B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 29 – July 2, 2026
Games of Thursday July 2:
10:00 a.m.: Maroon (2-2) at Gray (2-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 3 0 1 3 1 8 Gray 4 1 0 2 0 7 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Maroon – Tim Coles and Gary Coyle; Gray – Tom Brownfield, Patrick Schmidt, and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Joe Roche; bases – Peter Sundquist and Jack McDermott. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Gary Coyle (2 for 2 with a double); Gray – Jack Spellman (2 for 2) and Mike Velaney (3 for 3).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 84 degrees, feels like 91; 69% humidity; partly cloudy; wind from the South at 7 MPH. Good weather continues.
Gray came in with the better record, Maroon with the better run differential (+4 for the session, Gray at -5), both teams allowing about 13 runs per game, so it wasn’t a surprise that they engaged in a low-scoring battle. Almost half of the game’s runs were scored in the first inning, Maroon pushing across three runs on five singles in the top half, Gray taking the lead with four runs on Paul Rubin’s double, Scott Rokita’s walk, and six singles in the bottom half. The third and fourth runs scored on hits by Mike Velaney and Jack Kelly, but on Jack’s Jim Foelker was thrown out at home 10-4-2, Alan Phillips to Scott Wright to Jim McAnelly, the first of three costly base-running outs by Gray. Jack Spellman’s single loaded the bases with two out, the fifth run of the inning at third, but Jeff Stone escaped the jam thanks to Tony Garcia, who made an excellent catch of Tom Brownfield’s drive to left-center field.
Jack Kelly held Maroon scoreless in the top of the second, working around two-out singles by Gary Coyle and Steve Browne, and Gray added a run in the home half, though another base-running out ended the inning early. Patrick Schmidt singled leading off; tagged and took second on Bobby Miller’s drive to deep left field, caught by Steve Browne; then took third on Paul Rubin’s single to left-center and scored when the throw in went into the visitors dugout. After some discussion, Paul was awarded second base on the play. He tagged and raced to third on Scott Rokita’s fly to Tony Garcia in left center, but was tagged out when his momentum took him past the bag, which he’d stepped on – technically, an F-8, 8-6-5 double play, Tony to Tim Coles to Gary Coyle, who alertly made the tag. The moral of the story: run through the base. Also, how many times do we have to tell ourselves to be smart on the bases before we’re smart on the bases? (Answer yet unknown.)
Maroon got a run back in the third inning: Tony Garcia led off with a single, tagged and advanced to second on Scott Wright’s fly to Patrick Schmidt in deep right field, and scored on David Pittard’s base hit. Jeff Stone then retired the side in order in the bottom half, I think on only four pitches, two ground outs to shortstop Tim Coles sandwiching Jim Foelker’s liner back to the box.
Maroon took the lead in the top of the fourth with three runs driven in by back-to-back triples by Ken Brown (bringing in Dean Hector, who’d singled leading off, and Gary Coyle, who’d hit a one-out double) and Tony Garcia (Ken scoring), both hit to deep center field, gapping the outfielders and rolling to the fence.
Ken Brown and Tony Garcia hit back-to-back triples in the top of the fourth.
Gray tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, its first four batters knocking singles and the fifth, Patrick Schmidt, delivering a sacrifice fly to Steve Browne in left field, but there was another costly out on the bases as Jim Foelker, running for Jack Kelly, was thrown out 10-6-5 (Alan Phillips to Tim Coles to Gary Coyle) on Jack Spellman’s single to right field. That was the first out of the inning. Patrick’s sac fly was the second. Bobby Miller followed with a single, but the inning ended with Paul Rubin grounding into a 4-6 force out, Scott Wright to Tim Coles.
So it was tied entering the buffet. Jeff Stone and David Pittard singled to open the frame. Fritz Hensel grounded a ball up the middle, to the left of second base, and Scott Rokita made a good play on the ball, fielding it cleanly and stepping on second for the force, but runner from home Ken Brown (I think it was – Steve Browne was running for Jeff, I want to say, with about a 75% confidence level) beat the throw. Alan Phillips then delivered a fly to Paul Rubin in left field that was deep enough to score Steve (I think) with the go-ahead run. Dean Hector also flied out to Paul, ending the inning.
Gray came up needing one to tie, two to win, with the heart of its order due up. Scott Rokita led off with a single, but Jeff Stone retired Daniel Carvajal on a drive to left-center, well struck, but right at Tony Garcia, perfectly positioned; and then got Jim Foelker to hit a two-strike foul. Singles by Jim McAnelly and Mike Velaney loaded the bases, Mike completing a 3-for-3 day at the plate. Jack Kelly came up looking for his third hit, and he made a good bid, with a liner to the 3-4 hole, but Scott Wright made an excellent play to his left to snag the ball for the final out.
Final score: Maroon 8, Gray 7
11:00 a.m.: Purple (0-4) at Blue (3-0):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Purple 2 5 1 0 0 8 Blue 1 2 3 0 0 6 Pitchers: Purple – Ray Pilgrim; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Purple – Tim Coles, Rex Horvath, and Jeff Stone; Blue – Steve Browne, Bobby Miller, and Alan Phillips. Umpires: home – Scott Wright and Dave Berra; bases – David Pittard. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Tim Coles (3 for 3 with a double) and Ray Pilgrim (3 for 3 – Ohtani Award); Blue – David Brown (3 for 3 with a double).
The one constant in B League is that you just never know how a game will play out. Blue came into this game undefeated in Session Three, having allowed only 11 runs in three games, with a league-leading +25 run differential and a season record of 3-0 versus Purple, which had lost its last eight games, including the first four of this session while posting a league-worst -15 run differential. So of course Purple went out, led pillar to post, and upset mighty Blue with an 8-6 victory.
Purple struck quickly in the first, its first three batters knocking singles, Jack McDermott coming around to score. Jimmy Sneed scored on Shane Hill’s ground out to first baseman Larry Young. Patrick Schmidt’s single put runners on the corners, but Joe Bernal got out of the jam thanks to an unusual double play: Rick Jensen grounded to third baseman George Romo; shortstop David Brown, shading Rick up the middle, covered second and took George’s throw, then relayed to first to complete the 5-6-3 twin killing.
Blue got one run back in the home half. David Brown lined a lead-off single to right-center. George Romo, after refusing a walk, hit a grounder to shortstop Jimmy Sneed, but both runners were safe when second baseman Rex Horvath couldn’t get a handle on Jimmy’s throw. Joe Bernal lined out to first baseman Shane Hill, but Tom Bellavia’s single to left-center brought in David from second.
Purple exploded for five runs in the top of the second, the last four coming with two out, on Rex Horvath’s walk, five singles, and Jimmy Sneed’s sacrifice fly to left fielder Patrick Schmidt. The key play came with the bases loaded and one out. Jack McDermott hit a short pop just in front of the plate, about eight feet down the first-base side. Catcher Larry Shupe hustled out to field the ball, but with half a dozen teammates shouting directions, Larry couldn’t readily decide on a course of action. If he’d tried immediately, he might have been able to tag Jack out, as Jack had hesitated in the box before starting for first, but I think Jack was in Larry’s blind side. Larry looked to third, to second, to home, and to first, really didn’t have a play anywhere, and so it went for a (very short) RBI single. ChatGPT doesn’t do it justice:
Blue was left playing catch-up the rest of the game. They got two back in the bottom of the second, Alan Phillips driving in Bobby Miller and Steve Browne with a one-out double to left field. Alan took third on David Brown’s line single to right-center. George Romo lofted a fly to short left field; Patrick Schmidt raced in and made an outstanding shoestring catch; thinking there were two out, Alan had headed for home on contact, and he wound up doubled up, 7-6-5, Patrick to Jimmy Sneed to Jeff Stone, the day’s best defensive play.
Blue won the third inning. Purple knocked four singles in the top half, but came away with just one run due to another out on the bases (theme of the day). Patrick Schmidt led off with a single on a short pop between the catcher and pitcher. Rick Jensen grounded to George Romo at third base again, but George air-mailed his throw past second and into right field; Patrick tried for third on the play, but was thrown out 5-10-5, Alan Phillips firing back to George and completing the Circle of Life and (Base-running) Death©. Two-out singles by Tim Coles and Rex Horvath got one run in. Blue then scored three runs in the home half on Joe Bernal’s lead-off walk and five singles, the damage limited by yet another base-running out: Larry Shupe was gunned down 8-6-5 (Jack McDermott to Jimmy Sneed to Jeff Stone) trying to go first-to-third on Bobby Miller’s single up the middle.
Startlingly, neither team scored the rest of the way. Joe Bernal got two quick outs to start the fourth, David Brown making a nice play on a big bad hop on Jimmy Sneed’s grounder to shortstop for the second out. Ray Pilgrim and Shane Hill knocked singles to right field, but Joe got Patrick Schmidt to pop out to David in short center field. David then led off the bottom of the inning with a double to right field, completing a 3-for-3 game, but never advanced, as Ray Pilgrim got the next three batters to hit balls to shortstop Jimmy Sneed: a pop by George Romo, a grounder by Joe Bernal, and a pop into short left field by Tom Bellavia.
On to the buffet, Purple leading by two. Joe Bernal retired both Rick Jensen and Billy Hill on grounders to third baseman George Romo to open the inning. Tim Coles walloped a drive to deep left field that hit the fence, Tim winding up at second with a double, completing a 3-for-3 game. Rex Horvath refused a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Thinking the count reverted to 1-1 (as it does at Sun City, but not in B League), he took a called strike three to end the inning.
Needing two to tie, Blue got hits from its first two batters in the bottom of the buffet: Larry Young lined a single to right-center, and Donnie Janac delivered a Texas League single to center field. Ice water flows through Ray Pilgrim’s veins, however. He got Larry Shupe to pop out to second baseman Rex Horvath. Bobby Miller drove a pitch to right field, but Rick Jensen was perfectly positioned and hardly moved to make the catch, Larry’s pinch-runner tagging and advancing to third. Steve Browne made a bid to the opposite field, but got under Ray’s offering and popped it up, Rex squeezing it for the final out.
Final score: Purple 8, Blue 6
Ray Pilgrim earned his fifth Ohtani Award of the season, presented to him by Hatsune Miko.
Noon: Green (1-2) at Orange (2-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 5 0 2 5 6 18 Orange 5 5 1 1 2 14 Pitchers: Green – Spike Davidson; Orange – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Orange – Tom Bellavia, Jim Foelker, Alan Phillips, Ray Pilgrim, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – George Romo. Perfect at the plate: Green – Ivan Budiselic (4 for 4 with a home run) and Spike Davidson (4 for 4 – Ohtani Award); Orange – Tommy Deleon, Pat Scott, and Jack Spellman (all 3 for 3) and Scott Wright (3 for 3 with a triple). Home run: Ivan Budiselic (inside the park) (1).
No team in the day’s first two games reached double digits in runs scored. That wouldn’t be an issue in this contest, as Orange got to ten in the first two innings and Green scored 11 over its last two at bats.
Both teams came out hitting and scored five times in the first, Green on eight singles (three to open the game, five after two were out), Orange on singles by its first three batters, Don Solberg’s two-run double, a bases-loading walk drawn by Tom Bellavia, and a triple by Scott Wright, a line drive hammered directly at and over the head of right fielder Doc Hobar.
Tommy Deleon blanked the top of the Green lineup in the second, working around Steve Sandall’s one-out single, and Orange took the lead with another five-spot in the home half. Spike Davidson retired Jim Foelker (fly to left fielder Mike Garrison) and Ray Pilgrim (pop to third baseman Gary Coyle) to start the inning, but the next six batters knocked hits, five singles and a big two-run double by Mark Hernandez.
Orange seemed to have the game in hand, but wound up not winning another inning, Green chipping away relentlessly. They scored two runs on five singles in the top of the third, leaving the bases loaded, and held Orange to one run on singles by its first three batters in the home half, the inning ending with Rex Horvath turning a 4u., 4-3 double play on Ray Pilgrim’s grounder up the middle.
Green exploded for five runs in the top of the fourth and took the lead. Mike Garrison tripled and Rex Horvath doubled to start the inning, and five of the next six batters singled. Doc Hobar got the fifth run in with a sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in left field, Spike Davidson’s pinch-runner (Terry O’Brien, maybe?) easily scoring to put Green ahead 12-11.
Orange knotted the score at a dozen apiece with a run in the bottom half on consecutive one-out singles by Tommy Deleon, Jack Spellman, and Pat Scott (each of them 3 for 3 in the game). But Spike Davidson retired Mark Hernandez on a fly to Mike Garrison in left field, then got Don Solberg to foul off a two-strike pitch.
Green’s Steve Sandall and Mike Garrison opened the buffet with singles. Rex Horvath hit a high pop behind second base, in the grass; it had enough hang time for shortstop Jack Spellman to get back for it and try to make a basket catch, but I couldn’t hold on, dropped it. I caught it on the bounce, looked to throw to second to get Doc Hobar, running for Steve, but Doc, totally anticipating my flub, had committed to running to second. The realization that I would have easily doubled Doc up if I’d made the catch about killed me, and I broke Krieg’s sacred No Profanity commandment not once, not twice, but three times.
Fark. Frig. Frug.
Mike, alertly, had scored on the play, and Doc came in on Gary Coyle’s sacrifice fly to Pat Scott in left-center field. Second baseman Scott Wright made a great play on Terry O’Brien’s screaming one-hopper to Scott’s right, flipping to second for the force on Rex. That was the second out of the inning (would have been the fourth but for my misplay), but the bottom of the Green lineup commenced to come up big. Tom Brownfield singled, Terry aggressively scoring from first, for the second time in the game beating a throw home, this one from Scott Wright (in the second inning it was Spellman who was late home). Spike Davidson singled, his fourth hit in as many at bats. Then Ivan Budiselic stepped up and hammered a drive to deep right-center that rolled to the fence for a three-run inside-the-park home run, a true back-breaker. Boo Resnick lined out to Scott at second to end the inning, but Green was up by six runs.
Ivan Budiselic hits his first home run of the 2024 season at a key moment.
Hal Darman led off the home half of the buffet with a single, pinch-runner from home Pat Scott awarded second when shortstop Terry O’Brien’s throw sailed into the home dugout. Ivan Budiselic, not content with dashing our dreams at the plate, made a great play on Tom Bellavia’s foul pop on the third-base side, snagging it inches from the dugout chain-link fence for the first out. Scott Wright, Jim Foelker, and Ray Pilgrim came through with singles, Pat and Scott coming around to score. But the game ended with a Terry O’Brien and Rex Horvath turning a smart 6-4-3 double play on Alan Phillips’s sharp grounder.
Final score: Green 18, Orange 14
Spike Davidson earned his second Ohtani Award of the season, presented by the great artist Masako Miki.
Tommy Deleon went 3 for 3 at the plate, but all he gets is a No-Tahni Award.
Quote of the Day: Don Solberg made me laugh when he asked, after the third game, “Whose dumb phone is this?”
Don reminds you: July is Cell Phone Courtesy Month.
2026 standings:
| Session 3 standings: | ||||||||
| Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 3 | 1 | .750 | 0 | 42 | 19 | 23 | L1 |
| Maroon | 3 | 2 | .600 | 0.5 | 63 | 58 | 5 | W2 |
| Orange | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 67 | 68 | -1 | L1 |
| Green | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 60 | 61 | -1 | W1 |
| Gray | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 41 | 47 | -6 | L1 |
| Red | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 41 | 48 | -7 | L2 |
| Purple | 1 | 4 | .200 | 2.5 | 65 | 78 | -13 | W1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 1-1 | 2-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 3-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Maroon | 1-1 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1-1 | ||
| Orange | 1-2 | 1-0 | 1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Green | 1-2 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-1 | ||
| Gray | 0-1 | 2-1 | 0 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Red | 1-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1-0 | ||
| Purple | 0-3 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0-1 | ||
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 20 | |
| Gray | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 10 | |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 11 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 15 | |
| Orange | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 12 | |
| Purple | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 | |
| Red | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 11 | |
| TOTAL: | 5 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 13 | 18 | 13 | 87 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Terry O’Brien – 5
Ralph Villela – 5
David Brown – 3
Steve Browne – 3
Tony Garcia – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Tim Coles – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Allen Phillips – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jack Spellman – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
Richard Battle – 1
Joe Bernal – 1
George Brindley – 1
Ivan Budiselic – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Doc Hobar – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
Trent Peacock – 1
Scott Rokita – 1
George Romo – 1
Luis Sanchez – 1
Steve Sandall – 1
Jimmy Sneed – 1
Scott Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Ralph Villela – May 26
Ohtani Awards (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Joe Bernal: 7 (March 2, March 19, March 30, April 16, June 22, June 25, June 29)
Ray Pilgrim: 5 (March 5, March 23, March 26, June 1, July 2)
Tommy Deleon: 3 (April 6, April 30, June 11)
Spike Davidson: 2 (May 4, July 2)
Rex Horvath: 1 (March 30)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Monday July 6:
10:00 a.m.: Purple (1-4) at Red (2-2), Green umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Green (2-2) at Gray (2-2), Purple umpiring
Noon: Orange (2-2) at Blue (3-1), Gray umpiring
Maroon has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Today’s results have bunched up the standings – Purple, which defeated first-place Blue, is the only team under .500; four teams are at 2-2 for the session, Maroon is 3-2, has the bye, and might move into first place depending on Monday’s outcomes. Purple will look to climb back into the race at 10:00 versus Red, coming off the bye. Purple leads the season series 2-1. Two of the .500 teams, Green and Gray, play at 11:00 for just the third time this season, having split their first two meetings. One of Orange or Blue will get back on track after losing today, when they square off at noon. Blue leads the season series 3-0. Will anyone step up and provide the league with fried chicken on National Fried Chicken Day? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Alan Phillips has simple, excellent advice for dealing with the extreme heat and humidity: when you come into the dugout for your team’s innings at the bat, take your cap off. No need to trap that excess heat at skull level.
This tumbler was left behind today. Scott Wright is holding on to it, he’ll get it to you when he returns from traveling next week.
Podcast review: A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
The one-sentence description – Andrew Hickey presents a history of rock music from 1938 to 1999, looking at five hundred songs that shaped the genre – doesn’t do justice to this splendid podcast. Hickey deep-dives into the songs and artists, with an incredible wealth of detail and context. He’s dropping about one episode every three months now, but they’re all magnificent. Each one feels like an event. He’s up to song #183, and frankly, I don’t see how he gets to 500 in his or my lifetime. I’m just reveling in each new episode when it arrives, without warning. New England content: Some, not a lot. Still waiting on the 120-minute exegesis of the Standells’ “Dirty Water.” Canadian content: More – you’ve got The Band, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young… Listening speed: Regular speed.
Rating: 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧