B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 13 – April 14, 2025
Department of Corrections:
- Error of commission: The Toms that Maroon was missing this past Thursday were Langa, Fink, and Kelm. It was Blue that was missing Brownfield. Thanks to Dave Berra for pointing this out to me.
- Error of commission: Dave also saw that I misattributed the catch of Bobby Miller’s sacrifice fly to Ken Brown, who is actually Bobby’s Maroon teammate; I think it must have been Steve Sandall who caught that ball.
- Error of omission: I failed to note that Richard Battle was perfect at the plate in Purple’s game versus Gray this past Thursday, going 2 for 2 with a triple and a walk.
The Picayune regrets these and all my many other errors.
Weather report: The run of splendid weather continued today: 74 degrees with 59% humidity at the start of the 10:30 game, wind from the south-southwest at 10 MPH, lots of sun throughout, temperature rising to around 80.
Games of Monday April 14:
10:30 a.m., Green (1-2) at Blue (3-0):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 2 0 5 2 1 10 Blue 5 2 1 4 X 12 Pitchers: Green – Chunky Wright; Blue – Tommy Deleon. Mercenary: Blue – Larry Fiorentino. Umpires: home – Donald Drummer and Scott Wright; bases – Dave Berra and Jim McAnelly. Perfect at the plate: Green – Mike Garrison and Donnie Janac (both 2 for 2 with a walk); Blue – Tom Brownfield and Tommy Deleon (both 3 for 3), Larry Fiorentino (2 for 2 with a double), and Steve Sandall (2 for 2 with a double, a triple, and a walk).
After escaping the top of the first by way of an oddball double play, Blue scored five times in the home half and wound up never trailing the game at the end of any inning. Ralph Villela opened the game with a line-drive triple to center field and scored on Doc Hobar’s single, a liner up the middle that shortstop George Brindley got a glove on but couldn’t hold on to. Doc was forced out 4-6 on Phil Stanch’s grounder to second baseman Larry Fiorentino. Tim Coles and Mike Garrison drew back-to-back walks, loading the bases for Chris Waddell. Chris lined a ball to right-center, a clean hit, except it wasn’t: Steve Sandall charged the ball and came up throwing, his peg beating Mike to second for the force there; George Brindley took the throw, then saw that Tim Coles had taken a wide turn at third – George threw behind Tim, who was caught in no-man’s-land; third baseman Tom Brownfield forced Tim to commit to running home, then threw to catcher Joe Dayoc to complete the 9-6-5-2 double play.
Steve Sandall led off the bottom of the first with a walk, six of the next seven batters hit safely (five singles and Don Solberg’s double to right-center), and five runs came across for Blue. It didn’t matter that Jim Foelker, running from home for Tommy Deleon, was called out for advancing to second on a throw following Tommy’s base hit.
Tommy Deleon kept Green from scoring in the top of the second, working around Donnie Janac’s one-out single, and Blue added to its lead with two runs in the home half: Larry Fiorentino singled with one out and scored on Steve Sandall’s triple, and Steve came in on Tom Bellavia’s base hit to center.
Green rallied to tie the score with five runs in the top of the third inning, on Ralph Villela’s lead-off walk, six singles, and Rick Kahn’s sacrifice fly to right-center. Blue reclaimed the lead with a single run on three singles in the bottom half, but was denied more by a baserunning gaffe. After Daniel Baladez drove in the run, Joe Dayoc grounded into a 4-6 force that left runners on the corners. Joe returned to the dugout, but no pinch-runner replaced him at first base, and when a pitch was delivered to the next batter, Larry Fiorentino, the non-runner at first was declared out for having abandoned the base.
Blue led 8-7 entering the fourth. Green went ahead with two runs in the top half: Ralph Villela singled with one out and scored on Doc Hobar’s triple to the fence in center, and Doc scored on Tim Coles’s line single to left-center.
Blue responded with four runs in the bottom of the fourth. Larry Fiorentino and Steve Sandall opened the frame with back-to-back doubles, each completing a perfect day at the plate, Larry scoring. Steve advanced to third on Tom Bellavia’s fly to left field and then scored the go-ahead run on George Brindley’s sacrifice fly to left-center. Blue led 10-9 with two out and none on, but the final out proved tough to get. Don Solberg, batting right-handed after two left-handed at bats, drove a double to the base of the fence in left-center. Tom Brownfield lined a single through the 5-6 gap, completing a 3-for-3 game, Don scoring. Jim Foelker drew a walk. Tommy Deleon completed his 3-for-3 game with a line single to right field, Tom Brownfield’s runner scoring to make it 12-9.
Green needed three to tie, and got its first three runners on base to open the buffet, Rick Kahn lining a single to right field and both Donnie Janac and Chunky Wright drawing walks to load the bases. Billy Hill lined a ball to right-center that Steve Sandall was able to run down for the first out, Rick tagging up and scoring. Donnie and Chunky tagged and advanced to third and second on Ralph Villela’s deep fly to Tom Bellavia in left-center. The game ended on Doc Hobar’s ground out to shortstop George Brindley. Final score: Blue 12, Green 10
11:30 a.m., Red (1-2) at Maroon (1-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 2 5 3 3 1 14 Maroon 5 5 0 0 5 15 Pitchers: Red – Joe Bernal; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Red – George Brindley, Ray Pilgrim, and Don Solberg; Maroon – Peter Atkins, Daniel Baladez, and George Romo. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Red – George Brindley (2 for 2 with a walk) and Jack Spellman (2 for 2 with a double and two walks); Maroon – Peter Atkins (3 for 3) and Tom Kelm (4 for 4). Home runs: Anthony Galindo (2, both over the fence) (3) and Tony Garcia (inside the park) (1).
Terrific game. Red got two runs in the first on Anthony Galindo’s home run, a line drive that cleared the fence in left-center by a foot or so. Joe Bernal got two quick outs in the bottom of the inning, starting a 1-6-3 double play on Tony Garcia’s hard one-hopper back to the mound after Ken Brown singled leading off. But the next seven batters singled, and Maroon came away with five runs. I can’t remember who hit it, but there was at least one ball in the air that probably was catchable that Red wasn’t able to convert.
Ray Pilgrim presents Anthony Galindo with a Pluckers coupon after Anthony went yard in the top of the first inning.
Red went back ahead with five runs in the top of the second, on two walks, four singles, and Ray Pilgrim’s two-run double, Anthony Galindo driving in the fourth and fifth runs with a single. But Maroon came right back with another five of its own in the home half, on six singles and Scott Wright’s two-run triple, which caught Donald Drummer playing him a bit too close to the 120-foot line in right-center. Maroon’s last three singles came with two out.
Red tied the game at 10-10 in the third inning, scoring three runs on three singles and Donald Drummer’s double, all the runs coming with two out. Joe Bernal held Maroon scoreless in the bottom half despite allowing singles by Peter Atkins and Daniel Baladez to start the inning. First Joe caught Ken Brown’s short pop between the mound and first base. Then he covered second on Tony Garcia’s hard grounder to second baseman Mark Dolan, who made a nice play and got the force, Peter advancing to third. And then Joe fielded Scott Wright’s grounder back to the box, throwing to first to end the inning.
Anthony Galindo’s second home run of the game, a three-run blast to left field, put Red ahead in the top of the fourth, and Joe Bernal again blanked Maroon in the bottom half despite allowing a pair of singles, to Jimmie Maloy and Tom Kelm with one out. Ivan Budiselic grounded into a 4-6 force for the second out, and George Brindley ran down George Romo’s fly to right-center for the third.
I got Johnny Lee to present Anthony Galindo with a second Pluckers coupon after the game, Anthony having homered again in the top of the fourth.
Red had a chance to put the game away in the top of the buffet, but only managed to score one run, on consecutive one-out singles by Don Solberg, George Brindley (2 for 2 with a walk in the game), and Jack Spellman (a line drive just over first baseman Daniel Baladez). Anthony Galindo, already 3 for 3 with seven RBI in the game, came up with runners on the corners, but popped out to second baseman Ivan Budiselic. Jack McDermott, making his first appearance of the 2025 season today, drove a pitch to left-center, but Peter Atkins made a good catch for the third out.
Maroon was chasing four to tie, five to win in the bottom of the buffet. Peter Atkins led off with a single, completing a 3-for-3 game. Daniel Baladez was retired on a short, looping pop to shortstop. Ken Brown tripled to right-center, Peter scoring, and Tony Garcia followed with an inside-the-park home run to right field that brought Maroon within a run. (Tony departed the premises before I could grab him for a Pluckers and a picture – I owe him, the more so because I somehow don’t have a file photo of him.) Scott Wright singled to center, putting the tying run on base. Jeff Stone flied out to Donald Drummer in right-center, good running catch, for the second out. Jimmie Maloy kept the inning going with a single, Scott winding up on third base. Tom Kelm came up and drove a pitch surprisingly deep to left-center field. Moving back and to his left, Anthony Galindo tracked it and got to it, but the ball glanced off his glove and fell in, and Scott and Jimmie both scored, to tie and then win a barn-burner of a game. Final score: Maroon 15, Red 14
12:30 p.m., Orange (2-2) at Gray (1-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 0 5 5 5 5 X 20 Gray 1 0 3 0 0 0 4 Pitchers: Orange – Ray Pilgrim; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Orange – Scott Wright; Gray – Anthony Galindo and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Jeff Stone; bases – Tommy Langa. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Ken Mockler and Scott Wright (both 3 for 3), Terry O'Brien (4 for 4 with a home run), and Ray Pilgrim (3 for 3 with a double); Gray – Paul Rubin (3 for 3). Home run: Terry O'Brien (inside the park) (1).
Orange good. Gray bad.
Okay, there’s more to say, though, not intending to be mean, this is what we in the Gray dugout agreed would be an accurate four-word encapsulation of the game, which Orange dominated from the second inning on. Jack Kelly threw a superb first inning, retiring Orange on three pitches resulting in three fly ball outs, the first to Tommy Gillis in left field, the second and third to Paul Rubin in left-center, good plays in which Paul had to battle the high sun while moving back. Gray then scored a run in the home half to take the lead, albeit briefly. With one out Paul Rubin and George Romo singled and Johnny Lee walked, loading the bases. Hal Darman hit a sharp grounder to shortstop David Brown’s right; David fielded it cleanly and threw to second for the force on Johnny Lee’s pinch-runner; second baseman Mike Malay saw he had George dead to rights, as George had had to stop so as not to run into David; Mike threw to third baseman Terry O’Brien, who threw back to David, who tagged George out to complete the 6-4-5-6 double play; it was a smart play on George’s part, as the force was off of him, and his delaying the third out allowed Paul to cross the home line before the third out was recorded, ensuring that his run counted.
Jack Kelly singled and Dave Jaffe walked to start the second, but Terry O’Brien turned a nice 5u., 5-3 double play on Boo Resnick’s grounder, then fielded Anthony Galindo’s hard grounder to his backhand and threw to second for the force to end the inning.
And then the deluge. Orange scored five times in each of its next four at bats, making six outs the rest of the way, four of those sacrifice flies. There were a bunch of pop-fly hits in the second (among the six singles and Daniel Carvajal’s double) and third (five more singles and a double by Peter Atkins), but over the final two innings everything was hit hard: four singles and Terry O’Brien’s three-run inside-the-park home run in the fourth, four singles and doubles by Ray Pilgrim and David Brown in the fifth. Orange 4-5-6 hitters Ken Mockler, Terry O’Brien, and Ray Pilgrim did not make an out, scoring three runs each and driving in eight.
Terry O’Brien (file photo) also left before I could get him a Pluckers coupon for his inside-the-park homer in the fourth.
Gray pushed across three runs on five consecutive one-out hits in the top of the third, beginning with Tommy Gillis’s double, but after Hal Darman’s single drove in the third, things went downhill faster than a Gloucestershire, England cheese wheel. Hal’s hit went to the fence in left, but a strong 7-6-4 relay, Ken Mockler to David Brown to Mike Malay, cut him down trying for a double. Ray Pilgrim then retired ten of the last 12 Gray batters, allowing only Anthony Galindo (two-out double in the fourth) and Paul Rubin (one-out single in the fifth, his third hit in as many at bats) to reach base. David Brown made a great play on Boo Resnick’s grounder to the 5-6 hole, ranging into the grass to make a backhand play on the ball and then making a long, accurate throw to put him out, the second out of the fourth inning. The teams flip-flopped for the buffet, and Ray retired the side in order, on another grounder to David Brown, one to second baseman Mike Malay, and then getting Dave Jaffe to hit a two-strike foul. Final score: Orange 20, Gray 4
Session 2 standings:
| Session 2 | Games | Runs | Runs | Run dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 4 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 57 | 39 | 18 | W6 |
| Purple | 3 | 1 | .750 | 1 | 49 | 44 | 5 | W2 |
| Orange | 3 | 2 | .600 | 1.5 | 69 | 49 | 20 | W3 |
| Maroon | 2 | 2 | .500 | 2 | 52 | 56 | -4 | W1 |
| Green | 1 | 3 | .250 | 3 | 55 | 57 | -2 | L3 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | .250 | 3 | 50 | 58 | -8 | L2 |
| Gray | 1 | 4 | .200 | 3.5 | 41 | 70 | -29 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins: | wins: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 3-0 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Purple | 1-1 | 2-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-0 | ||
| Orange | 1-1 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-1 | 0-0 | ||
| Maroon | 2-1 | 0-1 | 2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Green | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-1 | ||
| Red | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-1 | ||
| Gray | 1-2 | 0-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1-1 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Gray | 1 | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Green | 0 | 1 | X | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Maroon | 1 | 2 | 1 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Orange | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Purple | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | X | 1 | 7 |
| Red | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | X | 5 |
| TOTAL: | 3 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 39 |
2025 season home run leaders:
Bobby Miller – 4
Tim Coles – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
George Brindley – 2
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Tommy Gillis – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Tom Belavia – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Mike Garrison – 1
Doc Hobar – 1
Rex Horvath – 2
Mike Malay – 1
Terry O’Brien – 1
Jimmy Sneed – 1
Jack Spellman – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Schedule for Thursday April 17:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (1-4) at Red (1-3), Maroon umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Maroon (2-2) at Green (1-3), Gray umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Blue (4-0) at Purple (3-1), Green umpiring
Orange has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: The big game of the day will be at 12:30, when Blue and Purple play for first place, Blue with its six-game winning streak on the line, Purple coming off the bye with a two-game winning streak. Gray and Red have both dropped their last two games; one will get back on track at 10:30, the other will end the day at the bottom of the session standings. Maroon has a better record (2-2) than Green (1-3), but Green has the better run differential, even though it’s lost three in a row. That 11:30 contest should be a hard-fought game. April 17 is the date the characters in The Canterbury Tales begin their pilgrimage. Will Thursday’s edition of the Picayune be written in Olde English? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Ralph Villela checks in:
The mailman who delivers to our wellness center also is a softball player and he has bats for sale…see picture…
Contact Ralph if you’re interested.
Keggy’s movie review: Secret Mall Apartment
Man, I just loved this documentary, which I caught at Austin Film Society last week. It’s about a group of artists, but primarily Michael Townsend, who lose their warehouse space in Providence, Rhode Island’s Eagle Square district and wind up squatting in an unused space up the street in the Providence Place Mall. It’s not so much a Rhode Island story – there are only a couple instances of recognizable Rhode Island accents creeping in (“These guys were OTTISTS?”), and maybe ten seconds total screen time of inner-circle Rhode Island Political Corruption Hall of Famer Buddy Cianci – as it is a Rhode Island School of Design story, but it makes for a highly entertaining tale. A lot of the footage is low-grade video from a cheap (and it shows) Pentax Optio camera purchased from the mall’s Radio Shack, and out of it director Jeremy Workman weaves a compelling story about the intersection of art, life, grief, late capitalism, and the riotous, Sisyphean efforts of twentysomething goofballs lugging outsized furniture and cinder blocks up a ridiculously steep staircase/ladder.
Come for the children’s hospital tape art, stay for the secret sewer sculpture installation and the post-9/11 guerrilla memorials. I highly recommend.
Keggy’s rating:
5 Buddy Cianci toupees