B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 5, Issue 28 – June 26, 2023
B League President Jack McDermott on Tuesday June 20 announced the reassignments of Purple team’s players:
Jack Crosley to Blue team.
Larry Bunton and Gil Delossantos to Gold team.
Doc Hobar to Gray team.
Tommy Deleon and Don Solberg to Green team.
Billy Hill to Maroon team.
Mike Mordecai and Adam Reddell to Red team.
Jim Aaron and Ralph Villela will remain unassigned and first out of the bucket.
Games of June 22 were cancelled due to rain and wet fields.
Weather: Still hot and steamy: 80 degrees, with 89% humidity at 10:30, up to 96 degrees, humidity supposedly dropping to 53% by 12:30, with cloudless skies throughout.
Injured list:
Blue team: Stan Fisher – Dupuytren’s contracture
Gold team: Jeff Stone – broken left pinky finger
Maroon team: Chris Villareal – hamstring
Red team: Gregory Bied – pulled quadriceps
Alvin Gauna – broken finger
Games of Monday June 26:
10:30 a.m., Red (1-1) at Green (0-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Red 0 1 2 4 1 0 8 Green 5 5 0 5 X X 15 Pitchers: Red – Terry Thompson; Green – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Red – Peter Atkins and Jack Spellman; Green – Tim Coles and Bobby Miller. Umpires: home plate – Rick Jensen and Trey Wal; bases – Trey Wall and Jim McAnelly. Perfect at the plate: Red – Sam Baker (3 for 3) and Scott Sovereen (2 for 2 with a walk); Green – Tim Coles (3 for 3 with a double); Tommy Deleon, Donnie Janac, and Ray Pilgrim (each 3 for 3); and Don Solberg (2 for 2 with a walk). Homerun:
Green sure didn’t look like an 0-2, last-place team, scoring five runs in each of its first two innings (on six singles, a walk, and Buddy Gaswint’s sacrifice fly in the first, and six singles and Bobby Miller’s double in the second) while holding Red to just one run over that stretch (Sam Baker led off the second with the first of his three line singles and scored on singles by Hal Darman, Scott Sovereen, and Peter Atkins – I’m not sure who actually drove Sam in). Terry Thompson kept Green from scoring in the bottom of the third, after Red scored two runs on four singles in the top half, and then Red cut Green’s lead to 10-7 with four runs in the top of the fourth, on six singles. But Green iced the game with five runs in the bottom of the fourth, on a walk, four singles, and a double by Tim Coles, making his B League debut with a 3-for-3 effort. (Tim played in the “G” (for Georgetown) spring league in early 2021. His first at bat today he hit a pop fly that was about 300 feet high with a ten-second hang time and gave me vertigo at shortstop, landing behind me as I fell to the grass, befuddled.)
Sam Baker’s third single opened the fifth inning, but he was erased on a 6-4-3 double play, Mike Hill to Clint Fletcher to Buddy Gaswint, on Hal Darman’s ground ball. Scott Sovereen walked and scored on Jack Spellman’s double, but that was all Red managed in the inning. The teams agreed to flip-flop and go to the buffet. Red got singles from Terry Thompson (his third hit) and Adam Reddell, but no more runs. Final score: Green 15, Red 8
11:30 a.m., Gold (2-0) at Gray (1-0):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gold 0 1 3 5 3 1 13 Gray 5 2 5 1 3 X 16 Pitchers: Gold – Gil Delossantos; Gray – Greg Lloyd. Mercenaries: Gold – Carl Gallagher. Umpires: home plate – Anthony Galindo and Jack Crosley; bases – Jimmy Schull and Larry Fiorentino. Perfect at the plate: Gold – Gil Delossantos (2 for 2 with a walk); Gray – Doc Hobar (4 for 4 with a double) and Alex Valles (3 for 3). Homerun: Carl Gallagher (inside-the-park grand slam).
Gray shortstop David Kruse started 6u., 6-3 double plays in each of the first two innings, on balls hit by Jack Spellman and Larry Bunton, and Gold managed just one run, Denny Malloy scoring on Rip Wright’s single in the second. Meanwhile Gray came out hitting, scoring five times in the first, all with two out, on six singles and a walk, getting two runs across in the second on sacrifice flies by Daniel Carvajal and Rick Kahn, and adding another five-spot in the third on five singles, a walk, and another sacrifice fly by Daniel.
Gold finally started hitting in the third, a double by Tim Bruton and a triple by Joe Roche the big hits in a three-run rally, and then broke through for five runs in the fourth, the first four on Carl Gallagher’s inside-the-park grand slam to right field.
Quote of the Day: Joe Roche, coming into third on his third-inning triple: “Where’s my Taco Bell?”
Gray scored a single run in the bottom of the fourth: Trey Wall led off with a single, took third on Rick Jensen’s double, and and both held on Alex Valles’s infield hit, which loaded the bases. Trey scored on Jim McAnelly’s grounder to short, which resulted in a force at third. Gil Delossantos stranded the other two runners when he caught Greg Lloyd looking at a called strike three.
Gold cut Gray’s lead to 13-12 on a three-run double down the left-field line by Joe Dayoc in the top of the fifth, but Gray got those runs right back in the top of the fifth inning, as the first four batters hit safely: Doc Hobar completed a 4-for-4 game with a double, David Kruise singled, Daniel Carvajal doubled, and Rick Kahn singled. The next three batters went out, but Gray led 16-12 heading into the buffet.
Tim Bruton led off the inning with a triple, then scored on a ground out to second baseman Doc Hobar by Jack Spellman, his fourth straight groundball out in a truly miserable game. Mike Garrison singled, but the game ended with Greg Lloyd getting outs in the air from Joe Roche (fly ball to right-center) and Denny Malloy (pop fly to short left field, hauled in by David Kruse). Final score: Gray 16, Gold 13
Dave Berra presents Carl Gallagher with a post-game Pluckers coupon, for his inside-the-park grand slam.
12:30 p.m., Blue (1-1) at Maroon (1-0):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Blue 5 1 1 5 4 X 16 Maroon 4 0 0 0 5 0 9 Pitchers: Blue – Spike Davidso; Maroon – Tom Kelm (first inning) and Joe Bernal. Umpires: home plate – Jeff Stone; bases – Dave Berra and Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Larry Fiorentino (4 for 4 with a double) and Anthony Galindo (3 for 3 with a triple and a walk); Maroon – Joe Bernal and Chris Villareal (each 3 for 3).
Impressively, especially in light of the day’s heat, neither team needed to fill out its lineup with mercenaries. Blue took the lead with five runs in the top of the first inning, it’s first five batters hitting safely (four singles and a two-run triple to right-center by Anthony Galindo), and never relinquished the advantage. Maroon got four runs in the bottom of the first, on four singles and two walks, but was shut out over the next three innings, not getting a runner past first in the second and third. Blue turned an excellent 5-4-3 double play after Larry Shupe led off the bottom of the second with a single, Jimmy Shull to Larry Fiorentino to Dale Fugate, who made a nice scoop of a throw in the dirt. After Johnny Lee singled, Jimmy made an excellent play to knock down Peter Sundquist’s hard grounder to third, throwing to second for the inning-ending force. Ken Brown led off the bottom of the fourth with a single and took third on Chris Villareal’s hit, but wound up stranded as Spike Davidson retired the next three hitters.
Blue meanwhile scored single runs in both the top of the second (on three two-out singles) and third (on Jack Crosley’s two-out RBI double to right-center), then put up another five-spot in the fourth. Bobby Miller and Larry Fiorentino opened the frame with doubles, and five of the next seven batters singled, the rally capped by another run-scoring hit by Jack Crosley (four RBI in the game). Blue continued to pound the ball in the top of the fourth inning, scoring four more runs on six sinngles and a walk. That put their lead at 16-4.
Maroon scored five times in the bottom of the fifth, on seven singles and a sacrifice fly to right-center by Marvin Krabbenhoft that brought in the fifth run.
Marvin Krabbenhoft had his own rooting section in attendance today. From left to right: grandson Justus, wife Eloise, granddaughter Bailey, son-in-law Jason, and daughter Elizabeth.
That cut Blue’s lead to 16-9, but the teams decided to flip-flop anyway, and Spike Davidson retired Maroon in order in the buffet, getting Larry Shupe on a fly to Anthony Galindo in left-center, Tom Kelm on a grounder to shortstop George Romo, and Johnny Lee on a fly to Morgan Witthoft in right-center. Final score: Blue 16, Maroon 9, Blue defeating Maroon for the first time in 2023. Initial indication is that the distribution of Purple players to the remaining six teams has evened up the talent levels – today each of the three winning teams entered with a worse record than the squads they defeated.
Standings – Session Three:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Gray 2 0 1.000 — 30 26 + 4 W5
Blue 2 1 .667 .5 44 35 + 9 W2
Gold 2 1 .667 .5 41 37 + 4 L1
Maroon 1 1 .500 1 27 28 – 1 L1
Green 1 2 .333 1.5 34 37 – 3 W1
Red 1 2 .333 1.5 37 46 – 9 L2
Purple 0 2 .000 2 29 33 – 4 L3
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Gray 2-0 0-0 1 0-0 0-0 1-0
Blue 0-1 2-0 0 0-0 2-1 0-0
Gold 1-0 1-1 0 0-0 1-0 0-0
Maroon 0-1 1-0 0 0-0 1-1 0-0
Green 1-1 0-1 0 0-0 1-1 0-0
Red 0-1 1-1 0 0-0 0-2 0-0
Purple 0-1 0-1 0 0-0 0-0 0-1
2023 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gold Gray Green Maroon Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 2 2 2 1 2.5 1 10.5
Gold 2 X 2 5 1 1 2 13
Gray 2 2 X 2 1 2 3 12
Green 1 0 1 X 1 4 4 11
Maroon 3 3 1 3 X 3 1 14
Purple 1.5 1 2 0 1 X 1 6.5
Red 3 1 1 1 2 3 X 11
______________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 12.5 9 9 13 7 15.5 12 78
Schedule for Thursday June 29:
10:30 a.m.: Blue (2-1) at Red (1-2), Maroon umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Gray (2-0) at Maroon (1-1), Green umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (1-2) at Gold (2-1), Gray umpiring
Preview: The teams with the best (Blue) and worst (Red) run differentials so far in the session will square off at 10:30. Three games into the session, Gray is the only undefeated team – Session Two champion Maroon will try to knock them off their pedestal at 11:30. At 12:30, Green will try to finally defeat Gold, the only team they have yet to beat this season. Will Yevgeny Prigozhin mount another challenge to Vladimir Putin? Only one thing is certain: time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Keggy urges you to check out Morgan Witthoft’s very cool Playable Art for Game Night Kickstarter project:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gracklegrafix/bird-photo-playing-cards-55-original-photos