B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 46 – August 25, 2025
Know Your B-Leaguer: Steve Browne is the newest addition to the B League, freshly transplanted from Washington state. He played for Orange in the 10:00 game, but hasn’t yet been assigned to a team.
Don Williams, a past and now present B Leaguer, is rejoining the league. He also played with Orange at 10:00, and is as good fielding a first baseman as I remembered him to be. I totally failed to get a picture of Don; that will happen soon.
Games of Monday August 25:
10:00 a.m., Green (6.5 – 8.5) at Orange (10-5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 0 2 1 0 1 2 6 Orange 2 1 2 5 5 X 15 Pitchers: Green – Chunky Wright; Orange – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Green – Gary Coyle and Bobby Miller; Orange – Steve Browne, Jack Spellman, and Don Williams. Umpires: home – Jeff Stone; bases – Jimmie Maloy and Ken Brown. Perfect at the plate: Green – Chunky Wright (3 for 3); Orange – David Brown (4 for 4 with two doubles) and Daniel Carvajal (4 for 4). Home run: Ralph Villela (inside the park) (4).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 85 degrees, felt like 89. Humidity 66%, wind SW at 4 MPH. Sunny, beautiful!
Green battled first-place Orange very tough over the first three innings, but Orange never trailed in the game and ultimately put it away with a pair of five-run rallies. Ray Pilgrim’s pitching strategy seems to be, get ’em to hit the ball on the ground and count on his infielders to make outs. It worked really well this time, as 14 of the 18 outs Ray secured came on ground balls, seven of those going to David Brown at shortstop, including balls resulting in five of Green’s first six outs. In the first, after Ralph Villela led off the game with a single, Donnie Janac’s grounder to David resulted in a 6-4-3 double play, a bang-bang play at first. Mike Garrison followed with another ground-ball out to David.
After Orange scored twice in the bottom of the inning on two singles, David Brown’s RBI double, and Marvin Krabbenhoft’s line-drive sacrifice fly to Donnie Janac in right-center, Green got on the board and tied the game with two runs on four consecutive singles to start the second. But Ray got the next three batters to hit into force plays: Billy Hill into a 6-5 force, David Brown to Daniel Carvajal at third base; Bobby Miller into a 4-6 force, Jack Spellman knocking down a hard one-hopper to his left and throwing to David for the force at second; and Gary Coyle into a 6-4 force, David to Spellman.
Orange went back ahead with a run on three singles in the bottom of the second. Green immediately re-tied the game as Ralph Villela led off the third with an inside-the-park home run to left-center, a line drive that gapped the outfielders and went to the fence – I’m pretty sure Ralph could have made it back at least to first base if he’d continued running. Donnie Janac followed that with a single, but Ray Pilgrim retired the next three batters.
Here’s Ralph’s home-run swing (further comment would be superfluous):
Green went back ahead with two runs on four singles to start the bottom half, Chunky Wright then stranding two by retiring three batters in a row. Chunky then led off the fourth with a single, but was erased on a 4-6-3 double play: Johnny Wimpy hit a hard grounder to Spellman’s backhand; I made a clean play, then lollipopped the ball to David Brown; David caught it barehanded above his head and in one motion threw to first for the double play, an exceptional turn.
Orange led 5-3 at this point, and commenced to put the game out of reach. Steve Browne, in his second B League at bat, ripped a triple to right-center, as a bonus managing not to pop a hammy as he gingerly pulled into third. Orange’s 1-4 batters then each hit safely: Clint Fletcher singled in Steve; singles by Ray Pilgrim and Daniel Carvajal loaded the bases; and David Brown’s double drove in two runs. Daniel scored on Boo Resnick’s ground out to shortstop, and Larry Shupe drove in David with the fifth run with a single to left-center.
Orange then scored five more runs on seven singles while making just one out in the bottom of the fifth, with Daniel Carvajal and David Brown completing 4-for-4 games at the plate. Orange thus took a commanding 15-4 lead into the buffet.
Green got a couple runs back before running out of outs. Doc Hobar led off with a double, tagged and took third on Chris Waddell’s fly to Clint Fletcher in left-center, and scored on Chunky Wright’s single, Chunky completing a 3-for-3 day at the plate. Chunky took second on the throw in from the outfield, advanced to third on Johnny Wimpy’s single, and scored the game’s final run on Billy Hill’s RBI force-out grounder to David Brown. Final score: Orange 15, Green 6
11:00 a.m., Maroon (10.5 – 5.5) at Gray (9-6):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 1 5 0 3 4 13 Gray 5 0 1 3 5 14 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Gray – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Maroon – Mark Dolan, Clint Fletcher, and David Pittard; Gray – Joe Bernal and Anthony Galindo. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Larry Shupe. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Jeff Stone (3 for 3 with a walk); Gray – Joe Bernal, Hal Darman, and Mike Malay (all 3 for 3). Home run: Bobby Miller (inside the park) (5).
Weather update: 89 degrees, felt like 93. Humidity 45%, wind from the South at 3 MPH (not nearly enough breeze). A few scattered clouds.
The most consequential game of the day was also the best – the hardest-fought and most entertaining, with the teams entering the game both in contention for the session title. Joe Bernal got two quick outs to start the game, but Maroon managed a run in the top of the first, as Jeff Stone walked, took third on Don Solberg’s single to right field, and scored on Tom Kelm’s single on a hard grounder past third base. Here’s Tom taking his swing:
I don’t think my description is doing the play proper justice, but fortunately ChatGPT is here to provide a 100% accurate representation:
A fraction of a second after the ball landed on the foul line – note the kicked-up chalk! – it traveled into foul territory, but Larry made a definitive, correct call, as subsequently confirmed by video footage downloaded from the conveniently hovering Ukrainian Army attack drone.Oh, and here’s Bobby circling the bases:
I think I speak for us all when I note: What a world we live in.
Jeff Stone followed with a single, and then Don Solberg hammered a ball deep to right field. Jeff (or it might have been a pinch-runner, I don’t recall) scored the fifth run from first. Credit Don with a triple, the third one in the last week or so that might have been a home run if the fifth run hadn’t scored ahead of the hitter.
That put Maroon ahead 6-5, and Jeff maintained the lead by shutting out Gray in the bottom of the inning, working around singles by Hal Darman and Joe Bernal. With two out Tommy Gillis made a bid for extra bases with a drive to deep left field, but Don Solberg was perfectly positioned to make the catch.
Maroon didn’t score in the top of the third, Joe Bernal retiring Clint Fletcher on a liner to second baseman Mike Malay and David Pittard on a fly to Morgan Witthoft in right field after singles by Jimmie Maloy and Ivan Budeselic put runners on the corners with one out.
Gray then tied the game with a single run in the home half: Adam Reddell led off with a single to right field, took third on George Romo’s single to left, and scored on Johnny Lee’s sacrifice fly to Jimmie Maloy in right field.
Both teams scored three times in the fourth, the final five-run inning. Mark Dolan led off the top half by looping a single over third base. Ken Brown hit a hard grounder back to the box, and Joe Bernal made a terrific play on it, catching it on the short hop and in a single motion twirling 180 degrees and flipping the ball to George Romo covering second; George made a quick, strong throw to first, but Ken simply outran it. Bobby Miller doubled to right-center, Ken advancing to third. Jeff Stone lined a ball to right-center; Anthony Galindo got his glove on it, but couldn’t corral it, the ball falling in for a single, both Ken and Bobby scoring. Singles by Don Solberg and Tom Kelm brought Jeff (or his runner? missed it, again) around to score.
Gray matched those three runs in the home half, denied more by a great defensive play. Joe Bernal singled and Paul Rubin walked to start the inning. Tommy Gillis singled, Joe scoring and Paul taking third; on the throw in, Tommy took second and made contact with second baseman Mark Dolan, as the throw to Mark took him over the bag and into Tommy’s path. Quite a bit of discussion in the peanut gallery about whether Tommy should have been called out (Terry Watts’s opinion) or if the contact was unintentional (certainly) and inconsequential (probably) and not worthy of an out call (my opinion, though I do see Terry’s point). Adam Reddell came up and hit his second double of the game, a gapper to straight-away center that scored both Paul and Tommy, tying the score. George Romo was next, and lofted a fly to left field. Don Solberg moved in and to his right and made a terrific backhanded catch, inches off the ground, then, with Adam tagging on the play, made a quick strong throw to shortstop Bobby Miller, whose relay to third baseman David Pittard beat Adam to the bag – a superb F-7, 7-6-5 double play.
So it was still tied entering the buffet. Maroon scored four times in the top of the inning. Clint Fletcher led off with a single past third and into left field, and took third when the throw in was sloppily handled. David Pittard singled past Joe Bernal and into center field, Clint scoring. David took second on Mark Dolan’s ground out to second baseman Mike Malay, then scored on Ken Brown’s line single to left field, Ken taking second on the throw in. Bobby Miller doubled, his third extra-hit of the game, Ken scoring. Jeff Stone completed a 3-for-3 game at the plate with a Texas League single to left field that landed on the chalk; on another sloppy throw in, Bobby scored and Jeff took third. But Joe got Don Solberg to pop out to second and Tom Kelm to line out to third to strand Jeff.
That left Gray needing four to tie, five to win, the bottom half of its lineup due up. They all of them came through with singles. Morgan Witthoft led off with a hit, and Mike Malay followed with a single to right-center; Morgan tried for third on it and was thrown out 9-6-5, Ken Brown to Bobby Miller to David Pittard, terrific relay. Hal Darman completed a 3-for-3 game with a line single to right field, a nice piece of against-the-scouting-report hitting. Anthony Galindo’s single loaded the bases. Joe Bernal’s single to right completed a 3-for-3 game and drove in Mike. Paul Rubin’s walk forced in Hal’s pinch-runner and cut Maroon’s lead to 13-11. Tommy Gillis then stepped up and hit a single to left-center; Don Solberg and Clint Fletcher converged on the ball, and while they didn’t collide, they somehow got in one another’s way and couldn’t make a clean pickup; the runners kept running, the relay in was poorly handled, and somehow Anthony, Joe, and Paul all crossed the home line on the play, giving Gray a 14-13 walk-off victory. Final score: Gray 14, Maroon 13
Noon, Purple (8-7) at Blue (5-10):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Purple 4 5 0 2 2 3 16 Blue 5 5 3 2 5 X 20 Pitchers: Purple – Spike Davidson; Blue – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Purple – George Romo, Don Solberg, Chris Waddell, and Morgan Witthoft; Blue – Tommy Gillis, Johnny Lee, and Adam Reddell. Umpires: home – Paul Rubin; bases – Mike Malay. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Spike Davidson and Fritz Hensel (both 3 for 3 with a walk) and Don Solberg (4 for 4); Blue – David Pittard (4 for 4 with a double).
Weather update: 93 degrees, felt like 95. Humidity 38% (my sweat-soaked jersey disagrees), wind ESE at 2 MPH. Mostly sunny.
This was a barn-burner, especially in the early going, the teams combining to score 19 of a possible 20 runs over the first two innings. Purple put across four runs in the top of the first on five singles and Spike Davidson's walk, and had the fifth run at third base with two out when Tommy Deleon snagged George Romo's screaming liner back to the box to end the inning. Blue then scored five in the home half, as its first seven batters hit safely – five singles, Tom Bellavia's triple, and David Pittard's double – with the fifth run scoring on Tommy Gillis's sacrifice fly to Don Solberg in left field. Both teams scored five times in the second inning. Purple knocked seven hits – almost eight, but Rick Jensen's liner to right-center was converted into a 9-6 force at second of Raul Deleon for the first out – and drew two walks, to Fritz Hensel and Henry Flores to load the bases and force in the fourth run. Don Solberg delivered the fifth run with a two-out single up the middle. Blue came right back in the bottom of the inning: Adam Reddell singled leading off, and the top of the lineup knocked five consecutive one-out singles to bring in the runs and put Blue ahead 10-9. Purple didn't score in the top of the third. Tommy Deleon got three outs in the air, to Steve Sandall and Tom Bellavia in left-center and right-center (or maybe vice versa), after walking George Romo to start the inning and allowing a two-out single to Matt Levitt. Spike Davidson got two quick outs to start the bottom of the third, but then gave up singles to Tommy Deleon, Tommy Gillis, and Adam Reddell, Tommy's runner scoring, and then a hit to Johnny Lee to right field that scored both Tommy Gillis and Adam – technically a single because Johnny Lee took a runner from home, but effectively an extra-base hit. Both teams scored two runs in the fourth inning. Tommy Deleon got three outs without any help from his defense in the top half. After allowing the first three batters to single, Rick Jensen coming around to score, Tommy got Henry Flores to pop a two-strike pitch foul down the third-base side for the first out. Larry Young singled, driving in Spike Davidson's runner with the second run. A single by Don Solberg loaded the bases. Tommy got George Romo to yank a two-strike pitch deep and foul to left field for the second out, and the third out came because Morgan Witthoft, running for Fritz Hensel, was still on base when his turn at bat came up. Spike Davidson again got two outs to begin the home half, then walked George Brindley and gave up a single to David Pittard. Jim Foelker's double then drove in both George and David. Trailing 15-11 entering the final five-run innings, Purple scratched out two runs in the top of the fifth. Morgan Witthoft and Chris Waddell led off with singles. Matt Levitt flied out to Tommy Gillis in left field. Raul Deleon's single past third base loaded the bases. George Brindley fielded Rick Jensen's grounder up the middle, to the right of second base, and flipped to shortstop Jimmy Sneed for the force at second, Morgan scoring. Spike Davidson's line single through the 5-6 hole drove in Chris. Fritz Hensel then grounded a ball up the middle that George Brindley ranged to his right to get to, only to be unable to get a grip on the ball to flip to Jimmy Sneed covering second. Though it loaded the bases, it didn't matter, as Tommy Deleon got Henry Flores to fly out to Tommy Gillis in left field. I only mention it because this excellent image captures George making the play in a way my lame words cannot:(What. A. World.) Blue then put the game away with another five-run inning in the home half, on six singles and Tommy Gillis's walk. David Pittard drove in the fifth run with his fourth hit of the game in as many at bats. Purple entered the buffet chasing seven to tie. The first five batters, the bottom of the Purple lineup – manager Larry Young and the four mercenaries – all singled, two runs scoring and the bases loaded for the top of the lineup. (Don Solberg's hit completed a 4-for-4 game for him, but he declared his misplayed ball to first base “ugly.” Or, as the youngsters say, “chopped.”) But Tommy Deleon got outs from each of the next three batters: Matt Levitt knocked what looked like a single to left field, but Tommy Gillis's quick throw to third beat Morgan Witthoft to the bag, George Romo scoring on the play. Raul Deleon popped out to second baseman George Brindley. And David Pittard made a good play to his left of Rick Jensen's attempt to sneak a grounder through the 5-6 hole, throwing to George at second for a game-ending 5-4 force. Final score: Blue 20, Purple 16
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 11 | 5 | .688 | 0 | 178 | 147 | 31 | W1 |
| Gray | 10 | 6 | .625 | 1 | 191 | 153 | 38 | W3 |
| Maroon | 10.5 | 6.5 | .618 | 1 | 199 | 182 | 17 | L2 |
| Purple | 8 | 8 | .500 | 3 | 179 | 183 | -4 | L2 |
| Green | 6.5 | 9.5 | .406 | 4.5 | 142 | 172 | -30 | L1 |
| Blue | 6 | 10 | .375 | 5 | 164 | 160 | 4 | W1 |
| Red | 5 | 12 | .294 | 6.5 | 180 | 236 | -56 | W1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 6-2 | 5-3 | 1 | 2-0 | 2-1 | 2-2 | ||
| Gray | 4-3 | 6-3 | 1 | 0-1 | 4-1 | 2-3 | ||
| Maroon | 5.5-3.5 | 5-3 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 4-1 | 2-2 | ||
| Purple | 6-3 | 2-5 | 3 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 3-0 | ||
| Green | 3-6 | 3.5-3.5 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-4 | 1-1 | ||
| Blue | 4-3 | 2-7 | 1 | 0-1 | 3-1 | 2-4 | ||
| Red | 0-8 | 5-4 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-7 | 2-2 |
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 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 21 |
| Gray | 4 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 19 |
| Green | 3 | 3 | X | 4.5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 18.5 |
| Maroon | 3 | 4 | 4.5 | X | 4 | 4 | 3 | 22.5 |
| Orange | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | X | 3 | 4 | 20 |
| Purple | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | X | 4 | 19 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | X | 15 |
| TOTAL: | 18 | 19 | 19.5 | 18.5 | 17 | 19 | 24 | 135 |
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 5
Tim Coles – 5
Bobby Miller – 5
George Brindley – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Ralph Villela – 4
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Tim Bruton – 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
www.beebesports.comSchedule for Thursday August 28:
10:00 a.m.: Orange (11-5) at Blue (6-10), Purple umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Purple (8-8) at Red (5-12), Blue umpiring
Noon: Green (6.5 – 9.5) at Gray (10-6), Red umpiring
Maroon has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Last games of Session 3! First place is still up in the air, though Orange can clinch the session title with a win at 10:00 against Blue. If Blue wins, Gray can tie for the title (and be listed first in the standings due to run differential) with a win over Green at noon. Purple has clinched fourth place and Red can’t escape last, so their game at 11:00 won’t affect the standings. Will Short Porch Bats be branching out into the construction of aluminum kayaks in time for the 2026 World Kayak Polo Championships in Germany? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
It’s happening this weekend:
Johnny Lee and the Arctic Blues Band will be at Bar Louie at the Embassy Suites, 270 Bass Pro Drive, in Round Rock, Friday August 29 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
And Boo Resnick and Hotcakes will be at Donn’s Depot, 1600 West Fifth Street in Austin, Saturday August 30 from 9:00-ish p.m. to 1:00-ish a.m.