B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 34 – July 23, 2026
Department of Corrections: Ralph Villela notes that it was Tim Coles who relayed the throw from Anthony Galindo to Marvin Krabbenhoft that gunned down Larry Shupe at home in the extra inning of Monday’s epic Red-Blue game. (Hard to tell the infielders apart when you’re looking at their backs from deep right-center field.) The Picayune is happy to correct the error.
Also and as ever, I missed noting a player who was perfect at the plate: Peter Atkins was 3 for 3 for Orange versus Maroon on Monday. The Picayune regrets the error.
More an error of omission than commission, but I also regret not noting Lawrence Page’s triumphant-ish return to action Monday after two and a half months out with a broken wrist. Very glad to have Lawrence back.
Games of Thursday July 23:
10:00 a.m.: Purple (2-6) at Gray (3-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Purple 0 1 0 0 0 6 7 Gray 5 1 4 0 X X 10 Pitchers: Purple – Ray Pilgrim; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Purple – Daniel Baladez, Gary Coyle, Jeff Stone, and Ralph Villela; Gray – Hal Darman, Donnie Janac, Jack Spellman, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Steve Browne; bases – David Pittard. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Jim McAnelly (3 for 3) and Paul Rubin (3 for 3 with a double).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 87, felt like 95; humidity 60%; wind from the NE at 6 MPH; sunny but hazy – hot and humid.
Purple interim manager Rick Jensen said afterward that the Player of the Game was Jack Kelly, and it’s impossible to argue with this. Jack had Purple beating the ball into the ground and held the visitors to just one run over the first five innings, and that one was due to a fielding misplay. He got Patrick Schmidt (back to the box) and Jack McDermott (to third base, excellent cross-diamond throw by Scott Wright) on ground outs to start the game, allowed singles to Rick Kahn and Ray Pilgrim, then got Shane Hill to ground into a 6u. force.
His teammates gave Jack a 5-0 lead in the home half, all the runs scoring on five consecutive two-out singles after Paul Rubin doubled down the left-field line with one out.
Purple got on the board with, basically, an unearned run in the top of the second. Billy Hill grounded out sharply to third baseman Scott Wright to start the inning. Rick Jensen grounded to shortstop, but Jack Spellman airmailed his throw over the head of first baseman Jim McAnelly, Rick safe. Ralph Villela hit a hard grounder to Spellman’s left – I got to it and flipped to second baseman Mike Velaney for the second out, what should have been the third. Ralph then scored from first on Jeff Stone’s single, the relay in poorly handled. Daniel Baladez’s single put runners on the corners, but Jack got Gary Coyle to ground into an inning-ending 6-4 force out.
Gray got that run back in the bottom half of the second when Jim Foelker knocked a two-out triple over the head of Patrick Schmidt in left-center field, then scored on Paul Rubin’s single to left field. Clint Fletcher laced a single to left-center, but Paul was gunned down 8-5, Patrick Schmidt to Jeff Stone, trying for third.
Patrick then led off the third with a single, but Jack Kelly retired the next three batters, two on force plays at second base, then Ray Pilgrim on a fly to Paul Rubin in right center.
Gray put the game out of reach in the bottom of the third, scoring four runs on six singles, Hal Darman’s walk, and Donnie Janac’s sacrifice fly to Rick Kahn in right-center field. That made it 10-1 in Gray’s favor.
Neither team scored in the fourth. Billy Hill knocked a clean one-out single to left in the top half, but was erased on Rick Jensen’s double-play grounder, 6u., 6-3. Ray Pilgrim worked around singles by Jim McAnelly (completing a 3-for-3 game) and Jack Spellman in the bottom half.
Purple had its mercenaries up in the top of the fifth, but Jack Kelly made short work of them, getting three quick outs in the air: Ralph Villela flied out to Clint Fletcher in left-center, Jeff Stone flied out to Paul Rubin in right-center, and Daniel Baladez popped out to third baseman Scott Wright.
With Gray up by nine, the teams flip-flopped and proceeded to the buffet. Purple’s bats finally came alive, its first five batters in the inning hitting safely and scoring, three singles and doubles by Patrick Schmidt and Ray Pilgrim. Jim McAnelly speared Shane Hill’s liner down the first-base side for the first out, and Hal Darman caught Billy Hill’s foul pop for the second. Base hits by Rick Jensen (single), Ralph Villela (two-run double), and Jeff Stone (single) extended the inning, with Ralph’s hit bringing Purple to within three runs and Jeff’s getting the tying run to the plate. But Jack Kelly got Daniel Baladez to ground into a 4-6 force, Mike Velaney to Jack Spellman, for the final out.
Final score: Gray 10, Purple 7
11:00 a.m.: Maroon (6-2) at Red (3-5):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 2 5 4 5 1 17 Red 2 0 5 0 9 16 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Red – Trent Peacock. Mercenaries: Maroon – Terry O'Brien and Paul Rubin; Tom Brownfield entered for Fritz Hensel in the bottom of the first; Red – Clint Fletcher, Jim Foelker, Rex Horvath, and Patrick Schmidt. Umpires: home – Jack Kelly; bases – Jim McAnelly. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Ken Brown and Scott Wright (both 4 for 4), Tom Brownfield (3 for 3), Fritz Hensel (a walk in his only plate appearance), and Terry O'Brien (3 for 3 with a home run); Red – Anthony Galindo (3 for 3 with a walk and a triple). Home runs: Trent Peacock (inside the park) (3), Terry O'Brien (inside the park) (6), Jim Foelker (inside the park) (1), and Ralph Villela (inside the park) (8).
Weather update: 93 degrees, felt like 103; humidity 50%; wind from the NNE at 7 MPH; sunny with some haze. Danged hot.
Maroon seemed to have this well in hand until Red exploded in the buffet following a flip-flop.
Both teams scored twice in the first inning, Maroon in the top half on a three-batter sequence: Ken Brown singled with one out and scored on Tony Garcia’s line triple to right-center, and Tony scored on Scott Wright’s line single to right. A single by Jeff Stone and a walk drawn by Fritz Hensel loaded the bases, but Trent Peacock caught David Pittard looking at a called strike three, then got Alan Phillips to ground into an inning-ending 6-4 force. Red needed just two batters to tie the score in the home half: Ralph Villela led off with a double to left field, and Trent Peacock followed with a liner that rolled to the fence in right field for a two-run homer, Trent’s third of the season:
Looks cool in the fjord.
Note: Fritz Hensel, not feeling right in the heat, took himself out of the game at this point, Tom Brownfield entering in his place. Props to Fritz for listening to his body, and thanks to Tom for stepping up.
Jeff Stone got out of the inning without much more trouble, working around Anthony Galindo’s single, and Maroon proceeded to take control of the game, scoring five times in the top of the second, on seven singles and Tony Garcia’s sacrifice fly to Anthony in right-center. Jeff then blanked Red in the bottom half, allowing a lead-off single to Clint Fletcher, then getting three outs on balls in the air: Rex Horvath popped out to shortstop Tony Garcia, and Patrick Schmidt and Jim Foelker both flied out, to Terry O’Brien in left-center and Ken Brown in right-center.
Maroon scored four more runs in the top of the third, the first two on Terry O’Brien’s sixth home run of the season, an inside-the-parker to left-center field after David Pittard drew a lead-off walk. Not shown in the AI rendering is that Ralph Villela’s relay home was on time, but hopped over the glove of catcher Marvin Krabbenhoft:
Mmm, cool Antarctic ice cap…
Red responded with five runs in the bottom of the third, on six singles and Anthony Galindo’s walk, cutting Maroon’s lead to 11-7, but Maroon scored five times in its next at bat, in the top of the fourth. Tom Brownfield led off with a single. Trent Peacock then retired David Pittard and Alan Phillips on flies to Anthony Galindo in right-center and Patrick Schmidt in left-center, but couldn’t get the third out. The next three batters singled, two runs scoring, and then Ken Brown and Tony Garcia capped the rally with back-to-back run-scoring doubles, both very well struck.
That put Maroon ahead 16-7, and Jeff Stone shut out Red in the bottom half, working around Jim Foelker’s one-out infield single.
With Maroon leading by nine, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet, and Red proceeded to hang a nine-spot on Jeff. The first four batters singled, two runs scoring. Jeff got Clint Fletcher to ground into a 6-4 force for the first out, but Rex Horvath singled past third base, driving in Red’s third run of the inning. Patrick Schmidt popped out to third baseman David Pittard, who made the catch in foul territory for out number two. Jim Foelker hit a drive to center field over the outfielders for a two-run inside-the-park homer, his first of the season:
Ralph Villela then ripped a line drive to right field, about three feet fair, that rolled to the corner for a three-run inside-the-park home run, Ralph’s league-leading eighth homer of the season:
Greenland ice floes, so chill…
That cut Maroon’s lead to 16-14. Trent Peacock and Richard Battle extended the inning with singles to right field. Anthony Galindo came up and lined a ball to right field, gapping Ken Brown and Paul Rubin; both Trent and Richard scored, tying the game, but Anthony was put out on a rare-for-him base-running mistake – he ran through third, hitting the bag, and before he could back was tagged out by David Pittard, at the back end of a 9-6-5 relay (Ken Brown to Tony Garcia to David), ending the inning.
Maroon came up for its half of the buffet needing a run to win. They got it quickly: Scott Wright lined a lead-off single to right field; Jeff Stone singled to right-center, Scott stopping at second; and Tom Brownfield hit a clean single up the middle, Scott easily scoring the game-winning run, Maroon walking off the victory.
Final score: Maroon 17, Red 16
Noon: Green (5-3) at Blue (4-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 5 5 0 5 5 X 20 Blue 0 0 4 5 0 1 10 Pitchers: Green – Spike Davidson; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Blue – Richard Battle and Jack Spellman; Anthony Galindo entered for Lawrence Page in the third inning. Umpires: home – Anthony Galindo and Scott Wright; bases – Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: Green – Ivan Budiselic (3 for 3), Gary Coyle and Steve Sandall (both 4 for 4), and Larry Fiorentino (3 for 3 with a triple); Blue – Jack Spellman (3 for 3 with a double and a triple). Home runs: Terry O'Brien (2, both inside the park) (7, 8).
Weather update: I didn’t check the KXAN weather app, but over the course of the game we got a bit more air movement, possibly the leading edge of the tropical depression coming from the Gulf, and it didn’t feel quite so stultifying.
Terry O’Brien had himself a day at the plate. After going 3 for 3 with a home run as a mercenary for Maroon in the 11:00 game, he hit safely in his first three at bats for Green in this game, knocking a single and scoring in the first inning, legging out an inside-the-park grand slam in the second inning, and connecting for a two-run inside-the-park homer in the fourth. Green posted five-run innings in four of the first five frames and never let Blue get into this game.
Terry’s single in the first was one of Green’s seven hits in the inning, six singles and a double by Rex Horvath that drove in the first two runs of the game.
Spike Davidson allowed a lead-off single to David Brown in the bottom of the first, then retired the next three batters, getting both Joe Bernal and George Romo to hit two-strike fouls.
Green then scored five times again in the second. Lead-off singles by Boo Resnick, Steve Sandall, and Mike Garrison set up Terry’s grand slam. Rex Horvath flied out, then Gary Coyle singled and scored on Tom Brownfield’s triple to deep right field.
Could definitely go for some Amy’s.
Spike Davidson then retired the side in order in the bottom of the second, on two ground outs and another two-strike foul.
Joe Bernal held Green scoreless in the third. Larry Fiorentino came up with one out, and Jack Spellman in right-center field said to Donnie Janac in right field, “Larry hasn’t been driving the ball with so much authority lately, I’m going to squeeze him a bit,” and I came up to about 30 feet behind the 120-foot line. Larry then drove the ball with so much authority over our heads to the fence in right-center. I did a race of shame to retrieve the ball, and heaved it to David Brown, who’d come way out from shortstop for the cutoff. David spun and fired home to catcher Larry Shupe, a laser strike that beat Larry by a step, rewarding my terrible placement with an assist on the 9-6-2 putout.
Blue then got on the board with four runs in the home half, on five singles, a walk to David Brown, and Anthony Galindo’s sacrifice fly to Mike Garrison in left field. (Anthony, after starting the game as the home plate umpire, came in at the top of the third inning for Lawrence Page, who tweaked a hamstring while playing left field; Scott Wright took over as plate umpire.) The inning ended with the potential fifth run stranded at third, as Rex Horvath started a 6-4-3 double play, Terry O’Brien on the pivot, on Donnie Janac’s ground ball.
Both teams scored five runs in the fourth inning. Green did it with a team cycle: Steve Sandall led off with a single and scored on Terry O’Brien’s second home run of the game, eighth of the season; Rex Horvath singled and scored on Gary Coyle’s single; Tom Brownfield tripled to right-center, driving in Gary; and Tom scored on Spike Davidson’s sacrifice fly to Donnie Janac in right.
Terry O’Brien tied Ralph Villela for the season home run lead with his third of the day, eighth of the season.
Blue scored its five runs after two were out. Larry Young and Daniel Baladez opened the inning with singles. Spike Davidson started a 1-6-3 double play, Rex Horvath on the pivot, on Larry Shupe’s one-hop comebacker to the mound. Richard Battle singled in the first run, then scored on Jack Spellman’s cheap-ass pop-fly triple to right field that spun away from Tom Brownfield into foul territory. David Brown doubled in Spellman, and the next three batters singled to bring in the fourth and fifth runs.
Green kept hitting in the fifth inning, knocking eight more singles for another five runs. Larry Fiorentino, Ivan Budiselic, Steve Sandall, and Gary Coyle all completed perfect days at the plate with their hits. Hilariously, Larry got himself thrown out at home again. He led off the inning with a single to right-center and took second on Ivan’s hit. Boo Resnick popped a ball into short right-center, too deep for David Brown to reach, not deep enough for Jack Spellman to get to; the bull spun past me as I charged in, I retrieved it and flipped to David, said “You throw it,” and David made another perfect strike home to Larry Shupe to gun down Mr. Fiorentino, who yelled (there might have been an F bomb) in frustration. I’ll note that I picked up another assist on the play, for making an 18-inch flip to David after overrunning the ball. I’m pretty sure there’s a moral to the story, and it may be in the fortune cookie that Larry Fiorentino received later at P.F. Chang’s:
Now working with a 20-9 lead, Spike Davidson threw another scoreless inning in the bottom of the fifth, allowing singles to Larry Young and Larry Shupe.
With Green up by 11, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Jack Spellman led off with another bloop down the right-field side, for a double, and advanced and scored on fly balls to Larry Fiorentino in right-center by David Brown and Anthony Galindo. The day ended with game MVP Terry O’Brien, appropriately, catching Joe Bernal’s pop for the final out.
Final score: Green 20, Blue 10, Green posting its first win over Blue this season after five losses. Sure, Blue got pummeled, but the true take-away is that Larry Fiorentino got thrown out at home, 9-6-2, twice. Also, everyone survived the brutal heat.
2026 standings:
| Session 3 standings: | ||||||||
| Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Maroon | 7 | 2 | .778 | 0 | 120 | 106 | 14 | W6 |
| Green | 6 | 3 | .667 | 1 | 135 | 126 | 9 | W3 |
| Orange | 4 | 4 | .500 | 2.5 | 111 | 102 | 9 | L2 |
| Blue | 4 | 4 | .500 | 2.5 | 84 | 78 | 6 | L2 |
| Gray | 4 | 4 | .500 | 2.5 | 82 | 83 | -1 | W2 |
| Red | 3 | 6 | .333 | 4 | 110 | 133 | -23 | L1 |
| Purple | 2 | 7 | .222 | 5 | 114 | 128 | -14 | L3 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | Last 5 | ||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | games: | ||
| Maroon | 3-1 | 4-1 | 2 | 0-0 | 2-1 | 4-1 | WWWWW | |
| Green | 1-3 | 5-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 3-1 | 2-1 | WLWWW | |
| Orange | 2-2 | 2-2 | 1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 1-1 | LWWLL | |
| Blue | 2-3 | 2-1 | 1 | 1-1 | 3-2 | 1-1 | LLWLL | |
| Gray | 2-2 | 2-2 | 0 | 1-1 | 2-0 | 1-3 | LLLWW | |
| Red | 2-3 | 1-3 | 0 | 1-0 | 1-4 | 2-1 | LLLWL | |
| Purple | 0-4 | 2-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0-3 | WWLLL | |
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 21 | |
| Gray | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 12 | |
| Green | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 15 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 19 | |
| Orange | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 14 | |
| Purple | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | |
| Red | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 12 | |
| TOTAL: | 8 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 15 | 21 | 17 | 102 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Terry O’Brien – 8
Ralph Villela – 8
David Brown – 3
Steve Browne – 3
Tim Coles – 3
Tony Garcia – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Trent Peacock – 3
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Allen Phillips – 2
Scott Rokita – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Jack Spellman – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
Richard Battle – 1
Joe Bernal – 1
George Brindley – 1
Ivan Budiselic – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Jim Foelker – 1
Tommy Gillis – 1
Doc Hobar – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Jack McDermott – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
George Romo – 1
Luis Sanchez – 1
Steve Sandall – 1
Patrick Schmidt – 1
Scott Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Ralph Villela – May 26
Ohtani Awards (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Joe Bernal: 8 (March 2, March 19, March 30, April 16, June 22, June 25, June 29, July 9)
Ray Pilgrim: 6 (March 5, March 23, March 26, June 1, July 2, July 9)
Tommy Deleon: 4 (April 6, April 30, June 11, July 6)
Spike Davidson: 3 (May 4, July 2, July 20)
Jeff Stone: 2 (March 2, July 9)
Rex Horvath: 1 (March 30)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Schedule for Monday July 27:
10:00 a.m.: Blue (4-4) at Purple (2-7), Orange umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Orange (4-3) at Green (6-3), Purple umpiring
Noon: Gray (4-4) at Maroon (7-2), Green umpiring
Red has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Mid-season absences (perhaps with an assist from the July heat) has shifted the momentum somewhat, with Maroon taking charge of the session with six consecutive wins, now leading Green, on a three-game winning streak, by one game, with a three-way tie for third place. Blue has lost its last two games and four of its last five, and looks to get back on the winning track at 10:00 against Purple, which has dropped its last three. Blue leads the season series 3-1. Orange hopes it will be refreshed by the bye, which came after the team lost its last two and three of its last five. At 11:00 they’ll face a surging Green team, which has won three in a row and four of its last five, and leads the season series 4-1. Gray puts its two-game winning streak on the line at noon against first-place Maroon, which leads the season series 3-1. The extreme heat is forecast to continue, nearing triple digits on Monday, so hydrate in advance and day of. Will we continue to apply common sense in the face of this oppressive heat? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Speaking of hydration, Jeff Stone helpfully forwards this article on the importance of electrolytes, particularly on point given the extreme heat: https://share.google/
Podcast review: Rates & Barrels
I continue to search for a daily-ish podcast that covers Major League Baseball in an engaging, intelligent way. This one, produced by The Athletic, is what I’ve settled on for the time being, but it’s only adequate. Hosts Eno Sarris and Derek VanRiper (a.k.a. DVR), along with regular contributors Trevor May, Jed Lowrie, and Britt Ghiroli, talk for an hour plus every weekday about MLB doings, very much through the lens of fantasy baseball, which… meh. Not really my thing. But their coverage of news and focus on players is pretty good, even though I don’t care at all about fantasy “value.” On Saturdays they hand off to Jayson Stark and Doug Glanville for “Starkville,” which is a resuscitation of an unmissed Athletic podcast from a year or two ago – I don’t mind Glanville, but Stark is the worst kind of hack, a self-proclaimed “insider” who thinks he’s hilarious, laughs at his own jokes (as does Eno Sarris, Monday through Friday, though somehow not quite so annoyingly), and is a deeply unserious person lacking insight and interviewing skills. New England content: Appropriate amount of coverage of the Red Sox. Canadian content: Appropriate amount of coverage of the Blue Jays. Listening speed: I go at 1.2X, and you can probably push it to 1.5. Rating: 🎧 🎧