B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 26 – June 9, 2025
Overnight rains prompted C League to delay their start time by 30 minutes, so B League’s game times also were pushed back, though because C League only wound up playing one game, we didn’t really start much later.
Games of Monday June 9:
11:00 a.m., Blue (10-4) at Purple (6-7):
1 2 3 4 5 6 BUFFET FINAL Blue 0 1 0 0 3 2 3 9 Purple 1 0 3 5 3 2 X 14 Pitchers: Blue – Tom Kelm; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Blue – Jim Aaron, Tom Kelm, Ken Mockler, Jack Spellman, and Scott Wright; Purple – David Brown, Tommy Gillis, and Chris Waddell. Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – George Romo. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Scott Wright (4 for 4); Purple – Pat Scott (3 for 3 with a walk and a triple). Home runs: David Brown (inside the park) (2) and Matt Levitt (inside the park) (2).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 86 degrees, feels like 90. Humidity 56%. Wind SSW 9 MPH. Sunny. Pleasant enough for summer.
Pitchers’ duel in the early going, each team turning a pair of double plays through the top of the fourth inning. Blue managed just a single run off Spike Davidson over the first four frames, on three consecutive one-out singles in the top of the second. Spike faced the minimum number of hitters in the other three, aided by David Brown turning inning-ending 6u., 6-3 double plays in the first and fourth. Purple scored a single run in the bottom of the first: Pat Scott, returning from injury, and Richard Battle drew consecutive one-out walks, and Spike drove in Pat with a single. On the throw home, Richard took third and, running for Spike from home, Rick Jensen took second, where I congratulated him on his hit. “Oh, I didn’t hit it,” Rick said, alerting me to his illegal advancement, for which he was called out. (Pat’s run counted.)
Quote of the Day (I): Rick Jensen: “Here’s an exclusive for The Picayune – I’m not talking to you anymore. I’m taking the Fifth.”
Purple took the lead for good in the bottom of the third, Richard Battle driving in Matt Levitt and Pat Scott with a triple, then scoring on Rick Jensen’s single. The inning ended with Tom Kelm starting a 1-4-3 double play, Scott Wright on the pivot. (An inning earlier, Jim Aaron, who alternated with Scott at second, was the pivot on a 6-4-3 double play that kept Purple from scoring despite having two singles and a walk in the frame.)
Purple made it 9-1 by scoring five times without making an out in the bottom of the fourth, scoring so quickly that Blue could scarce believe that five batters had come to the plate. Mark Hernandez and Chris Waddell led off with walks; Tommy Gillis singled, Mark scoring; David Brown ripped an inside-the-park three-run homer to right-center field; and Matt Levitt followed with an inside-the-parker of his own.
David Brown and Matt Levitt skedaddled before I could give them Pluckers coupons and get their pictures. Here are file photos from their first home runs of the season, David at left with Jack Kelly, Matt at right with Daniel Baladez.
Blue’s bats came alive over the final three innings: three runs on five singles in the fifth (matched by Purple, three runs on Pat Scott’s triple and four singles in the home half); two runs on four singles in the sixth (matched by Purple, two runs on four singles in the bottom half, at which point the flip-flop was invoked); and, in the buffet, three runs on a walk and four singles before the game ended on an oddball double play. With runners on first (Scott Wright, completing a 4-for-4 game with a single) and second (Jack Spellman) and one out, Jim Aaron hit a fly to deep right-center. Tommy Gillis made the catch, Spellman tagging and advancing to third. Scott also tagged and tried to advance, but Tommy’s strong throw in to Rick Jensen beat Scott to the bag, for an F-9, 9-4 double play.
Final score: Purple 14, Blue 9, Purple ending its six-game losing streak and starting an indeterminately long winning streak.
Noon, Gray (5-9) at Red (5-9):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 3 0 4 5 0 12 Red 2 2 5 5 X 14 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Red – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Red – Daniel Baladez, George Brindley, and Jimmie Maloy. Umpires: home – Larry Young; bases – Mike Velaney and Jim Foelker. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Adam Reddell (3 for 3 with a double), George Romo (3 for 3 with two doubles and a home run), and Paul Rubin (3 for 3 with two doubles); Red – George Brindley (2 for 2 with a triple), Gary Coyle (3 for 3 with three triples), and Jack Spellman (3 for 3 with a triple). Home run: George Romo (over the fence) (2).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 90 degrees, feels like 97. Humidity 52%. Wind SSW 8 MPH. Sunny. Heating up!
Hard-fought, well-played game, neither team ever leading by more than three runs. Paul Rubin led off the contest with a double to left-center and advanced to third and scored on a pair of ground outs to shortstop. Adam Reddell then singled and scored from first on a double by George Romo, who continued his hot hitting. Jack Crosley then singled home George.
Red got two runs back in the bottom of the first with three consecutive one-out extra-base hits: a triple to right-center by Jack Spellman, an RBI double to center by Anthony Galindo, and an RBI triple by Gary Coyle, who wound up stranded, as Jack Kelly retired Joe Bernal on a fly to short left field (good play by Tommy Gillis coming in) and Dale Fugate on a grounder to shortstop George Romo.
Joe Bernal retired the side in order in the top of the second, and Red went ahead with two runs in the bottom half. Rolando Rodriguez led off with an infield single, a grounder to shortstop that George Romo fielded cleanly, Rolando just outran the throw to first. Rolando was forced at second on Jim McAnelly’s grounder to third baseman Adam Reddell. George Brindley came up and tripled, Jim’s pinch-runner Anthony Galindo scoring. George then came home on Jimmie Maloy’s base hit. Jimmie, thinking there were two out, broke for second on Daniel Baladez’s pop to first baseman Johnny Lee and was doubled up to end the inning.
Gray went back ahead with four runs in the top of the third, the first five batters in the lineup hitting the ball hard: Paul Rubin singled, and Tommy Gillis, Jim Aaron, Adam Reddell, and George Romo each doubled, four runs in with none out. (Two of the doubles were drives to right-center that Rolando Rodriguez moved a long way to reach, but couldn’t hold on to.) Joe Bernal kept the fifth from coming across. First he got Jack Crosley to ground a ball just to the third-base side of second; George was pinned while Jack Spellman fielded the ball and threw to first for the out. Johnny Lee flied out to Rolando in right-center, Rolando this time holding on, again after ranging well to his left to track the ball down. George tagged and took third on the fly, but was stranded when Joe got Hal Darman to pop out to third baseman Gary Coyle.
Red wound up winning the inning, scoring five times in the bottom half, on five singles, back-to-back triples by Gary Coyle and Joe Bernal, and Anthony Galindo’s sacrifice fly.
The lead changed hands in each half of the fourth inning as well, both teams scoring five times – Gray on two singles, Paul Rubin’s double, Jim Aaron’s walk, Tommy Gillis’s sacrifice fly, and, driving in the final three, George Romo’s home run, an impressive swing on a pitch low in the zone that George lifted and drove over the fence in left-center, his second over-the-fence home run in two games.
Adam Reddell presents his teammate George Romo with a Pluckers coupon after George’s second over-the-fence home run of the season, both in the last five days.
Red responded with five runs in the home half. Jack Kelly retired Jimmie Maloy on a grounder to shortstop to start the frame, but Daniel Baladez drew a walk, and the first five batters in Red’s lineup followed with hits – singles by Jack McDermott and Jack Spellman, a second double by Anthony Galindo, Gary Coyle’s third triple in as many at bats to drive in Spellman and Anthony with the third and fourth runs, and a clean single to center by Joe Bernal to bring in Gary with the fifth.
All that hitting drained time over the third and fourth innings – 14 of a possible 15 runs scored by the two teams – drained so much time off the clock that the game proceeded into the buffet, with Red ahead by two. Jack Crosley drew a lead-off walk, but was forced at second on Morgan Witthoft’s hard one-hopper to shortstop, Jack Spellman throwing to Joe Bernal covering the bag. Johnny Lee singled, putting the tying run on base. Hal Darman grounded into a 5-4 force, Gary Coyle to Dale Fugate, for the second out. Jack Kelly lined a pitch to right-center, normally a clean single, but Rolando Rodriguez charged the ball and came up throwing; his hurried peg came in on a short hop, but Jack Spellman was able to hold on for the 9-6 force out to end the game.
Final score: Red 14, Gray 12
1:00 p.m., Maroon (7-7) at Green (7-6):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 5 0 0 4 9 18 Green 5 5 5 1 3 19 Pitchers: Maroon – Tom Kelm; Green – Chunky Wright. Mercenaries: Maroon – George Brindley, Gary Coyle, Johnny Lee, and Jack McDermott; Green – Jim Foelker and Adam Reddell. Umpires: home – Anthony Galindo; bases – Jack Spellman. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Tony Garcia (4 for 4 with a double) and Jack McDermott (4 for 4); Green – Jim Foelker (3 for 3), Mike Garrison (2 for 2 with two walks and a double), Donnie Janac (4 for 4), Chris Waddell (3 for 3 with a double), Ralph Villela (3 for 3 with a double, a triple, and a walk), and Chunky Wright (2 for 2 with a walk).
Weather: I didn’t get a chance to check, but it was sunny and well into the 90s, though with a nice SSW wind that kept it from being too terribly unpleasant.
It’s crazy to me that Green built a 15-5 lead while making just one out over the first three innings, and had six of its ten batters not make an out in the game, but wound up having to rally in the buffet to walk off the victory.
Maroon scored five times on seven hits (Tony Garcia’s lead-off double, followed by Scott Wright’s triple, and five singles) and George Brindley’s sacrifice fly, the only out, in the top of the first.
Green was unstoppable in its first three innings: Five runs on Ralph Villela’s lead-off double, Mike Garrison’s walk, and six singles (Buddy Gaswint refused a walk and singled) while not making an out in the first, Billy Hill driving in the fifth run with a line single to left-center. Five runs on five singles, another Mike Garrison walk, and Ralph Villela’s triple in the second, all after Adam Reddell popped out to third leading off. And five runs on walks to Chunky Wright and Billy Hill leading off, followed by four singles and then Mike Garrison’s double off the fence in left, way over the drawn-in outfielders to deliver the fifth run from third base, all without making an out in the third. Mercy.
Chunky Wright kept Maroon from scoring in both the second (working around singles by Gary Coyle and Tony Garcia) and third (Tommy Langa’s one-out single followed by force-out grounders to third baseman Adam Reddell and shortstop Ralph Villela).
Maroon kept battling, however, and won the fourth inning 4-1, scoring four times on four singles and Scott Wright’s double in the top half, holding Green to one run in the bottom half – Chris Waddell led off with a double, tagged and took third on Buddy Gaswint’s line drive to left fielder Don Solberg, and scored on Chunky Wright’s single.
Quote of the Day (II): Scott Wright, to Lisa McDermott: “My wife’s out of town – Lisa, will you come over and nag me for a couple hours?”
Maroon went into the buffet trailing 16-9, and proceeded to score nine times, a really impressive rally. Tom Kelm singled through the 5-6 hole and George Brindley walked to start the inning. The next nine batters singled – not all of them very hard hit, a couple were bloops over the infield, but nothing cheap, either. Green did manage to record an out, Buddy Gaswint throwing out Don Solberg 9-4 as Don tried to stretch his RBI single to right-center into a double – it was a close play at second, but Don’s foot was still in the air when second baseman Johnny Wimpy caught Buddy’s peg.
Six runs were in at that point. Jimmie Maloy’s single through the 5-6 hole drove in Scott Wright with the tying run. Singles by Tommy Langa and Tom Kelm, Kelm’s second of the inning, loaded the bases. George Brindley grounded into a 5-4 force, narrowly beating the relay to first, keeping the inning alive, Jimmie scoring to put Maroon ahead. Jack McDermott’s single to center, his fourth hit in as many at bats, drove in Tommy Langa. The long inning finally ended when catcher Billy Hill caught Gary Coyle’s short foul pop – with no time to do anything but react, Billy made a good grab, bobbled the ball for a moment, then smothered it.
Maroon was improbably three outs away from a win, having scored 18 runs while making 13 outs while allowing Maroon 16 runs while recording only four outs.
Green didn’t make any more, though. Mercenaries Adam Reddell and Jim Foelker led off the bottom of the buffet with singles, and a walk to Ralph Villela loaded the bases. Donnie Janac ripped a single into center field, Adam and Jim scoring, tying the game, Ralph taking third. Mike Garrison came up and hit a hard, unplayable grounder past third base and into left field, and Ralph trotted in with the winning run.
Final score: Green 19, Maroon 18
Session 2 standings:
| Session 2 | Games | Runs | Runs | Run dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue* | 10 | 5 | .667 | 0 | 176 | 132 | 44 | L1 |
| Green | 8 | 6 | .571 | 1.5 | 187 | 169 | 18 | W1 |
| Orange | 8 | 6 | .571 | 1.5 | 164 | 154 | 10 | W1 |
| Purple | 7 | 7 | .500 | 2.5 | 153 | 166 | -13 | W1 |
| Maroon | 7 | 8 | .467 | 3 | 181 | 189 | -8 | L3 |
| Red | 6 | 9 | .400 | 4 | 168 | 189 | -21 | W3 |
| Gray | 5 | 10 | .333 | 5 | 175 | 205 | -30 | L2 |
| * Clinched Session title. | ||||||||
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins: | wins: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 7-1 | 3-4 | 1 | 0-0 | 4-1 | 1-2 | ||
| Green | 4-3 | 4-3 | 3 | 0-0 | 4-1 | 4-1 | ||
| Orange | 4-2 | 4-4 | 0 | 0-0 | 3-2 | 2-1 | ||
| Purple | 3-5 | 4-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 0-1 | ||
| Maroon | 4-3 | 3-5 | 3 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 3-2 | ||
| Red | 3-5 | 3-4 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-5 | 0-2 | ||
| Gray | 3-4 | 2-6 | 2 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 3-4 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 15 |
| Gray | 2 | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| Green | 1 | 2 | X | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
| Maroon | 1 | 4 | 2 | X | 2 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| Orange | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | X | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Purple | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | X | 2 | 11 |
| Red | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 10 |
| TOTAL: | 8 | 13 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 78 |
2025 season home run leaders:
Tim Coles – 4
Bobby Miller – 4
George Brindley – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Tommy Gillis – 3
David Brown – 2
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Mike Garrison – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
George Romo – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Doc Hobar – 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
Scott Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Scott Wright – June 5
Schedule for Thursday June 12:
10:30 a.m.: Purple (7-7) at Green (8-6), Maroon umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Maroon (7-8) at Orange (8-6), Green umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Blue (10-5) at Red (6-9), Orange umpiring
Gray has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: The final games of Session Two. Don’t look now, but Red has the longest active winning streak, three games, which they’ll try to extend versus session champion Blue at 12:30. (Blue is 3-0 versus Red so far this season.) The other two games will determine which team(s) finish second for the session. If Purple can beat Green at 10:30 and Maroon can top Orange at 11:30, then Purple, Green, and Orange will finish tied at 8-7, with Maroon half a game back at 8-8. (But in my mind, you’re all winners.)
On June 12, 1880, Worcester Ruby Legs pitcher Lee Richmond threw the first perfect game in MLB history, defeating Cleveland 1-0 at the Agricultural County Fair Grounds, Worcester (still there, just north of Uxbridge). Will Joe Bernal of the B League Red Jerseys mark the anniversary by shutting out Blue? One thing is certain: only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Movie review: Lady John Wick, a.k.a. Ballerina.
Keggy Junior, world’s greatest daughter, treated me to this movie, and also bought me popcorn and an IPA (world’s greatest daughter, I may have mentioned). Lady John Wick takes place between the events of John Wick 3: Paramecium and John Wick 4: Keanu Kaput, which means Keanu shows up and can’t be killed. It’s a perfect Father’s Day movie because it’s all about dads and daughters – there literally are five different sets of fathers and daughters that I counted, plus probably some more at Murdertown in Austria, where the final confrontation takes place: (1) We first see titular Eve as a child with her dad, who saves her from being taken by the evil Cult, though at the cost of his own life. (Good Dad! I’d like to think I’d do the same for Junior, though probably not on a Monday or Thursday, if I’m being honest.) (2) First young and then adult Eve has a quasi-father-daughter relationship with Ian McShane, proprietor of the Assassin Motel in New York City. (3) Adult Eve’s first assignment is to save the adult daughter of a Korean mucky-muck/Absent Dad from being abducted from a rave in Prague. (4) There’s Norman Reedus, stringy-haired Walking Dead biker dude, and his adorable pre-teen daughter, whom Eve helps out in Prague. And (5) Gabriel Byrne is the Bad Dad who orders the murder of his own son and then tries to have both his granddaughters killed also. (Keggy Junior: “At least you’ve never put out a contract on me.” Keggy: “Yet.”)
The granddaughters have a zesty competing-sister subplot, Eve has a testy quasi-mom-daughter dynamic with Anjelica Huston, and Eve also has an endearing found-brother-sister plotline with Frank the Gun Shop Dude, so altogether the movie is chock full of family dynamics. Really it should have been set over a Thanksgiving weekend in suburban Boston, the accents could have been even sillier, plus you could throw in an Affleck and a Dunkin run. But in fact it starts in a vaguely Mediterranean coastal town, then flashes forward a dozen years to New York, and then the main events of the movie take place in about 48 hours without anyone ever being jet-lagged in Prague and Assassinstadt. In the pre-plot, Eve’s dad is killed by the Cult (fight sequence!). Eve then winds up as an apprentice to Ruska Roma, I think it’s in Manhattan (training montage, and Keanu makes a cameo!). Her first assignment is to rescue the Korean daughter from kidnappers at a Matrix 3 rave, I’m not sure where, seemed kind of European (fight sequence!). Eve winds up going to Prague in search of Walking Dead guy (fight sequence!), doesn’t turn out well. Then back to New York to knock heads with Ian McShane, who isn’t supposed to help her but she has a special gold coin so he has to after all, plus thin hard-ass captain from The Wire makes his final screen appearance. (Pour one out.) Eve is set upon after she leaves Assassin Motel to pick up weaponry at Ye Olde Gun Shoppe (fight sequence!), but with the help of Frank and a couple hundred grenades she escapes and makes her way to Killville, a lovely Austrian village where the local economy is that everyone is a trained assassin. (Fight sequence and family revelations, but no spoilers from me!) (I will say, they missed an opportunity by not sending a platoon of nunchuck-wielding eight-year-olds after Eve.) Meanwhile, Keanu has been sent by Anjelica Huston’s hilarious Russian accent (she should have been in Rocky & Bullwinkle, Rene me no Russos) to stop Eve, but he winds up helping her instead because he’s John Wick and doesn’t care about the rules, other than the one that she’s supposed to finish up before midnight, though he winds up interceding at 11:56, just after an extended flamethrower duel. (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood did the flamethrower better.)
Which brings me to the other main theme of this and all the John Wick movies: Rules. You probably don’t think it’s possible, but there are more rules governing what the assassins can do and where and when they can do it than B League has for base-running. There are rules for Cult and Ruska Roma relations, what you can do in the Assassin Motel, what you can do before and after midnight in Assassinstadt, how you get tattoos (there have to be lots of candles, apparently), and who John Wick is supposed to kill until he changes his mind without consequences. You might say this sounds ridonculous, and you would not be wrong, but how else are they going to keep us from running into one another on the bases or while assaulting each other with flamethrowers (stay in your three-foot lane!)?
Speaking of tattoos, Keggy Junior says that if she had to live in the John Wick Universe, she’d be one of the switchboard ladies, as they have excellent tats and seem the least stressed of anybody in that world.
Overall, I liked Lady John Wick how I like my coffee – a latte. Almost as enjoyable as flipping off the driver of a Tesla Cybertruck for no reason while bicycling through central Austin. (Or so I’m told.) I rate it four out of five flamethrowers:
Speaking of photogenic families, here’s Team Malay again. I can now properly identify the grandkids, from left to right: Teagan (TK), Truitt (T-Bone), and Tate (Tater Tot).