B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 5, Issue 33 – July 24, 2023
Weather: Still hot – 86 degrees at the start of the 10:00 game, rising to mid-90s by the end of the day’s action. Humidity at 64% when we started, dropped to the mid-40s. Sunny throughout.
Injured list:
Blue team: Stan Fisher – Dupuytren’s contracture
Gold team: manager Dave Berra – knee surgery
Green team: Jeff Broussard – recovering from heart surgery
Alvin Gauna – broken finger
Games of Monday July 24:
10:00 a.m., Maroon (3-3) at Blue (5-2):
1 2 3 4 5 6 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 5 Blue 4 4 1 4 1 X X 14 Pitchers: Maroon – Tom Kelm; Blue – Spike Davidson. Mercenary: Blue – Jeff Stone. Umpires: home plate – Jack Spellman, Jack Kelly, and Joe Roche; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Peter Atkins (3 for 3); Blue – Jack Crosley (2 for 2 with two walks), Spike Davidson and Jeff Stone (each 3 for 3 with a walk).
Spike Davidson impressively shut out a tough Maroon lineup over the first five innings, stranding seven runners over the first four frames, then retiring the side in order in the fifth (on three grounders, the third of which he deflected to shortstop George Romo for a 1-6-3 out). Maroon loaded the bases with one out on three singlels in the fourth, but George Romo started a 6-4-3 double play to preserve the whitewashing.
Meanwhile, Blue scored in every one of its at bats, building a 14-0 lead. A terrific catch by Peter Sundquist on Dale Fugate’s drive to left-center kept Blue from scoring five in the first inning. Over the first two frames Blue knocked a dozen singles and a two-run double by Eddy Murillo. After being held to a single run in the third, Blue scored four more in the fourth, taking advantage of a brief bout of wildness by Tom Kelm, who walked three batters in the inning. Peter Sundquist made another tremendous catch, over the shoulder on a drive off the bat of George Romo that scored Bobby Miller from third with the fourth run of the inning. Blue scored its final run in the fifth on two walks and two singles.
The game wound up going a full seven innings as the scoreboard controller conked out in the early going and we collectively lost track of time. Maroon finally broke through in the top of the sixth, scoring four times on five singles, the last two, by Johnny Lee and Peter Atkins (completing a 3-for-3 day) coming with two out. With Blue leading by ten, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Tom Kelm led off with a single, and Larry Shupe followed with an apparent hit on a line drive to left field, but Richard Battle’s strong throw beat Tom to second base for a force out. Spike Davidson caught Billy Hill’s liner up the middle for the second out. Maroon’s 1-2-3 hitters, Peter Sundquist, Rex Horvath, and Scott Wright, each singled, Larry Shupe coming around to score, but Spike made a nice play on Chris Villareal’s grounder back to the box and threw to first for the final out. Final score: Blue 14, Maroon 5
11:00 a.m., Gray (4-2) at Gold (3-4):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 3 4 3 4 4 18 Gold 1 0 5 4 4 14 Pitchers: Gray – Greg Lloyd; Gold – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Gray – Anthony Galindo and Peter Sundquist. Umpires: home plate – Tommy Deleon, Jeff Fisher, and Scott Wright; bases – Tim Balke and Mike Hill. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Greg Lloyd and Mick Parker (each 4 for 4 with a walkl); Gold – Jack McDermott and Jeff Stone (each 3 for 3; Jeff reached base in seven straight plate appearances in the day's first two games).
Gold struggled in the early going, managing just one run over the first two innings, when Jack McDermott singled, Joe Roche doubled, and Jeff Stone singled in the bottom of the first. Greg Lloyd got both Mike Garrison and Denny Malloy to hit foul third strikes to end the inning, stranding Jeff and Joe at second and third, then started an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play on Jack Spellman’s grounder in the bottom of the second.
Meanwhile, led by the top of its order, Gray posted crooked numbers in every inning and built an insurmountable lead. One-two hitters Mick Parker and Greg Lloyd each knocked four singles and drew a walk, Daniel Carvajal and Jerry Mylius rapped three hits apiece, and Tom Brownfield was a terror at cleanup, collecting singles in his first three times up (the first was a Texas League bloop to right field, but the next two were line-drive no-doubters) and then a double to right in his fourth, driving in seven runs all told.
It was 10-1 Gray through the top of the third. Gold finally started hitting in the home half of that inning, but across five runs on seven singles. But we couldn’t narrow the deficit any further. Gray scored four runs on five hits in both the fourth (Anthony Galindo’s triple the big hit) and buffet (Alex Valles drawing a walk to start the rally). Gold scored four times in the bottom of the fourth on sixth singles, then entered the bottom of the buffet trailing by eight. Gold scored another four runs, but ran out of outs – Tom Brownfield made an excellent play to short-hop Jack Spellman’s liner to second base and throw to first for the second out, and Greg Lloyd struck out Joe Dayoc looking at an unhittable pitch that clipped the corner of the mat to seal the deal. Final score: Gray 18, Gold 14
Channeling Mary Poppins and/or The Penguin, Jeff Fisher innovates a means of keeping cool while umpiring the 11:00 game.
Noon, Green (4-3) at Red (2-5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 5 0 1 0 1 2 9 Red 1 0 3 5 3 X 12 Pitchers: Green – Chunky Wright and Tommy Deleon, trading off every inning (or every other inning, I'm not sure); Red – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Red – Tim Bruton and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home plate – Mick Parker; bases – Jeff Stone. Perfect at the plate: Red – George Brindley (4 for 4), David Ferley (4 for 4 with a double), and Jack Spellman (3 for 3 with two doubles).
I didn’t keep a scoresheet for Green, so I’m fuzzy on details like How many mercenaries did Green employ? and how did they score their runs in the first inning? and which innings did Chunky Wright pitch and which did Tommy Deleon pitch? So, apologies. After allowing Green five in the first, Jack Kelly settled in, acting manager George Brindley adjusted Red’s defensive set (moving Tim Bruton to left field, Terry Thompson to second, and rotating Adam Reddell and Daniel Baladez between first and third base), and Green was limited to just single runs in the third and fifth, Red turning double plays in the second (6u., 6-3) and fifth (6-4-3, nice pivot by Terry Thompson).
Red was slow to get untracked, scoring just one run on singles in the first by George Brindley, David Ferley, and Adam Reddell, Adam’s on a pop fly to left-center that Jeff Fisher made a strong effort to reach, only to tumble to the ground, prompting the requisite calls from the peanut gallery of “Old man down!” That inning ending with Mike Hill turning a 6u., 6-3 double play. Chunky Wright stranded runners at second and third in the second.
George, David, and Adam were at the center of rallies in both the third and fourth, knocking base hits in each (David doubled in the fourth, the other hits were singles) as Red scored three and five runs in those frames to take the lead. The five-run rally was capped by Daniel Baladez’s two-run double that gapped the left and left-center fielders and rolled to the fence – on the Red bench we saw Jeff Fisher playing somewhat shallow on Daniel, to cut off a run-scoring hit, and we wondered if Daniel would take advantage. Daniel did.
Red added three runs on a walk and five singles in the bottom of the fifth and took a five-run lead to the buffet. Hits by Green’s first four hitters brought across two runs, but Red managed to get outs on an infield fly and then a baserunning gaffe. Jack Spellman dropped the pop behind second, but it had already been called an infield fly, so the batter was out. Then, with Chunky Wright running at second and Reed Durant at first, there was a single to David Ferley in right-center (I think). Chunky got conflicting directions from manager/third-base coach Tim Balke and the Green dugout and wound up not going for home; Reed, thinking he would, made it two-thirds of the way to third before realizing he was hung out to dry. The relay came in to shortstop Jack Spellman, and I was able to run at Reed and tag him for out numer two. The final out came on a grounder to the 5-6 hole – third baseman Daniel Baladez moved to his left, just managed to snag the ball on a high hop, and threw to Terry Thompson at second for the game-ending force. Final score: Red 12, Green 9
Standings – Session Three:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Blue 6 2 .750 — 111 88 +23 W2
Gray 5 2 .714 .5 94 84 +10 W1
Green 4 4 .500 2 102 100 + 2 L2
Maroon 3 4 .429 2.5 67 77 -10 L1
Red 3 5 .375 3 88 98 -10 W1
Gold 3 5 .375 3 89 100 -11 L1
Purple 0 2 .000 3 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:
Blue 2-2 4-0 0 0-0 5-1 0-0
Gray 2-2 3-0 1 0-0 0-0 2-0
Green 1-1 3-3 0 0-0 1-1 1-0
Maroon 1-2 2-2 0 0-0 1-2 0-0
Red 2-4 1-1 0 0-0 0-3 0-1
Gold 1-3 2-2 0 0-0 1-1 0-1
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 3 3 2 2 2.5 2 14.5
Gold 2 X 2 5 1 1 3 14
Gray 2 3 X 2 2 2 4 15
Green 2 1 2 X 1 4 4 14
Maroon 3 4 1 4 X 3 1 16
Purple 1.5 1 2 0 1 X 1 6.5
Red 3 1 1 2 3 3 X 13
_____________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 13.5 13 11 15 10 15.5 15 93
Schedule for Thursday July 27:
10:00 a.m.: Gold (3-5) at Green (4-4), Gray umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Maroon (3-4) at Gray (5-2), Red umpiring
Noon: Red (3-5) at Blue (6-2), Maroon umpiring
Preview: Thursday will be the 334th anniversary of the Battle of Killicrankie, at which Jacobite Scottish Highlanders under Viscount Dundee defeated royalist force under General MacKay, setting the precedent of the Scots rrruining Scotland. We will celebrate by seeing whether the Gray Jacobit highlanders can defeat Maroon at 11:00 and leapfrog the Maroon royalists, who play Red at noon. At 10:00, either Gold or Green will end its losing streak. Will Fritz Hensel paint his face half blue, moon the visitors dugout, and randomly scream “Freedom!” during the noon game? Only one thing is certain: time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Tom Kelm forwards track results. From the National Senior Games: B League’s Ken Brown lost the 50-meter race by 0.03 seconds, won the 100-meter race by 0.03 seconds, and won the 200-meter race by 0.2 seconds. At the USA Track and Field National Outdoors, Ken won the 100-meter race in 13.85 seconds and won the 200-meter race in 29.13 seconds.
Keggy’s Kwiz answers!
These Boston Red Sox stars of the late 1970s are, left to right, Rick Burleson, Bob Stanley, Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn (the spitting image of our own Gregory Bied), Jim Rice, and Dennis Eckersley. Rice and Eckersley are Hall of Famers. Tom Kelm wins the quiz, and a bunch of expired Pluckers coupons, with 7 out of a possible 9 points.