B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 42 – August 11, 2025
Apologies, everyone – I was within 15 minutes of completing and sending out this edition last night when I got pulled into the real-life drama of Encyclopedia Keggy Junior and the Case of the Missing Kayak Paddles, at Austin Bergstrom International Airport. Unlike with the beloved middle-school books, in this instance everyone knows who the guilty party is (*cough* Air Canada *cough*), but justice has not yet been meted out.
Games of Monday August 11:
10:00 a.m., Maroon (8.5 – 3.5) at Purple (6-5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 5 5 5 2 2 X 19 Purple 0 3 0 0 4 0 7 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Purple – Spike Davidson (innings 1-2) and Raul Deleon (innings 3-5). Mercenaries: Maroon – Ray Pilgrim; Purple – George Brindley. Umpires: home – George Romo; bases – Hal Darman. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Ken Brown (4 for 4 with a double and a home run) and Ivan Budiselic (3 for 3). Home run: Ken Brown (inside the park) (1).
Weather report: 87 degrees, felt like 92; couldn't get a humidity reading from my app, but it was pretty sticky, and there wasn't much breeze. I've started experimenting with ChatGPT, which came up with the following recap for this game:
Maroon jumped on Purple early at Krieg 2, plating five in the first and never looking back. Bobby Miller’s homer to left and Ivan Budiselic's towering blast in the fifth highlighted a balanced attack that saw every Maroon starter reach base at least once. Jeff Stone chipped in with three RBI, while David Corsi and Ray Pilgrim each scored three runs.Purple put together a few rallies of their own — Raul DeLeon’s two-run single in the third and Spike Davidson’s RBI knock in the fourth kept things interesting — but defensive lapses and stranded runners stalled the comeback. Richard Battle and Tim Coles had multi-hit games, and Henry Flores doubled, yet Maroon’s steady offense proved too much.
Mind, this was after I fed it some examples of earlier issues of the Picayune, in hopes that our future AI overlord might replicate my (to be fair, inimitable) (also idiosyncratic) (and certainly ineluctable) writing style. That didn't really happen, and the AI hallucinated, among other things, home runs by Bobby Miller and Ivan Budiselic, and missed Ken Brown's, credited Jeff Stone with more RBI than he actually had, miscounted the number of runs scored by David Corsi and Ray Pilgrim, but did note that Tim Coles and Richard Battle collected multiple hits each. Overall, setting aside all the wrongness (which, it's 2025, people), it's sorta kinda not totally terrible. Filling in some details: Maroon scored five times in each of the first three innings, just crushing the ball: five singles and doubles to right field by Bobby Miller and Scott Wright producing five runs without Maroon making an out in the top of the first; two more doubles, by Ken Brown and Jeff Stone, and four singles in the second, four runs scoring after two were out, Don Solberg driving in the fifth with a single to right after refusing a walk. Raul Deleon took over on the mound in the third, relieving Spike Davidson, but the result was pretty much the same: five runs on five consecutive one-out hits, Ken Brown's inside-the-park grand slam to right field capping the rally.AI Ken Brown takes a cut resulting in an inside-the-park grand slam in the top of the third. Gotta say, AI Ken's looking sharp, and getting good results with that 16-inch bat. Meanwhile, Purple didn't score in the first – Matt Levitt led off with a single, but was forced at second on Larry Fiorentino's grounder to shortstop Bobby Miller; Bobby then turned a 6u., 6-3 double play on Raul Deleon's grounder. Purple got on the board with three runs in the bottom of the first, as Richard Battle led off with a double and the next four batters singled. The third run scored on Henry Flores's grounder back to the box, Jeff Stone throwing to first for the out there. Jeff then worked a scoreless bottom of the third. Matt Levitt led off with a walk and took third on Raul Deleon's one-out single to left field, but he was thrown out 5-2, Ivan Budiselic to Ray Pilgrim, trying to score on Richard Battle's grounder to third. Tim Coles grounded to shortstop Bobby Miller, who threw to third for the inning-ending 6-5 force. In the fourth, after allowing a lead-off single to Bobby Miller, Raul Deleon made a nice play on Scott Wright's hard one-hopper back to the box and started a 1-6-3 double play. Jeff Stone doubled, the next three batters singled, and Maroon managed to get a couple runs across win the inning as Jeff proceeded to blank Purple in the home half, working around Spike Davidson's one-out single. Rick Jensen had led off with a liner that shortstop Bobby Miller made a good play on, and Jeff snagged Fritz Hensel's line drive back to the box – three well-struck balls, two outs to show for them. Maroon got two more across in the top of the fifth, again with two out, the second on Jeff Stone's third double of the game. That put Maroon ahead 19-3. Purple showed signs of life in the bottom of the fifth. George Brindley doubled with one out, and six straight batters singled with two out, four runs scoring. The inning ended when Larry Fiorentino, running from home for Fritz Hensel, didn't actually run out Fritz's grounder to second baseman David Corsi and was out 4-3. Maroon still led by a dozen, so the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Henry Flores led off with a bad-hop ground-ball single to second base, but Jeff Stone shook that off and retired the next three batters to finish up the victory. Final score: Maroon 19, Purple 7 11:00 a.m., Gray (7-5) at Orange (9-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 0 0 3 0 0 7 10 Orange 1 2 0 4 5 X 12 Pitchers: Gray – Jeff Stone; Orange – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Gray – Don Solberg and Jeff Stone; Orange – Gary Coyle, Jim Foelker, Donnie Janac, and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Larry Fiorentino; bases – Larry Young. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Paul Rubin (4 for 4); Orange – Gary Coyle and Marvin Krabbenhoft (both 3 for 3) and Jack Spellman (2 for 2 with a walk and a triple). Home run: David Brown (inside the park) (5).
Dave Berra's (far superior) weather report: 91 degrees, felt like 97. Humidity 45%. Wind from the Southeast at 1 MPH. Mostly sunny. Nice summer day!
Close game in the early going. Ray Pilgrim held Gray scoreless over the first two innings, helped immensely by David Brown, who turned a 6u., 6-3 double play on Jack Crosley’s grounder after Paul Rubin led off the game with a single, and in the second turned grounders into the first two outs and caught Jack Spellman’s flip on Don Solberg’s hard grounder for a 4-6 force for the third.
Orange scored, but not a lot, over its first two at bats. After Jeff Stone caught Dave Brown looking at a called strike three and got Ray Pilgrim to ground out to shortstop George Romo (nice play by first baseman Johnny Lee to cleanly scoop George’s long, short-hopped throw from the hole), Terry O’Brien walked, and Terry Thompson and Marvin Krabbenhoft singled, O’Brien scoring the game’s first run on Marvin’s line single to center, on the first pitch he saw – it was a day full of players operating in contravention of their scouting reports.
Orange got two more runs in the second. Jack Spellman led off with a a short fly to right field (okay, that was totally confirming the scouting report) that fell well in front of Morgan Witthoft and then, all backspinny, skipped across the foul line to the fence while Spellman hightailed it to third with a lame-ass triple. Gary Coyle singled Spellman in, and then himself advanced and scored on singles by Donnie Janac and David Brown. Orange seemed poised for a big inning, but Jeff Stone got Ray Pilgrim to ground to shortstop, resulting in a 6-4-5 double play, George Romo to Mike Malay to Adam Reddell, smart play by Mike to go to the third to cut down the lead runner. Jeff then got Terry O’Brien to hit a two-strike foul.
Gray built on the momentum, scoring three times in the top of the third to tie the game. The first four batters reached base: Jeff Stone and Paul Rubin singled, Jack Crosley walked to load the bases, and Adam Reddell lined a double to left-center, Jeff and Paul scoring. Ray Pilgrim got George Romo to pop out to shortstop David Brown. Johnny Lee grounded to David; Adam took off on contact, and David elected to take the sure out at first, Adam scoring the tying run.
Orange didn’t score in the home half. With one out Marvin Krabbenhoft again lined a single up the middle. David Brown ran for him and was doubled off first when Jeff Stone nabbed Larry Shupe’s liner back to the box and snapped a throw to first.
Gray didn’t score in the top of the fourth. Third baseman Gary Coyle made two excellent plays to put out the first two batters, fielding Mike Malay’s just-fair grounder and making a strong cross-diamond throw to first baseman Larry Shupe, then grabbing Hal Darman’s line drive. Don Solberg came up and ripped a liner down Gary’s way, just to his left – Gary got a piece of glove on it, but it was past him in a blink for a single. No matter: Ray Pilgrim got Jeff Stone to ground into an inning-ending 6-4 force, David Brown to Spellman.
Orange finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth, taking the lead with a four-run outburst. Jim Foelker, Jack Spellman, and Gary Coyle opened the inning with singles, Jim coming around to score the go-ahead run. Donnie Janac grounded into a 6-4 force, Spellman holding at third. David Brown stepped up and smoked a line drive to right-center that skipped to the fence for a three-run inside-the-park home run, the game’s biggest hit. I was remiss in my picture-taking today, but I figure that’s what my freebie AI accounts are for. Below is a picture of David putting a good swing on the ball – whoa, dude’s been lifting! (Also doing his Leg Days.) (Explains how he’s moved into a tie with Tim Coles for the season home-run lead, with five.)
And, what the hey, here’s a short video clip of David’s swing: David Brown’s home-run swing, August 11
(Evidently David consumed about 20,000 calories and totally went to seed between the picture and the video.)
Back to the recap. Ray Pilgrim and Terry O’Brien followed David’s homer with singles, but Orange couldn’t get the fifth run in, as George Romo started a very nice 6-4-3 double play, Mike Malay on the pivot, on Terry Thompson’s grounder to shortstop – Terry in a rare lapse thought there were already two out and didn’t run it out.
Ray Pilgrim worked a quick, scoreless top of the fifth inning. Paul Rubin singled leading off, but David Brown once again turned a 6u., 6-3 double play on a Jack Crosley grounder. Adam Reddell lined a pitch to right-center, but Jim Foelker was well positioned and made a good catch.
Orange then extended its lead to nine runs by scoring five times in the home half, on five singles (the first by Marvin Krabbenhoft, completing a 3-for-3 game, all line singles up the middle), Jack Spellman’s walk (on three pitches that collectively missed the mat by about two inches), and Ray Pilgrim’s sacrifice fly.
George Romo led off the buffet with a liner to the left of second base that David “The Glide” Brown made a smooth move to his left to grab for the first out. Gray’s next five batters singled, three runs scoring, and then Jeff Stone tripled to the fence in right-center, two more runs coming across. Paul Rubin singled in Jeff, Orange’s lead now down to 12-9, Paul completing a 4-for-4 game at the plate. Jack Crosley flied out to Jim Foelker in right-center for the second out. Singles by Adam Reddell and George Romo brought Paul around to score and put the potential tying runs on base. But the game finally ended with David Brown catching Johnny Lee’s short, high pop to the left side. Final score: Orange 12, Gray 10
Noon, Red (3-10) at Green (5.5 – 6.5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Red 0 2 5 0 5 2 14 Green 5 0 2 1 0 2 10 Pitchers: Red – Donald Drummer; Green – Chunky Wright. Mercenaries: Red – Daniel Baladez, Jimmie Maloy, Larry Shupe, and Don Solberg; Green – George Brindley, Tom Brownfield, and Adam Reddell. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Scott Wright and Marvin Krabbenhoft. Perfect at the plate: Red – Donald Drummer (2 for 2 with a walk), Jimmie Maloy (3 for 3), and Don Solberg (3 for 3 with two doubles); Green - George Brindley (3 for 3) and Tom Brownfield (3 for 3 with a double). Dave Berra's weather update: 93 degrees, felt like 99. Humidity 44%. Wind from the East-Southeast at 1 MPH. Partly cloudy. Not bad for August.
This didn’t start auspiciously for a Red team playing its third straight late game and looking to snap a four-game losing streak: held scoreless in the top of the first, as Ralph Villela turned an inning-ending 6u., 6-3 double play on Gary Coyle’s grounder to shortstop, the play at first very close (the biased observers in the visitors dugout thought Gary beat the throw), and then looking at a quick deficit as Green scored five times in the home half, on five singles and Donnie Janac’s triple. The last three hits – an RBI single by Chunky Wright, Donnie’s three-bagger, and a single by Tom Brownfield that scored Donnie – all came with two out.
Red didn’t quit, though. They got on the board with a couple runs in the top of the second, on four consecutive one-out hits, Don Solberg’s RBI double past his buddy Donnie Janac in left field the key hit. Donald Drummer then held Green scoreless in the bottom half, working around singles by George Brindley leading off and Ralph Villela with one out.
Red then took the lead with five runs in the top of the third, not making an out in the process of collecting six singles and Donald Drummer’s walk.
Green tied the game with a pair of runs in the home half, Donnie Janac, Tom Brownfield, and George Brindley coming through with two-out singles.
Chunky Wright retired Red 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth, and Green went back ahead with a single run in their half, though a fine defensive play limited the damage. Ralph Villela doubled leading off. He held at second when Phil Stanch grounded back to the box, then took third on Mike Garrison’s base hit. Chris Waddell singled, Ralph scoring. Buddy Gaswint lined a ball to left-center; Anthony Galindo charged the ball, fielded it on one hop, and came up throwing, a laser strike to second baseman Jack McDermott (who made a great, clean catch of the short hop) to just beat Chris for the force at second. Gary Coyle made a nice play of Chunky Wright’s hard grounder to third, throwing to Jack McDermott at second for the inning-ending force.
Red then scored five times in the top of the fifth. Remember that ridiculous triple I hit in the 11:00 game, the dinky pop fly to right field that spun into foul territory? I managed to do pretty much the same thing leading off the inning. I tagged up and scored the tying run on Anthony Galindo’s fly to Mike Garrison in pretty deep left-center. Gary Coyle singled. Dale Fugate, normally a pull hitter, crossed up the scouting report and crushed an opposite-field line drive that skipped to the fence in right-center; Gary scored and Dale wound up at third with a triple, with the visitors dugout and Red partisans going nuts. Donald Drummer singled Dale in. Don Solberg ripped his third hit of the game, and his second double, to left field, Donald scoring from first. Spellman ran for Don (who said, “I can run better than him – I have my original knees.”) Jimmy Maloy then delivered his third hit in as many at bats, a single to left-center that scored Spellman with the fifth run.
Donald Drummer then shut out Green in the bottom half. Donnie Janac led off with a liner back to the box that Donald reached up and snared – not sure whether Donald actually went airborne, but he was fully extended and got the ball to stick to the top of his webbing. Tom Brownfield followed with a double, his third hit in as many at bats. George Brindley hit a grounder to shortstop, just to Spellman’s left, that I got a glove on, but didn’t field cleanly – no chance of throwing out George, who beat out the infield single for his third hit in three at bats. Donald escaped the jam with a double-play grounder: Adam Reddell hit a bouncer between the mound and shortstop that took a last big, catchable hop; Tom at second had held up breaking for third so as not to run into the ball; I was able to tag second, to force out George, and then run down Tom after he’d belatedly started from third – he was going from a flat-footed start, and I was already moving, he had no chance to get any momentum to outrun me, and I tagged him out for a 6u., 6u. double play.
Red led by two entering the buffet, and added two more after two were out. Daniel Baladez led off with a line single to left-center. Larry Shupe popped out to shortstop Ralph Villela. Jack McDermott hit a hard grounder to Ralph, who flipped to Tom Brownfield for the force at second, but Jack hustled down the line and beat the relay, extending the inning. The next three batters singled, Anthony Galindo’s and Gary Coyle’s hits scoring Jacks McDermott and Spellman. Chunky Wright got Dale Fugate to hit a two-strike foul to end the inning, but Green was now chasing six.
Ralph Villela led off with a drive to left-center that Anthony Galindo was perfectly positioned to catch for the first out. Phil Stanch singled, but was forced at second on Mike Garrison’s hard grounder to shortstop, Mike beating Jack McDermott’s relay to first. Chris Waddell drove a pitch to left-center that gapped the outfielders and went to the fence for a triple, Mike scoring. A single by Buddy Gaswint brought in Chris. Chunky Wright singled as well, but forgot he had taken a runner from home and ran past the commit line – the game ended anticlimactically, with Chunky called out. Final score: Red 14, Green 10
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 10 | 3 | .769 | 0 | 146 | 111 | 35 | W4 |
| Maroon | 9.5 | 3.5 | .731 | 0.5 | 149 | 128 | 21 | W1 |
| Gray | 7 | 6 | .538 | 3 | 155 | 127 | 28 | L1 |
| Purple | 6 | 6 | .500 | 3.5 | 129 | 138 | -9 | L1 |
| Green | 5.5 | 7.5 | .423 | 4.5 | 120 | 136 | -16 | L1 |
| Red | 4 | 10 | .286 | 6.5 | 153 | 195 | -42 | W1 |
| Blue | 3 | 9 | .250 | 6.5 | 113 | 130 | -17 | L3 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 5-1 | 5-2 | 1 | 2-0 | 2-0 | 2-2 | ||
| Maroon | 5.5-1.5 | 4-2 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 3-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Gray | 3-3 | 4-3 | 0 | 0-1 | 3-1 | 1-3 | ||
| Purple | 5-2 | 1-4 | 3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 3-0 | ||
| Green | 2-5 | 3.5-2.5 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-3 | 1-1 | ||
| Red | 0-7 | 4-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-5 | 1-2 | ||
| Blue | 2-3 | 1-6 | 1 | 0-1 | 1-1 | 2-4 |
Green and Maroon tied their game of August 7; it is counted as half a win and half a loss for each team.
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 18 |
| Gray | 4 | X | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 16 |
| Green | 2 | 3 | X | 4.5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 17.5 |
| Maroon | 3 | 4 | 4.5 | X | 3 | 4 | 3 | 21.5 |
| Orange | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | X | 3 | 4 | 19 |
| Purple | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | X | 4 | 17 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 14 |
| TOTAL: | 17 | 19 | 17.5 | 15.5 | 15 | 17 | 22 | 123 |
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 5
Tim Coles – 5
George Brindley – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Bobby Miller – 4
Anthony Galindo – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Ralph Villela – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Scott Wright – 2
Jim Aaron – 1
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Ken Brown – 1
Gary Coyle – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Jack McDermott – 1
Ken Mockler – 1
Ray Pilgrim – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Scott Wright – June 5
Walk-off grand slam:
David Brown (inside the park) – August 4
Schedule for Thursday August 14:
10:00 a.m.: Gray (7-6) at Red (4-10), Orange umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Orange (10-3) at Purple (6-6), Red umpiring
Noon: Blue (3-9) at Maroon (9.5 – 3.5), Purple umpiring
Green has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: With only five dates left in the session, Orange and Maroon remain just half a game apart at the top of the standings. Orange can extend its winning streak to five games and maintain its grip on first place with a win over Purple at 11:00; if Purple wins, Maroon can leapfrog into first with a win at noon over Blue, coming off the bye and looking to end its three-game losing streak and escape last place. Thursday is the 985th anniversary of the defeat and death in battle of King Duncan I of Scotland against his first cousin (awkward Thanksgiving!) and rival Macbeth, who succeeded him as king. It’s not known (by Google, anyway) what Duncan’s royal color was, so Gray will work, and Macbeth of course was infamously the Red King, so the 10:00 game will basically be a recreation of the Battle of Birnam Wood. Will home-plate umpire Marvin Krabbenhoft be able to resist, at some point, declaring “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
C League’s Lucky Hofmann has a deal for you:
From: Robert Hofmann <rfch@icloud.com>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2025 4:37:44 PM
Subject: Lucky WhakaBallsPlease spread the word to both B&C league players about a special opportunity (season-ending clearance sale) to get a WhakaBall personally from me at the next few sessions.
I have only a small residual inventory that needs to be cleared in anticipation of 2026 new versions at higher price on home shopping networks.
My cash price will be $40, a major drop from the $59 on the WhakaSports website.
Sent from my iPhone +1 512 994 8633
Robert F Hofmann “Lucky”
rfch@icloud.com