B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 21 – May 26, 2026
Games of Thursday May 21 were rained out.
Department of Corrections: Missed another perfect day at the plate: Phil Stanch was 3 for 3 in Purple’s game on Thursday May 14. Wicked sorry, Phil.
Games of Tuesday May 26:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (4-8) at Maroon (8-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 1 0 5 0 0 0 6 Maroon 0 0 5 3 5 X 13 Pitchers: Gray – Luis Sanchez; Maroon – David Pittard. Mercenaries: Gray – Gary Coyle, Larry Fiorentino, Mike Garrison, Jim Maloy, Patrick Schmidt; Maroon – Tim Coles. Umpires: home – Ralph Villela and Dave Berra; bases – Trent Peacock and Jack Spellman. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Gary Coyle (3 for 3); Maroon – Tim Coles and Jack McDermott (both 3 for 3 with a double). Home run: Steve Brown (inside the park) (3).
Weather report: 74 degrees, felt like 77; 80% humidity; wind from the SSE 10 MPH; mix of clouds and sun.
An odd game, Gray holding the lead in the early going. They scored a single run in the top of the first as Paul Rubin led off the contest with a double up the middle; after Luis Sanchez lined out to right field (good catch by Allen Phillips) and Dave Jaffe drew a walk, Jim McAnelly lined a single up the middle, off pitcher David Pittard’s glove and into center field, to drive Paul. Maroon’s first two hitters of the game, Jack McDermott and George Brindley, both singled to left field, but Jack never advanced past second, as Luis Sanchez retired the next three batters on balls in the air: Tony Garcia popped out to second baseman Mike Velaney, who moved behind first base to make the catch; Steve Browne lined out to Mike; and Scott Wright hit a pop up that first baseman Patrick Schmidt caught in foul territory.
Neither team scored in the second. In the top half, Patrick Schmidt and Gary Coyle hit infield singles with one out – Gary’s was a grounder to the shortstop hole that Tony Garcia played nicely on the backhand, only to airmail his throw to second, Patrick safe on the play. David Pittard escaped the jam by getting Jim Maloy to ground into a double play to third baseman Tim Coles, who fielded the ball, stepped on third for the force there, and threw to Scott Wright at second for the out there. (Scott threw to first, and it looked like the throw beat Jim, but the third out was at second, and I think Jim might have stopped running hard when he saw that the inning was over.)
Luis Sanchez got both Fritz Hensel and Allen Phillips to fly out to Paul Rubin in left-center to open the bottom of the third. David Pittard lined a triple to right-center but did not score, as Luis got Dean Hector to pop a two-strike pitch foul down the third-base side.
Both teams pushed across five runs on six hits in the third: Gray on six singles and Larry Fiorentino’s sacrifice fly to Jack McDermott in right-center; Maroon without making an out, on this sequence – Tim Coles singled; his pinch-runner from first Steve Browne scored on Jack McDermott’s double to near the line in right field; Jack scored on George Brindley’s line triple to right; George scored on Tony Garcia’s pop-fly single to right; Tony took third on Steve Browne’s line single to right; and both Tony and Steve scored on Scott Wright’s triple to right-center.
David Pittard held Gray scoreless in the top of the fourth, working around singles by Gary Coyle leading off and Luis Sanchez with two out. Luis retired the first two batters in the home half, grabbing Fritz Hensel’s liner back to the box and getting Allen Phillips to ground out to second baseman Mike Velaney, but Maroon then mounted a three-run rally to take the lead. David Pittard and Dean Hector both singled, and then they both scored on Tim Coles’s double, a deep drive to right field. Scott Wright ran for Tim and scored on Jack McDermott’s single, a line drive up the middle that Luis defected into right field.
Maroon led 8-0 at this point, and David Pittard protected that lead, holding Gray scoreless in the top of the fifth – two quick outs to shortstop Tony Garcia, on a grounder by Jim McAnelly and a pop by Mike Velaney; then, after Larry Fiorentino and Mike Garrison singled, Tony caught a pop off the bat of Patrick Schmidt.
Maroon put the game away in the bottom of the fifth, scoring five runs on seven hits. Tony Garcia led off with a single and Steve Browne followed with an inside-the-park home run, his third of the season, on an opposite-field line drive. Five of the next six hitters singled and three more runs came across, Maroon extending its lead to 13-6 entering the buffet.
Steve Browne rounds third on his way home with his third homer of the season, for which he’ll receive a Buddy’s Place token. RIP Schlitz Beer, and also Allen Phillips’ six egg-layers, who met an untimely demise this week. (Pour out a Schlitz in their memory, if you can.)
David Pittard made short work of it to close out his victory. Gary Coyle led off with a single, completing a 3-for-3 game, but David got outs from the next three batters: Jim Maloy grounded into a 6-4 force; Paul Rubin flied out to George Brindley in left-center; and Luis Sanchez grounded a ball up the middle that shortstop Tony Garcia, shading Luis that way, fielded and took the bag himself for a game-ending 6-unassisted force.
Final score: Maroon 13, Gray 6
11:30 a.m.: Red (3-8) at Purple (3-8):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET EXTRA FINAL Red 1 4 5 1 7 7 25 Purple 2 2 5 3 6 0 18 Pitchers: Red – Trent Peacock; Purple – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Red – Jack McDermott, Allen Phillips, Paul Rubin, and Jack Spellman; Purple – George Brindley, Larry Fiorentino, and Mike Garrison. Umpires: home – Scott Wright; bases – Steve Browne and David Pittard. Perfect at the plate: Red – Tim Coles and Marvin Krabbenhoft (both 4 for 4 with a walk). Home runs: Ralph Villela (inside the park) (4) and Mike Malay (inside the park)(1). Hit for the cycle: Ralph Villela.
Weather update: 83 degrees, feels like 87; humidity 63%; wind ESE 7 MPH; partly cloudy.
This was a barn-burner of a game, both teams going all out in an effort to escape last place for the session.
Ralph Villela led off the game with a double, tagged and took third on Johnny Lee’s liner to right fielder Patrick Schmidt, and scored on Tim Coles’s ground-ball single to shortstop, Jimmy Sneed throwing past first baseman Joe Roche. Purple won the first inning with two runs in the bottom half, but hurt itself with a pair of base-running mistakes. Patrick Schmidt and Phil Stanch both singled to start the frame. Jimmy Sneed ripped a base hit to right-center, Patrick scoring, but Phil was thrown out 9-4-6-5 (Jack Spellman to Gary Coyle to Ralph Villela to Tim Coles trying for third. Jimmy advanced on Ray Pilgrim’s ground out to pitcher Trent Peacock and scored on Mike Malay’s single. Joe Roche came up, with Patrick running for him from home, and ripped a ball to right field; Mike ran hard and made it to third, and Patrick also ran hard and made it to second, which meant he was out per B League rules. Purple had five hits in the inning, but came away with just the two runs.
Red took the lead with four runs in the top of the second, the first three coming on Ralph Villela’s inside-the-park home run to center field, which drove in mercenary Jacks Spellman (lead-off double) and McDermott (one-out single) ahead of him. The fourth run came on consecutive two-out singles by Johnny Lee, Tim Coles, and Marvin Krabbenhoft.
Ralph Villela drove in Jack McDermott and Jack Spellman and took the season home-run lead with his fourth inside-the-parker of the season. I’m not here to AI-fat-shame anyone, but Jack and I are looking pretty chonky here…
Purple got two runs back in the home half thanks to Larry Fiorentino. After Rick Jensen singled leading off, Larry hit a tremendous drive over the heads of right fielder Allen Phillips and right-center fielder Jack Spellman – we were playing Larry deep, but he absolutely demolished a two-strike pitch, winding up at third with a triple and then scoring on George Brindley’s sacrifice fly, a line drive to Spellman.
Both teams scored five times on six hits in the third inning, Red maintaining its one-run lead, scoring on a walk, five singles, and Ralph Villela’s two-run triple. Two-out singles by Tim Coles and Marvin Krabbenhoft completed the rally. Purple got those runs back without making an out in the bottom half. Jimmy Sneed doubled to open the inning and scored on Ray Pilgrim’s single. Mike Malay drove a ball down the right-field line to the corner for an inside-the-park home run, his first of the season. Joe Roche and Rick Jensen followed with singles, and Joe’s pinch-runner and Rick both scored on Larry Fiorentino’s double.
Mike Malay circles the bases for his first home run of 2026. Whatever Mike’s been eating, Jack McDermott and I should be following suit.
Red got a single run in the top of the fourth, as Gary Coyle drew a lead-off walk, took second on Allen Phillips’ single, third on Jack Spellman’s fly to Phil Stanch in right-center, and scored on Paul Rubin’s base hit. Purple then grabbed the lead with three runs in the bottom half, the first two on Phil Stanch’s double, George Brindley and Mike Garrison scoring after leading off the frame with singles, Phil then scoring on Ray Pilgrim’s two-out single.
Purple led 12-11 entering the buffet. Ralph Villela led off the inning for Red, needing a single to complete the cycle. He got hold of a pitch and drove it to right-center, but was a little under it, and Larry Fiorentino made a good play to run it down and catch it for the first out. Trent Peacock singled and Johnny Lee walked. Tim Coles knocked an RBI single, tying the game. Marvin Krabbenhoft’s single loaded the bases. Gary Coyle squared up on a pitch but lined it directly at Mike Malay at second for out number two. Allen Phillips came through with a single, two runs scoring, Purple now in the lead. Jack Spellman lined a triple to right-center over Larry Fiorentino’s head, two more runs scoring. Paul Rubin singled, Spellman scoring. Jack McDermott singled, Paul taking third. Ralph came up for the second time in the inning and didn’t waste the opportunity, completing the season’s first cycle with a line single to center field that drove in Paul with the seventh run of the inning, which finally ended on Trent Peacock’s liner to Mike Malay.
Ralph Villela hit for the season’s first cycle. (Don’t make me explain the gag.) That ticks off the upper-left box on the 2026 B League Bingo card, now 28% completed:
| B LEAGUE BINGO 2026 | ||||
| B | I | N | G | O |
| Hit for the cycle (Ralph Villela – May 26) | Mad beef re: infield fly rule | Triple play | Ken Brown scores from first on single | Walk-off grand slam |
| Jim Aaron home run for last-place team | Acclaim and adoption of Johnny Lee-created nickname | Batter takes a runner from home, runs past the 1B commit line (April 6) | Both teams score 5 runs in each of the first 3 innings | Spellman plays 5 games (C and B) in one day |
| New guy pops a hammy | Double play, second out at home (March 12) | David Brown makes a great defensive play up the middle | 7-inning game | 3-pitch half-inning (Jeff Stone – April 23) |
| 3 Ohtani Awards in 1 day | Over-the-fence home run at Krieg 2 (April 16) | Base runner hit by batted ball (March 23) | Don Solberg throws out a runner trying for an extra base | Rick Jensen delivers St. Crispin’s Day speech |
| Line drive hits Jack Kelly, he brushes it off (March 30) | Ralph Villela hits 2 inside-the-park home runs in one game | Team flip-flops opponent but loses game | Inside-the-park home run at Krieg 3 | Shutout |
Needing six to tie, Purple’s half of the buffet started inauspiciously, as Rick Jensen lined out to pitcher Trent Peacock. But the next seven batters hit safely, six runs scoring: Larry Fiorentino and George Brindley doubled, and Mike Garrison, Patrick Schmidt, Phil Stanch, Jimmy Sneed, and Ray Pilgrim singled, Jimmy scoring the tying run from first on Ray’s hit. Trent Peacock retired the next two batters, getting Mike Malay to ground into a 6-4 force, Ralph Villela to Gary Coyle, and Joe Roche to fly out to Paul Rubin in center field.
So it was on to an extra inning, the second of the 2026 season. Red started the top half with Trent Peacock on second base. Johnny Lee lined a single to center field and Trent scored, putting Red back in the lead. One-pitch walks to Tim Coles and Marvin Krabbenhoft – the pitch to Marvin was very close, missed by maybe an inch – loaded the bases and completed perfect days at the plate for Tim and Marvin. Gary Coyle cleared the bases with a triple, then scored on Allen Phillips’ single. Jack Spellman and Paul Rubin both walked, the bases again loaded. Jack McDermott singled in the sixth and seventh runs of the inning. Ralph Villela came up with runners on first and second. He hit a fly to left field that Mike Garrison made a good running catch on; Paul tagged up and took third, but Jack had been running on the play, thinking Mike could not make the catch, and actually was well past second when he realized his dilemma, hit the brakes, and retreated, tagging second base and racing back to first. Mike threw to Jimmy Sneed, Jimmy threw to first baseman Joe Roche, and Jack was doubled up, F-7, 7-6-3, though only just barely – actually pretty impressive that Jack almost managed to get back to first before the throw.
That ended the inning, and left Purple chasing seven runs to tie, with Joe Roche starting the inning at second base. Rick Jensen came up and lined a ball to left-center; Allen Phillips had just moved up to a couple feet behind the 120-foot line, got a good jump on the ball, and made a good catch coming in for the second out. Larry Fiorentino came up and hit a fly ball to right field, within reach of Jack Spellman, who made the catch to end the game.
Final score: Red 25, Purple 18, Red’s first win of the season versus Purple in three tries.
12:30 p.m.: Orange (6-5) at Blue (9-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 5 0 5 0 0 0 10 Blue 2 0 1 3 2 3 11 Pitchers: Orange – Tommy Deleon; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Orange – Larry Fiorentino and Ralph Villela; Blue – Mike Garrison, Trent Peacock, Patrick Schmidt, and Phil Stanch. Umpires: home – Rick Jensen; bases – Marvin Krabbenhoft and Gary Coyle. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Mark Hernandez (3 for 3); Blue – Larry Young (3 for 3 with a walk).
Another hard-fought game that very nearly went to an extra inning.
Orange came out hitting against Joe Bernal, its first six batters knocking hits – four singles and doubles by Jack Spellman and Don Solberg, three runs scoring. Matt Levitt brought in a fourth with a sacrifice fly to Patrick Schmidt in left field. Hal Darman came up with runners on first and third and one out; Ralph Villela was the runner at third, having pinch-run from home for Tommy Deleon, and he was on deck. So when Hal took ball four, Orange manager Dave Berra instructed him to decline the walk. Hal lined a ball up the middle, a bit to the right of second base, and it was caught by Donnie Janac; realizing he’d be called out if he didn’t try, Ralph tagged up and raced home, and was safe when Donnie’s hurried throw pulled catcher Trent Peacock off the mat.
Blue got two runs back in the home half of the first. David Brown doubled leading off, Larry Young drew a walk, and George Romo and Donnie Janac delivered one-out RBI singles.
Neither team scored in the second. Joe Bernal allowed two-out singles to Jack Spellman and Pat Scott, then got Don Solberg to hit a short pop in front of first base. It looked off the bat like it would spin foul, but when it landed it just screwed itself into the ground, inches fair; Don didn’t run it out, and first baseman Larry Young tossed to second baseman Donnie Janac alertly covering the bag for the out. Tommy Deleon then worked a 1-2-3 bottom half, needing just five pitches to record three outs on the ground – Phil Stanch and Patrick Schmidt grounded out to shortstop Ralph Villela, Trent Peacock to second baseman Larry Fiorentino.
Orange erupted for five runs again in the top of the third, on five singles and Larry Fiorentino’s double (which drove in the fourth and fifth runs) while making just one out. This was the high-water mark for Orange, which to this point had reached Joe Bernal for 14 hits in 18 at bats plus two sacrifice flies. The rest of the way Orange was 2 for 11, did not score a run, hit four two-strike fouls, and went out in order in both the fourth and the buffet. Basically, Joe remembered that he’s Joe.
Meanwhile Blue methodically chipped away at Orange’s eight-run lead. They scored a run on three singles in the bottom of the third. They got three runs in the fourth on Mike Garrison’s lead-off double and four singles, the last three coming with two out. Donnie Janac opened the bottom of the fifth with a single. Daniel Baladez came up, with David Brown running for him from home, and lined a ball to left-center. Matt Levitt made a great effort moving to his right and got a piece of glove on the drive, but it went past him to the fence, Donnie scoring from first. Dave had to stop at first, but he scored on Mike Garrison’s second double of the game. That cut Orange’s lead to 10-8 entering the buffet.
Orange almost managed to hold on for the win. David Brown popped out to first baseman Mark Hernandez to start the inning, increasing Orange’s win probability to something like 75%. But David ran for Larry Young from home and beat out Larry’s dribbler between the mound and first base – only a handful of runners could have beaten Tommy Deleon’s throw to first, and David is one. Walks to Joe Bernal and George Romo loaded the bases. Donnie Janac popped out to second baseman Larry Fiorentino for the second out. Daniel Baladez hit a fly to left field, in front of left fielder Don Solberg and to Don’s right; Don came in and got a glove on the ball, but couldn’t hold on – it fell in for a single, David and Joe (or maybe a pinch-runner, can’t recall) scoring, tying the game.
Mike Garrison was next. He took three balls, but Blue manager David Brown instructed him to refuse the walk. A couple more pitches missed, and then Tommy Deleon clipped the back of the mat to put the count at 3-2. Mike lofted the next pitch down the left-field side, too deep for Ralph Villela to reach, not deep enough for Don Solberg to get to, the ball falling about six inches fair; George Romo was off on contact from second base and scored the winning run, Blue walking off a tough victory.
Final score: Blue 11, Orange 10
2026 standings:
| Session 2 standings: | ||||||||
| Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 10 | 2 | .833 | 0 | 151 | 111 | 40 | W1 |
| Maroon | 9 | 2 | .818 | 0.5 | 160 | 99 | 61 | W4 |
| Green | 6 | 6 | .500 | 4 | 152 | 143 | 9 | W2 |
| Orange | 6 | 6 | .500 | 4 | 139 | 150 | -11 | L3 |
| Red | 4 | 8 | .333 | 6 | 155 | 169 | -14 | W1 |
| Gray | 4 | 9 | .308 | 6.5 | 152 | 189 | -37 | L1 |
| Purple | 3 | 9 | .250 | 7 | 144 | 192 | -48 | L1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 5-1 | 5-1 | 1 | 0-1 | 2-0 | 2-1 | ||
| Maroon | 5-1 | 4-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 3-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Green | 2-3 | 4-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 4-1 | 0-2 | ||
| Orange | 3-3 | 3-3 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 2-1 | ||
| Red | 0-6 | 4-2 | 0 | 1-0 | 1-3 | 0-0 | ||
| Gray | 2-5 | 2-4 | 2 | 1-0 | 1-4 | 2-3 | ||
| Purple | 0-6 | 3-3 | 0 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 1-1 |
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 15 | |
| Gray | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 11 | |
| Orange | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | |
| Purple | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| Red | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 7 | |
| TOTAL: | 3 | 11 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 63 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Ralph Villela – 4
Steve Browne – 3
Tony Garcia – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Tim Coles – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
Allen Phillips – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
Richard Battle – 1
Joe Bernal – 1
George Brindley – 1
David Brown – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
George Romo – 1
Luis Sanchez – 1
Pat Scott – 1
Jack Spellman – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Ralph Villela – May 26
Ohtani Awards (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Joe Bernal: 4 (March 2, March 19, March 30, April 16)
Ray Pilgrim: 3 (March 5, March 23, March 26)
Tommy Deleon: 2 (April 6, April 30)
Spike Davidson: 1 (May 4)
Rex Horvath: 1 (March 30)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Thursday May 28:
10:30 a.m.: Red (4-8) at Orange (6-6), Purple umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Purple (3-9) at Maroon (9-2), Orange umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (6-6) at Gray (4-9), Maroon umpiring
Blue has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Final games of May. First-place Blue has the bye, which means Maroon can move into a tie for first for the session with a win at 11:30 over Purple, coming off a hard-fought extra-inning loss today. Maroon leads the season series 3-1 and currently has the longest active winning streak, four games. At 10:30, Orange will try to snap its three-game losing streak versus Red, which won in overtime versus Purple today. They’ve split the season series 2-2. At 12:30, Green will play Gray for only the third time this season, the teams having split the first two. Will we celebrate John Fogerty’s 80th birthday with a rendition of “Centerfield,” or will the weather have us singing “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Mark your calendars! Johnny Lee and Arctic Blues Band will be at Lighthouse on the Lake, 513 Sleat Drive in Briarcliff, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm this Saturday night May 30.
Podcast review: The Gargle
This weekly satirical podcast is a companion to The Bugle (reviewed in Picayune Volume 8, Issue 15 of April 30), and positions itself as the glossy audio magazine to the Bugle’s audio newspaper, with “all of the news, and none of the politics.” It’s hosted by Australian comedian/writer Alice Fraser, who is a treasure – super smart, funny as hell, bouncing off a rotating set of co-hosts, heavy on Australians and New Zealanders. The satire is aimed at tech, science, celebrity, pop culture, and the media – basically, goofy stuff in the news. Occasionally Alice will read an excerpt from a romance novel written by her alter ego, D’Ancy LaGarde, guaranteed filthy and hilarious, and usually there will be an ad for primary sponsor Half a Glass of Water. New episodes every other week, alternating with Fraser’s other podcast, Realms Unknown. New England content: Occasional/incidental. Canadian content: Occasional/incidental. Listening speed: 1X, else the accent will flummox. Rating: 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧