B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 33 – July 10, 2025
Games of Monday July 7 were canceled due to wet field conditions.
Roster note: Alvin Guana returns to B League, assigned to Green team while Donnie Janac recovers from his shoulder injury.
Weather report: I totally failed to note the weather. I think it was in the low to mid 80s to start, moved into the upper 80s. Kind of humid, but enough breeze that it wasn’t too bad. Mostly sunny. Not too bad for the middle of July.
Games of Thursday July 10:
10:30 a.m., Purple (3-1) at Red (2-3):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Purple 3 0 4 1 2 10 Red 5 0 0 0 3 8 Pitchers: Purple – Jack Kelly; Red – Donald Drummer. Mercenaries: Purple – Mike Garrison, Alvin Gauna, Tommy Gillis, Donnie Janac, Jack Kelly, Tom Kelm, Patrick Schmidt, and Terry Thompson; Red – Hal Darman, Jim Foelker, and Greg Lloyd. Umpire: Marvin Krabbenhoft, working solo, did a very good job. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Mike Garrison (3 for 3 with a double and a triple), Tommy Gillis (1 for 1), Donnie Janac (2 for 2), and Patrick Schmidt (3 for 3 with a double); Red – Dale Fugate (2 for 2 with a walk).
With many B Leaguer’s in Waco for the tourney there, mercenaries played a big role in all three of today’s games, Purple needing seven players to fill out its lineup. With no board members in attendance, President Emeritus Rick Jensen and Picayune editor/pretend journalist Jack Spellman made the executive decision to invite C Leaguers to play, and Patrick Schmidt took us up on the offer, playing third base and going 3 for 3 for Purple. Patrick was the fifth of Purple’s first five batters of the game who all reached base, on four singles and Fritz Hensel’s walk, and three scored, before Red hurler Donald Drummer found his rhythm. He retired the next three batters, and Red grabbed the lead with five runs on seven singles in the bottom of the inning.
After that, though, Jack Kelly stymied Red through the middle innings, and Purple came back and took the lead. Neither team scored in the second. Purple went ahead with four runs in the top of the third Fritz Hensel led off with a single, Mike Garrison tripled in Fritz’s runner, and Patrick Schmidt doubled in Mike. After Alvin Gauna flied out to Rolando Rodriguez in right-center, Tom Kelm singled in Patrick. Donald Drummer got Jack Kelly to foul off a two-strike pitch for the second out, but singles by Terry Thompson and Donnie Janac brought Tom’s pinch-runner around with the fourth run.
Purple added a run in the top of the fourth, when Mike Garrison doubled with two out and scored on Patrick Schmidt’s single.
Mike made a terrific catch in the bottom of the fourth that in retrospect probably was the key play of the game. Jim Foelker singled to start the inning. Jack McDermott popped out to shortstop Rick Jensen. Jack Spellman then hit a sinking line drive (really more of an off-the-handle looper) to center field. Mike got a great jump on the ball, came in hard, and caught it about an inch off the grass – so low that Jim thought Mike had trapped the ball, and took off for second. Marvin Krabbenhoft, umpiring solo, called it a clean catch, and Mike, who’s as trustworthy a guy as we have in this league, was certain he’d caught the ball. He threw in to Rick Jensen, who jogged over to first base to tag the bag and double Jim up, ending the inning.
Purple entered the buffet leading 8-5, and added two runs in the top half on back-to-back one-out RBI doubles by Terry Thompson and Tommy Gillis, who’d taken over for Donnie Janac in right field in the bottom of the third inning. Matt Levitt’s single put runners on the corners with one out, but Donald Drummer escaped the jam by getting Rick Jensen to ground into an inning-ending 6u., 6-3 double play.
So Red was chasing five to tie in the home half. Jack Kelly got Rolando Rodriguez to line out to Matt Levitt in left field to start the inning. Gary Coyle walked and Dale Fugate singled, Dale completing a perfect day at the plate. Gary was forced out at third on Jim McAnelly’s grounder to the left side – not sure if it went 6-5, or 5-unassisted. Donald Drummer, Greg Lloyd, and Hal Darman followed with singles, three runs scoring, Purple’s lead down to two runs. But Red ran out of outs as Patrick Schmidt fielded Jim Foelker’s grounder down the third-base side and tagged the bag for the game-ending force. Final score: Purple 10, Red 8
11:30 a.m., Green (2-2) at Gray (3-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 0 4 0 0 1 9 14 Gray 1 2 2 0 1 6 12 Pitchers: Green – Tom Kelm; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Green – Gary Coyle, Donald Drummer, Tom Kelm, and Jack Spellman; Gray – Jack McDermott and Rolando Rodriguez. Umpires: home – Rick Jensen; bases – Matt Levitt. Perfect at the plate: Green – Phil Stanch (4 for 4).
This one was mostly a defensive battle until the buffet. Green scored in only one of its first four at bats, pushing across four runs in the top of the second on Billy Hill’s lead-off walk, four one-out singles, and Mike Garrison’s double, on which Phil Stanch was thrown out trying for third, 9-6-5, a good relay from Jack Crosley to George Romo to Adam Reddell.
Gray had scored a single run in the bottom of the first. Tommy Gillis led off with a double to left and scored on Morgan Witthoft’s single to right-center. Adam Reddell and George Romo also singled, loading the bases with none out, but Tom Kelm escaped the jam, getting Johnny Lee to pop to shortstop and Jack Crosley to ground into a 4-6-3 double play started by Alvin Gauna, debuting for Green at second base.
Gray pushed across two runs in the bottom of the second on a walk to Jack Kelly, three singles, and Adam Reddell’s bases-loaded walk, and then took the lead with two more runs in the bottom of the third, though they wound up having another rally short-circuited by a double play. Singles by Johnny Lee and Jack Crosley and a walk to Hal Darman loaded the bases to start the inning, and Jack Kelly drove in two runs with a single to center field. Tom Kelm got Jack McDermott to pop out to first baseman Greg Lloyd for the first out. Rolando Rodriguez came up and drove a pitch to left-center; off the bat, it looked like extra bases, and Hal took off from second; but left fielder Mike Garrison got a great jump on the ball, raced to his left and ran it down, and then threw to second to double up Hal and end the inning – Mike’s second outstanding defensive play (and outfield double play) of the day.
Neither team scored in the fourth, Jack Kelly working around Phil Stanch’s two-out single in the top half, Tom Kelm allowing a lead-off single to Tommy Gillis and then retiring three in a row in the bottom half on balls in the air – a liner to third baseman Gary Coyle and pops to shortstop Jack Spellman.
Each team then scored a single run in the fifth, the final five-run inning. Greg Lloyd tripled with one out in the top half for Green and scored on Alvin Gauna’s base hit. Jack Crosley doubled with one out in the home half for Gray and scored on Jack Kelly’s two-out single to center.
So Green was trailing 6-5 entering the buffet. Jack Spellman led off the inning with his second straight terrible at bat, a weak, 15-hop ground out to second baseman Morgan Witthoft. But the next eight batters reached base: Gary Coyle walked, and the seven batters who followed him singled, a succession of clean hits to the outfield by Tom Kelm and the six Green players at the top of the lineup, beginning with Phil Stanch, who completed a 4-for-4 game.
Tom Kelm drove in Gary Coyle from first with a drive to deep left field that Jack McDermott couldn’t get to. In the wide-angle picture above left, you can see Jack going back for the ball as left-center fielder Tommy Gillis, shortstop George Romo, and third baseman Adam Reddell look on. (Enhance!) In the picture at right I’ve zoomed in on Jack and the ball, which you can see at the upper right. (In case you were wondering why this edition is showing up in your in-box so ridiculously late.)
Five runs scored, Mike Garrison driving in Donald Drummer, running for Tom, with the go-ahead run – I uploaded the video to YouTube:
July 10: Donald Drummer scores the go-ahead run in Green’s 14-12 victory
Donald was the tenth batter of the inning, and got caught looking at a called third strike for the second out. But mercenaries Jack Spellman, Gary Coyle, and Tom Kelm followed with singles, four more runs scoring, and the flip-flop was invoked with nine runs in, two out, and two runners on base.
Gray almost made Green finish its inning. Rolando Rodriguez led off the bottom of the buffet with a triple, Tommy Gillis walked, and Gray’s next five batters all singled, four runs scoring. Hal Darman’s sacrifice fly to Mike Garrison in left field brought in the fifth run. Jack Kelly popped out to first baseman Greg Lloyd for the second out. Jack McDermott lined a single to left driving in the sixth run, cutting Green’s lead to two and bringing up Rolando Rodriguez for the second time in the inning. Rolando squared up on a pitch and lined it to left-center, but Donald Drummer got a good read on it and made a running catch, moving to his left, for the final out of the game. Final score: Green 14, Gray 12
12:30 p.m., Orange (2-2) at Blue (0-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET EXTRA FINAL Orange 1 5 0 0 0 0 5 11 Blue 3 0 0 0 3 0 0 6 Pitchers: Orange – Terry Thompson; Blue – Donald Drummer. Mercenaries: Orange – Matt Levitt, Adam Reddell, Jack Spellman, and Morgan Witthoft; Blue – Donald Drummer, Mike Garrison, Tommy Gillis, Rick Jensen, Johnny Lee, and George Romo. Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – Jack Kelly. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Terry O'Brien (4 for 4 with three doubles), Adam Reddell (2 for 2 with a walk), and Jack Spellman (3 for 3); Blue – Donald Drummer (2 for 2 with a walk and a triple).
It hardly seems possible, but this was the first extra-inning game of the 2025 B League season. Fittingly, it was absolutely a barn-burner.
Terry O’Brien, star of the game for Orange, led off the contest with a double and scored on Terry Thompson’s single. Blue grabbed the lead with three runs in the home half, on three singles and Jimmy Sneed’s double. Orange reclaimed the lead with five runs without making an out in the top of the second, on four singles, a walk to Adam Reddell, and Terry’s three-run double.
And then the pitchers and defenses took over. Orange didn’t score again in regulation time, and Blue was blanked over the second, third, and fourth before tying the game with three runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Donald Drummer worked out of a two-on, one-out jam in the top of the second, getting two force-out grounders. In the fourth, Jack Spellman and Adam Reddell led off with singles, but Spellman was doubled up on Matt Levitt’s looper to shortstop Jimmy Sneed – off the bat, I thought the ball wouldn’t reach Jimmy and that I’d better get on the giddy-up for third base; but it stayed up just fine, an easy catch for Jimmy, whose look of astonishment at my boneheaded running was about equal to what Rick Jensen described as my “Dartmouth look of wonderment” at being so incredibly out.
That was the first of three consecutive innings in which Blue turned double plays. In the fourth, Terry O’Brien singled leading off, but was erased on an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play, Rick Jensen to Jimmy Sneed to Johnny Lee. And in the top of the buffet, Marvin Krabbenhoft walked with one out, but Jimmy started a 6-4-3 double play on Boo Resnick’s grounder.
This was after Blue had tied the game with three runs on singles by its first six batters in the bottom of the fifth. There was an out on the bases in there that I can’t recall the details of. (It’s after 11:00, cut me some slack.) With three runs in, two on, and one out, Terry Thompson got out of the inning by getting Rick Jensen to pop out to first baseman Adam Reddell and Johnny Lee to ground into a 4-6 force.
So the game was tied 6-6 entering the bottom of the buffet, Blue needing one run to win. Donald Drummer led off with a drive to the fence in left-center for a triple, completing a perfect game at the plate. Blue had the top of its lineup coming up and basically just needed to get a ball to the outfield – Terry O’Brien later commented that Orange’s win probability at that point was about 2%, and I suspect that that’s a pretty generous estimate. Steve Sandall came up and lined a ball to the right of second base that Terry made an outstanding backhanded catch of, fully extending to reach the ball. Jimmy Sneed was next: he got under a pitch and popped it to shortstop, David Brown backpedaling a few steps into the outfield to make the catch, not deep enough for Donald to tag up on. Jim Foelker was third up: he lined a ball down the first-base side, but right at Adam Reddell, who made the catch for the third out.
So on to an extra inning, with a runner at second, one out, and one-pitch rules in effect. Orange started the inning with Boo Resnick on second base, Jack Spellman up. Spellman swung at a low pitch, might not have reached the mat, but I couldn’t take the chance, and sliced it to right field, about five feet fair and well in front of Tommy Gillis. Boo made a good read on it, took off, and scored. Adam Reddell singled to center, completing a perfect day at the plate. Matt Levitt fouled off a pitch for the second out. Morgan Witthoft singled to left field, Spellman scoring. Terry O’Brien delivered his fourth hit of the game, and his third double, a drive to left field that scored both Adam and Morgan. Peter Atkins singled to left-center, Terry scoring to make it 11-6. Terry Thompson popped out to first base to end the inning, then took the mound for the bottom half, with Jim Foelker on second base.
Joe Dayoc was first up for Blue. He fouled off a pitch for the second out. Tommy Gillis was next, and he swung through a pitch – might have got a piece of it, I couldn’t tell – but it was strike three, and the game was over. Final score: Orange 11, Blue 6
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Purple | 4 | 1 | .800 | 0 | 55 | 42 | 13 | W2 |
| Orange | 3 | 2 | .600 | 1 | 53 | 38 | 15 | W2 |
| Gray | 3 | 2 | .600 | 1 | 63 | 51 | 12 | L2 |
| Green | 3 | 2 | .600 | 1 | 52 | 50 | 2 | W3 |
| Maroon | 3 | 2 | .600 | 1 | 54 | 57 | -3 | W1 |
| Red | 2 | 4 | .333 | 2.5 | 58 | 80 | -22 | L2 |
| Blue | 0 | 5 | .000 | 4 | 42 | 59 | -17 | L6 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Purple | 3-0 | 1-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Orange | 1-1 | 2-1 | 0 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-2 | ||
| Gray | 1-1 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-1 | 1-0 | ||
| Green | 2-1 | 1-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1-1 | ||
| Maroon | 3-0 | 0-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Red | 0-3 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-0 | ||
| Blue | 0-2 | 0-3 | 0 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-2 |
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 | 4 | 12 |
| Green | 2 | 3 | X | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 15 |
| Maroon | 2 | 4 | 3 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 15 |
| Orange | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | X | 2 | 2 | 12 |
| Purple | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | X | 3 | 15 |
| Red | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 12 |
| TOTAL: | 13 | 15 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 16 | 96 |
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
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jim Aaron – 1
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Gary Coyle – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Ken Mockler – 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 July 14:
10:30 a.m.: Red (2-4) at Orange (3-2), Gray umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Gray (3-2) at Blue (0-5), Orange umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Maroon (3-2) at Green (3-2), Blue umpiring
Purple has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: With its win today, combined with Gray’s loss, Purple takes over first place for Session Three. They’re guaranteed to remain in first till at least next Thursday, as they have the bye Monday. All four of the teams tied for second place with 3-2 records will be in action Monday, two of them, Maroon and Green, squaring off at 12:30. One of those two teams will end the day half a game out of first. So might Orange, which plays Red at 10:30, and Gray, facing Blue at 11:30. I feel like Blue and Red are overdue to break their recent slumps. But I’m going to miss it if it happens, as I’m off to New England tomorrow for a week-plus vacation. Will next week’s editions of the Picayune be only a day late, or will publishing take a back seat to swimming in a lake, grilling hamburgers, and sampling New England IPAs? One thing is certain: only time will tell.