B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 21 – May 15, 2025
Always corrections: I failed to credit (and regret doing so) Daniel Baladez for his 3-for-3 day at the plate for Blue team on Monday.
Dave Berra’s weather reports:
Game one: 82 degrees, felt like 87. Humidity 72%. Wind from the south at 7 MPH. Partly cloudy. Muggy.
Game two: 83 degrees, felt like 88. Humidity 69%. Wind from the south-soutwest at 7 MPH. Partly cloudy. Still muggy.
Game three: 86 degrees, felt like 92. Humidity 61%. Wind from the south at 9 MPH. Partly cloudy. Not too bad.
Note concerning recaps: The 10:30 and 11:30 recaps are based on Dave Berra’s invaluable scoresheets – honestly, I felt like I witnessed much of the day’s action, so much so that I’m taking some poetic license and describing things as they are in my mind’s eye (which events are noted with an asterisk – *), which may or may not have anything to do with reality. Thankfully, David Brown re-grounds this issue with his excellent recap of the 12:30 game.
Game of Thursday May 15:
10:30 a.m., Red (3-7) at Blue (7-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Red 0 2 0 0 0 3 5 Blue 0 5 4 5 X X 14 Pitchers: Red – Joe Bernal; Blue – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Red – Hal Darman and Tommy Gillis; Blue – Paul Rubin. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Daniel Baladez and Jimmy Sneed (both 3 for 3), Tom Bellavia and David Pittard (both 3 for 3 with a triple), and Paul Rubin (2 for 2 with a double).
Red briefly led this one, drawing first blood with two runs on four singles in the top of the first after both teams were scoreless in the first, Tommy Deleon working around two singles in the top of the first, aided by a fine running catch in left-center* by Tom Bellavia of Gary Coyle’s deep drive. Blue got back-to-back one-out singles in the bottom of the first by Jimmy Sneed and Tom Bellavia, but Jimmy was called out for running to the wrong side of second base, getting in the way of a potential force out – Tom tends to hit to his pull side, so I’m guessing it was ball to third base or shortstop and Jimmy ran in front of second baseman Dale Fugate. (I’m totally speculating.)
Blue took control of the game in the bottom of the second, scoring 14 of a possible 15 runs over three innings, forcing a double flip-flop and not allowing Red to score again until the buffet. Blue got six hits in each of its run-producing frames: five singles and George Brindley’s double in the second; Tom Bellavia’s lead-off triple, four singles, and Paul Rubin’s opposite-field* RBI double in the four-run third; and five singles and David Pittard’s bases-loaded triple, a drive to right-center that gapped the outfielders*, in the fourth. Blue was 20 for 28 (.714 batting average) with 26 total bases (.928 slugging percentage) in the game, against one of B League’s best pitchers.
Red couldn’t keep up, and didn’t help matters by hitting a bunch of balls to shortstop Jimmy Sneed, who converted six grounders and two balls in the air into outs from the second through the fifth innings. He was responsible for two of the three outs in the second, all six over the third and fourth, and two of three (a pop and at the receiving end of a 4-6 force) in the fifth.
Entering the buffet, Red was chasing a dozen to tie. They did put together their best inning of the day, scoring three runs on four singles, the last three after two were out, and Hal Darman’s sacrifice fly. Final score: Blue 14, Red 5, Blue remaining undefeated (now 5-0) as the home team this session.
11:30 a.m., Green (4-5) at Purple (6-3):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 5 5 4 0 2 16 Purple 1 5 1 0 1 8 Pitchers: Green – Chunky Wright; Purple – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Green – Bobby Miller; Purple – Joe Bernal, George Brindley, Jimmie Maloy, Ray Pilgrim, and Adam Reddell. Umpires: home – Daniel Baladez and Tommy Deleon; bases – Jim Foelker. Perfect at the plate: Green – Mike Garrison (3 for 3), Doc Hobar (4 for 4 with three doubles), Donnie Janac (4 for 4), and Bobby Miller (3 for 3 with a double); Purple – . Home run: Ralph Villela (inside the park) (1).
Green came out hitting – Ralph Villela led off the game with an inside-the-park home run, a line drive that skipped to the fence in center field*, and Green scored 14 of a possible 15 runs over the first three innings – and tied or won every inning. They scored five runs on seven hits in each of the first two frames – six singles after Ralph’s homer in the first, six singles and Doc Hobar’s double in the second – and added six more hits, three of them doubles (back to back to back by Bobby Miller, Ralph, and Doc) in the third. Purple got one run back on three singles in the bottom of the first, but a 6-4-3 double play cut the rally short. In the second they put across five runs without making an out on six singles and George Brindley’s base on balls. After that, though, they managed just single runs on three singles in the third and the buffet.
File photo of Ralph Villela receiving a Pluckers coupon from Bobby Miller. I double checked, and to my surprise, his home run today was Ralph’s first of this season.
Green went into the buffet leading 14-7, added two runs on a pair of singles and Doc Hobar’s third double of the game, and the teams flip-flopped for the bottom half. Final score: Green 16, Purple 8, Green defeating Purple for the first time this season.
12:30 p.m., Orange (5-4) at Maroon (5-5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 3 0 2 0 2 0 7 Maroon 3 0 2 1 3 X 9 Pitchers: Orange – Ray Pilgrim; Maroon – Chunky Wright. Mercenaries: Orange – Anthony Galindo and Chris Waddell; Maroon – Hal Darman, Larry Fiorentino, Jack McDermott, Adam Reddell, and Chunky Wright. Umpires: home – Rick Jensen; bases – Larry Young. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Ivan Budiselic (3 for 3 with a double) and Bobby Miller (3 for 3 with two doubles and a triple).
David Brown provides the recap, and makes a convincing case that the wrong person is producing this publication:
Maroon needed five mercenaries to field a ten-man squad. Dave Berra used outfielder Bobby Miller at SS, left-hander Ivan Budiselich at 3B, third baseman Adam Reddell at 2B, and utility player Scott Wright at 1B. It looked kind of strange but it worked! The makeshift infield was aided by eight fly ball outs.
Orange opened the game with three runs against Chunky Wright on line-drive singles by Clint Fletcher, Peter Atkins, and David Brown, followed by a double by Ray Pilgrim. Maroon matched Orange’s three runs in the bottom of the first on singles by Don Solberg and Larry Fiorentino and doubles by Bobby Miller and Ivan Budiselich. One noteworthy defensive play from the first was a line drive from Scott Wright that was knocked down by Orange 1B Larry Shupe, who recovered the ball and beat Scott to the base.
Defense ruled the second inning. Larry Shupe lined a single down the 3B line to start the top of the inning. Mercenary Anthony Galindo crushed a ball to RCF that Larry Fiorentino tracked down, and then Chris Waddell popped out to 2B Adam Reddell, who threw to 1B to double off Larry. Adam Reddell opened the bottom of the second with a line-drive single to RCF. Chunky Wright hit a ground ball to 3B Clint Fletcher, who threw to 2B to force out Adam, and then Hal Darman hit a ground ball to 2B Terry O’Brien, who tagged Chunky and then threw to 1B for the inning-ending double play.
Orange scored two runs on singles by Terry O’Brien, Peter Atkins, David Brown, and Ray Pilgrim in the top of the third inning. The inning ended when David rounded 3B on Ray’s hit to the outfield and tried to induce a throw home from SS Bobby Miller. Bobby held the ball until David passed the commitment line and then threw the fool out with a strike to Hal Darman at the plate. Maroon matched Orange for the third consecutive inning with a triple by Bobby Miller followed by five singles from Scott Wright, Jimmy Maloy, Ivan Budiselich, Larry Fiorentino, and Jack McDermott. A bigger inning was prevented by a 4-6-3 double play started by Terry O’Btien and a nice catch in RCF by Anthony Galindo on a well-struck ball by Adam Reddell.
Orange went four-up-three-down in the top of the fourth with the only highlight being another hard-hit single down the 3B line from Larry Shupe. Maroon took their first lead in the game with a double from Bobby Miller and a line-drive single to RF from Scott Wright that plated Bobby. Orange re-took the lead 7-6 with two runs in the fifth on a double from Clint Fletcher and singles by Terry O’Brien and Ken Mockler. Terry scored on a 6-4 fielder’s choice.
Maroon regained the lead with three runs in the bottom of the fifth with singles from Jimmie Maloy, Ivan Budiselic, and Adam Reddell and a base on balls to Larry Fiorentino.
Orange entered the buffet needing two runs to tie. Chunky Wright said, “Nope!” and induced hard-hit ground outs to pitcher (by Boo Resnick) and 3B (by Larry Shupe) and then a deep fly out to LCF by Anthony Galindo.
Final score: Maroon 9, Orange 7
Just reminding you all that I noted in Monday’s edition Bobby Miller’s exemplary batting form. He went 6 for 6 with four extra-base hits today.
Session 2 standings:
| Session 2 | Games | Runs | Runs | Run dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 8 | 2 | .800 | 0 | 123 | 84 | 39 | W2 |
| Purple | 6 | 4 | .600 | 2 | 111 | 114 | -3 | L3 |
| Maroon | 6 | 5 | .545 | 2.5 | 128 | 125 | 3 | W1 |
| Green | 5 | 5 | .500 | 3 | 133 | 125 | 8 | W4 |
| Orange | 5 | 5 | .500 | 3 | 106 | 107 | -1 | L1 |
| Gray | 3 | 7 | .300 | 5 | 108 | 136 | -28 | W1 |
| Red | 3 | 8 | .273 | 5.5 | 123 | 141 | -18 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins: | wins: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 5-0 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 4-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Purple | 2-3 | 4-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0-1 | ||
| Maroon | 3-2 | 3-3 | 2 | 0-0 | 2-1 | 2-1 | ||
| Green | 2-3 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 3-1 | 2-1 | ||
| Orange | 3-2 | 2-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 2-0 | ||
| Gray | 2-3 | 1-4 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 2-3 | ||
| Red | 2-4 | 1-4 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 0-2 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
| Gray | 1 | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Green | 1 | 2 | X | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Maroon | 1 | 3 | 2 | X | 2 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| Orange | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Purple | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | X | 2 | 10 |
| Red | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | X | 7 |
| TOTAL: | 5 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 12 | 63 |
2025 season home run leaders:
Bobby Miller – 4
George Brindley – 3
Tim Coles – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Tommy Gillis – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
David Brown – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Mike Garrison – 1
Doc Hobar – 1
Matt Levitt – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Terry O’Brien – 1
Ray Pilgrim – 1
Jimmy Sneed – 1
Jack Spellman – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Ralph Villela – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Schedule for Monday May 19:
10:30 a.m.: Green (4-5) at Red (3-7), Blue umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Blue (8-2) at Gray (3-7), Red umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Purple (6-4) at Orange (5-5), Gray umpiring
Maroon has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Gray, rested after being off today and riding a one-game win streak, will try to end Blue’s four-game winning streak and slow Blue’s drive for the Session title. Green has won four in a row, Red has dropped its last two, possibly a bad portent for the Red team at 10:30. One of Purple (three games) and Orange (one) will end its losing streak in the day’s final games. I fly back to Austin during the day Monday, too late and my arms too tired for me to play, but I’ll be sending out another probably late edition of the Picayune that night. Will it reach your in-boxes before midnight? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Someone left this folding chair behind today – Scott Wright has it and will bring it Monday. Also a black mitt was left behind – it’s in the league cart.
President emeritus Jeff Broussard checks in:
Long-time Austin Senior Softball player Herb Kneisley passed away last week from a massive stroke. Herb was a versatile player who could play infield or outfield and was an excellent pitcher. He was also a productive hitter who could hit the ball to all fields. Herb was also very competitive and had a penchant for telling overly long jokes. He played throughout the 2010s. The picture below is of the Orange team from around 2019 or 2020. Herb is on the far left and his brother Gary is next to Denny on the right. Gary is alive and well.
Jack’s editorial comment: I believe, left to right, are pictured Herb Kneisley, Don Solberg, Daniel Baladez, Rex Horvath, Tommy Deleon, former president Jack McDermott, Gary Kneisley, former president John Riddle, and Denny Malloy.
The ASSL sent a nice floral arrangement to Herb’s service. His family was touched that we remembered Herb in this way.
I’m enjoying Cooperstown very much – less the flight into Newark, more the drive up this morning and afternoon. Haven’t yet actually visited the Hall of Fame and Museum (“MVSEUM” as it’s rendered), will take pictures when I do. Lunching and walking around town today, enjoying the 60-something degree weather, I did snap these:
Saint Theodore is everywhere.
I really like this World War I Memorial.
Mrs. Keggy took this picture of me by Lake Otsego. It’s how I was dressed when a bunch of Phillies fans gave me the stink-eye while we were walking to dinner, their bitterness I assume a function of the Red Sox having won two World Series since the last time Philadelphia won, or maybe it’s because Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Ferguson Jenkins, and Pedro Martinez were all better with the Sox than the Phils. I considered for a nanosecond responding as would Fritz Hensel, but, outnumbered five to one, totally chickened out.