B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 38 – July 28, 2025
Department of Corrections: Paul Rubin grounded to Tony Garcia, not Jimmy Sneed, as I misreported, to end the 10:30 game on Thursday July 24. The Picayune regrets the error.
We returned to Krieg 3, our home for the rest of the season (probably). The newly painted concession building looks nice; I failed to take a picture, though.
Games of Monday July 28:
10:30 a.m., Purple (4-4) at Gray (3-5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Purple 2 0 2 1 1 1 7 Gray 0 0 2 3 5 X 10 Pitchers: Purple – Spike Davidson; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Purple – George Brindley and Chris Waddell. Umpires: home – Jeff Stone and Scott Wright; bases – Jimmie Maloy and Dave Berra. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Paul Rubin (4 for 4 with a home run). Home run: Paul Rubin (inside the park) (1).
Weather report: The KXAN app said the game-time temperature was 85 degrees, felt like 93, with 69% humidity, wind from the South at 5 MPH. Partly sunny to start. It got hotter and sunnier as the day went on. By the end of my return bike ride, I was questioning the wisdom of bicycling today.
Close, well-played game. Purple scored twice in the top of the first and held that early lead through the top of the fourth inning. Larry Fiorentino, returning from injury, led off the game with a single. I took pictures:
Here’s Larry at the plate to start the game. Hal Darman is catching, and Jeff Stone is the home-plate umpire.
Larry fouls off a pitch from Jack Kelly.
Larry lofts a pop-fly single to right-center. It’s in black and white because that makes it more true.
Richard Battle singled and Rick Jensen grounded into a 6-4 force. A line single to left by Raul Deleon drove in Larry with the first run of the game. Henry Flores grounded to third baseman Adam Reddell, who threw to second baseman Mike Malay for the force on Raul; Mike’s relay to first flew past Johnny Lee, and Rick was able to score.
Spike Davidson worked a scoreless bottom half, retiring three in a row after Paul Rubin singled to start the frame.
Neither team scored in the second. Jack Kelly got three outs on ground balls, Phil Stanch’s ball back up the middle caroming off Jack’s leg to Mike Malay, who threw Phil out. Chris Waddell singled with two out, but was forced at second as Mike made a really good play to his backhand of George Brindley’s hard smash to the right of second base. Spike Davidson worked around singles by Johnny Lee and Mike Malay in the bottom of the inning.
The top of Purple’s order was up to start the third inning, and again produced two runs, on four singles and Rick Jensen’s walk. With one out, two in, and the bases loaded, Gray got out of the inning by way of a well-executed 6-4-5 double play on Larry Young’s grounder: George Romo threw to Mike Malay for the force at second, and Mike threw to third to double up Henry Flores.
Gray got on the board in the bottom half, scoring twice, but leaving the bases loaded as veteran* shortstop Rick Jensen came up with three outs. (* Veteran in the sense that he’s been playing shortstop in B League for many seasons, and has great situational awareness. Also, Rick is literally a veteran.) Jack Kelly and Paul Rubin opened the inning with infield singles, Jack’s to second baseman George Brindley, moving to his right – Jack’s pinch-runner, I think Mike Malay, beat the throw to first – and Paul’s back to the mound and off Spike Davidson. Tommy Gillis grounded a ball to the 5-6 hole that Rick made a very good play on, ranging far to his right and then making a strong throw to George B. for the force at second, out number one. George Romo lined a single to left to drive in Jack’s runner with the first run, and Adam Reddell walked, loading the bases. Jack Crosley lined a single to right-center and everyone moved up a base, Tommy scoring. Johnny Lee grounded a ball to shortstop; Rick threw home to get lead runner George Romo – the throw initially drew catcher Larry Fiorentino off the mat, and Larry almost went for the tag, then remembered he needed to tag the mat, and did so before George reached the scoring line, for out number two. Spike then got Morgan Witthoft to pop out to Rick for out number three.
Purple got a single run in the top of the fourth: Chris Waddell singled with one out, took third on George Brindley’s single up the middle, and tagged up and scored on Larry Fiorentino’s fly to Jack Crosley in right-center.
Gray tied the game in the bottom half. Hal Darman singled to left with one out was forced out at second 4-6 on Jack Kelly’s grounder. The next four batters delivered left-side hits: Paul Rubin grounded a single to left field; Tommy Gillis hit a ball sharply through the 5-6 hole, everyone advancing two bases, Jack’s pinch-runner scoring. George Romo’s line-drive single to left drove in both Paul and Tommy, tying the game. Adam Reddell grounded a ball past shortstop and into left field, for a double, George stopping at third. Both George and Adam were stranded when Phil Stanch caught Jack Crosley’s line drive to right-center.
Purple batters knocked five singles in the top of the fifth, but produced just a single run. Rick Jensen led off with a hit to center that got between Morgan Witthoft and Paul Rubin; Rick tried for two, but a strong throw from Paul (I believe it was) cut him down, 8-4. Raul Deleon and Henry Flores followed with singles. Jack Kelly got Spike Davidson to foul off a two-strike pitch for the second out. Larry Young lined a ball to right-center; Jack Crosley got to it, got a glove on the ball, but couldn’t corral it – it fell in for a single, Raul scoring. Phil Stanch grounded a single up the middle to load the bases, but Jack got Chris Waddell to ground a ball to third baseman Adam Reddell, who threw to second for the inning-ending force.
Gray then took control with a five-run inning in the home half. Johnny Lee lined a single to left and Morgan Witthoft beat out a short pop between the pitcher and first baseman to open the inning. They both scored on Mike Malay’s line-drive double to center, Gray taking the lead. Hal Darman grounded out to third baseman Chris Waddell, Mike advancing to third on the cross-diamond throw. Jack Kelly singled to right, driving in Mike. Paul Rubin then came up and lined a ball down the left-field side, hard hit and about ten feet fair, rolling to the far corner, Paul circling the bases for a two-run inside-the-park home run, his first of this season, completing a 4-for-4 game at the plate.
Paul Rubin reaches the scoring line on his inside-the-parker. It’s in black and white because that makes it more true.
Gray manager Jack Kelly presented Paul Rubin with a Pluckers coupon after the game.
Gray entered the buffet with a 10-6 lead. George Brindley led off with a single. Larry Fiorentino popped a two-strike pitch foul down the first-base side for the first out. Richard Battle walked and Rick Jensen singled, loading the bases. Raul Deleon hit a fly to deep left field, his fourth straight well-struck ball, but Tommy Gillis was playing him deep and made the catch. George tagged up and scored, bringing Purple within three. But Jack Kelly got Henry Flores to hit a grounder to third baseman Adam Reddell, who threw to second to force out Rick, ending the game. Final score: Gray 10, Purple 7
11:30 a.m., Maroon (7-2) at Red (3-7):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 4 5 0 4 1 X 14 Red 0 5 0 0 0 5 10 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Red – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Maroon – Ken Mockler; Red – Donnie Janac and Ray Pilgrim. Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – George Brindley and Peter Sundquist. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Ken Brown (4 for 4 with a double), Jimmie Maloy (3 for 3), and Jeff Stone (3 for 3 with a triple). Home run: Scott Wright (inside the park) (2).
Look who’s back: Peter Sundquist, rehabbing from knee-replacement surgery. Peter umpired the bases for the first three innings of this game, and is aiming to return to play in September.
Not taking anything away from Maroon, which knocked 20 hits, five for extra bases, against one of the league’s best pitchers, but Red was kind of flat in this game – it never felt like we were in it, even after scoring five times in the bottom of the second and holding Maroon scoreless in the third.
Maroon jumped off to a quick lead, scoring four times in the top of the first, its first seven batters hitting safely, Ken Brown and Bobby Miller opening the game with doubles and scoring immediately, Ken on Bobby’s hit, Bobby on Tony Garcia’s single. Emulating their aggressive running, Scott Wright tried to go first to third on Jeff Stone’s single to right-center, but was thrown out 9-6-5, Rolando Rodriguez to Jack Spellman to Ray Pilgrim.
Red didn’t score in the home half. First baseman Ken Mockler made a good grab of Jack Spellman’s low liner to start the inning, and Jeff Stone worked around a walk to Anthony Galindo and a two-out single by Joe Bernal. Maroon then increased its lead to 9-0 with five runs on six singles and Bobby Miller’s bases-loaded triple in the top of the second. Thirteen of Maroon’s first 16 batters hit safely, and one of the three who did not, Scott Wright in his second at bat, was robbed of a hit by first baseman Dale Fugate, who snagged Scott’s liner.
Red got on the board with five runs in the home half, despite your correspondent’s best efforts to foul up the inning. Dale Fugate drew a lead-off walk, and I ran for him. Jim McAnelly singled me to second. Donald Drummer then smashed a one-hopper toward shortstop that I ran right into – I thought it was going to break away from me, but instead its spin cut it to the right, my left, and off my knee. Just a total misreading of the ball at my end. Technically a single for Donald, but also an out. Ray Pilgrim followed with a drive to left-center for a single, both Jim’s runner and Donald scoring. Donnie Janac singled. Then I came up, took a hittable pitch for a called strike, then bounced weakly back to the pitcher, very nearly but not quite getting doubled up. My teammates picked me up: Anthony Galindo, Rolando Rodriguez, and Joe Bernal knocked consecutive RBI singles to bring in the third, fourth, and fifth runs.
Joe then worked around Jimmie Maloy’s two-out single and held Maroon scoreless in the top of the third. But Red wasn’t able to capitalize, going down in order in the bottom of that inning (good play by Ken Brown on Mark Dolan’s liner to right-center to open the frame) and then again in the fourth.
Maroon had put up another four runs in the top of the fourth, the first three on Scott Wright’s three-run inside-the-park home run, a ball he drove down the right-field line, his second homer of the season. Jeff Stone followed with a triple, a gapper to right-center that he might have scored on if he hadn’t been wearing his heavy shin pads while batting. Instead he scored on Don Solberg’s sacrifice fly to right-center.
Leading 13-5 entering the fifth, Maroon added one more: Ivan Budiselic drew a lead-off walk, took second on Jimmy Maloy’s single (his third hit in as many at bats), took third on Ken Mockler’s fly to right-center, and scored on Ken Brown’s single.
Jeff Stone allowed a lead-off double to Jack Spellman to start the bottom half, but retired the next three batters, Spellman never advancing. At that point Jeff had retired nine of ten batters, three by strikeout.
With Maroon up by nine, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Red hitters finally started figuring Jeff out, a bit too late, six of the first seven batters in the buffet knocking singles, three runs scoring, Jeff recording one out on Jim McAnelly’s grounder to third baseman Ken Mockler, who got a force at third base. Jeff then got Anthony Galindo to hit a two-strike foul for the second out. Rolando Rodriguez drew a bases-loaded walk, and Joe Bernal singled, Maroon’s lead down to four runs with the bases loaded. Jeff left them loaded, as he struck out Mark Dolan with a called strike three on a pitch that clipped the inside front corner of the mat, Jeff’s fifth K of the game. Final score: Maroon 14, Red 10
12:30 p.m., Green (5-3) at Blue (2-6):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 1 0 3 0 2 6 Blue 2 0 3 5 X 10 Pitchers: Green – Greg Lloyd; Blue – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Green – Don Solberg; Blue – Jack Spellman and Jeff Stone. Umpires: home – Anthony Galindo; bases – Donald Drummer. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Tom Brownfield (3 for 3 with two doubles) and David Pittard (1 for 1 with two walks). Home run: Ralph Villela (inside the park) (2).
Blue came away with the win in this one, but Ralph Villela was the game MVP. He led off the contest with an inside-the-park home run, his second of the season, on a drive to right-center – he might have continued on to first again, if that was allowed, he made it so easily. In his second at bat he tripled leading off the third inning and scored Green’s second run. He had four putouts and an assist at shortstop, including going into short right-center to run down a pop, and pinch-ran three times, by my count. The one inning that Blue was able to score five runs was the one in which they managed not to hit anything Ralph’s way.
Ralph Villela had himself a day. (File photo.)
Blue took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the first on Tom Brownfield’s double, which scored George Brindley, who’d led off with a walk, and David Pittard, who’d singled.
Neither team scored in the second. In the top half, with runners on first and second and one out, Tommy Deleon got Don Solberg to hit a one-hopper to the left of second base that shortstop Jack Spellman fielded about a step in front of the bag – Doc Hobar, running for Billy Hill, initially stayed on the bag, but when he realized I was going to tag him and then the base, he broke for third; I tagged the base and had plenty of time to throw to third baseman Jeff Stone to put out Doc, for a 6u., 6-5 double play. Doc was just caught in a no-man’s-land on the play, nothing he could have done would have made a double play not happen.
Greg Lloyd then worked a 1-2-3 bottom half, getting good defensive plays from Ralph, who ran down my pop to right-center, and Buddy Gaswint, who made a good play on Jeff Stone’s drive to left-center.
Ralph led off the third with his triple and scored on Greg Lloyd’s ground out to shortstop, a pretty good play I made to my left, semi-diving for the ball, then popping up and throwing out Greg by half a step. Doc Hobar and Chris Waddell followed with singles, and Buddy Gaswint doubled them both home. Phil Stanch’s hit put runners on the corners with one out, but Tommy Deleon got Donnie Janac to pop out to second baseman Tom Brownfield. Billy Hill hit a ball sharply past the mound and to my left; I was able to short-hop it, my momentum carrying me to the bag for the force on Phil.
Blue got those runs back in the home half. George Brindley lined out to shortstop to start the inning, good play by Ralph to his left. Tom Bellavia singled, David Pittard walked, and Tom Brownfield hit his second double in as many at bats, Tom scoring. Tommy Deleon’s single drove in the second and third runs.
Tommy then held Green scoreless in the top of the fourth, allowing a lead-off single to Chunky Wright, retiring the next three hitters, Don Solberg and Ralph Villela on well-struck, deep drives, to David Pittard in left by Don (batting right-handed) and Tom Bellavia in deep left-center by Ralph.
Blue finally got itself some breathing room with five runs in the bottom of the fourth, on five singles, two walks, and Tom Bellavia’s sacrifice fly. Daniel Baladez drove in the fifth run with a clean two-out single to left field after refusing a walk.
Green was chasing six runs entering the buffet. Doc Hobar led off with a single. Chris Waddell flied out to George Brindley in right-center, a good running catch. Singles by Buddy Gaswint and Phil Stanch brought Doc around to score. Donnie Janac popped out to third baseman Jeff Stone for the second out. Billy Hill ripped a single to left-center, his third good swing in as many at bats finally resulting in a hit, Buddy scoring. Tommy Deleon then got Chunky Wright to pop out to shortstop to end the game. Final score: Blue 10, Green 6
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Maroon | 8 | 2 | .800 | 0 | 112 | 96 | 16 | W6 |
| Orange | 6 | 3 | .667 | 1.5 | 98 | 79 | 19 | L1 |
| Green | 5 | 4 | .556 | 2.5 | 88 | 89 | -1 | L1 |
| Gray | 4 | 5 | .444 | 3.5 | 111 | 99 | 12 | W1 |
| Purple | 4 | 5 | .444 | 3.5 | 90 | 89 | 1 | L4 |
| Blue | 3 | 6 | .333 | 4.5 | 87 | 100 | -13 | W2 |
| Red | 3 | 8 | .273 | 5.5 | 115 | 149 | -34 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Maroon | 5-0 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Orange | 3-1 | 3-2 | 0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | 1-2 | ||
| Green | 2-2 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1-1 | ||
| Gray | 2-3 | 2-2 | 0 | 0-1 | 2-1 | 1-3 | ||
| Purple | 3-1 | 1-4 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Blue | 2-3 | 1-3 | 1 | 0-1 | 1-1 | 2-2 | ||
| Red | 0-6 | 3-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1-1 |
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 | 3 | X | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
| Green | 2 | 3 | X | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
| Maroon | 3 | 4 | 4 | X | 3 | 3 | 3 | 20 |
| Orange | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | X | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| Purple | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | X | 3 | 15 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 13 |
| TOTAL: | 14 | 18 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 20 | 111 |
2025 season home run leaders:
Tim Coles – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Bobby Miller – 4
George Brindley – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
David Brown – 2
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Ralph Villela – 2
Scott Wright – 2
Jim Aaron – 1
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Gary Coyle – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Ken Mockler – 1
Ray Pilgrim – 1
Paul Rubin – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Scott Wright – June 5
Schedule for Thursday July 31:
10:30 a.m.: Blue (3-6) at Purple (4-5), Orange umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Orange (6-3) at Green (5-4), Purple umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Gray (4-5) at Maroon (8-2), Green umpiring
Red has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Maroon is threatening to run away with the Session, having increased its lead to a game and a half ahead of Orange, idle today. Orange returns to action at 11:30 versus Green, one of them assured of getting back on the winning track. Gray, winless in four games versus Maroon so far this season, will get another crack at them at 12:30 Thursday, looking to slow their process. Blue, riding a two-game winning streak, will face Purple (four-game losing streak) and some number of mercenaries at 10:30. Will we all be logy after overindulging on National Cheesecake Day, Wednesday? And will Peter Sundquist be logy-est of all? Only one thing is certain: time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Johnny Lee and Arctic Blues Band will be at Lighthouse on the Lake, 513 Sleat Drive in Briarcliff, this Saturday night from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.