B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 6, Issue 62 – November 19, 2024
Games of Tuesday November 19 – end-of-season-tourney day one:
Games were postponed from Monday November 18 due to morning rain and wet fields.
10:00 a.m., Orange (20.5 – 31.5, #7 seed) at Green (29-23, #2 seed):
1 2 3 4 5 6 BUFFET FINAL
Orange 3 3 2 3 5 4 2 22
Green 3 3 1 1 5 4 4 21
Pitchers: Orange – Spike Davidson; Green – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Orange – Tony Garcia and Donnie Janac. Umpires: home – Terry Watts; bases – Eddy Murillo and David Brown. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Tony Garcia (4 for 4 with a double); Green – Ralph Villela (5 for 5 with two doubles).
Weather report: After a brisk morning, temperatures in the 50s at sunrise, it was up to 65 degrees (Heat Index also 65) at game time, 44% humidity, 100% blue sky, wind WNW 6 MPH – just splendid.
Best game of the day saw Orange, the low seed, knock off a powerful Green team. Both teams scored in every at bat, and Orange never led by more than three at the end of any inning. They scored three times in the top of the first on three singles, back-to-back walks drawn by Eddie Ortiz and Peter Atkins, a double to drive in the first run by Larry Fiorentino (returning to action and playing through a balky knee which had him, by his own estimate, playing at about 70% capacity, and moved to second base), and Ray Pilgrim’s sacrifice fly. With two runs in and the bases loaded, Matt Levitt grounded a ball to shortstop Ralph Villela, who threw to third baseman David Pittard for the force there; Eddie, running from third base, thought that was the third out and came to nearly a full stop before his teammates urged him on; David had time to throw home, but his peg pulled catcher Jim McAnelly off the mat and Eddie made it in.
Green tied it with three runs in the home half. Ralph Villela and Paul Rubin singled to start the inning. Mike Hill lined out to second baseman Larry Fiorentino (I think; possibly it was Tony Garcia, before he and Larry switched positions), who could have easily doubled up Paul at first, but Ray Pilgrim dropped the soft toss over. David Pittard singled, driving in Ralph. Jack McDermott then drove a ball to deep left-center, over the outfielders, for a two-run triple. Walks to Tommy Deleon and Mike Garrison loaded the bases and put the fourth and fifth runs in scoring position. Trey Wall lined a ball to right-center; Peter Atkins got an excellent jump on it and made a running catch, then fired to second to double up Ralph Villela, running for Tommy, who’d thought the ball would fall in and couldn’t get back in time.
Both teams scored three times again in the second inning, each on four hits. Orange’s first three hits were on catchable fly balls: Tony Garcia led off with a double to right-center that Jack McDermott couldn’t hold on to; Mike Garrison wasn’t able to secure Spike Davidson’s fly to left, Tony scoring (he’d tagged up and advanced to third on Donnie Janac’s fly to Mike); and Jack had trouble with Larry Fiorentino’s drive to right-center, which fell in safe for another double. Both Matt Levitt (running for Spike) and Larry scored on Eddie Ortiz’s clean single to left.
Green got those runs back in the home half, after two were out. Phil Stanch led off with a single down the third-base line, fair by inches. Jeff Broussard lined a ball to the right side, but was robbed of a hit by first baseman Ray Pilgrim, who made a great snag. Phil was forced at second on Jim McAnelly’s grounder to second base. Ralph Villela ripped a double to right field – Donnie Janac made a terrific play to cut the ball off, keeping Jim’s pinch-runner from scoring, and possibly also Ralph. They both scored on Paul Rubin’s double to right-center, and Paul came in on Mike Hill’s hit, another ground single past third base, just fair.
Orange took the lead with two runs in the top of the third, on singles by three of the first four batters, including another dropped fly, Paul Rubin unable to hold onto Matt Levitt’s short fly to left-center. Tommy Deleon escaped the inning when third baseman David Pittard made a good play on Donnie Janac’s grounder to third base, stepping on the bag for the force there and throwing across the diamond to get Donnie, a 5u., 5-3 double play.
Green got just one back in the bottom half: Jack McDermott beat out a grounder to third base for a single, took second on Tommy Deleon’s single down the first-base side (Ray Pilgrim knocked it down, had no play, but his good effort kept Jack from getting to third), tagged and advanced on Mike Garrison’s fly to right-center, and scored on Trey Wall’s 5-4 ground out, Tony Garcia’s throw to second just beating Ralph Villela, running for Tommy, to the bag.
Orange led 8-7 through three, and added three runs in the top of the fourth: Larry Fiorentino walked with one out; Tony Garcia ran for Larry and took third on Eddie Ortiz’s single to right-center; Peter Atkins lined a ball off third baseman David Pittard’s glove and into left field for a double, Tony scoring; Ray Pilgrim’s two-strike liner down the third-base side was foul for the second out; and Jim Maloy grounded a single past third, just fair, driving in Eddie and Peter.
Jeff Broussard lined a single to center to start the bottom of the third, and one out later his pinch-runner scored on Ralph Villela’s triple to left field. Spike Davidson stranded Ralph at third, getting Paul Rubin to ground out 4-3 to Larry Fiorentino and Mike Hill to line out to Donnie Janac in right field, well-played catch.
Orange led 11-8 through four, then 16-13 through five as both teams scored five times in that inning: Orange on six singles and Eddie Ortiz’s walk, four of the runs scored after two were out; Green on Jack McDermott’s one-out walk (which left me stunned – Jack walks about once a season), followed by four straight singles – the last, by Jeff Broussard, was misplayed, allowing Phil Stanch to score from first.
Both teams then scored four times on five singles in the sixth inning, Orange’s last four coming with two out, and Green getting its fourth runin on Tommy Deleon’s sacrifice fly to Peter Atkins in right-center.
Entering the buffet, Orange led 20-17. Eddie Ortiz led off the top half with a fly to deep left field, Mike Garrison perfectly positioned to make the catch. Peter Atkins doubled to left-center, another ball that looked like it might have been catchable but fell in. Ray Pilgrim, Jim Maloy, and Matt Levitt followed with clean singles to left, left, and left-center field, Peter scoring on Ray’s hit, then running for Ray and scoring on Matt’s. The inning ended with Ralph Villela starting a 6-4-3 double play on Dave Berra’s sharp grounder to Ralph’s left, Mike Hill turning a smooth pivot.
That left Green chasing five in the bottom of the buffet. Trey Wall (to left field), Phil Stanch (to right), and Jeff Broussard (to left-center) each singled, Trey’s pinch-runner Paul Rubin coming around to score. Jeff sent Daniel Baladez to bat for Jim McAnelly. Daniel grounded to third baseman Tony Garcia, who threw to Larry Fiorentino for the force at second on Jeff’s pinch-runner; Phil had held up running for third, and Larry was able to throw back to Tony to put the tag on Phil to complete a 5-4-5 double play.
That brought up the top of Green’s order with two out and a runner on first, trailing by four. I shot some video.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/vzUzD9U9g_w/edit
Ralph Villela ripped a double to left field, completing a 5-for-5 day at the plate, Daniel’s pinch-runner scoring from first.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/Z-VvH_ZE46k/edit
Paul Rubin singled to left, Ralph scoring.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/dTllS5TGGIY/edit
Mike Hill singled up the middle, Ralph stopping at second.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/S9YZzw-ngek/edit
David Pittard’s single to right brought in Paul, cutting Orange’s lead to one run, with the tying run on second.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/Kw0ZdnVkIVE/edit
Jack McDermott came up and swung at Tommy Deleon’s first offering, getting under it a bit. Matt Levitt in left-center came in a bit and made the catch for the final out.
Final score: Orange 22, Green 21
11:15 a.m.: Gray (23-26, #6 seed) at Purple (26-23, #3 seed):
1 2 3 4 5 6 BUFFET FINAL
Gray 2 5 5 0 5 1 2 20
Purple 2 5 0 0 0 5 0 12
Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Purple – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Gray – Jack Spellman; Purple – Eddy Murillo and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Terry Watts; bases – David Brown. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Johnny Lee (2 for 2 with two walks) and Don Solberg (4 for 4); Purple – Clint Fletcher (4 for 4 with a triple) and Rick Jensen (3 for 3). Home run: Gregory Bied (inside the park)
Dave Berra’s weather report: 76 degrees (Heat Index 76), humidity 29%, wind WNW 6 MPH – beautiful fall day.
Close through two, then good play on both sides of the ball resulted in Gray building an insurmountable lead and rolling to a 20-12 victory.
Each team scored twice in the first, Gray on two-out RBI singles by Don Solberg and Donnie Janac after Tommy Gillis had opened the game with a double. Gregory Bied led off the home half with an inside-the-park home run to right-center, a ferociously hit line drive over everybody to the fence followed by a ridiculously quick trip around the bases. Clint Fletcher then lined a triple to left field, down the line, also getting most of the way to the fence. Shortstop David Kruse made a nice play back and to his right into short left field to chase down Jim Foelker’s high pop fly for the first out. Daniel Carvajal brought Clint in with a sacrifice fly to Don Solberg in left field.
I owe Gregory Bied (file photo) a Pluckers coupon for his inside-the-parker in the bottom of the first inning.
Both teams then scored five times while making just one out in the second inning. Ivan Budiselic and Mike Mordecai drew walks to start the top half, and Ivan’s pinch-runner scored on Jack Spellman’s single to right-center. Tommy Gillis’s sacrifice fly to right-center scored Mike. David Kruse tripled, I think to left-center (David knocked three extra-base hits, I’m not sure I remember which ones went where), Spellman scoring. Gary Coyle singled David in. And singles by Don Solberg and Johnny Lee brought Gary around with the fifth run.
Purple got four singles to start the home half, the first three loading the bases, Eddy Murillo’s driving in two runs. Scott Wright grounded into a 4-6 force, but Gregory Bied doubled and Clint Fletcher singled, the three of them, Scott, Gregory, and Clint – driving in the third, fourth, and fifth runs.
Gray kept hitting in the third, scoring another five runs on six singles, Gary Coyle’s walk, and Ivan Budiselic’s double, a line drive to right-center that gapped the outfielders. Jack Kelly then worked a scoreless bottom half. Daniel Carvajal and Jeff Stone singled with one out, but David Kruse started a 6-4-3 double play on Mark Hernandez’s grounder, Mike Mordecai smoothly turning the pivot.
Gray did not score in the top of the fourth, as Rick Jensen returned David Kruse’s favor and started a 6-4-3 double play following Johnny Lee’s lead-off single (good turn by Mike Velaney). But Jack Kelly threw another scoreless frame in the bottom half, working around one-out singles by Rick Jensen and Tom Kelm.
Gray then scored five runs again in the top of the fifth, and this was a back-breaker. Singles by Ivan Budiselic and Jack Spellman and a walk to Tommy Gillis loaded the bases, and David Kruse and Gary Coyle cleared them with back-to-back doubles. Don Solberg’s fourth single of the game drove in Gary with the fifth run. And then Jack Kelly threw his third straight scoreless inning. Gregory Bied led off with a sharp grounder up the middle that Jack got just enough of a piece of to deflect to shortstop David Kruse, whose strong throw to first beat Gregory by half a step. Clint Fletcher singled, but was forced out on Jim Foelker’s grounder to shortstop, and Tommy Gillis made a nice running catch on Daniel Carvajal’s deep fly to left-center for the third out.
Gray added a single run in the top of the sixth. Johnny Lee drew a lead-off walk. Donnie Janac ripped a double to left field, and Johnny Lee’s pinch-runner (Tommy Gillis, I believe) scored from first; Rick Jensen made a great fake of throwing home – it fooled me, I thought he had about a 20% chance of throwing Tommy out, and it fooled Donnie, too, as he started toward third, only to be hung up when Rick threw behind him. Great play by The Colonel.
Purple then scored five times on seven singles in the home half, with Rick Jensen driving in the first run and Clint Fletcher the fifth, each completing perfect days at the plate. (If Rick follows through on his plan to switch to C League next year, this game was his B League finale, and it was a good one: 3 for 3 at the plate, and one putout, three assists, and a double play at shortstop, plus he hoodwinked a baserunner.)
That cut Gray’s lead to 18-12 entering the buffet. When Gray scored two runs on Gary Coyle’s one-out single, home umpire Terry Watts called for a flip-flop. Purple went down fairly quietly in the home half. Jim Foelker grounded out to shortstop David Kruse. Daniel Carvajal singled. Jeff Stone flied out to Don Solberg in left field. Mark Hernandez singled. Mike Velaney pulled a pitch down the third-base side that Jack Spellman short-hopped on the glove side; I stepped on third for the final out. Final score: Gray 20, Purple 12. (Purple was 5-0 versus Gray in the regular season. Go figure.)
Always great to have President emeritus Larry Bunton in attendance.
12:30 p.m.: Red (24.5 – 27.5, #5 seed) at Maroon (25-26, #4 seed):
1 2 3 4 5 6 BUFFET FINAL
Red 1 5 5 2 3 0 5 21
Maroon 5 5 3 4 5 2 X 24
Pitchers: Red – Donald Drummer; Maroon – Chunky Wright. No mercenaries. Umpires: home – Terry Watts; bases – Jeff Stone. Perfect at the plate: Red – Rick Kahn (5 for 5 with a double and a triple); Maroon – Tom Bellavia (4 for 4), Tom Brownfield (4 for 4 with two doubles), and Scott Wright (4 for 4 with a triple and a walk).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 79 degrees (Heat Index 79), humidity 24%, sunny, dry as a bone, wind from the west 7 MPH – beautiful day for softball.
Chunky Wright had trouble with the the first four batters in the Red lineup, owing to Bobby Miller, Tim Bruton, Rick Kahn, and Adam Reddell being flat-out great hitters. The quartet went a combined 17 for 20 in this game, with three doubles and two triples, scoring 11 runs (not including any they scored pinch-running) and driving in 12. Fortunately for Chunky and Maroon, one of those three outs was a fly to Scott Wright in left field by Bobby Miller to start the game, and as a result Chunky was able to hold Red to a single run on three singles in that inning. Maroon scored five times in the home half, on Scott Wright’s lead-off triple and five singles, and Red had to play catch-up the entire game. They got close at times, but Maroon scored three or more in each of the first five innings, and Red couldn’t make up the early deficit.
Both teams scored five times in the second, Red on six straight hits (four singles, Bobby Miller’s triple, and Rick Kahn’s double) after Chunky Wright retired the first two batters – Hal Darman and Denny Malloy both singled to put runners on base for the 1-4 hitters, who all hit. Maroon matched that in the home half, scoring all its runs after Mark Hernandez made an excellent catch of Jack Spellman’s liner down the first-base side (I thought it was extra bases for sure) for the second out. The big hit was Joe Roche’s triple to right-center that drove in the fourth and fifth runs, Joe scoring the fifth on Tom Bellavia’s infield single.
Red scored five times again in the top of the third, on Eddy Murillo’s lead-off walk, doubles by Mike Malay (a drive over Scott Wright’s head in left field), Donald Drummer, and Tim Bruton, three singles, and Denny Malloy’s sacrifice fly to left-center. That put them ahead 11-10, but Maroon reclaimed the lead with three runs in the bottom half, on three singles, Tom Brownfield’s double, and Chunky Wright’s walk.
Maroon won the fourth inning, holding Red to two runs (Eddy Murillo and Donald Drummer both doubled, Eddy’s pinch-runner and Donald scoring), then scoring four, a base-running mistake keeping them from posting another five-run inning. Four singles, Marvin Krabbenhoft’s sacrifice fly, Tom Brownfield’s second double, and Scott Wright’s walk had three runs in and the bases loaded with one out. Jack Spellman lined a ball to right field that Mike Malay made an outstanding catch on, reaching up and keeping it from going over his head (second time I was robbed of extra bases in this game); Dave Jaffe tagged up on the play, but Chunky Wright took off on contact from second base and didn’t look back, and was easily doubled up, an SF-10, 10-6 double play, though not before Dave had crossed the line with the fourth run.
Red scored three runs in the top of the fifth on consecutive one-out hits by, once again, its 1-4 batters – three singles and Adam Reddell’s double. (So many extra-base hits in this game – eight doubles and two triples by Red hitters; four doubles and three triples by Maroon’s batters.) But Maroon won this inning, too, scoring five times without making an out in the bottom half, on six singles and Joe Roche’s double.
Chunky Wright held Red scoreless in the top of the sixth, and that about sealed the deal for Maroon. Donald Drummer drew a lead-off walk. Boo Resnick lined out to Anthony Galindo in left-center. Hal Darman hit a pop to third baseman Tom Bellavia, who had to come in a couple of steps to make the catch. I think maybe Donald thought it was going to fall in, because he was a couple or three steps off first base. Tom snapped a throw to first baseman Joe Roche that just beat Donald back to the bag for an F-5, 5-3 double play.
Leading 22-16 entering the bottom half, Maroon scored two quick runs – with one out Scott Wright singled, Jack Spellman tripled (got my extra bases!), and Anthony Galindo singled – to push the lead to eight runs, and Terry Watts again called for a flip-flop.
Denny Malloy led off the buffet by slashing a ball down the third-base side. Tom Bellavia knocked the ball down with his chest, keeping it in front of him, recovered it, and made a strong throw to first that beat Denny by a step, if that. It was the best defensive play of the day, I think. Bobby Miller followed with a single, his fourth straight hit. Tim Bruton grounded to shortstop, Jack Spellman able to beat Bobby to the bag for the force at second. Rick Kahn then tripled and the four hitters after him singled, but Maroon was playing with house money, with a comfortable lead and the promise of being able to finish out the sixth inning AND hit in the buffet if Red somehow tied or went ahead. They got five runs across, cutting Maroon’s lead to 24-21, before their luck ran out. Boo Resnick squared up on a pitch, but hit his liner directly at Scott Wright in left field, Scott making the catch for the final out. Final score: Maroon 24, Red 21
I’m re-posting the Session Four final standings, as the version I sent out this past Thursday listed Purple in sixth place. I had the W-L, %, and games behind right, but should have had Purple above Red and Orange in the standings, in fourth place. I apologize for the error.
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
Purple 8 10 .444 6 202 211 – 9 W1
Red 7.5 10.5 .417 6.5 229 244 -15 L3
Orange 7.5 10.5 .417 6.5 202 217 -15 L2
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
Purple 3-5 5-5 0 0-0 3-4 0-0
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
Gray 4-6 1-7 1 0-0 2-3 2-4
Orange and Red tied their game of October 24.
2024 total victories (read across) and losses (read down) – includes Session 1 and the first day of the end-of-season tourney:
Blue Gray Green Maroon Orange Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 4 3 6 7 5 5 30
Gray 5 X 4 4 5 1 5 24
Green 4 4 X 5 4 7 5 29
Maroon 2 5 5 X 6 2 6 26
Orange 1 4 5 3 X 5 3.5 21.5
Purple 4 5 3 6 4 X 4 26
Red 5 4 4 2 5.5 4 X 24.5
________________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 21 26 24 26 31.5 24 28.5 181
Season home run leaders:
David Kruse – 8
Tim Coles – 6
Gregory Bied – 4
Ken Brown – 4
Peter Atkins – 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 Wednesday November 20 – second day of the end-of-season tourney, final day of the 2024 season:
10:00 a.m.: Orange (#7 seed) at Blue (#1 seed) (Gray umpiring)
11:15 a.m.: Gray (#6 seed) at Maroon (#4 seed) (Orange umpiring)
12:30 p.m.: lowest-seed winner at highest-seed winner (volunteers umpiring)
Players from losing teams (Green, Purple, and Red) on Tuesday have first priority for the draw
Preview: “I need another tee-shirt,” says every B Leaguer, “That I will will wear rarely if at all. BUT I MUST HAVE IT.” The lower-seeded teams won two of three of today’s games. Can Orange and Gray repeat the feat Wednesday? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.