B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 32 – July 13, 2026
Congratulations to the Relentless 75s, led by manager Rip Wright, which came out of the loser’s bracket, played eight games in two days in the 100-plus-degree heat, and won last week’s SSUSA Heart of Texas 75-AA tourney in Waco. Says Rick Jensen, “Tommy DeLeon pitched 90% of the innings and was fantastic.”
Left to right: Don Solberg, Tommy Deleon, Gary Coyle, Donnie Janac, Richard Battle, Tom Brownfield, Rip Wright, Frank Lyle, Patrick Schmidt, Butch Barber, Ken Brown, Rick Jensen, Terry Watts, , and Gary Bowles. (Not pictured: Jack Crosley, who I’m guessing either took the picture or flew the biplane.)
Games of Monday July 13:
10:00 a.m.: Green (3-3) at Red (2-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 3 5 5 0 5 1 19 Red 1 0 5 5 0 4 15 Pitchers: Green – Spike Davidson; Red – Trent Peacock. Mercenaries: Green – Bobby Miller and Patrick Schmidt; Red – Daniel Baladez and Jeff Stone. Umpires: home – Rick Jensen and Jack McDermott; bases – Jim Foelker. Perfect at the plate: Green – Ivan Budiselic (3 for 3) and Mike Garrison (3 for 3 with a walk and a triple); Red – Richard Battle (4 for 4), Mark Dolan (4 for 4 with a double), and Tommy Gillis (4 for 4 with a home run). Home run: Tommy Gillis (over the fence) (1).
Weather report: 86 degrees, felt like 94; 69% relative humidity, felt worse than that; wind from the SW at 4 MPH; cloudy.
Green built an early lead, Red mounted a comeback in the middle innings, but Green regrouped and put the game away late.
Doc Hobar led off the game with a triple to right-center and scored the first of three Green runs in the top of the first on Mike Garrison’s Texas League single to left field. Mike then scored from first on Rex Horvath’s line double to left field. Rex advanced to third on Terry O’Brien’s ground out to second baseman Daniel Baladez and scored on Tom Brownfield’s single up the middle.
Red got one run back on three singles in the home half. Spike Davidson got three grounders for force outs in the inning, the last two to second baseman Doc Hobar – on the last one, hit by Johnny Lee there was a glancing collision at second base between base-runner Trent Peacock and Green shortstop Rex Horvath; just a reminder, when you’re running, look to avoid collision and run away from where the ball is likely to be thrown.
Green scored five times in the top of the second on six singles and Mike Garrison’s walk, and Spike Davidson blanked Red in the bottom half. Ralph Villela came up with two on and two out, but Spike got him to ground into a 6-4 force, Terry O’Brien to Doc Hobar.
Green pushed across another five runs in the top of the third, on Tom Brownfield’s lead-off double and six singles. That made it 13-1 in Green’s favor, but Red, far from throwing in the towel, came roaring back, scoring five times in the home half on seven singles while making just one out.
Trent Peacock then shut out Green in the top of the fourth, leaving two runners stranded when Tommy Gillis made a fine running catch to his right of Spike Davidson’s two-out drive to left-center field.
Red then once again in the bottom of the fourth scored five runs on seven singles while making just one out.
That cut Green’s lead to 13-11 entering the final five-run inning, but they quickly built it back up to a seven-run advantage: five of Green’s first six batters singled, three runs scoring, and Mike Garrison drove in the fourth and fifth runs with a line triple to right field that skipped to the fence and would easily have been Mike’s fifth home run of the season had the fifth run not scored ahead of him.
Spike Davidson kept Red from scoring in the bottom of the fifth. Marvin Krabbenhoft singled leading off, his pinch-runner Tommy Gillis took second on Jeff Stone’s fly to left fielder Mike Garrison, and a single past third base by Daniel Baladez put runners at the corners with the top of the order coming up. But Spike again improbably got Ralph Villela to hit an inning-ending grounder to shortstop Rex Horvath: Rex threw to second baseman Doc Hobar for the force on Daniel’s pinch-runner (Trent Peacock, I think), and Doc threw home in time to cut down Tommy Gillis, running for Marvin and trying to score, for a 6-4-2 double play.
Leading by seven entering the buffet, Green needed to score one run to prompt a flip-flop, and they did so: Rex Horvath and Terry O’Brien singled to start the inning, advanced to third and second on Tom Brownfield’s fly to Tommy Gillis in right-center, and Rex scored on Spike Davidson’s ground-ball single to shortstop, beating Ralph Villela’s throw home.
Red put together a respectable show in the bottom of the buffet. Mark Dolan doubled to left field to open the frame, completing a 4-for-4 game, and took third on Anthony Galindo’s single to left. Tommy Gillis then stepped up and crushed a pitch, lining it over the fence in left-center field for a three-run homer, his first of the season, seen here:
Tommy also completed a 4-for-4 game with the knock. Spike Davidson then retired Trent Peacock and Johnny Lee on grounders to second baseman Doc Hobar and shortstop Rex Horvath. Down to their final out, Red got consecutive singles by Richard Battle (also 4 for 4), Marvin Krabbenhoft, and Jeff Stone, Richard coming around to score. But the game ended with Mike Garrison hauling in Daniel Baladez’s drive to left field for the final out.
Final score: Green 19, Red 10. Green’s 1-4 hitters were a wrecking crew today, going a combined 12 for 15 with a walk, a double, two triples, eight runs scored, and 13 driven in.
11:00 a.m.: Purple (2-4) at Maroon (4-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Purple 1 4 1 1 5 12 Maroon 0 4 4 5 X 13 Pitchers: Purple – Ray Pilgrim; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Purple – Rex Horvath, Terry O'Brien, and Steve Sandall; Maroon – Jim Foelker, Donnie Janac, Jack Spellman, and Larry Young. Umpires: home – Anthony Galindo; bases – Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Rick Jensen (3 for 3) and Steve Sandall (2 for 2 with a walk); Maroon – Alan Phillips (2 for 2 with a walk), David Pittard (1 for 1 with two walks), and Larry Young (2 for 2). Home runs: Patrick Schmnidt (inside the park) (1) and Jimmy Sneed (inside the park) (2).
Dave Berra’s weather update: 87 degrees, felt like 96; 67% relative humidity; wind from the SSW at 3 MPH; clouds help!
Rick Jensen was MVP of this game, singlehandedly almost snookering Maroon out of its victory.
Purple took the lead in the first inning. Patrick Schmidt led off the game with a single, took second on the throw into the infield, advanced to third on Jack McDermott’s base hit, and scored on Jimmy Sneed’s sacrifice fly to left fielder Steve Browne. Ray Pilgrim then retired Maroon in order in the bottom of the inning, getting Steve Browne to line out to second baseman Rick Jensen, Scott Wright to ground out to Rick, and Ken Brown to ground out to shortstop Jimmy Sneed.
Chaos and hilarity erupted in the second inning. Rick Jensen led off with a single, and hits by Steve Sandall and Terry O’Brien loaded the bases with none out for Rex Horvath. Rex hit a grounder to third baseman David Pittard, who fielded it cleanly and stepped on third for the force there. Rick meanwhile ran up to the commit line, stopping just before it. (From my perspective at shortstop, he was about a millimeter on the third-base side of the line.) David trotted toward Rick, ready to throw home if Rick broke for the plate, but Rick waited until David was about two inches more than an arm’s length away, then did a hilarious little bunny hop over the line. David’s momentum carried him forward, and, even knowing he shouldn’t, he almost couldn’t help but tag Rick. That broke the B League and SSUSA rule, as explained here (screen grab forwarded by plate umpire Anthony Galindo):
David immediately threw to catcher Fritz Hensel, but the ball was dead and Rick safe with a run scored at the moment David made the illegal tag. There was some discussion of this, but Anthony absolutely called this play correctly, and instead of no runs and two out, it was one run in with one out, two runners on base. But, really, why explain it when ChatGPT can just show us, in stunning detail, what went down:
Moments later, there were no runners on base, as Patrick Schmidt lined an inside-the-park three-run homer to right-center, his first home run of the season, as seen here:
And Purple led 5-0. Though not for long, as Maroon rallied for four runs in the bottom half, though somehow we weren’t done with The Commitment Line Follies. Jeff Stone and Fritz Hensel singled to open the inning, and a walk to David Pittard loaded the bases. Alan Phillips also walked, Jeff scoring. Jack Spellman lined a single to left-center field; Fritz’s pinch-runner scored, and when David took a wide turn around third, Alan started toward the seemingly open base; but David stopped short of the commit line and looked to return to third, only to see Alan coming to the base. So David did what Rick had done, going up to the commit line but not crossing it, but Purple generally and third baseman Rex Horvath specifically were not going to fall for this tomfoolery so soon after the tomfoolery of the top of the inning; Rex came at David until David had no choice but to cross the line and try for home, and Rex tossed to catcher Billy Hill for the easy out, 8-4-5-2 in your scorebook.
Alan did wind up at third and Spellman at second on the play, and Alan scored on Donnie Janac’s sacrifice fly to Steve Sandall in right-center. Larry Young knocked a single to left-center field; Spellman scored, hitting the home line just before Larry was thrown out 8-6-4, Patrick Schmidt to Jimmy Sneed to Rick Jensen, trying for a double.
After all that, Purple led 5-4. They scored a single run in the top of the third. Singles by Mike Malay and Rick Jensen and a walk to Steve Sandall loaded the bases to start the inning. Mike scored on Terry O’Brien’s ground-ball force out, Rick out at third. Jeff Stone then got Rex Horvath to ground into a 4u., 4-3 double play, Scott Wright making an outstanding play on Rex’s bid for a well-struck opposite-field hit, racing to second himself for the force and throwing to first for the third out.
Just to mention, Mike Malay’s grandson T-Bone was in attendance, serving as bat boy for Gray. We didn’t recognize him at first, what with the new haircut and all.
Maroon grabbed the lead with four runs in the bottom of the third on six singles and Scott Wright’s walk. Steve Browne was thrown out 10-5-6, Terry O’Brien to Rex Horvath to Jimmy Sneed, trying to take second on a throw to third, too late to catch Jim Foelker, on Steve’s single to right, else it would have been a five-run inning.
Jeff Stone got two quick outs to start the fourth, retiring Patrick Schmidt on a grounder to first baseman Larry Young (who made Patrick run hard by being slow to the bag, but not that slow) and Jack McDermott on a grounder back to the box. Jimmy Sneed then went oppo, driving a pitch to right field, gapping the outfielders and easily rounding the bases for an inside-the-park home run, Jimmy’s second homer of the season, seen here:
Ray Pilgrim followed with a double to the fence in center field. Billy Hill singled to the 5-6 hole; shortstop Jack Spellman made a diving stop to his backhand, didn’t have a play anywhere, but probably kept Ray’s pinch-runner (Steve Sandall, I think?) from scoring, as Jeff Stone got Mike Malay to hit a two-strike foul for the third out.
Purple was now within a run, but Maroon scored five times in the bottom of the fourth, on six singles and David Pittard’s walk, to give itself some breathing room. (For the day, Maroon had 16 hits, all of them singles.)
So Purple was chasing six runs when it came up in the top of the buffet. Its first four batters, beginning of course with Rick Jensen (who completed a perfect day at the plate), singled, one run scoring as Purple ran the bases cautiously. Patrick Schmidt hit an infield fly to shortstop for the first out. Jack McDermott laced a triple to left-center field to. clear the bases, but when the relay in to third baseman David Pittard rolled away, he tried for home, and David threw him out, the play going 8-6-5-2 (Jim Foelker to Spellman to David to catcher Fritz Hensel). That proved to be a key play, as Jimmy Sneed followed with another triple and then scored on Ray Pilgrim’s base hit – instead of being the tying run, Jimmy’s score made it a one-run game. Billy Hill hit the ball hard, but directly to shortstop Spellman on the ground, for a game-ending 6-4 force, Maroon holding on to win a one-run game.
Final score: Maroon 13, Purple 12
Noon: Orange (4-2) at Gray (2-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 0 1 2 0 0 0 3 Gray 0 2 0 4 1 X 7 Pitchers: Orange – Tommy Deleon; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Orange – Jack McDermott and Scott Wright; Gray – Anthony Galindo, Patrick Schmidt, and Jeff Stone. Umpires: home – Steve Browne; bases – David Pittard and Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Jack McDermott and Scott Wright (both 3 for 3); Gray – Anthony Galindo (3 for 3 with a double), Jim McAnelly (3 for 3), and Paul Rubin (2 for 2 with a walk).
Dave Berra’s weather update: Ditto
After the craziness of game two, we ended the day with an old-fashioned pitchers duel between two of B League’s veteran hurlers. Jack Kelly got the better of the match-up, holding Orange to three runs on 14 hits over six innings, six of those hits by mercenaries Jack McDermott and Scott Wright, who both went 3 for 3. Actual Orange players combined to go just 8 for 24, a paltry .333 average. Tommy Deleon matched Jack in the early going, allowing just five hits and two runs over the first three innings before the wheels came off somewhat in the bottom of the fourth.
Neither team scored in the first, Jack Kelly working around singles by Jack Spellman and Adam Reddell in the top half, Tommy Deleon allowing just a one-out single by Paul Rubin in the bottom half, which ended with Pat Scott making a fine running catch of Jim Foelker’s drive to right-center.
Jack Kelly retired the first two batters in the second inning, then gave up a run on consecutive singles by Tommy Langa, Jack McDermott, and Scott Wright, before retiring Matt Levitt on a fly to Bobby Miller in left-center.
Gray took the lead with two runs in the home half of the second. Jim McAnelly singled leading off, then was forced out 5-4 on Mike Velaney’s grounder to third baseman Adam Reddell. Tommy Deleon caught Jack Kelly looking at a called third strike for the second out. Anthony Galindo singled and Jeff Stone walked, loading the bases. Patrick Schmidt, playing his fifth game of the day, smacked a double to score Mike and Anthony. Bobby Miller flied out to Patrick Scott in right-center, Patrick making another running catch to end an inning.
Orange grabbed the lead back with two runs in the top of the third. Jack Spellman lined a ball just beyond the reach of Jim Foelker in right-center and wound up at third with a lead-off triple. Jack Kelly masterfully struck out Pat Scott – he got a called strike on a pitch that just clipped the front of the mat, and then got Pat to swing through a pitch that was just a couple inches short of the mat. Adam Reddell’s fly to Bobby Miller in left-center was deep enough to score Spellman from third with the tying run. Tommy Deleon followed with a single, and his pinch-runner, Matt Levitt, scored from first on Don Solberg’s to right field – I think Matt’s aggressiveness caught first baseman Luis Sanchez, handling the relay, by surprise, and Matt made it home with the go-ahead run without a throw being made.
Tommy Deleon worked a scoreless bottom of the third, stranding Paul Rubin (lead-off walk) and Jim McAnelly (two-out single).
Orange’s mercenaries, Jack McDermott and Scott Wright, again hit back-to-back singles to start the fourth inning, but the top of the Orange order failed to take advantage: Matt Levitt grounded into a 5u., 5-4 double play, nicely executed by Jeff Stone, and Jack Kelly got Jack Spellman to pop out weakly to first baseman Luis Sanchez.
Gray rallied and took the lead in the bottom of that inning, its mercenaries leading the way. With one out, Anthony Galindo doubled and Jeff Stone and Patrick Schnmidt singled, Anthony coming around to score, tying the game. The runners moved up on Bobby Miller’s ground out to second baseman Scott Wright. Paul Rubin singled in Jeff’s pinch-runner with the go-ahead run. Luis Sanchez followed with a base hit to right field that scored both Patrick and Paul, both of them motoring around the bases despite the heat and the lateness of the day.
Trailing 6-3, Orange couldn’t get anything going in the top of the fifth, Jack Kelly working around Adam Reddell’s one-out single. Gray scored an insurance run on three singles in the home half, pushing its lead to 7-3 entering the buffet.
More frustration for Orange in that inning. Jack Kelly retired both Hal Darman and Tommy Langa on well-struck balls to third baseman Jeff Stone, Hal on a sharp grounder, Tommy on a line drive. Jack McDermott and Scott Wright completed their 3-for-3 days at the plate with singles, and Matt Levitt drew a walk to load the bases, bringing up Jack Spellman representing the potential tying run. I got a hittable pitch and squared it up, but I missed my target – instead of hitting it to straight-away center, I hit it directly at Jim Foelker, who was perfectly positioned to make the game-ending catch.
Final score: Gray 7, Orange 3
2026 standings:
| Session 3 standings: | ||||||||
| Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Maroon | 5 | 2 | .714 | 0 | 92 | 80 | 12 | W4 |
| Blue | 4 | 2 | .667 | 0.5 | 61 | 44 | 17 | W1 |
| Orange | 4 | 3 | .571 | 1 | 101 | 91 | 10 | L1 |
| Green | 4 | 3 | .571 | 1 | 102 | 104 | -2 | W1 |
| Gray | 3 | 4 | .429 | 2 | 72 | 76 | -4 | W1 |
| Purple | 2 | 5 | .286 | 3 | 95 | 105 | -10 | L1 |
| Red | 2 | 5 | .286 | 3 | 80 | 103 | -23 | L5 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Maroon | 2-1 | 3-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2-1 | ||
| Blue | 2-2 | 2-0 | 1 | 1-0 | 3-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Orange | 2-2 | 2-1 | 1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Green | 1-3 | 3-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-1 | 1-1 | ||
| Gray | 1-2 | 2-2 | 0 | 1-1 | 1-0 | 1-3 | ||
| Purple | 0-3 | 2-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-2 | ||
| Red | 1-2 | 1-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 1-0 | ||
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 | 4 | 2 | 11 | |
| Green | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 13 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 17 | |
| Orange | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 14 | |
| Purple | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | |
| Red | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 11 | |
| TOTAL: | 6 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 14 | 19 | 16 | 96 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Ralph Villela – 6
Terry O’Brien – 5
David Brown – 3
Steve Browne – 3
Tim Coles – 3
Tony Garcia – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Trent Peacock – 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
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: 2 (May 4, July 2)
Jeff Stone: 2 (March 2, July 9)
Rex Horvath: 1 (March 30)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Schedule for Thursday July 16:
10:00 a.m.: Maroon (5-2) at Blue (4-2), Red umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Red (2-5) at Gray (3-4), Blue umpiring
Noon: Purple (2-5) at Orange (4-3), Gray umpiring
Preview: We have a battle for first place on the docket for Thursday, Maroon and Blue squaring off at 10:00. Maroon has won its last four games; Blue, coming off the bye, has a one-game winning streak going, and leads the season series with Maroon 4-1. Look for a low-scoring battle between two of the league’s best defensive teams. Red will look to end its five-game losing streak at 11:00 versus Gray, a team Red leads 3-2 in the season series. One of Purple and Orange will end their one-game losing streak at noon; Orange leads the season series 3-2. Thursday is, ridiculously, Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day, like we should be properly appreciating civilizational demise. Will I celebrate by posting some ridiculous AI-generated imagery? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Tom Brownfield’s birthday bash is this Saturday July 18:
Tom and his daughter Jill ask that everyone wear red, white, or blue.
Podcast review: The Poscast
The Poscast is basically an excuse for buddies Michael Schur, TV multi-hyphenate behind The Office, Parks & Recreation, Brooklyn 99, and other very funny shows, and sportswriter Joe Posnanski to talk for an hour or more about whatever silliness, usually but not exclusively sports-related, is on their minds. Mike, writing under the pseudonym Ken Tremendous, was a co-founder of the great sports blog Fire Joe Morgan, and that site’s analytics-based snark and insight is very much coded into the DNA of this podcast. Early on they featured great themed drafts in which they picked (and argued mock vehemently about) such truly unimportant and non-draftable topics as Roman numerals, nicknames, breakfast cereals, days of the week, shapes, you name it. They’ve moved away from these draft episodes except for the yearly Holiday Draft, which remains a highlight, though I will say that original run of holiday drafts from 2017 through 2020 have never been matched (highly recommend going back to listen to the original 2017 Holiday Songs draft, which went off the rails about two minutes in and was absolutely epic). I appreciate Mike’s utter contempt for all things Yankee and Jeter. A newer tradition I’m less enamored of is their spending multiple episodes opening packs of sports cards, which they’ve turned into a charitable event, not that this makes it interesting in any way. Every episode ends with “One Last Meaningless Thing,” a segment that has its own insanely catchy, listener-submitted theme song, and is reliably silly and deeply entertaining. New England content: Quite a bit, as Mike is a New Englander and die-hard Boston sports fan. Canadian content: Somewhat incidental. Listening speed: Regular speed. Rating: 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 for non-card-opening episodes; 🎧 for the card-openers, which, frankly, blow.