B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 54 – September 25, 2025
Games of Thursday September 25:
10:30 a.m., Gray (2-3) at Maroon (3-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 2 0 1 5 0 8 Maroon 3 2 3 5 X 13 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Gray – Raul Deleon, Donnie Janac, and Jack Spellman (entered for Morgan Witthoft in the bottom of the second inning); Maroon – Henry Flores and Peter Sundquist. Umpires: home – Jim McAnelly and Jack McDermott; bases – Gary Coyle. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Raul Deleon and Donnie Janac (both 2 for 2), and Adam Reddell (3 for 3 with a double); Maroon – Ivan Budiselic (3 for 3) and Jeff Stone (3 for 3 with a double – Ohtani Award).
Weather report: 81 degrees, felt like 83. Humidity 57%, wind from the north at 6 MPH. Mostly sunny, very nice.
There were a number of authors of this decisive Maroon victory: Jeff Stone earned an Ohtani, going 3 for 3 with three key hits at the plate while holding Gray to two runs or fewer in four of five innings; Ken Brown and Tony Garcia sparked Maroon in the first two innings; and Ivan Budiselic knocked an RBI single in each of his three at bats.
Gray had jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, scoring its runs on singles by three of the first four batters followed by Morgan Witthoft’s RBI force-play ground out. Ken and Tony almost immediately tied the game in the home half, Ken leading off with a double on a liner to right-center field and Tony following with an RBI triple to right and then scoring on Scott Wright’s base hit. Jeff Stone also singled. Tom Kelm grounded to third baseman Adam Reddell, who stepped on third to put out the lead runner. Ivan then stepped up and knocked his first single, to right-center, scoring Jeff to put Maroon in the lead.
Jeff shut out Gray in the top of the second, retiring the first two batters on grounders, then allowing singles to Raul Deleon and Donnie Janac. Jack Crosley lined what looked like a single to right-center, but Ken Brown charged the ball, fielded it on one hop, and threw a strike to Tony Garcia for a 9-6 force on Donnie that, it turned out, robbed Jack of a perfect day at the plate.
Maroon scored two runs in the bottom half of the second. Peter Sundquist beat out a soft grounder to third for a one-out infield single, then was forced out 5-4 on Henry Flores’s somewhat harder grounder to about the same place. Ken Brown then doubled, again, Tommy Langa – running for Henry – scoring from first. And then Tony Garcia tripled, again, bringing in Ken.
Tony’s triple was toward Morgan Witthoft in right-center, and on the play Morgan injured, or re-injured, his already tender right (I think it was) ankle as he came in on the ball. Morgan left the game, and Jack Spellman entered, taking over at shortstop while Raul Deleon moved to right-center.
Spellman proved a terrible replacement for Morgan. In the top of the fifth, with one run in on doubles by Tommy Gillis and Adam Reddell, Spellman reached for a low 2-1 pitch and popped out to second baseman Scott Wright for the second out, effectively killing the rally, then in the bottom of the inning was unable to make plays on a pop to short left and a two-hop grounder that skidded under my glove when I couldn’t charge it hard enough to get under the second hop. Those were both nominally hits, two of the five singles Maroon amassed while scoring three times, increasing its lead to 8-3.
Gray rallied and tied the game with five runs in the top of the fourth, on seven singles, Raul Deleon, Donnie Janac, should-have-been Jack Crosley, and Adam Reddell all completing perfect days at the plate, Adam driving in the fifth run with his hit.
But Maroon matched that with its own five-run rally in the bottom of the inning, on eight consecutive singles after Jack Kelly had retired Tony Garcia and Scott Wright on grounders to start the inning. Jeff Stone’s single started the rally, Ivan Budiselic’s drove in the first run, and they both completed 3-for-3 days. (Ivan also had a good day in the field at third base, converting grounders by Hal Darman and Johnny Lee into outs.)
Entering the buffet, Gray needed five runs to tie. Promisingly, Jack Spellman and Johnny Lee singled to start the inning. But Tony Garcia turned a 6u., 6-3 double play on Hal Darman’s grounder just to the left of second base, and the game ended with Jeff Stone catching Jack Kelly looking at a called strike three on a pitch that just clipped the outside edge of the mat.
Final score: Maroon 13, Gray 8
Red (2-3) at Blue (2-3):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 1 5 5 2 X 13 Blue 0 0 0 3 1 4 Pitchers: Red – Jeff Stone; Blue – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Red – Jeff Stone, Ralph Villela, and Jack Spellman, with Dave Berra serving as Mercenary Manager; Blue – Clint Fletcher, Rick Jensen, Johnny Lee, Adam Reddell, and Phil Stanch. Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – Tommy Gillis. Perfect at the plate: Red – Mark Dolan, Jeff Stone, Ralph Villela, and Scott Wright (all 2 for 2; another Ohtani Award for Jeff Stone) and Jack Spellman (2 for 2 with a walk and a double); Blue – Johnny Lee and Phil Stanch (both 2 for 2).
Dave Berra’s weather summation: Pretty day!
Red showed itself once again to be the most schizo of B League’s teams: after a truly dreadful performance Monday that resulted in a drubbing at the hands of Green just one game after handing Orange its first loss of the session, Red today played nearly perfectly, due in large part to its mercenaries and by interim manager Jack Spellman making a couple of key decisions, to wit: bringing on Dave Berra to coach third and improve the dugout vibe; and assigning Ralph Villela to play shortstop while moving himself to the outfield.
This latter move paid immediate dividends, after Red scored a single run in the top of the first on this sequence: Spellman singled leading off and, after Rick Jensen made a catch of Jack McDermott’s low liner to third base, was forced at second on Peter Sundquist’s grounder to Rick Jensen for the second out; Peter then scored when Jimmy Sneed fielded Gary Coyle’s grounder to shortstop and threw past second base, Gary winding up at third, but stranded. Then, in the bottom of the first, my genius manifested: Jim Foelker popped a ball behind third base that Ralph ran down and caught, a ball I would never have gotten close to (as evidenced by my failing to reach a closer pop than this in the 10:30 game); Jimmy Sneed also popped out to Ralph; then, after Tommy Deleon singled, Rip Wright lined a ball to left field that stayed up long enough for me to catch for the third out.
Ralph Villela gathers in Jim Foelker’s pop to get the first out in the bottom of the first.
Red then established a commanding lead by scoring five times in both the second and third while Jeff Stone continued blanking Blue in the bottom halves. Red knocked six straight hits without making an out in the top of the second, the rally completed by Spellman’s two-run double on a line drive to left-center, a big gap left open when left-center fielder Jim Foelker (reasonably) moved to almost straightaway center field. In the third Red scored five on seven singles, the last three by its mercenaries after two were out, and Gary Coyle’s sacrifice fly to Clint Fletcher in left field. Jeff allowed a pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the second, then got Rick Jensen to ground a two-strike pitch foul down the third-base side. In the third he gave up a lead-off single to Johnny Lee, then retired Jim Foelker and Jimmy Sneed on fly balls – Jack McDermott in left-center made an excellent play on Jim’s drive, which almost went over his head – then caught Tommy Deleon looking at a called strike three.
Red increased its lead to 13-0 with two runs in the top of the fourth, on Gary Coyle’s two-run double on a mammoth drive over Phil Stanch’s head in right-center. The inning ended with Blue turning a double play: Dale Fugate hit a sinking drive to left-center that Jim Foelker got a good jump on and raced in to catch; Gary thought there were already two out and took off on contact, and so was easily doubled up, Jim to Steve Guzman, for an F-8, 8-4 twin killing.
Jeff Stone got two outs to start the bottom of the fourth and seemed close to pitching a shutout. But he walked Clint Fletcher, and the next four batters singled, three runs coming across – big cheer from the Blue dugout when Clint scored the first run, on Phil Stanch’s base hit.
With Red still leading by ten runs, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Blue added another run, on two singles and Clint Fletcher’s run-scoring double, before running out of outs.
Final score: Red 13, Blue 4
12:30 p.m., Green (3-2) at Orange (4-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 1 1 0 3 0 5 Orange 4 1 5 0 X 10 Pitchers: Green – Greg Lloyd; Orange – Terry Thompson. Mercenaries: Green – Gary Coyle, Mark Dolan, and Jack McDermott; Orange – Jim Foelker, Matt Levitt, and Peter Sundquist. Umpires: home – Scott Wright; bases – Steve Guzman. Perfect at the plate: Green – Gary Coyle and Mark Dolan (both 2 for 2); Orange – Clint Fletcher (3 for 3 with a double) and Larry Shupe and Terry Thompson (both 2 for 2 – Ohtani Award for Terry).
Weather update: 88 degrees, felt like 90. Humidity 43%, wind from the NNW at 6 MPH. Partly cloudy.
The most difficulty Orange encountered in this game was Terry Thompson almost running past the first-base stop line in his two at bats. Terry pitched a masterful game, allowing just single runs in each of the first two innings while he and his teammates built a 10-0 lead through three. Ralph Villela led off the game with a ground double past third base and into left field, then scored on Phil Stanch’s two-out single to right. Steve Browne singled up the middle, but the inning ended with Phil being thrown out on a strong 8-6-5 relay, Peter Atkins to David Brown to (laser strike) Clint Fletcher. Orange then came up and established a lead it would never relinquish, scoring four times on six singles, three coming after two were out, Terry managing to stop just short of the stop line on his two-run hit. Green kept Orange from getting to five thanks to a great catch in left field by Mike Garrison of David Brown’s short fly ball – moving to his right and coming in, Mike made a great low backhanded snag of the ball for the first out.
Green got a single run in the second on three singles, the last two with two out, by Gary Coyle and, driving in Donnie Janac, Mark Dolan. Orange held serve with a single run in the home half: Clint Fletcher got a one-out single on a bad-hop grounder to shortstop Ralph Villela, took third on David Brown’s single to right-center, and scored on Peter Atkins’s sacrifice fly to Steve Browne in left-center.
Green didn’t score in the top of the third. Greg Lloyd started the inning with a ground-ball single to third base and wound up at second when Clint Fletcher’s throw sailed past first baseman Larry Shupe. But Terry Thompson retired the next three batters, the first of whom, Mike Garrison, made a bid for extra bases with a drive to very deep left-center, but Peter Atkins was playing him almost at the fence and caught the ball, which might well have been a home run at Krieg 3.
Orange then effectively put the game out of reach with five runs in the bottom of the inning, all scored with two out. Terry Thompson and Larry Shupe hit back-to-back one-out singles – Terry’s hit would have been a double but for his taking a runner, and once again he very nearly passed the stop line before obeying the yelling from the Orange bench. His runner, David Brown, took third on Larry’s single up the middle. Peter Sundquist hit a grounder to the 6 hole that Ralph Villela made a terrific play on, moving to his right and then making a strong throw back and across his body to Jack McDermott covering second for the force on Larry, David scoring on the play. Matt Levitt singled. Jim Foelker hit a sinking liner to right-center that Phil Stanch came in on, but couldn’t reach in time, the balling squibbing past him for a double, both Peter and Matt scoring. Clint Fletcher doubled in Jim. And David Brown singled in Clint.
Green finally broke through a bit in the top of the fourth, scoring three runs on singles by five of the first six hitters. Orange recorded one out, getting a force at second on Jack McDermott’s hard grounder back to the box. Initially Jack was called out at first for what would have been a 1-6-3 double play, but Green asked for base umpire Steve Guzman to consult with home umpire Scott Wright, who ruled that Jack beat the relay, or maybe that Larry’s foot was off the bag, I’m not sure, I got distracted by the resulting brouhaha, as seen in this highly accurate rendering:
David argued his case, but Scott was implacable, the grizzly kept chowing down on those delicious salmon, and Mount Denali looked on, imperturbable. When the dust settled and play resumed, Gary Coyle and Mark Dolan both singled, completing 2-for-2 days, Mark driving in his second and third runs of the game. Ralph Villela’s opposite-field single brought in Gary with the third, cutting Orange’s lead to 10-5.
Orange didn’t score in the home half. Peter Atkins led off with a single, but was erased on a 4-6-3 double play on Boo Resnick’s grounder just to the right of second base – Jack McDermott made an outstanding play moving to his right to field the ball, then a quick backhanded flip to Ralph Villela at second, a really neat play.
Entering the buffet, Green needed five to tie, but Terry Thompson set the side down in order on three balls in the air: Phil Stanch popped out to shortstop David Brown, Steve Browne lined out to Peter Sundquist in right-center, and Donnie Janac popped up to Terry.
Final score: Orange 10, Green 5
Terry Thompson and Jeff Stone, stylish in their kimonos, received their Ohtani Awards after the 12:30 game. Jeff recorded two Ohtanis today, taking over the season lead with eight.
Session 4 standings:
| Session 4 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 5 | 1 | .833 | 0 | 84 | 54 | 30 | W2 |
| Maroon | 4 | 2 | .667 | 1 | 64 | 54 | 10 | W2 |
| Red | 3 | 3 | .500 | 2 | 69 | 64 | 5 | W1 |
| Green | 3 | 3 | .500 | 2 | 63 | 66 | -3 | L1 |
| Purple | 2 | 4 | .333 | 3 | 63 | 69 | -6 | L4 |
| Gray | 2 | 4 | .333 | 3 | 55 | 68 | -13 | L2 |
| Blue | 2 | 4 | .333 | 3 | 55 | 78 | -23 | L1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 3-0 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 0-1 | ||
| Maroon | 3-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Red | 2-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1-0 | ||
| Green | 2-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Purple | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-1 | ||
| Gray | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-1 | ||
| Blue | 1-2 | 1-2 | 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 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 3.5 | 4 | 5 | 22.5 |
| Gray | 5 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 20 |
| Green | 3 | 5 | X | 3.5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 21.5 |
| Maroon | 4 | 5 | 5.5 | X | 4 | 5 | 3 | 26.5 |
| Orange | 4.5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | X | 4 | 4 | 25.5 |
| Purple | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | X | 6 | 22 |
| Red | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 | X | 18 |
| TOTAL: | 22.5 | 24 | 22.5 | 18.5 | 18.5 | 22 | 28 | 156 |
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 – 6
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
Ohtanis (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Jeff Stone – 8 (March 20, April 17, July 17, July 21, July 28, September 11, September 15 (2))
Spike Davidson – 7 (June 19, June 30, August 4, August 7, August 14 (2), September 8)
Tommy Deleon – 6 (March 3, March 13, April 14, April 28, May 12, September 8)
Tom Kelm – 4 (March 3, March 13, May 1, June 16)
Joe Bernal – 3 (March 3, April 3, June 5)
Ray Pilgrim – 3 (April 14, August 4, August 7)
Donald Drummer – 2 (May 1, August 11)
Jack Kelly – 2 (March 10, May 12)
Terry Thompson – 2 (July 31, September 15)
Greg Lloyd – 1 (June 26)
David Pittard – 1 (June 2)
Chunky Wright – 1 (June 9)
Schedule for Monday September 29:
10:30 a.m.: Maroon (4-2) at Green (3-3), Blue umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Blue (2-4) at Orange (5-1), Green umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Purple (2-4) at Red (3-3), Orange umpiring
Gray has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: We’re one-third of the way through the final session and should be getting some of our players back from Las Vegas for next week’s games. Maroon will try to keep pace with Orange, needing to defeat the scrappy Green team at 10:30 to do so. Blue will try to slow down Orange’s drive for the session at title at 11:30. At 12:30, Purple will look to end its four-game losing streak and also become the first team to beat another team seven times this season – they are currently 6-2 versus Red. Monday is the 71st anniversary of Willie Mays’s catch robbing Cleveland’s Vic Wertz of extra bases in the first game of the 1954 World Series. Will we see a B League outfielder honor Mays by replicating this play? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
As hinted at in this week’s pictures, it’s Fat Bear Week – Fat Bear Week 2025: Here’s how to participate! – and there’s still time to vote.