B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 6, Issue 5 – March 14, 2024
Weather: Happy Pi Day! We got another overcast day, but the rain held off and again it was pretty comfortable, temperature-wise: 74 degrees with 85% humidity early in the 11:30 game.
Roster notes:
Mike Garrison has been assigned to Green team
Thomas Langa has been assigned to Gray team
Steve Sandall has been assigned to Blue team
Games of Thursday March 14:
10:30 a.m., Green (0-3) at Purple (1-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 2 5 0 0 1 1 9 Purple 2 5 1 1 3 X 12 Pitchers: Green – David Pittard; Purple – Tom Kelm. Mercenaries: Purple – Ray Pilgrim, Adam Reddell, Jack Spellman, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home plate – Jeff Fisher; bases – David Brown. Perfect at the plate: Green - ; Purple – Jim Foelker and Mike Velaney (each 3 for 3). Homerun: Clint Fletcher (inside the park).
Get this playing in the background as you read the game account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnHmskwqCCQ
Each team scored twice in the first. Paul Rubin’s triple was the big hit for Green, the top half of the inning ending on a fine play by Purple second baseman Mike Velaney, who dove to his backhand to corral a grounder and threw to second for the force. Purple tied on Clint Fletcher’s inside-the-park homerun after Jim Foelker (3 for 3 in the game) led off the bottom half with a single. The inning ended with the first of a bunch of baserunning gaffes: with runners on second and third, Larry Young, taking a runner from home, singled down the third-base side, but wasn’t able to stop himself in time from barely crossing the commit line. Dead ball, on the third out, the runner on third did not score.
Clint Fletcher receives a Pluckers coupon following his inside-the-park homer from Purple manager and third-base coach Larry Young, who waved him home.
Green put across five runs in the second, Mike Hill’s three-run double the key hit. (The bases were more crowded than a downtown Austin crosswalk during SXSW.) (I’ve been sitting on that all week.) Purple matched that with five runs on six singles, the fifth run scoring after Tim Coles lined a hit to left field and the relay to second base caromed off his right thigh into short right field, allowing Rick Jensen to race home. Tim was okay – the throw hit meat, not bone – and the game was tied again.
Purple then held Green scoreless in both the third and fourth while scoring single runs in each home half. (In the top of the third it was Trey Wall’s turn to take a pinch-runner from home and then forget himself and pass the commit line when he drove a pitch over the heads of the outfielders in left field.) The top of the fourth ended with shortstop Rick Jensen making an excellent play ranging to his left to run down a grounder up the middle and get the force at second.
Mike Velaney led off the bottom of the third with a single and scored when Tom Kelm drove a ball through the outfielders; unfortunately for Purple, Jim Foelker, running from home for Tom, didn’t read the league memo that prohibits runners from home advancing past first – Jim would have made it to third, but was called out. An inning later Purple got four consecutive one-out singles by Adam Reddell, Ray Pilgrim, Jim Foelker, and Clint Fletcher, but only one run to show for it as Ray was thrown out 7-6-2 (Mike Garrison to Ralph Villela to Jeff Broussard) on a perfect relay on Clint’s single to left.
Green scored a single run in the top of the fifth. Purple stopped running into outs in the home half and scored three runs on four singles that sandwiched a walk drawn by Larry Young. Green was chasing four entering the buffet, but got just one. Final score: Purple 12, Green 9
Quote of the Day: Rick Jensen: “Purple won but is the dumbest team in the league.”
11:30 a.m., Blue (2-1) at Red (1-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Blue 5 5 5 1 X 16 Red 1 3 0 3 0 7 Pitchers: Blue – Joe Bernal; Red – Donald Drummer. Mercenaries: Red – Tim Coles and Ray Pilgrim. Umpires: home plate – Jack Crosley; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Blue – George Brindley (2 for 2 with a walk, a double, and a triple), Jeff Fisher (3 for 3), Dale Fugate (2 for 2 with a walk), George Romo (2 for 2 with a walk and two doubles), and Terry Thompson (3 for 3 with two doubles); Red – Bobby Miller (4 for 4) and Eddy Murillo (3 for 3 with two doubles). Homerun: Tim Coles (over the fence).
Blue came out on fire and scored five runs in each of the first three innings, only making four outs along the way, one of those a run-scoring sacrifice fly by David Brown in the first, an innings that saw extra-base hits by Terry Thompson (the first of his two doubles), George Brindley (triple to drive in Terry with the game’s first run), and George Romo (a double on a long drive to left field that off the bat looked like it would hook foul, but was blown back fair by a strong cross wind). Terry, the two Georges, and David Brown combined to go 9 for 10 with two walks, five doubles, and a triple – combined .900 average, .917 on-base percentage, and 1.700 slugging percentage.
Red just couldn’t keep pace with that, though they did get a few extra-base hits of their own. Eddy Murillo doubled twice to left field, in the bottom of the first and the bottom of the fourth, the second one driving in a couple of runs. Joe Bernal got two strikeouts to start the bottom of the second, but Ray Pilgrim singled and then Tim Coles socked an over-the-fence homerun to left field.
Ray Pilgrim presents fellow mercenary Tim Coles with a Pluckers coupon following Tim’s over-the-fence blast in the bottom of the second.
Morgan Witthoft led off the bottom of the third with a well-struck hit to left-center that took a big bounce over Pat Scott’s head. Morgan wound up at second with a double, and one out later advanced to third on Boo Resnick’s single through the right side, but he was stranded as Joe Bernal retired Hal Darman and Ray Pilgrim on ground balls.
Blue led 15-4 through three and seemed poised for another big inning in the fourth. George Romo led off with a walk, and one out later Jeff Fisher, Joe Bernal, and Dale Fugate each singled, George scoring and the bases being loaded. But Donald Drummer got Steve Sandall on a pop to catcher Ray Pilgrim (moving forward and to his left – that’s a tough play). Jerry Mylius lined a ball back to the box that Donald got a piece of, slowing and deflecting it to shortstop Tim Bruton, who got the force at second to end the inning.
Red put together some good at bats against Joe Bernal in the bottom of the fourth. Tim Coles hit a sharp grounder down the third-base side, but was out on a good play and very strong throw by David Brown. Bobby Miller and Tim Bruton also hit balls to David, but these went for singles, Bobby winding up at second on his when David’s throw got past first baseman Dale Fugate. Tim was safe when David’s throw pulled Dale just off the base. Eddy Murillo followed with his second double to score them both, and then Adam Reddell and Morgan Witthoft knocked singles to left field. A walk to Donald Drummer loaded the bases. Boo Resnick hit a sinking line drive to right-center; Jeff Fisher got a good jump on the ball and caught it on the fly, and was able to double up Morgan off of second to end the inning.
With Blue leading 16-7, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Joe Bernal got the first two batters on grounders to David Brown, very busy at third base. Tim Coles and Bobby Miller both singled, but Tim Bruton got under a pitch and flied it out to left field, where it was gathered in by Terry Thompson for the final out. Final score: Blue 16, Red 7
12:30 p.m., Gray (2-0) at Maroon (1-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 1 0 0 3 0 0 4 Maroon 5 4 5 0 0 X 14 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Maroon – Chunky Wright. Mercenary: Maroon – Tim Bruton. Umpires: home plate – Adam Reddell; bases – Morgan Witthoft. Perfect at the plate: Gray - ?; Maroon – Anthony Galindo (3 for 3 with a double) and Joe Roche (3 for 3).
Almost as efficiently as Blue in the second game, Maroon exploded out of the blocks, scoring 14 of a possible 15 runs over the first three innings: five runs on six singles, Anthony Galindo’s double, and Marvin Krabbenhoft’s walk without making an out in the first; four runs on Chunky Wright’s lead-off triple to center field and five singles in the second; and five again in the third, on six singles and Scott Wright’s walk. Not every swing resulted in a line drive, but most everything fell safely for Maroon in the first three innings. They had less success in the fourth and fifth, managing just Tom Brownfield’s lead-off single in the fourth before Jack Kelly recorded six straight outs, but the game was pretty far out of reach by that point.
On the other hand, Gray’s batters kept squaring up on pitches but hitting them right at defenders. I don’t recall Chunky Wright walking anyone, and he induced three ground-ball double plays. In the top of the fourth, with the bases loaded, one out, three runs in, and David Kruse at the plate, Jimmy Sneed fielded David’s hard grounder to third, stepped on the bag for the force there, and threw to first for the inning-ending out. (David hadn’t been running hard, but if he had been, Jimmy would have thrown home instead.) In the fifth Tom Brownfield turned the pivot on a 6-4-3 double play; an innning later, he started a 4-6-3 double play. Shortstop Jack Spellman made diving plays on grounders up the middle in the first (on a ball hit by Frank Delmonte) and fifth (on a ball hit by, I think, Mike Mordecai, that Chunky Wright got a piece of and deflected within Spellman’s reach), each time getting a force at second. Gray caught no breaks in this game. Final score: Maroon 14, Gray 4 – Gray was the last remaining undefeated team.
Standings – Session One:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Blue 3 1 .750 — 49 35 +14 W2
Orange 2 1 .667 .5 54 35 +19 W2
Maroon 2 1 .667 .5 40 30 +10 W2
Purple 2 1 .667 .5 39 36 + 3 W1
Gray 2 1 .667 .5 34 38 – 4 L1
Red 1 3 .250 2 61 73 -12 L3
Green 0 4 .000 2.5 48 78 -30 L4
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Blue 2-0 1-1 0 0-0 1-0 0-0
Orange 0-1 2-0 0 0-0 2-0 0-0
Maroon 2-0 0-1 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Purple 1-0 1-1 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Gray 2-0 0-1 1 0-0 0-0 1-0
Red 0-2 1-1 0 0-0 0-2 0-1
Green 0-2 0-2 0 0-0 0-1 0-0
Schedule for Monday March 18:
10:30 a.m.: Purple (2-1) at Maroon (2-1), Orange umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Orange (2-1) at Gray (2-1), Purple umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (0-4) at Blue (3-1), Gray umpiring
Red has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: The four 2-1 teams battle at 10:30 and 11:30, the winners taking over second place or, if Green is able to knock off Blue at 12:30, first place. With a greater than 50% chance of rain forecast for each of the next three days, will we actually be able to play Monday? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Happy Evacuation Day, on Sunday, to those who celebrate it. As Keggy says, “You’ll never take me alive.”