B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 29 – June 19, 2025
Games of Thurday June 19:
10:30 a.m., Gray (1-0) at Orange (1-0):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 2 5 1 2 3 0 13 Orange 5 0 0 0 3 4 12 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Orange – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Gray – Jack Spellman; Orange – Jim Foelker, Steve Sandall, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Donald Drummer and Anthony Galindo; bases – Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Hal Darman (3 for 3) and Jack Spellman (3 for 3 with two home runs); Orange – Boo Resnick (3 for 3). Home runs: Tommy Gillis (over the fence) (4), Jack Spellman, 2 (both inside the park) (2, 3).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 86 degrees, feels like 94. Humidity 68%. Wind from the South 11 MPH. Partly sunny – nice summber day!
Hard-fought, well-played game. Gray jumped off to a quick lead as Paul Rubin led off the game with a single and Tommy Gillis followed with a line-drive home run over the fence in left center.
Tommy Gillis returns to the visitors dugout after his home run in the top of the first inning.
Gray put two more runners on base, on singles by Adam Reddell and Johnny Lee, but Ray Pilgrim escaped without further damage, getting force outs on grounders to shortstop David Brown and second baseman Boo Resnick, who made a very good play to his right of Morgan Witthoft’s hard grounder, getting down low to field it cleanly on his backhand and flipping to David for the inning-ending force. Orange then grabbed the lead in the home half, scoring five times while making just one out, on two walks (Clint Fletcher, leading off, and Marvin “The Eye” Krabbenhoft), four singles, and David Brown’s double.
Gray responded with five runs in the top of the second, all scored after two were out. Hal Darman led off with a single, but Ray Pilgrim got both Mike Malay (to third baseman Clint Fletcher, very good play) and Jack Kelly (back to the box) to ground into force outs. Jack Spellman lined a ball to right-center; Jim Foelker charged in and tried to field it on the short hop, but it skipped past him and to the fence, and Spellman legged out an inside-the-park home run, just beating David Brown’s relay home. Gray’s 1-3 hitters, Paul Rubin, Tommy Gillis, and Jim Aaron, followed with singles; Paul scored from first on Tommy’s, and Tommy scored from first on Jim’s. Jim took third on Adam Reddell’s double and scored the fifth run on Jack Crosley’s line single to center.
Jack Kelly then proceeded to shut out Orange over their next three at bats. He worked around Jim Foelker’s one-out single in the bottom of the second, retired the side in order on balls in the air (flies to right-center and left-center by David Brown and Daniel Carvajal, and a liner up the middle by Larry Shupe that was caught by shortstop Jack Spellman – the ball was tailing to my left, I was lucky to snag it) in the third, and stranded two runners in the fourth, getting Jim Foelker to ground into an inning-ending 5-4 force.
Gray added to its lead with a single run in the top of the third and two in the fourth. In the third, with two out, Hal Darman hit a hard grounder that deflected off third baseman Clint Fletcher’s glove to shortstop David Brown, who had to make a hurried throw to try to get Hal hustling up the line. The throw skipped into the home dugout, and Hal was awarded second base. He took a runner – Adam Reddell, maybe? – who scored on Mike Malay’s single. In the fourth, Gray loaded the bases with none out on a single by Jack Spellman, a walk to Paul Rubin, and a single by Tommy Gillis. Jim Aaron grounded into a 6-4 force, Spellman scoring, and Adam Reddell grounded into a 6u. force, Paul scoring.
Both teams scored three times in the fifth inning. In the top half, after Clint Fletcher made a terrific catch of Morgan Witthoft’s pop in foul ground behind third base to start the frame, Hal Darman and Mike Malay knocked back-to-back singles, Hal completing a 3-for-3 game at the plate. Ray Pilgrim caught Jack Kelly looking at a called strike three for the second out. Jack Spellman followed with a fly to right field that landed about two feet fair; Larry Shupe charged over for it, but it spun past him and into foul territory; Spellman was able to circle the bases with his second inside-the-parker of the game, driving in Gray’s last three runs.
Orange got those back in the home half with five singles, Marvin Krabbenhoft and Boo Resnick driving in the second and third runs with two-out hits, Boo completing a perfect day at the plate. They were stranded when Adam Reddell made a good catch of Steve Sandall’s drive to right.
Gray led 13-8 entering the buffet, and failed to add to its advantage in the top half, Ray Pilgrim retiring 2-3-4 hitters Tommy Gillis, Jim Aaron, and Adam Reddell in order, Tommy and Adam on flies to Steve Sandall in left-center.
Orange needed five to tie in the home half. Scott Wright led off with a hard grounder down the first-base side that Johnny Lee made a terrific backhanded play on, tagging the bag for the first out. Jim Foelker, Clint Fletcher, and Ray Pilgrim followed with singles, Jim coming around to score. David Brown ripped a gapper for a triple to right-center, Clint and Ray’s pinch-runner both scoring. Daniel Carvajal hit a sharp grounder to second baseman Jim Aaron, who took the sure out at first, David scoring to cut Gray’s lead to a single run. Larry Shupe grounded out to shortstop for the final out. Final score: Gray 13, Orange 12
Gray manager Jack Kelly, center, presented Jack Spellman and Tommy Gillis with Pluckers coupons after the game.
11:30 a.m., Red (0-1) at Green (0-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Red 5 4 3 5 0 X 17 Green 0 3 0 0 4 5 12 Pitchers: Red – Donald Drummer; Green – Greg Lloyd. Mercenaries: Red – Clint Fletcher, Jim Foelker, Tommy Gillis, Jimmie Maloy, and Adam Reddell; Green – Richard Battle, David Brown, Tim Coles, Larry Shupe, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – Paul Rubin and Mike Velaney. Perfect at the plate: Red – Clint Fletcher (3 for 3) and Jimmie Maloy (3 for 3 with a double); Green – Billy Hill (3 for 3). Home run: Doc Hobar (inside the park) (2).
Dave Berra’s weather report: Same as for 10:30 but a bit warmer.
Red might be the league’s most schizophrenic team: after managing only five runs on Monday, they matched that output in their first inning today, opening the game with five singles and a walk by the six Red players who actually made it to the game, then an RBI double by Adam Reddell, and, after Tommy Gillis grounded out to third baseman Tim Coles, an RBI single by Clint Fletcher that drove in the fifth run.
Donald Drummer, filling in on the mound for Joe Bernal, worked a scoreless bottom of the first, allowing only a two-out single to Mike Garrison. Red then made it 9-0 with four runs on four singles and Anthony Galindo’s two-run double in the top of the second.
Green got on the board in the home half, scoring three runs on four singles. David Brown scored the third run from first on Tim Coles’s hit, owing to sloppy play by shortstop Jack Spellman: David took a wide turn at third as I took the relay from Jim Foelker; instead of running at David, I stood flat footed, and David broke for home. My throw was accurate enough, and caught cleanly by catcher Jim McAnelly, but David simply outran it.
Scott Wright removed himself from the game after the second inning, as he was feeling light-headed. (It’s always smart to listen to your body!) Larry Shupe took over for him.
Red’s mercenaries scored three runs in the top of the third, Adam Reddell, Tommy Gillis, and Clint Fletcher opening the inning with singles and Adam scoring. Shortstop Ralph Villela made a terrific play going back and to his right to run down Jim Foelker’s short fly for the first out. Jimmie Maloy doubled to left, Tommy scoring. Jack McDermott’s single drove in Clint. Jack Spellman hit a line drive up the middle off Greg Lloyd’s leg; Greg made a great recovery and threw to second for the force – I had hit safely in my previous five at bats today, but that was the ball I squared up on and hit hardest, and Greg turned it into an out. He then got Anthony Galindo to fly out to Richard Battle in right-center to end the inning.
Donald Drummer worked a scoreless bottom of the third, allowing two-out singles to Greg Lloyd and Billy Hill, then getting Larry Shupe to hit into a 6-4 force.
More of the same in the fourth: Red scored five runs on Donald Drummer’s walk and six singles in the top half, and Donald retired the side in order in the bottom half.
Red led 17-3 at this point. Billy Hill had to leave, so Scott Wright re-entered the game at catcher. Jack McDermott doubled to start the fifth inning, and Tommy Gillis ran for him. Jack Spellman popped out to second baseman Doc Hobar. Anthony Galindo singled to left-center, and the third-base coach waved Tommy home, while some on the visitors bench were saying “No!” The bench guys were right: the relay from David Brown to Ralph Villela to Scott Wright beat Tommy by about 20 feet.
Orange’s bats came alive in the bottom of the fifth. Ralph Villela led off with a triple, each of the next five batters knocked hits, though Red managed to record a 9-6 force out on Greg Lloyd’s, denying him a 4-for-4 game, and three runners scored. A fourth came in on Richard Battle’s two-out single. Donald Drummer got David Brown to ground back to the box for the third out, and with Orange trailing 17-7, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet.
Seven of the first eight Orange batters hit safely in the buffet. Tim Coles led off with a single. Ralph Villela flied out to Rolando Rodriguez in right field, very good catch moving to his left by Rolando. Doc Hobar lined a ball to left-center, right at Jim Foelker, who came in a couple steps, realized that was a misreading, and leaped, but the ball was well over him and rolled to the fence, Doc legging out a two-run inside-the-park homer.
Doc Hobar headed out before I could catch up with him and present him with a well-deserved Pluckers coupon. Here’s a file photo.
Mike Garrison followed with a double, and Johnny Wimpy, Greg Lloyd, Scott Wright, and Larry Shupe with singles, Mike and Johnny scoring. Richard Battle’s fly to Tommy Gillis in left field was deep enough to score Greg, but left Orange down to its last out. David Brown drove a pitch to deep right-center, but Jimmie Maloy was well positioned and needed to move just a couple steps to his left to run down the fly for the final out. Final score: Red 17, Green 12, Red defeating Green for the first time this season.
12:30 p.m., Maroon (1-0) at Purple (0-0):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 5 0 0 0 0 5 Purple 5 5 2 5 X 17 Pitchers: Maroon – Tom Kelm; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Maroon – Hal Darman, Donald Drummer, and Tommy Gillis; Purple – Jack McDermott, Adam Reddell, and Ralph Villela; Jim Foelker for the final out. Umpires: home – Anthony Galindo; bases – Jack Spellman. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Spike Davidson and Mark Hernandez (both 3 for 3), Adam Reddell (1 for 1 with a double and two walks), Ralph Villela (3 for 3 with a double and a triple), and Larry Young (3 for 3 with a double, would have been two doubles except he took a runner from home his last at bat – details below).
Weather report: I didn’t check my app. I think it was warmer still, into the 90s, and still extremely humid. Folks were dragging by end of game. That makes all the more apposite this reminder from Doc Hobar, sent after the day’s games:
I’m going to recirculate an email created by the great Brian Flynn, our softball brother who we lost in 2023.
Now’s the time to be on guard for heat exhaustion, which can progress quickly. Hydrate the night before until your urine is clear yellow. Stay hydrated and as cool as possible when playing. Head for the shade when possible. Consider cooling down with cool wet towels on your head and neck when in the dugout. If you feel anything – dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, weakness: stop, tell someone, and cool down. You guys are the best! Doc
From Brian:
Fellow players,
A summary of an article on heat and older people. Useful stuff in here.
Summer of 2022-European Heat Wave-90% of deaths were in people 65 or older
Main cooling mechanisms: Sweating (with evaporation carrying away heat) and increased blood flow to skin (moves heat from core to surface)
Core temperature is key
Factors making it harder to cool body: cardiovascular disease and diabetes
Older people stop feeling as thirsty, tend to drink less. Dehydration danger.
Some meds affect hydration, blood flow, and sweat response. Ask your doctor if you take any medication that can do this.
Heat exhaustion can emerge as low as 80 degrees in older adults. Symptoms: dizziness, light headed, headache, racing heart, lethargy, muscle cramps, confusion. Also, trouble communicating. Physical activity feels harder than normal. If you have any of these symptoms it is time to stop and cool down.
Countermeasures: A/C can be 77 degrees or less. Rub ice on skin. Spray cool water on yourself, drench your shirt, put cool wet rag around back of neck.
If you keep going, you are running the risk of heat stroke – core temperature is 104 degrees or higher – you are starting to unravel your protein molecules – could be fatal.
Brian Flynn
As for the recap, the line score pretty much tells the tale: Maroon scored five runs on seven singles and Ivan Budiselic’s sacrifice fly in the top of the first, but were shut out by Spike Davidson the rest of the way while Purple’s hitters went a combined 21 for 27 (.778 average) with four doubles and two triples (1.074 slugging percentage), scoring five times in three innings and twice in the third. Spike from the top of the second into the buffet retired ten consecutive batters – that is, everyone in the Maroon lineup – five on balls in the air, three on grounders to the left side, two on two-strike fouls.
Looking at Purple’s scoring… They scored five runs without making an out in the bottom of the first, Pat Scott and Richard Battle knocking back-to-back RBI triples to drive in the first two runs, and Jack McDermott drawing a bases-loaded walk – you could have gotten 10,000-to-1 odds on DraftKings on this – to push across the fifth. Purple made two outs in the second, but still scored five, Spike Davidson lashing a single to left to drive in the fifth. In the third Larry Young led off with a double and, after Jack McDermott popped out to shortstop Tony Garcia, Adam Reddell walked, and Ralph Villela and Matt Levitt both singled, Larry’s runner scoring on Ralph’s hit, Adam scoring on Matt’s. Left-handed third baseman Ivan Budiselic made a terrific play on Pat Scott’s grounder, tagging the bag to put out the lead runner, and Tom Kelm got Richard Battle to fly out to Scott Wright in right-center. Purple then scored five times again in the bottom of the fourth, despite Larry Young running into an out when for the second at bat in a row he lined a ball between the outfielders in left-center, driving in Tim Coles and Spike Davidson’s runner with the first two runs, but forgot that he had a runner from home and passed the commit line. Despite having two out and none on, Purple still got to five, as Jack McDermott singles, Adam Reddell doubled Jack home, Ralph Villela tripled in Adam (and completed a 3-for-3 game, a home run in his never-to-come fourth at bat short of the cycle), and Matt Levitt singled in Ralph.
Spike Davidson retired Tony Garcia on a fly to Adam Reddell in right-center and Scott Wright on a two-strike foul line drive down the third-base side to start the buffet, Tony and Scott both denied perfect days at the plate. Jim Maloy and Tom Kelm followed with singles. Ivan Budiselic lined a single to center. From where I was umpiring, on the line behind first base, I saw Pat Scott came in to field the ball. He planted his foot, which went out from under him, and he wound up on his back, clearly in a lot of pain. As explained to me later by Larry Fiorentino, Pat, just returned from a hamstring pull, was wearing a different set of shoes than usual, and they betrayed him. Pat fractured his fibula (I think Larry said; I might have misheard, it might be his tibia), and he will be out for eight weeks, give or take. Terrible news. He was helped off the field and headed to the emergency room. Jim Foelker grabbed his mitt and took over in left-center. Steve Hamlett, himself newly returned from injury, came up and popped out to third baseman Tim Coles for the final out. Final score: Purple 17, Maroon 5. All thoughts with Pat for a speedy recovery.
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Gray | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 22 | 13 | 9 | W2 |
| Purple | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0.5 | 17 | 5 | 12 | W2 |
| Orange | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 22 | 18 | 4 | L1 |
| Red | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 22 | 22 | 0 | W1 |
| Maroon | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 12 | 23 | -11 | L1 |
| Blue | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 | 1 | 9 | -8 | L2 |
| Green | 0 | 2 | .000 | 2 | 18 | 24 | -6 | 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 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Purple | 1-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Orange | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-1 | ||
| Red | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-0 | ||
| Maroon | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Blue | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | ||
| Green | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-1 |
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 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| 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 | 3 | 1 | X | 2 | 12 |
| Red | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 11 |
| TOTAL: | 9 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 84 |
2025 season home run leaders:
Tim Coles – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Bobby Miller – 4
George Brindley – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
David Brown – 2
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Mike Garrison – 2
Doc Hobar – 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
Mike Malay – 1
Terry O’Brien – 1
Ray Pilgrim – 1
Jimmy Sneed – 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 Monday June 23:
10:30 a.m.: Orange (1-1) at Purple (1-0), Blue umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Blue (0-1) at Maroon (1-1), Orange umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Gray (2-0) at Red (1-1), Maroon umpiring
Green has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: One We might see some roster additions between now and Monday. Purple decisively won its first game of Session 3 today, but lost a key player in Pat Scott. They’ll face a tough Orange squad at 10:30. One of Blue and Maroon will end its short losing streak at 11:30. And at 12:30 it will be Red’s turn to try to slow down first-place Gray. Monday will be the 157th anniversary of the patenting of the first commercially successful typewriter, the Sholes and Glidden. Will I mark the occasion by producing the first typo-free edition of the Picayune? One thing is certain: only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Lost and found: these were left in the third-base dugout:
