – August 3, 2023
Weather: Still hot (86 degrees at the start of the 10:00 game, climbing steadily thereafter) and pretty humid (66%) and very sunny. Occasional breezes were nice.
Injured list:
Gray team: Doc Hobar
Green team: Jeff Broussard – recovering from heart surgery
Alvin Gauna – broken finger
Games of Thursday August 3:
10:00 a.m., Red (4-6) at Gray (7-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 4 0 5 3 2 14 Gray 3 5 5 2 X 15 Pitchers: Red – Jack Kelly; Gray – Jerry Mylius. Umpires: home plate – Mike Hill and Jack McDermott; bases – Tim Balke and Gary Coyle. Perfect at the plate: Red – David Ferley and Howard Spates (each 4 for 4 with a double); Gray – Tom Brownfield (3 for 3 with three doubles), Daniel Carvajal (3 for 3 with a double), Rick Kahn (3 for 3 with a triple), and Jim McAnelly (3 for 3).
Red came in the underdog, but battled hard and came up just a run short. The visitors actually led after one inning, scoring four time in the top of the first, as Paul Rubin led off with a triple, which was followed by four singles and a walk to Adam Reddell. Gray got three back in the home half, Rick Kahn driving in the first with a triple to right, Tom Brownfield driving in Rick with the first of his three two-base hits, and singles by Jim McAnelly and Daniel Carvajal bringing Tom around. Jerry Mylius then worked a scoreless top of the second, getting three outs on fly balls, first (shoestring catch of Sam Baker’s liner) and third (off the bat of Adam Reddell) caught by Mick Parker in left-center.
Tony Viera returned to B League action, playing for the first time in 2023 and going 2 for 3. This picture is of his first swing of the season.
Gray took the lead with five runs in the bottom of the second, on seven hits, two for extra bases – Alex Valles’s line drive to center gapped the outfielders, rolled to the fence, and went for a triple that scored Jerry Mylius from first; and Tom Brownfield hit a high, deep fly to right for a run-scoring double.
Both teams scored five times in the third, Red on five singles, Sam Baker’s walk, and David Ferley’s double that brought across the fourth and fifth runs; Gray on four singles, a walk to Mick Parker, and Tom Brownfield’s third double of the game, to right field, that came with the bases loaded and scored all three runners. All of Gray’s runs scored after two were out.
Trailing 13-9 entering the fourth, Red kept battling, scoring three times in the top half, on four singles and Howard Spates’ double, and holding Gray to two runs in the bottom half, both of those scoring on Daniel Carvajal’s double to the fence in left. The next hitter, Tony Viera, grounded to third base, and Daniel was caught in a rundown between second and third, eventually tagged out on a well-executed play that went 5-6-5, Daniel Baladez to Paul Rubin and back to Daniel. Jack Kelly then got two of the next three batters to ground to second baseman Howard Spates, who got forces at second to end the inning.
Entering the buffet, Red trailed 15-12. George Brindley flied out to Mick Parker in left-center to start the inning. David Ferley singled, completing a 4-for-4 game. Adam Reddell followed with a triple. Howard Spates grounded a single to the 5-6 hole – David Kruse made a good play to his backhand, but his throw to first wasn’t able to beat Howard’s pinch-runner from home (George Brindley, maybe? I’m unsure) – but Howard was called out for passing the first-base commit line, a mistake that many of us have made, usually just once. Adam scored on the play, cutting Red’s lead to one run. Daniel Baladez then came up and lined a ball directly to third baseman Tom Brownfield, who squeezed it for the final out. Final score: Gray 15, Red 14
11:00 a.m., Blue (7-3) at Green (4-6):
1 2 3 4 5 6 BUFFET FINAL Blue 0 5 1 5 5 5 X 21 Green 4 0 0 1 1 1 1 8 Pitchers: Blue – Spike Davidson; Green – Tommy Deleon (odd innings) and Chunky Wright (even innings). Mercenaries: Blue – David Kruse, Jack McDermott, and David Kruse. Umpires: home plate – Jeff Stone and Joe Roche; bases – Mike Garrison and Larry Young. Perfect at the plate: Blue – David Kruse (3 for 3 with a walk and a homer). Homerun: David Kruse (inside the park).
Green started strong, holding Blue scoreless in the top of the first, turning an inning-ending double play on Jack Crosley’s fly to Donnie Janac in right-center, Donnie throwing to first to double up Anthony Galindo, and then scoring four times on six singles in the bottom half, all the runs scored with two out.
After that, however, it was all Blue, Anthony Galindo’s crew scoring five times in four of the next five innings, literally everybody in the lineup hitting – all ten Blue batters reached base three times, except for lead-off hitter Bobby Miller, who knocked four singles, and David Kruse, who went 3 for 3 with a walk and led off the fourth inning with an inside-the-park homerun to right field. Green held Blue to a single run in the third inning, in which Jack Crosley was doubled up when he broke for third on an infield fly that was caught by pitcher Tommy Deleon (Jack said afterward that he didn’t think Tommy would make the play; Tommy made the play), and Jack Spellman choked with the bases loaded, grounding into a force out to end the inning.
David Kruse catches his breath on the Blue bench following his inside-the-park homerun.
Spike Davidson, meanwhile, shut out Green in both the second (working around a one-out walk to Boo Resnick) and third (a three-pitch inning in which Spike got Green 3-4-5 hitters Donnie Janac, Don Solberg, and Ray Pilgrim on two flies and a grounder to third baseman Eddy Murillo, one of three excellent plays Eddy made on hard grounders to the left side), and then limited Green to a single run in each of the last four innings. (After the top of the Green lineup opened the fifth with three singles, Clint Fletcher scoring, Spike struck out both Don Solberg and Ray Pilgrim, then got Gary Coyle on a fly to left-center. David Kruse on the Blue bench commented that he couldn’t recall a B League pitcher recording both a three-pitch inning and a two-strikeout inning in the same game. Same here.)
With about two minutes on the clock, Blue offered to flip-flop and move directly to the buffet at the end of the fifth inning, but Green preferred to take two more turns at bat. Blue scored five times on eight singles in the top of the sixth, and the flip-flop took place after the bottom half. Final score: Blue 21, Green 8, Blue improving its record as visiting team this session to 6-0.
Noon, Gold (4-6) at Maroon (4-5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gold 0 1 5 5 5 X 16 Maroon 0 0 2 0 0 2 4 Pitchers: Gold – Jeff Stone; Maroon – Joe Bernal. Umpires: home plate – Eddy Murillo; bases – Jack Crosley. Perfect at the plate: Gold – Larry Bunton (2 for 2), Joe Dayoc and Denny Malloy (each 2 for 2 with a ddouble), and Joe Roche (3 for 3); Maroon – Rex Horvath (2 for 2 with a walk). Homerun: James Chavana (inside the park).
With both teams playing with a full complement of players – a dozen for Gold, 11 for Maroon, no mercenaries – and employing both the rover and two of the league’s best pitchers, no surprise that this started out as a pitchers duel, neither team scoring in the first inning. After allowing a lead-off single to Jack Spellman and getting Tim Bruton to hit a two-strike foul, Joe Bernal got his opposite number Jeff Stone to ground into a 6-4-3 double play, Rex Horvath to Mike Velaney to Johnny Lee, to end the top of the first inning; Jeff got Maroon lead-off hitter Peter Sundquist to hit a two-strike foul, walked Rex Horvath, allowed a single to Joe Bernal, then retired Mike Velaney on a fly to Denny Malloy in right field (good running catch) and got Scott Wright to hit into a 6-4 force.
Gold was first to score, with a run in the top of the second. Joe Roche singled; pinch-runner Tim Bruton took second on Jack McDermott’s fly to left fielder Peter Atkins; and Denny Malloy’s two-out double brought Tim home. Jeff Stone then worked a 1-2-3 bottom half.
After that, Gold’s bats came alive and put the game out of reach with three consecutive five-run innings: on seven consecutive one-out hits in the third, including doubles by Joe Dayoc and Larry Young; on six singles and Mike Garrison’s double in the fourth; and, after Joe Bernal got two ground outs to start the fifth, four singles and an inside-the-park homerun by James Chavana on a drive to left-center that Peter Sundquist made a diving try for, but that eluded him and went to the fence.
Homerun-hitting James Chavana, after the game.
Maroon finally got on the board in the third inning, with two runs on four singles. That inning saw the day’s big controversy. With runners on first (Peter Sundquist) and second (Mike Velaney, running for Billy Hill), Rex Horvath hit a sharp grounder to third bases that Joe Roche knocked down and got hold of; Mike Velaney, coming from third, angled to the right, to the left-field side of third base, and evaded Joe’s tag and made it to the base line before Joe could get to him. Joe and much of Gold team thought Mike had gone too far from the baserunning line he had established, but the umpires and I thought he was within his rights to evade the tag and was safe. Judgment call. Mike scored Maroon’s first run on Joe Bernal’s single.
Maroon was blanked again in both the fourth (three fly outs sandwiching a pair of singles) and fifth (Jeff Stone working around a one-out walk to Billy Hill and a two-out single by Rex Horvath). With Gold holding a 16-2 lead, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Maroon opened the inning with four consecutive singles, a run scoring, then hit two fly balls for outs, a second run scoring on Tom Kelm’s fly to Jack McDermott in left-center. Larry Shupe drew a walk to re-load the bases, but Billy Hill popped out to end the game. Final score: Gold 16, Maroon 4
Standings – Session Three:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Gray 8 2 .800 — 141 117 +24 W4
Blue 8 3 .727 .5 161 120 +41 W2
Gold 5 6 .455 3.5 126 131 – 5 W1
Maroon 4 6 .400 4 97 118 -21 L1
Purple 0 2 .000 4 29 33 – 4 L3
Red 4 7 .364 4.5 127 139 -12 L2
Green 4 7 .364 4.5 127 150 -23 L5
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Gray 4-2 4-0 1 0-0 2-0 3-0
Blue 2-3 6-0 0 0-0 6-1 0-0
Gold 1-4 4-2 0 0-0 2-1 1-1
Maroon 2-3 2-3 0 0-0 1-4 0-0
Purple 0-1 0-1 0 0-0 0-0 0-1
Red 2-4 2-3 0 0-0 0-3 0-2
Green 1-4 3-3 0 0-0 1-3 1-1
2023 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gold Gray Green Maroon Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 4 3 3 2 2.5 2 16.5
Gold 2 X 2 6 2 1 3 16
Gray 2 3 X 3 3 2 5 18
Green 2 1 2 X 1 4 4 14
Maroon 3 4 1 4 X 3 2 17
Purple 1.5 1 2 0 1 X 1 6.5
Red 4 1 1 2 3 3 X 14
_____________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 14.5 14 11 18 12 15.5 17 102
Schedule for Monday August 7:
10:00 a.m.: Maroon (4-6) at Green (4-7), Gold umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Red (4-7) at Gold (5-6), Gray umpiring
Noon: Gray (8-2) at Blue (8-3), Red umpiring
Preview: Sub-.500 teams face off at 10:00 and 11:00, Green looking to escape the cellar against Maroon (4-1 versus Green for the season), Gold trying to reach .500 against Red (1-3 versus Gold for the season). All this is a preview for the showdown at noon between Blue (4-0 as visitors) and Gray, with the winner ending the day in first place. August 7, just to say, is also the 417th anniversary of the first performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, performed in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace for King James I. Here are quotations from the Scottish play that can be addressed to an umpire during most any B League game:
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”
“What bloody man is that?”
“What! can the devil speak true?”
“Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.”
“There’s daggers in men’s smiles”
“Something wicked this way comes.”
“When our actions do not, our fears do make us traitors.”
“Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.”
“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”
“Blood will have blood.”
“How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!”
“The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! Where gott’st thou that goose look?”
Will anyone at Krieg on Monday have the presence of mind to utter one of these quotes at just the right moment? Only one thing is certain: time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Look for a truncated, late-arriving edition of the Picayune on Monday, or maybe Tuesday, as the Kegster will be out of town (Santa Fe!) and thus reporting secondhand.