B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 28 – June 16, 2025
League president Anthony Galindo has announcements:
1. We have two new players joining us from the C League, Terry Thompson and Greg Lloyd, who have been assigned to the Orange and Green Teams, respectively.
2. Tim Coles from the Green Team has been reassigned to Purple in order to replace Rex Horvath, who may be out for the rest of season due to surgery on both knees. Good luck, Rex.
3. Monday is the start of the 3rd session and the raffle drawing for the Short Porch Bat and Beebe Shoes. It will take place around 10:30 just before our first game. Please join us by the bleachers.
4. Effective on July 7th, PARD is moving us to field #2 for the rest of the season in order to let K3 recover. Same as last year.
Greg Lloyd and Terry Thompson returned to B League today. (File photos.)
Games of Monday June 16, first games of Session 3:
Start time was delayed an hour, but then moved up half an hour, with games moved to Krieg field 2 after the weekend rain left field 3 a mess. I didn’t get the message about the game time being moved back up, so I arrived late to the ASSL Sports Raffle to benefit the Central Texas Food Bank. Jack McDermott won first prize, a 2025 Short Porch Kevlar/ Spin Tech Wig Popper Black Out Senior Slowpitch Bat – nice, he cracked his bat last week, needed a new one; and Steve Hamlett won second prize, a swag bag plus a pair of Beebe Sports Men’s Oahu Turf Shoes – ironic, in the Alanis Morissette sense, as Steve’s currently out with a leg injury and cannot run. I’ll get pictures of them when Jack and Steve formally receive their prizes. Thanks to matching donations, the raffle raised over $4,000 for the Central Texas Food Bank – you guys rule.
11:00 a.m., Green at Maroon:
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 0 0 4 0 1 1 6 Maroon 1 2 0 0 2 2 7 Pitchers: Green – Greg Lloyd; Maroon – Tom Kelm. Mercenaries: Green – Tim Coles, Tommy Gillis, and Donnie Janac; Maroon – George Brindley, Gary Coyle, Ray Pilgrim, and Rip Wright. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Marvin Krabbenhoft. Perfect at the plate: Green – Buddy Gaswint (4 for 4); Maroon – Tom Kelm (2 for 2 with a walk) and Ray Pilgrim (3 for 3).
Weather: 86 degrees, felt like 95. Humidity 70% (ugh). Wind SSW 10 MPH. Mostly sunny.
I don’t know if it was the heat and humidity, the 70-foot bases, the enforced layoff since the last time we played, or something else, but all three of today’s games were low-scoring affairs, only one of the six teams reaching double digits in runs scored.
Green, playing without Ralph Villela, was slow to get untracked, shut out by Tom Kelm over the first two innings. Buddy Gaswint singled with one out in the top of the first, but was forced at second after Gary Coyle, playing second for Maroon, made a tremendous play to his backhand of Greg Lloyd’s grounder to the right of second base. Maroon grabbed the lead with a single run in the bottom of the first: Ken Brown drew a lead-off walk; took second on Scott Wright’s liner back to the mound, which Greg Lloyd knocked down, recovered, and threw to first to put out Scott; and scored on Don Solberg’s line single to right-center. Singles by Tom Kelm, up the middle, and Jim Maloy, a grounder back to the box that Greg knocked down, only for his throw to second to pull shortstop Tim Coles off the bag, loaded the bases with one out, but Gary Coyle caught Ivan Budiselic’s liner and doubled up Jim off first to end the inning.
After Tom Kelm held Green scoreless in the top of the second, working around Doc Hobar’s lead-off single and Donnie Janac’s two-out liner through the 5-6 hole, Maroon scored twice in the bottom half. They loaded the bases with one out on singles by Gary Coyle and Ray Pilgrim and a walk to Rip Wright. Ken Brown slashed a single between third base and shortstop, Gary and Ray’s runner both scoring. Scott Wright made a bid for a hit through the 3-4 gap, but first baseman Donnie Janac made an excellent play to his backhand to field the ball cleanly and throw to second to force out Ken. Don Solberg flied out to left-center to end the inning.
Green got on the board and took the lead with four runs in the top of the third. Tim Coles led off with a pop-fly double to left field. Phil Stanch’s single and a walk to Mike Garrison loaded the bases. Buddy Gaswint’s line single to right-center drove in Tim and Phil. Doc Hobar singled in Mike, tying the game. Johnny Wimpy singled to left field; Buddy tried to score on the play, but was out 7-2 on Don Solberg’s strong, accurate throw home to Rip Wright. Doc Hobar took third on the play and scored on Billy Hill’s single, a grounder down the third-base side that just stayed fair, hitting the bag.
Maroon did not score in the bottom half. Tom Kelm led off with a single. Mike Garrison made an outstanding catch in foul territory of Jim Maloy’s fly to left for the first out, Tom’s pinch-runner tagging and taking second. Ivan Budiselic looped a single to center, putting runners on the corners with one out, but Greg Lloyd worked out of the jam, retiring George Brindley on a short pop back to the mound and Gary Coyle on a fly to Tommy Gillis in left-center.
Neither team scored in the fourth. Tom Kelm worked a scoreless top half, getting Tommy Gillis to hit a long two-strike foul to left field and Tim Coles to ground out to third baseman Ray Pilgrim (strong cross-diamond throw) to start the frame. Phil Stanch singled, but George Brindley in left-center made a good catch of Mike Garrison’s deep drive for the third out. Ray Pilgrim led off the home half with a single, but his pinch-runner – Gary Coyle, I think – was erased on a fine defensive play by Donnie Janac, who fielded Rip Wright’s grounder to first, stepped on the bag to retire Rip, then made a strong throw to Tim Coles to double up the runner advancing from first, a 3u., 3-6 double play. Donnie then caught Ken Brown’s pop to the right side.
Buddy Gaswint led off the fifth with a line single to center and took third on a classic Greg Lloyd hit, a looped single to right field. Doc Hobar hit into a 4-6 force, second baseman Gary Coyle to shortstop Scott Wright, Buddy scoring. Johnny Wimpy singled through the 5-6 hole, but Tom Kelm got both Billy Hill and Donnie Janac to hit back to the box – Billy grounded into a 1-6 force, Donnie lined out.
Maroon tied the score with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Scott Wright led off with a hard grounder to the first-base side, but was robbed on yet another outstanding play by Donnie Janac, who made a clean grab and tagged first. (I don’t recall ever seeing Donnie play the infield before today; he was Gold Glove-level at first base.) Don Solberg singled, Tom Kelm walked, and Jim Maloy singled, loading the bases. Ivan Budiselic hit into a 4-6 force for the second out, Johnny Wimpy to Tim Coles, Don scoring. George Brindley’s pop-fly single to center brought in Tom’s pinch-runner with the tying run. With runners on first and second, Gary Coyle grounded a ball to the shortstop hole: Tim Coles smoothly moved to his right to field it and threw to third baseman Doc Hobar for the inning-ending out.
So it was 5-5 entering the buffet. Mercenaries Tommy Gillis and Tim Coles opened the inning with a single and a walk. Tommy took third and Tim was forced at second 4-6 on Phil Stanch’s grounder to Gary Coyle. Tom Kelm got Mike Garrison to hit a two-strike foul for the second out. Buddy Gaswint then came through with his fourth hit of the game, a single up the middle that drove in Tommy with the go-ahead run. Greg Lloyd hit a sharp grounder up the middle, just to the left of second base, but shortstop Scott Wright was shading him that way and was able to field the ball and step on the bag for the third out.
Maroon came up needing one to tie, two to win. Ray Pilgrim led off with a line single to left. George Brindley ran for him. Rip Wright followed with a clean single to center, George stopping at second, and Gary Coyle ran for Rip. Ken Brown then came up and hit a short fly to center. Buddy Gaswint came charging up, but had no chance of getting to the ball on the fly, and it wound up hopping past him. Both George and Gary scored, Maroon walking off the victory. Final score: Maroon 7, Green 6
Noon, Orange at Red:
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 1 0 4 3 2 X 10 Red 0 0 0 1 0 4 5 Pitchers: Orange – Ray Pilgrim; Red – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Orange – Don Solberg; Red – Jim Foelker, Rick Jensen, and Jim Maloy. Umpires: home – Mike Garrison; bases – Phil Stanch. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Clint Fletcher (4 for 4) and Don Solberg (2 for 2 with a double and a walk); Red – Joe Bernal and Dale Fugate (both 2 for 2 with a walk).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 88 degrees, feels like 99. Humidity 67%. Wind from the South 8 MPH. Sunny.
Ray Pilgrim pitched an outstanding game for Orange, which led pillar to post. Red didn’t get its first hit until Jack McDermott singled with two out in the top of the third. Ray worked around a one-out walk to Jack Spellman in the first after Jack McDermott went out 5-3, Daniel Carvajal digging out Clint Fletcher’s throw in the dirt, tremendous play. Ray walked Joe Bernal and Dale Fugate to start the bottom of the second, then retired the next three batters, getting Rolando Rodriguez to ground to Clint at third, Joe tagged out (he delayed the play long enough to keep a double play from happening), Jim MacAnelly to hit a two-strike foul, and Rick Jensen to hit into a 4u. force to Terry O’Brien. In the third Jack McDermott was stranded when Ray got Jack Spellman to fly out to Boo Resnick in right-center.
Clint Fletcher was Orange’s sparkplug in this game, going 4 for 4, scoring three runs, and driving in another. He was constantly going first to third on hits. He led off the game with a single, took third on Ray Pilgrim’s hit, and scored the game’s first run when Terry O’Brien’s hard grounder back to the box went for a 1-6-3 double play, very nice play by Joe Bernal. He drove in Orange’s second run of the game in the third. Larry Shupe singled and Don Solberg doubled to open the frame. Clint singled in Larry. Ray Pilgrim singled in Don, with Clint of course taking third on the hit. Terry O’Brien flied out to Jim Foelker in left, Clint tagging and scoring. Singles by Terry Thompson and Daniel Carvajal brought Ray’s pinch-runner around to score, making it 5-0.
Clint was in the middle of Orange’s three-run rally in the fourth as well. With one out Don Solberg walked, and Clint, Ray Pilgrim, and Terry O’Brien each singled, Don, Clint, and Ray’s runner coming around to score. Joe Bernal got Terry Thompson, who’d singled in his first two at bats in his Orange debut, to ground into a 6-4-3 double play, but Orange was now up 8-0.
Red finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth, by trying to employ Rick Jensen’s not-so-secret plan – Daniel Carvajal overheard him – to rally by “getting a bunch of hits.” With one out, Gary Coyle, Joe Bernal, Dale Fugate, and Rolando Rodriguez knocked consecutive singles. Only Gary scored, however, as Joe was cut down 7-6-5 (Terry Thompson to David Brown to Clint Fletcher) trying for third on Dale’s single to left field.
Orange became the only team to reach double digits in scoring today by putting across two in the top of the fifth, on four singles and Larry Shupe’s sacrifice fly to left field. Clint Fletcher completed his 4-for-4 day at the plate with a two-out, bases-loading single, but Joe Bernal stranded the runners, getting Ray Pilgrim to ground to second baseman Rick Jensen, who stepped on second himself for the force on Clint.
Ray retired the side in order in the bottom of the fifth – he held Red’s three mercenaries to a combined 0 for 7 in this game – and, with Orange leading 10-1, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. The top of Red’s order finally got things going a bit, with a walk (Jack Spellman’s second of the game) and five singles resulting in four runs scored before they ran out of at bats. Joe Bernal and Dale Fugate closed out the scoring with RBI singles that completed their perfect days at the plate. With two out and runners on first and second, Rick Jensen lined a ball up the middle, but David Brown was perfectly positioned, shaded toward second, and grabbed the liner for the final out. Final score: Orange 10, Red 5
1:00 p.m., Blue at Gray:
1 2 3 4 5 6 BUFFET FINAL Blue 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 Gray 0 5 1 0 3 X X 9 Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Blue – Jack Spellman; Gray – David Brown, Mike Garrison, and Jack McDermott. Umpires: home – Anthony Galindo; bases – Jim MacAnelly. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Mike Garrison (2 for 2 with a double).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 90 degrees, feels like 101. Humidity 62%. Wind from the South 11 MPH. Mostly Sunny.
Jack Kelly very nearly shut out the Session 2 champions, scattering 11 singles and not allowing a run until the sixth, when David Pittard’s hit drove in George Brindley with Blue’s only tally. Jack left runners stranded in scoring position in the first (first and third, one out), second (first and second, two out), fifth (bases loaded, one out, David Brown turned a 6u., 6-3 double play on Steve Sandall’s grounder up the middle), and sixth (first and third, two out). He was helped by somewhat fluky double plays in the top of the third, when Steve Sandall, thinking there were two out, took off on George Brindley’s pop to shortstop and was tagged out by David Brown after David made the catch; and in the buffet, when Joe Dayoc forgot he had a runner from home and passed the commit line on his force-out grounder to third base.
His teammates gave Jack all the support he would need by scoring five runs on seven consecutive singles in the bottom of the second. On two of those, Blue/mercenary second baseman Jack Spellman made plays to his left to field hard-hit grounders, only to throw them away, shanking a throw to second on Jack Kelly’s grounder and air-mailing a throw from my butt past first baseman Tom Brownfield after making a diving stop of David Brown’s grounder to the 3-4 hole. (It’s nice to look good, better to actually complete the play.) (I had a chance for a do-over in the bottom of the fourth: David hit another grounder to my left, I made another diving stop, and this time I threw a two-hop grounder to Tom that just beat David to the bag.)
Gray scored a single run in the third (RBI single by Adam Reddell) and three runs in the fifth (Mike Garrison and Tommy Gillis led off with doubles, Johnny Lee and Adam Reddell singled, Tommy scoring on Adam’s hit, and Hal Darman lofted a sacrifice fly to left field.
When Blue managed just the single run in the sixth, the teams flip-flopped and proceeded to the buffet. After the commitment-line double play, Jack Kelly got Jack Spellman to fly out to left-center to end the game, having thrown seven innings while allowing the top of Blue’s order to bat just three times, a remarkable performance. Final score: Gray 9, Blue 1
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Gray | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 8 | W1 |
| Orange | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 5 | W1 |
| Maroon | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 1 | W1 |
| Purple | 0 | 0 | — | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | W1 |
| Green | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 | 6 | 7 | -1 | L1 |
| Red | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 | 5 | 10 | -5 | L1 |
| Blue | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 | 1 | 9 | -8 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Gray | 1-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Orange | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Maroon | 1-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Purple | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Green | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | ||
| Red | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | ||
| Blue | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 |
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 | 3 | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
| Green | 1 | 2 | X | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
| Maroon | 1 | 4 | 3 | X | 2 | 2 | 1 | 13 |
| Orange | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | X | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| Purple | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | X | 2 | 11 |
| Red | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 10 |
| TOTAL: | 9 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 81 |
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 19:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (1-0) at Orange (1-0), Red umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Red (0-1) at Green (0-1), Gray umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Maroon (1-0) at Purple (0-0), Green umpiring
Blue has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: One of Gray and Orange, facing off at 10:30, will finish Thursday in first place. Maroon can tie for first with a win over replenished and rested Purple at 12:30. One of Red and Green will end their one-game losing streak at 11:30. Seeing as everyone is honoring Bloomsday by re-reading Ulysses, will anyone deliver a James Joyce-inspired monologue Thursday to top Rick Jensen’s pep talk to Red this morning? One thing is certain: only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Scott Wright ran into the great Robert Daniels earlier this week.
This Melee bat was left in the visitors dugout today. It’s now in the league cart.