B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 6, Issue 61 – November 14, 2024
Games of Thursday November 14:
10:30 a.m., Orange (7.5 – 9.5) at Blue (13-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL
Orange 1 3 0 5 0 0 9
Blue 0 2 1 5 2 X 10
Pitchers: Orange – Spike Davidson; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Orange – Donald Drummer, Donnie Janac, and Scott Wright; Blue – Anthony Galindo, Mike Mordecai, Phil Stanch, Jeff Stone, and Chris Waddell. Umpires: home – Jack Spellman; bases – Mike Velaney. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Donald Drummer, Ray Pilgrim, and Scott Wright (all 3 for 3).
Despite playing without mainstays Larry Fiorentino, Fritz Hensel, Rex Horvath, Gary Kubenka, and Jim Maloy, Orange made a game of this, nearly stealing a march on the Session Four champions, grabbing an early lead and holding it until the bottom of the final five-run inning.
Orange broke on top with a run in the top of the first. Doc Hobar led off t he game with a double to left-center, took third on Eddie Ortiz’s ground out to third baseman Jeff Stone – Doc waited until Jeff threw across the diamond, then broke and took the base – and scored on Ray Pilgrim’s line single to left-center. Spike Davidson hit a sharp grounder just to the left of second base, and Tony Garcia made a really nice play to his backhand to field it cleanly, step on the bag, and throw to first for an inning-ending 6u., 6-3 double play.
Spike then took the mound and held Blue scoreless in the bottom half thanks to a terrific relay. Tony Garcia singled with one out. George Brindley lined a hit to center field and tried for a double, but Matt Levitt cut the ball off and made a quick throw to shortstop Eddie Ortiz, whose throw to Larry Shupe covering second beat George by half a step. Tony took third on the play, but was stranded when Joe Bernal flied out to Donnie Janac in right-center.
Orange scored three times in the top of the second, Matt Levitt’s speed largely responsible for the first two runs. Matt led off with a double to left field. He held at second on Larry Shupe’s grounder to shortstop, then raced home on Dave Berra’s line single to center – Anthony Galindo charged the ball and came up throwing, but Matt just outran the ball. Dave took second on the throw, and Matt pinch-ran for him. Scott Wright grounded a single past second baseman George Brindley and into right field, and Matt, running aggressively (I think he might have run through a stop-sign from the third-base coach), scored on that hit, too. Donnie Janac grounded to third baseman Jeff Stone, who forgot he had an easy force at second and instead threw to first to get Donnie.
Awkward Defensive Realization of the Day (I): Jeff Stone, when he realized his mistake: “What am I doing?”
The gaffe hurt Blue immediately, as Scott took second and then scored easily on Donald Drummer’s two-out pop-fly single to left field.
Blue got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the second on a meat-and-potatoes rally from its mercenaries: With one out, Anthony Galindo and Jeff Stone singled and Mike Mordecai walked, loading the bases. Chris Waddell got Anthony home with a sacrifice fly to right-center, and Phil Stanch drove in in Jeff with a pop-fly single just out of reach of second baseman Larry Shupe.
Orange did not score in the top of the third, Joe Bernal working around one-out singles by Ray Pilgrim and Spike Davidson, and Blue drew to within a run with a single in the home half. Singles by Tony Garcia, George Brindley, and Joe Bernal loaded the bases to start the inning – Joe’s hit was a liner to Larry Shupe’s left that Larry got a bit of glove on, but couldn’t corral. Jeff Fisher followed with another liner to Larry’s left, and this one Larry got to and held on to, tumbling to the ground – Tony was able to tag up and score on the play, Jeff picking up an RBI on what had to be one of the shortest B League sacrifice flies ever. Spike Davidson then got Anthony Galindo and Jeff Stone to fly out, to Matt Levitt in left-center and Doc Hobar in left field respectively, to strand George and Joe.
Orange extended its lead to 9-3 by scoring five times in the top of the fourth, all the runs coming across after two were out. Catcher Chris Waddell made a nice play, with the sun in his eyes, on Dave Berra’s pop in front of the plate to start the inning. Scott Wright then singled. Donnie Janac hit a grounder to the 5-6 hole that looked like a certain hit, but Tony Garcia ranged way to his right to backhand it, then snapped a throw to second to force out Scott. Orange’s next six batters – Donald Drummer and the 1-5 hitters – knocked singles, five runs scoring.
Blue came right back with five runs in the bottom of the inning, all of them also scored after two were out. Chris Waddell singled with one out. Phil Stanch lined a ball to the right side, and Larry Shupe made another tumbling catch, just above the ground, for the second out. The next five batters, the top of Blue’s lineup, hit safely: Jerry Mylius and Tony Garcia singled; George Brindley doubled to left-center; Joe Bernal lined a single through the 5-6 hole; and Jeff Fisher doubled to right field.
Orange wasn’t able to extend its 10-9 lead in the final five-run inning, Scott Wright’s two-out single the only hit they managed.
Blue then took the lead with two runs in the home half. Anthony Galindo led off with a single. He was forced at second on Jeff Stone’s grounder to shortstop, Eddie Ortiz making an excellent play to his left on the ball. Mike Mordecai, Chris Waddell, Phil Stanch, and Jerry Mylius followed with singles, Jeff and Mike scoring to put Blue in the lead. Blue had the bases loaded, one out, and its 2-3 hitters due, but wound up stranding the three runners as Spike Davidson retired Tony Garcia on a fly to Scott Wright in right field and George Brindley on a fly to Donnie Janac in right-center.
Entering the buffet, Red need a run to tie, and Donald Drummer lined a single to left-center to open the inning (and complete his 3-for-3 game). Doc Hobar grounded to Jeff Stone, who this time knew to throw for the force at second for the first out. Eddie Ortiz hit a sharp grounder to the right of second base: George Brindley moved to his left, fielded it cleanly, and threw to Joe Bernal covering second; Joe’s relay to first beat Eddie for a game-ending 4-1-3 double play. Final score: Blue 10, Orange 9
11:30 a.m.: Purple (7-10) at Red (7.5 – 9.5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL
Purple 5 0 5 4 3 1 18
Red 0 0 5 1 5 0 11
Pitchers: Purple – Jeff Stone; Red – Donald Drummer. Mercenaries: Purple – Tony Garcia and Scott Wright; Red – Donald Drummer. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Jerry Mylius. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Gregory Bied and Tony Garcia (both 4 for 4 with a double); Red – Donald Drummer (3 for 3 with a triple) and Donnie Janac (2 for 2 with a walk). Home run: Jim Foelker (inside the park) (1).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 73 degrees (Heat Index 73), 24% humidity, sunny with a high sky, wind NNE 8 MPH – spectactular fall day!
Red needed a win in this game to secure the four seed in the end-of-season tourney, but they weren’t able to overcome Purple’s strong offense. Every batter in Purple’s lineup had at least two hits, four had three, and Gregory Bied and Tony Garcia both went 4 for 4. Daniel Carvajal set the tone early on, with a two-run triple to left-center after the first three batters of the game singled. Base hits by Jim Foelker, Mike Velaney, and Tom Kelm brought the fourth and fifth runs across.
Red got singles by Tim Bruton and Boo Resnick to start the bottom half, but Jeff Stone retired the next three batters.
Neither team scored in the second inning. Tony Garcia doubled with one out and took third on Gregory Bied’s single in the top half, but Donald Drummer retired Jeff Stone on a fly to right-center to strand them. Donald then knocked a one-out single in the bottom half, but was erased on a double-play grounder off the bat of useless mercenary Jack Spellman, Tony Garcia turning it, 6u., 6-3.
Then both teams scored five times in the third, Purple on seven singles and Clint Fletcher’s sacrifice fly, Red on five singles, Denny Malloy’s walk, and Morgan Witthoft’s triple to left-center, a ball he absolutely crushed.
Purple scored four more runs in the top of the fourth, on six more singles, the last coming after two outs on flies to Jack Spellman in left field (death to routine flies). Red managed only one in its half of the inning: Johnny Lee singled with one out, Donnie Janac walked, and Tim Bruton singled, driving in Johnny Lee’s pinch-runner. The rally was ended by a nice 5-4-3 double play, started by Daniel Carvajal and turned by Mike Velaney, on Boo Resnick’s grounder.
On to the fifth inning. Gregory Bied doubled leading off, completing a 4-for-4 game at the plate, and scored on Jeff Stone’s single. Jeff was forced out at second on Daniel Carvajal’s grounder up the middle, Tim Bruton making a nice play to his left to get to the ball and flip to Boo Resnick covering second. Jim Foelker then came up. He fouled off a pitch, if I’m remembering correctly, at any rate had a 1-2 or 2-2 count, and in left field I moved up a bit, so I was about five feet behind the 120-foot line. Jim then smoked a line drive to my left, between me and left-center fielder Morgan Witthoft, and I realized within one step that there was no way I was going to get to it.
Awkward Defensive Realization of the Day (II): Jack Spellman, when he realized he wasn’t going to get anywhere near to cutting off Jim Foelker’s liner to his left: “Oh, shit!”
Morgan ran the ball down about 15 feet short of the fence in left-center, and made as quick a relay to shortstop Tim Bruton as was possible, but there was no way we were going to keep Jim from circling the bases, as he easily legged out a two-run inside-the-park home run to make it 17-6 Purple.
Jack Spellman presents a Pluckers coupon to Jim Foelker following Jim’s two-run inside-the-parker in the top of the fifth. It was the least I could do after my positioning failure left me unable to cut the ball off.
Red didn’t throw in the towel, scoring five times in the home half, Donald Drummer’s three-run triple the big hit. (Donald was 3 for 3 in this game after going 3 for 3 at 10:30 – nice day at the office.)
With Purple’s lead down to seven runs, the teams did not flip-flop for the start of the buffet. But after Tom Kelm flied out to left field to start the inning (pretty good play by Jack Spellman, to my right and catching the ball over my right shoulder, and setting aside that I was playing Tom too shallow), Scott Wright, Tony Garcia (completing a 4-for-4 game), and Clint Fletcher all singled, Scott scoring to give Purple an eight-run lead. That prompted the flip-flop.
In the home half, one-out infield singles by Morgan Witthoft and Adam Reddell prompted some intemperate talk on the Red bench about Purple getting nervous. (Purple was not getting nervous.) Denny Malloy hit a hard grounder back to the box, Jeff Stone making a good play while moving backwards to field it, then turning and throwing to second for the force there for the second out. Daniel Carvajal then fielded Hal Darman’s grounder to third base and threw to second for the game-ending out. Final score: Purple 18, Red 11
12:30 p.m.: Green (9-8) at Gray (5-12):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL
Green 5 5 5 4 1 X 20
Gray 1 5 0 0 3 1 10
Pitchers: Green – David Pittard; Gray – Jack Kelly. No mercenaries. Umpires: home – Donald Drummer and Adam Reddell; bases – Morgan Witthoft. Perfect at the plate: Green – Jack McDermott and David Pittard (both 4 for 4) and Ralph Villela (3 for 3 with a walk and a double); Gray – David Kruse (4 for 4 with two doubles and two triples). Home run: Daniel Baladez (inside the park) (1).
If this was a tune-up for Green in advance of the end-of-season tourney, the rest of B League better watch out: Green scored five runs in each of its first three at bats, making only three outs along the way, then added four more in the fourth. And everyone hit: Ralph Villela, David Pittard, and Jack McDermott all reached base four straight times, the other four batters at the top of the lineup knocked thee hits each, and that’s not even getting to the star of the game, Daniel Baladez.
It was five runs without making an out in the top of the first, Ralph Villela’s lead-off walk followed by six singles. Gray got one back in the home half when David Kruse tripled with one out and scored on Donnie Janac’s single.
Green made two outs in the second, but still put across five runs, on four singles (the last three with two out) and doubles by Daniel Baladez (legging it out after dropping Texas Leguer to short left field, toward the foul line), Ralph Villela, and Paul Rubin. Gray scored five in the bottom half, on four singles, back-to-back doubles by Tommy Gillis and David Kruse, and Donnie Janac’s sacrifice fly to left-center, they only out of the frame.
Green scored five more on seven singles in the top of the third, their only out coming on Daniel Baladez’s pop to short left field – David Kruse went back and to his right to track it down, snow-coning it but holding on. Gray did not score in the bottom half.
And Green got another four in the top of the fourth. Mike Garrison, Jack McDermott, and Trey Wall singled to open the inning, Mike coming around to score and Jack taking third on Trey’s single to right field. Phil Stanch grounded into a 6-4 force, Jack scoring. Daniel Baladez then came up and put a great swing on an outside pitch, lining it to right field and over Donnie Janac’s head. Daniel made a sharp turn at first, another at second, and there was a growing realization among the onlookers that Daniel had a legitimate shot at circling the bases. As he turned third everyone watching, the spectators and Green’s bench, was on their feet and hollering, and there was a general hue and cry of delight as Daniel crossed the line, well ahead of the relay, for a two-run inside-the-park home run.
Acting Green manager Trey Wall presents Daniel Baladez with as many Pluckers coupons as I could find for him following Daniel’s first home run of the 2024 season.
Not gonna lie, this was one of the great moments of the 2024 B League season as far as I’m concerned. (Lisa McDermott noted that her daughter Kayla got emotional over it, too.) Daniel’s a hugely respected and beloved guy, and it was so great to witness the outpouring of delight over this. Later he told me that, while he’s been working on hitting to right field, he’s been working even harder on his running, getting some coaching from Ken Brown (why not ask the best for help?), and cutting three second off his 50-meter speed. Just awesome.
David Pittard retired Gray in order in the bottom of the fourth, and Green added one run on three singles in the top of the fifth, the final five-run inning.
There was a bit more drama in the bottom of the fifth. Tommy Gillis led off with his second straight double to left field. David Kruse then drove a ball to deep right field, over Jack McDermott’s head; it was an easy RBI triple for David, Tommy scoring, but, as I hoped he would, David tried to stretch it into a home run, running through the third-base coach’s stop sign. I was rooting for David because he had a chance to hit for the cycle, something no one has done (yet) this season. He slightly hesitated round third, saw where the ball was, and went for it, only to be cut down by a near-perfect relay, Jack to shortstop Ralph Villela to catcher Jim McAnelly, two on-the-money throws in a row, David’s foot in the air as Jim made the catch. I totally applaud the effort: no guts, no glory.
Gray still wound up scoring two more runs, on singles by five of the next six batters, cutting Green’s lead to 20-9. The teams flip-flopped for the buffet. David Pittard struck out the first two batters. David Kruse doubled (acknowledging later that, if the cycle had been in play, he’d have stopped at first), then scored on Donnie Janac’s single to left-center. Johnny Lee extended the inning with a base hit to center field, but the game ended with Chris Waddell grounding into a 6-4 force. Final score: Green 20, Gray 10
Final standings – Session Four:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Blue 14 4 .778 — 229 172 +57 W2
Maroon 11 7 .611 3 222 198 +24 W2
Green 10 8 .556 4 229 211 +18 W4
Red 7.5 10.5 .417 6.5 229 244 -15 L3
Orange 7.5 10.5 .417 6.5 202 217 -15 L2
Purple 8 10 .444 6 202 211 – 9 W1
Gray 5 13 .278 9 197 257 -60 L5
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Blue 10-0 4-4 2 1-0 5-0 4-0
Maroon 6-3 5-4 4 0-0 4-2 4-3
Green 4-4 6-4 2 0-0 4-4 2-3
Red 2.5-7.5 5-3 1 1-1 3-5 2-3
Orange 4-4 3.5-6.5 1 0-1 2-5 2-3
Purple 3-5 5-5 0 0-0 3-4 0-0
Gray 4-6 1-7 1 0-0 2-3 2-4
Orange and Red tied their game of October 24.
Final full-season standings (including Session 1):
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Blue 30 21 .588 — 619 571 +48 W2
Green 29 23 .558 1.5 674 637 +37 W4
Purple 26 23 .531 3 597 564 +33 W1
Maroon 25 26 .490 5 642 618 +24 W2
Red 24.5 27.5 .471 6 703 707 – 4 L3
Gray 23 26 .469 6 558 631 -73 L5
Orange 20.5 31.5 .394 10 613 678 -65 L2
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Blue 19- 7 11-13 5 2-0 8- 3 7-3
Green 12-14 16- 9 7 1-1 9- 6 7-6
Purple 11-13 15-10 2 1-1 5-10 2-5
Maroon 12-14 12-11 5 0-0 6- 6 5-7
Red 8.5-17.5 16-9 2 1-2 10- 8 4-8
Gray 13-11 9-15 5 0-0 5- 7 9-6
Orange 9-15 11.5-15.5 2 0-1 8-11 7-6
A note about the final full-season standings: The first table above (total wins, losses, runs for, and runs against) is close to 100% accurate, and matches the wins-losses table below. The second table (home and visitor W-L, walk-off wins, etc.) is not completely accurate. I know I’m missing some games in the home and visitors wins and losses, and I’d be up till December trying to find my mistakes, which go back at least to Session Two.
2024 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gray Green Maroon Orange Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 4 3 6 7 5 5 30
Gray 5 X 4 4 5 0 5 23
Green 4 4 X 5 4 7 5 29
Maroon 2 5 5 X 6 2 5 25
Orange 1 4 4 3 X 5 3.5 20.5
Purple 4 5 3 6 4 X 4 26
Red 5 4 4 2 5.5 4 X 24.5
_________________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 21 26 23 26 31.5 23 27.5 178
Season home run leaders:
David Kruse – 8
Tim Coles – 6
Ken Brown – 4
Peter Atkins – 3
Gregory Bied – 3
Tim Bruton – 3
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Paul Rubin – 3
Pat Scott – 3
George Brindley – 2
Clint Fletcher – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Gary Kubenka – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Ralph Villela – 2
Daniel Baladez – 1
David Brown – 1
Jack Crosley – 1
Jeff Fisher – 1
Jim Foelker – 1
Anthony Galindo – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Tommy Gillis – 1
Rex Horvath – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Denny Malloy – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
Eddie Ortiz -1
David Pittard – 1
Joe Roche – 1
Steve Sandall – 1
Morgan Witthoft – 1
Schedule for Monday November 18 – first day of the end-of-season tourney (50-minute clock):
10:30: Orange (20.5 – 31.5, #7 seed) at Green (29-23, #2 seed)
11:30: Gray (23-26, #6 seed) at Purple (26-23, #3 seed)
12:30: Red (24.5 – 27.5, #5 seed) at Maroon (25-26, #4 seed)
Blue (30-21, #1 seed) has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Day one of the end-of-season tourney. After some back and forth, the league board decided to go with full-season standings that include games played in Session, a.k.a., the Grapefruit League session. This was because of a decision I made early in the season to include those games in my wins-across-losses-down table, which wound up being used by many/most/maybe everyone to track season standings, rather than the cumulative standings that I published at the end of each session. I didn’t learn till the end of Session Two of the intention to not count Session One games, and by that point I was not going to overcome my own laziness and adjust the wins-across-losses-down table. Including Session One’s games bumped Blue ahead of Green for end-of-season seeding. There’s no conspiracy at work here, just a need to make a decision one way or the other, and the board decided to include those first-session games, which everyone was trying their best to win. It is what it is. Will Green use the revocation of the #1 seed as bulletin-board fodder and romp to the season championship? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Incoming league treasurer Mark Dolan and retiring treasurer/Hall of Famer Mike Hill are working toward a smooth transition in 2025. We clearly are in good, steady hands.