B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 52 – September 18, 2025
Department of Corrections: I wrote that Scott Wright was thrown out trying for home in Maroon’s game versus Orange on Monday on an 8-6-2 relay, Anthony Galindo to David Brown to Marvin Krabbenhoft, but it was actually a 9-6-2 relay, with George Brindley making the initial throw. It’s particularly galling that I made this mistake since I had available this extremely lifelike depiction of the play…
…which clearly shows George, in his Blue jersey that makes him look six inches taller, about to heave the ball to David, who has his back turned, while Scott, who’s no longer Caucasian, sidesteps toward home and Marvin calmly awaits the relay as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo discuss repairing the Leaning Moontower of East Austin. Anyway, though you might not believe it, the Picayune regrets the error.
Also I failed to credit Mike Malay for having a perfect day at the plate in Gray’s game versus Red on Monday. Mike was 2 for 2, scored twice, and drove in a run. Here’s Mike knocking that run-scoring single, as the cast of the popular 1960s children’s television show Welcome to Hell, You Freaks look on and The Wizard Oz The Oz plays on the Krieg Field 2 Sphere:
I regret the omission, but not the picture.
Games of Thursday September 18:
10:00 a.m., Orange (3-0) at Red (1-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 4 4 0 5 0 0 13 Red 1 0 2 4 3 4 14 Pitchers: Orange – Ray Pilgrim; Red – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Orange – Jim Foelker, Alvin Gauna, Tommy Gillis, Donnie Janac, and Johnny Lee; Red – Tom Belavia and Tommy Deleon. Umpires: home – Mike Velaney; bases – George Brindley and Rip Wright. Perfect at the plate: Orange – David Brown (3 for 3 with two doubles); Red – Peter Sundquist (3 for 3 with a walk).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 88 degrees, felt like 91. Humidity 49%, wind from the Southwest at 4 MPH. Sunny – welcome back, Peter.
Indeed it was Peter Sundquist’s return to B League play after getting a knee replaced, and he was brilliant in this upset victory.
Orange dominated in the early going, building a 13-3 lead through the top of the fourth inning, and limiting Red so effectively that it looked at one point like we’d get seven innings played. Orange scored four runs on five singles and David Brown’s double in the top of the first, a couple of those hits coming on grounders to shortstop that did not hop true, to your correspondent’s bedevilment. Ray Pilgrim got Red’s Jacks, McDermott and Spellman, to open the bottom of the inning with ground outs to shortstop David Brown, who, go figure, didn’t get bad hops. It’s almost like good shortstops don’t care about the hops.
More of the same in the second inning, with one twist. Orange again scored four runs, on three singles and doubles by Peter Atkins and David Brown. With one out and David on second, it looked like a certain five-run inning when Marvin Krabbenhoft ripped a sinking line drive to right-center. But Peter Sundquist got a great jump on the ball, came charging in, and laid out and made a tremendous diving catch, as more or less reimagined here by Google AI:
Peter managed to make a quick toss to second baseman Tom Bellavia, who relayed to shortstop Jack Spellman at second base to complete the L-9, 9-4-6 double play – David Brown took off on contact, sensibly thinking there was no way the drive was catchable, and had no chance of reversing course and getting back to second.
As great as the play was, it didn’t immediately change Red’s fortunes, as they failed to score in the bottom of the second, Ray Pilgrim working around singles by Rolando Rodriguez leading off and Tommy Deleon with one out.
Red did manage to win the third inning. Tommy Deleon allowed singles by Boo Resnick and Donnie Janac to start the inning, but retired the next three batters, Johnny Lee on a line drive to third baseman Donald Drummer, a fine play; Jim Foelker on a pop to second baseman Tom Bellavia, moving to his left; and Alvin Gauna on a 6-4 force out. Red then scored two runs on four singles in the home half. David Brown turned a 6u., 6-3 double play on Dale Fugate’s grounder up the middle, then threw out Rolando Rodriguez on a grounder to his right to limit the damage.
Orange’s first five batters hit safely and scored in the top of the fourth, four singles and a double by Clint Fletcher. With three runs in and Ray Pilgrim’s pinch-runner on second and David Brown on first (following his third hit in as many at bats), Tommy Deleon got Marvin Krabbenhoft to pop out to shortstop and Boo Resnick to fly out to Jack McDermott in left field. But singles by Donnie Janac and Johnny Lee drove in the fourth and fifth runs. Orange led by ten runs, its high-water mark of the game.
Red battled back in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four runs on Donald Drummer’s lead-off walk, three singles, and Anthony Galindo’s second double of the game.
Jim Foelker led off the fifth with a single. Alvin Gauna hit a grounder between the mound and shortstop that Jack Spellman fielded, then made it to the bag ahead of Jim, who was coming directly in the line of my throw to first. I had to throw over him, and kind of double-clutched and had to lollipop the throw, too late to beat Alvin, and then I appealed (trying not to be overly whiny) that the runner had interfered by not running to one side or the other. Base umpire Rip Wright agreed, and Alvin was declared out. Tommy Deleon then got Tommy Gillis to fly out to Jack McDermott in deep left field.
Red then scored three two-out runs in the home half, all coming across with two out. Jim McAnelly led off with a single. Ray Pilgrim got Rolando Rodriguez and Donald Drummer both to pop out to shortstop David Brown. Tommy Deleon singled, and Tom Bellavia ripped a double that scored both Jim’s and Tommy’s pinch-runners. A single by Jack McDermott drove in Tom, cutting Purple’s lead to 13-10.
Orange had the top of its order up to open the buffet, but Tommy Deleon threw a shut-down inning, facing only three batters. Clint Fletcher grounded out to shortstop. Peter Atkins singled. Ray Pilgrim hit a sharp grounder down the third-base side that Donald Drummer made a good, clean play to his glove side to field, and then a strong, accurate throw to Tom Bellavia at second; Tom made a picture-perfect pivot and throw to Dale Fugate at first to double up Ray, an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play that sent Red to the bottom of the buffet needing three to tie, four to win.
Peter Sundquist led off by drawing a walk, his fourth time on base in as many plate appearances. Dale Fugate singled to center, Peter stopping at second. Jim McAnelly hit a sharp grounder up the middle; Ray Pilgrim got a piece of it, knocking it within the grasp of second baseman Boo Resnick, who fielded the ball and flipped to David Brown at second for the force – good play, though there was no chance of doubling up Anthony Galindo, running from home for Jim. Rolando Rodriguez popped out to third baseman Clint Fletcher, and Red was down to its last out. But Donald Drummer singled, Peter scoring.
Quote of the Day: Peter Sundquist: “Argh, I thought I was gonna barf at the end, matey.”
Tommy Deleon lined a single to right field, about five feet fair, Anthony scoring to draw Red within a run. Tom Bellavia then stepped up and scorched a line drive to center that gapped the outfielders and rolled most of the way, maybe all of the way, to the fence, driving in both Donald with the tying run and Tommy’s pinch-runner, I believe Rolando Rodriguez, with the winner.
Final score: Red 14, Orange 13, the team with the worst full-season record to date handing the team tied for the best full-season record its first loss of the session.
11:00 a.m., Blue (1-2) at Gray (1-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Blue 2 1 0 1 0 0 4 Gray 5 4 0 0 5 X 14 Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Blue – Jack McDermott and Ray Pilgrim; Gray – David Brown and Clint Fletcher. Umpires: home – Larry Fiorentino; bases – Dave Berra and Ken Brown. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Daniel Baladez (3 for 3); Gray – Jack Kelly (3 for 3) and Mike Malay (3 for 3 with two home runs). Home runs: Mike Malay (2, both inside the park) (2, 3)
This was pretty much The Mike and Jack Show: Mike Malay went 3 for 3 in the game with a pair of inside-the-park home runs, both of them drives to the right of center field. The first was a grand slam that put Gray ahead 9-3 in the bottom of the second; the second came leading off the bottom of the final five-run inning. Gray scored five times in that frame, as they had in the first inning, those three big innings providing Jack Kelly more than enough cushion on a day when he held Blue to just four runs on 13 hits over six innings.
Two of those runs came in the top of the first, when George Brindley’s triple to left-center drove in Tom Bellavia, George then scoring on Daniel Baladez’s single. Gray won the inning, however, scoring five runs on eight hits in the home half, seven singles and Paul Rubin’s triple, which drove in Jack Crosley with Gray’s first run. A couple of singles were in the infield – a bad-hop grounder hit by Morgan Witthoft to Jack McDermott, and a grounder to Alvin Gauna by Jack Kelly, Alvin’s throw to Jack at second pulling Jack off the bag. With the bases loaded, one out, and four runs in, David Brown grounded to Jack McDermott, who threw home to get the lead runner – Rip Wright knocked the ball down, kept it in front of him, and retrieved it before Mike Malay could score while keeping a foot on the mat, a good play at both ends for the second out. But Clint Fletcher singled in the fifth run anyway.
Blue scored a run on three singles in the top of the second. Alvin Gauna led off with a pop-fly single to the taint, which is what Rick Jensen and Dave Berra want me to call the no-man’s-land around the pitcher’s mound – in this case, it was the second-base side, and it taint the pitcher’s ball and it taint the second baseman’s either. Alvin advanced on Jack McDermott’s single and Ray Pilgrim’s fly out to left-center, then scored on Steve Sandall’s base hit.
Gray won the inning on Mike Malay’s grand slam, as shown here, Mike batting in the shadow of the B League’s Mount Rushmore of Wiseassery:
Neither team scored in the third inning. David Brown, playing shortstop for Gray, made a fine play in the 5-6 hole on Jim Foelker’s grounder to get a force out in the top half. The bottom half ended with Tommy Deleon starting a 1-6-3 double play, Jack McDermott on the pivot, on Jack Crosley’s hard grounder back to the box.
Alvin Gauna again scored for Blue in the fourth after leading off with a single. He advanced to second on Jack McDermott’s grounder back to the box, Jack Kelly making a good play to knock the ball down, Johnny Lee making a good play to catch Jack’s hurried throw for the out. Ray Pilgrim’s single to center drove Alvin in. Ray then hurled a scoreless bottom half, working around Tommy Gillis’s lead-off single.
Jack Kelly shut out Blue again in the top of the fifth inning, shortstop David Brown recording all three outs: he ranged well to his right to behind third base to catch George Brindley’s short pop fly for the first out; hardly had to move to haul in Jim Foelker’s pop for the second; and fielded Rip Wright’s grounder up the middle and stepped on second for an inning-ending force for the third.
Gray then iced the game in the bottom half. Mike Malay led off with his second inside-the-parker, and his teammates added four more runs on four singles and Tommy Gillis’s double, a long drive to left field, which drove in the fourth run of the frame, Tommy scoring the fifth on Paul Rubin’s single past second and into center field.
Jack then went out and retired Blue in order in the top of the buffet. I’ve been thinking we need to somehow recognize pitchers who have great two-way games, and I’ve come up with this: The Ohtani Award, to be given to a pitcher who is both perfect at the plate and pitches his team to a victory. Jack is the first recipient, though I’m going to go back through this season’s scoresheets and see who else has achieved this. Here’s Jack receiving the inaugural award, from Shohei himself:
Final score: Gray 14, Blue 4
Noon, Maroon (2-2) at Purple (2-2):
1 2 3 4 5 6 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 0 0 5 5 0 1 0 11 Purple 0 0 4 0 1 0 1 6 Pitchers: Maroon – Tom Kelm; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Maroon – Anthony Galindo, Mike Malay, Steve Sandall, and Jack Spellman; Purple – Tom Bellavia and Tommy Gillis. Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – David Brown. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Ivan Budiselic (4 for 4).
This defensive battle was played briskly enough that the teams actually got in a full seven innings. Tom Kelm didn’t quite win an Ohtani, hitting into a 4-6 force in his fourth at bat after knocking singles in his first three, but he held Purple to six runs over the seven frames, only once allowing more than a single run, and made three excellent fielding plays on grounders back to the box.
The game was scoreless through two, Tom not allowing Purple a hit, their only runner coming on a two-out walk to Matt Levitt in the top of the second. Maroon got runners into scoring position in each inning, loading the bases on singles in the first, Jack Spellman knocking a one-out single and advancing on Anthony Galindo’s fly to left-center in the second, but couldn’t get a timely hit to get a run across.
Both teams broke through in the third. Maroon scored five times on seven hits in the top half. Ken Brown led off with a single and one out later scored on Scott Wright’s line triple to right field. The next five batters singled to complete the rally. In the home half, Purple scored four runs on two singles, walks to Tom Bellavia and Larry Fiorentino, and a bases-loaded triple by Raul Deleon. Rick Jensen’s grounder to shortstop Tony Garcia took a bad hop, and Rick beat the throw to first, but Raul held up on the play. Tom Kelm then got Henry Flores to fly out to Anthony Galindo in left-center.
Maroon then scored five times again in the top of the fourth, this time without making an out, on Anthony Galindo’s lead-off single; Mike Malay’s walk; consecutive doubles by Ken Brown (driving in Anthony), Tony Garcia (driving in Mike and Ken), and Scott Wright (driving in Tony), and then singles by Tom Kelm and Ivan Budiselic to bring around Tom’s pinch-runner with the fifth run.
The defenses took over after that, neither team managing to score more than one run in an inning the rest of the way. Purple got a single run in the bottom of the fifth when Spike Davidson singled with two out and his pinch-runner scored from first on Larry Fiorentino’s double to right-center. Maroon got that back in the top of the sixth: Mike Malay singled leading off, hustled to third on Ken Brown’s hit, and scored on Tony Garcia’s sacrifice fly to Tom Bellavia (I think) in left field.
Purple didn’t score in the bottom of the sixth, Tom Kelm making a good play on Fritz Hensel’s comebacker to the mound, throwing to second for the force, and Maroon didn’t score in the top of the buffet, the inning ending with Rick Jensen making a good play to his right of Anthony Galindo’s grounder to the 5-6 hole and throwing to second for the force there.
Tom Kelm made three good fielding plays in this game. Here he takes a hit away from Fritz Hensel.
Maroon manager Dave Berra was nervous watching his minions take the field in the bottom of the buffet with “only” a six-run lead, but relaxed a little when Tom Kelm got two quick outs to start the inning, getting Mark Hernandez to ground to shortstop Tony Garcia – the ball took a bad hop and caromed off Tony’s knee, but Tony made an excellent recovery and a strong throw to for the out – and Larry Young to pop out to second baseman Scott Wright, moving to his right and behind the bag to run down the ball. The next three batters, Tom Bellavia, Tommy Gillis, and Spike Davidson, singled, Tom coming around to score. Larry Fiorentino came up and crushed a pitch to right-center, but Ken Brown broke back on the ball, tracked it and reached high to make an outstanding, game-ending catch, much to Larry’s shouted frustration.
Final score: Maroon 11, Purple 6
Session 4 standings:
| Session 4 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 3 | 1 | .750 | 0 | 60 | 46 | 14 | L1 |
| Maroon | 3 | 2 | .600 | 0.5 | 51 | 46 | 5 | W1 |
| Gray | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 44 | 41 | 3 | W2 |
| Red | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 46 | 45 | 1 | W1 |
| Green | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 43 | 46 | -3 | W2 |
| Purple | 2 | 3 | .400 | 1.5 | 51 | 55 | -4 | L3 |
| Blue | 1 | 3 | .250 | 2 | 37 | 53 | -16 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 1-0 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-1 | ||
| Maroon | 2-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Gray | 1-2 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-1 | ||
| Red | 2-1 | 0-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1-0 | ||
| Green | 1-1 | 1-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Purple | 1-2 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-1 | ||
| Blue | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 2 | 6 | 2 | 3.5 | 3 | 5 | 21.5 |
| Gray | 5 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 20 |
| Green | 3 | 5 | X | 3.5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 20.5 |
| Maroon | 4 | 4 | 5.5 | X | 4 | 5 | 3 | 25.5 |
| Orange | 4.5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | X | 4 | 4 | 23.5 |
| Purple | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | X | 6 | 22 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 | X | 17 |
| TOTAL: | 21.5 | 22 | 21.5 | 18.5 | 18.5 | 21 | 27 | 150 |
Green and Maroon tied their game of August 7; Orange and Blue tied their game of August 28; these are counted as half a win and half a loss for each team.
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 5
Tim Coles – 5
Mike Garrison – 5
Bobby Miller – 5
Ralph Villela – 5
George Brindley – 4
Anthony Galindo – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Mike Malay – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Scott Wright – 2
Jim Aaron – 1
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Ken Brown – 1
Gary Coyle – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Jack McDermott – 1
Ken Mockler – 1
Ray Pilgrim – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Scott Wright – June 5
Walk-off grand slam:
David Brown (inside the park) – August 4
Schedule for Monday September 22:
10:30 a.m.: Purple (2-3) at Blue (1-3), Gray umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Gray (2-2) at Orange (3-1), Purple umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Red (2-2) at Green (2-2), Orange umpiring
Maroon has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Purple (three games) and Blue (three) are mired in losing streaks, but one will escape Monday at 10:30. If Gray defeats Orange at 11:30, there will be a four-way tie for the first at the end of the day, among Gray, Orange, idle Maroon, and the winner of the 12:30 game between Red and Green. As ever, I root for the chaos, which likely will be aided by the absence of our tourney players. (Put ten Johnny Lee dollars on black for me, boys!). Will some of our guys return with championship rings? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
I hope you’ve all enjoyed Talk Like a Pirate Day as much as I have. Kudos to Peter Sundquist for going full pirate in his Quote of the Day.
Steve Hamlett found this left-behind Suncoast bat in, I think it was, the visitors dugout. He put it in the equipment cart for its owner to reclaim next week.