B League news for Monday April 28, 2025

B League Picayune

Often in error, never in doubt.

Volume 7, Issue 16 – April 28, 2025

Games of April 24 were cancelled due to wet fields.

Roster changes: Looking to increase competitive balance, the league board makes the following moves: Don Solberg is transferred from Blue to Maroon; Mike Malay is moved from Orange to Gray; and Boo Resnick is moved from Gray to Orange.

Boo Resnick,  left, resplendently manning second base for Orange in the 10:30 game. That’s Daniel Carvajal at first base.

Gracious quote of the day: Don Solberg, responding to his change of jerseys: “All them board members can kiss my ass. Like my mama said, if you can’t say something good, keep your fucking mouth shut.”

Weather report: Overcast and somewhat sticky throughout the day’s games, 77 degrees and 81% humidity at the start of the 10:30 game, with a light breeze, 9 MPH from the south. By 12:30 it was up to 84 degrees, humidity down a bit, to 59%, wind up to 12 MPH from the SSE.

Games of Monday April 28:

10:30 a.m., Blue (5-1) at Orange (4-2):

		1	2	3	4	5     BUFFET  FINAL
Blue		5	3	5	0	1	X	14
Orange		0	0	0	0	5	1	 6

Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Orange – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenary: Blue – Donnie Janac. Umpires: home – Scott Wright; bases – Jimmie Maloy. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Tom Brownfield and Tommy Deleon (both 3 for 3) and Jimmy Sneed (3 for 3 with a triple and a walk). 

It was all Blue in the early going: five runs in the first on Steve Sandall’s lead-off triple, four singles, and walks to Jimmy Sneed and David Pittard, Tommy Deleon driving in the fourth and fifth runs with a bases-loaded line drive single to right field that Larry Shupe made a heroic, diving try for, but could not reach; three runs in the second after the first two batters went out, on three singles, George Brindley’s walk, and Tom Bellavia’s double; and five again in the third, on six singles and two walks, though Orange did make a nice play to cut down Daniel Baladez trying to score from second on Steve Sandall’s single to left, 7-6-2, Ken Mockler to David Brown to Marvin Krabbenhoft, after Daniel hesitated while rounding third.

An inning later another strong relay originating from Ken in left field cut down David Pittard trying to score on Donnie Janac’s base hit, this one going 7-5-2, Ken to Terry O’Brien to Marvin. Blue did not score in the fourth and got only one run in the fifth, when Jimmy Sneed doubled with one out and scored on Tom Bellavia’s sacrifice fly to Larry Shupe in right field. That inning ended with first baseman Daniel Carvajal making a nice scoop of Ray Pilgrim’s hurried throw to first on George Brindley’s grounder back to the box.

Entering the bottom of the fifth, Blue led 15-0, as Tommy Deleon and Blue’s strong defense totally stifled Orange’s offense over the first four innings: two singles and both runners stranded in the first; a lead-off single by Ray Pilgrim in the second, then three outs in the air, shortstop Jimmy Sneed making a really nice play going back and to his right on Marvin Krabbenhoft’s pop into short left field; Clint Fletcher’s one-out single in the third followed by two outs; and Terry O’Brien’s one-out single in the fourth followed by two outs – Orange didn’t get a runner past first in those three frames.

Orange finally broke through in the fifth, scoring five times after two were out, on six singles and Peter Atkins’ two-run double to left-center, Peter himself scoring when the relay in was misplayed.

Still they were trailing by nine entering the buffet, so the teams flip-flopped. Orange’s first three batters hit safely, Ray Pilgrim’s double to left-center followed by singles to left field by both David Brown and Marvin Krabbenhoft, Ray’s runner scoring on David’s hit. Boo Resnick popped out to second baseman Tom Brownfield. Larry Shupe made a bid for a single up the middle, but Jimmy Sneed made a good play moving to his left to field the grounder, stepping on second for the force and throwing to first for the game-ending 6u., 6-3 double play. Final score: Blue 14, Orange 6

11:30 a.m., Maroon (3-3) at Gray (2-4):

		1	2	3	4     BUFFET  FINAL
Maroon		0	5	5	5	1	16
Gray		0	1	4	3	0	 8

Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Gray – Jack Kelly (innings 1, 4, and buffet) and Ray Pilgrim (innings 2 and 3). Mercenary: Maroon – Terry O'Brien and Steve Sandall; Gray – Daniel Baladez, Anthony Galindo, Ray Pilgrim, David Pittard, and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Marvin Krabbenhoft. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Don Solberg and Steve Sandall (both 2 for 2 with a double and a walk); Gray – Tommy Gillis (2 for 2 with a walk and a home run), Dave Jaffe (2 for 2 with a double and a walk), and David Pittard (2 for 2 with a double). Home run: Tommy Gillis (over the fence) (3). 

Neither team scored in the first. Maroon got a lead-off single by Ken Brown, but Jack Kelly got the next two batters to ground into 4-6 forces, David Pittard making smooth plays on hard-hit balls by Tony Garcia and Scott Wright. Jeff Stone also grounded to the right side, and David, moving to his left, got to the ball, but threw past first base. Scott took off for third, but catcher Daniel Baladez (I think – there was a lot of position shuffling during the game, I may be getting this wrong) retrieved the ball and threw to third, beating Scott there; but I think Scott had initially overrun second and never went back and tagged the base, so he would have been out in any case. In the bottom of the first Jeff Stone walked Tommy Gillis leading off, retired the next two batters, allowed a single to Dave Jaffe, then retired Jack Kelly on a grounder to first baseman Ivan Budiselic.

Maroon then took control of the game, winning every inning from the second on, scoring five times in each of the second (on a walk, five singles, and doubles by Jimmie Maloy and Tony Garcia), third (on three singles and three walks), and fourth (on two walks, three singles, and doubles by Don Solberg and Steve Sandall). Gray got two outs in each of those innings, just couldn’t get the third. There was a nice relay 7-6-2 (Don Solberg to Jack Spellman to Daniel Baladez) in the bottom of the second to put out Jimmie Maloy trying to score from second on a single, Daniel making a very nice short-hop catch of the throw home.

Gray scored once in the second (Anthony Galindo’s sacrifice fly bringing in Johnny Lee’s pinch-runner), and four times in the third (the first two on Tommy Gillis’s over-the-fence home run, a line drive to left-center that scored David Pittard, who’d led off with a double; then a double by Paul Rubin, a wak, and three singles for two more runs; with four runs in, the bases loaded, and one out, Jeff Stone escaped the inning, getting Jack Spellman on a liner to first baseman Ivan Budiselic and Anthony Galindo on a grounder to third baseman Terry O’Brien. In the bottom of the fourth Gray put across three runs on four singles and Dave Jaffe’s double to right, the inning ending with Adam Reddell out 9-6-2 (Ken Brown to Tony Garcia to Tom Kelm) trying to score from first on Dave’s hit, another well-executed relay.

Gray manager Jack Kelly presents Tommy Gillis with a Pluckers coupon following Tommy’s two-run over-the-fence home run in the third inning, Tommy’s third homer of the season.

Maroon led 15-8 entering the buffet. Jack Kelly got Tony Garcia on a pop to first baseman Johnny Lee to start the inning, but Scott Wright singled and then Jeff Stone smoked a double to the fence in right-center, Scott scoring from first. With Maroon now leading by eight, the teams flip-flopped.

Jack Kelly led off the bottom of the buffet with a line single to right field. Johnny Lee popped up to the middle of the infield, Jeff Stone making the catch himself. Jeff then snagged Jack Spellman’s “liner” back to the box – I’m putting it in quotation marks because, even though it left the bat on a line, the exit velocity was about 20 MPH – and was able to double up Johnny Lee’s pinch-runner for the third out. Final score: Maroon 16, Gray 8

12:30 p.m., Purple (5-1) at Red (1-5):

		1	2	3	4	5     BUFFET  FINAL
Purple		3	0	5	5	0	2	15
Red		2	0	3	3	1	1	10

Pitchers: Purple – Spike Davidson; Red – Donald Drummer. Mercenaries: Purple – Tommy Gillis; Red – Jimmie Maloy, Adam Reddell, Don Solberg, and Ralph Villela. Umpires: home – Jack Kelly; bases – George Brindley. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Rex Horvath and Pat Scott (both 4 for 4 with two doubles); Red – Adam Reddell (3 for 3) and Jack Spellman (4 for 4). 

No big, overarching theme to this game, Purple just played equal to or a little bit better than Red in each of the first four innings, steadily building its lead thanks to its 1-4 hitters, who went a combined 13 for 15 with a walk and six doubles and scored a dozen runs. Three runs in the top of the first as Matt Levitt opened the game with a single and Pat Scott and Larry Fiorentino followed with doubles. With three in following Rex Horvath’s RBI single, and one out, Donald Drummer managed to deflect toward shortstop balls hit hard up the middle by Fritz Hensel and Rick Jensen, resulting in 1-6-4 force outs to end the inning.

Red got two back in the home half on four singles and Anthony Galindo’s double, had the bases loaded and one out, but Rex Horvath made a nice play on Ralph Villela’s grounder down the third-base side, stepping on third for the force there and then throwing home to put out Dale Fugate, an inning-ending 5u., 5-2 double play.

Neither team scored in the second, each pitcher getting through the bottom three hitters in each lineup: Donald Drummer retired the side in order in the top half; Spike Davidson gave up a one-out single to Adam Reddell in the home half, then got Jimmie Maloy to ground into a 1-4-3 double play, Larry Young on the pivot.

Purple broke the game open-ish by scoring five times on six hits in both the third and fourth innings while making just one out in each frame and limiting Red to three runs in the bottom halves. In the third, seven straight batters reached base on five singles, Larry Fiorentino’s walk, and Rex Horvath’s double. Purple needed just six hitters to get it done in the fourth, on four singles and doubles by Larry Fiorentino and Mark Hernandez. Red got its runs on five singles in the third (the first, leading off, was the dinkiest pop ever over shortstop by Jack Spellman, prompting Rex Horvath to yell, “Jack, you ain’t right!”, much to my delight), and four singles and Dale Fugate’s double over the outfielders in the fourth, that inning ending with Pat Scott, such a good outfielder, getting a great jump and making a nice play to his right on Donald Drummer’s drive to left-center.

Red caught a break in the top of the fifth. Fritz Hensel, with Matt Levitt running from home, led off with a single. Donald Drummer retired Rick Jensen and Spike Davidson on fly balls, to Jimmie Maloy in right and Anthony Galindo in left-center respectively. Larry Young and Tommy Gillis both singled, loading the bases, but the runner at third, Matt, was the next hitter due, so he was called out, ending the inning. Red wasn’t able to capitalize, however, managing just one run on three singles in the home half.

Entering the buffet, Purple led 13-9. They tacked on two more runs thanks to the top of the order again/still: Matt Levitt led off with a single and scored on Pat Scott’s double (Pat’s fourth hit of the game), and Pat scored on Rex Horvath’s line double to right-center. Donald Drummer retired the next two hitters, leaving Red chasing six in the bottom of the frame.

Three straight one-out singles got one run in for Red, but the game ended with Spike Davidson retiring mercenaries Ralph Villela and Don Solberg on fly balls to Pat Scott in left-center, Pat’s third and fourth putouts of the game. Final score: Purple 15, Red 10

www.beebesports.com

Session 2 standings:

 

Session 2				Games	Runs	Runs	Run dif-	W/L
	Wins	Losses	Win %:	behind:	for:	allowed:	ferential:	streak:
Blue	6	1	.857	0	91	61	30	W2
Purple	6	1	.857	0	91	75	16	W5
Orange	4	3	.571	2	85	72	13	L1
Maroon	4	3	.571	2	90	85	5	W1
Gray	2	5	.286	4	71	98	-27	L1
Green	1	5	.167	4.5	77	85	-8	L5
Red	1	6	.143	5	76	105	-29	L5
	Home	Visitor	Walk-off	Extra-inning	Flip-flop	1-run games
	W-L:	W-L:	wins:	wins:	W-L:	W-L:
Blue	3-0	3-1	0	0-0	3-0	0-0
Purple	2-1	4-0	0	0-0	1-1	0-0
Orange	2-2	2-1	0	0-0	2-2	1-0
Maroon	2-1	2-2	2	0-0	1-0	2-1
Gray	1-3	1-2	1	0-0	1-3	1-1
Green	0-3	1-2	0	0-0	1-1	0-1
Red	0-4	1-2	0	0-0	1-3	0-1

2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):

	Blue	Gray	Green	Maroon	Orange	Purple	Red	TOTAL
Blue	X	1	3	1	3	0	2	10
Gray	1	X	1	0	1	1	1	5
Green	0	1	X	0	1	0	2	4
Maroon	1	3	2	X	1	1	1	9
Orange	0	1	1	1	X	1	1	5
Purple	2	1	2	2	1	X	2	10
Red	0	1	0	1	2	1	X	5
TOTAL:	4	8	9	5	9	4	9	48

2025 season home run leaders:
Bobby Miller – 4
Tim Coles – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Tommy Gillis – 3
George Brindley – 2
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Tom Belavia – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Mike Garrison – 1
Doc Hobar – 1
Rex Horvath – 2
Mike Malay – 1
Terry O’Brien – 1
Jimmy Sneed – 1
Jack Spellman – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1

Schedule for Thursday May 1:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (2-5) at Green (1-5), Orange umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Orange (4-3) at Red (1-6), Green umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Maroon (4-3) at Purple (6-1), Red umpiring
Blue has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.

Preview: Purple has won five in a row and has a chance to take over first place for the session over idle Blue if they can defeat Maroon at 4-3. Green and Red have both dropped their last five decisions and will look to get back in the win column, Green versus Gray at 10:30, Red against Orange at 11:30. A lot of players will be at the Grapevine tourney and absent from B League play Thursday, so mercenaries could make a difference in all these contests. Will our streak of pleasant, not terribly warm weather continue in May? Only time will tell.

Keggy’s Korner:

 

The Bobby Fund Burger Potluck and Reunion was held today – many thanks to Bruce Barnett (above left) for organizing and running this event, always a highlight, and to those who prepared and brought food. I suspect I was not alone in being a bit upset by news of the death yesterday during A League play of Curtiss Leitsch. Please keep Curtiss and his family in your thoughts. As well, the Picayune is hoping for good health for C Leaguer John Highbarger and for our own David Kruse as they work on their physical rehabilitation.

Great to see Craig Redderson today!