B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 26 – June 22, 2026
Department of Clarification: Dave Berra explains the pinch-running kerfuffle in the Gray-Orange game of this past Thursday:
Mike Velaney was acting manager [for Gray]. Gary Coyle was indeed forced to bat and hit into a fielder’s choice. While on first, he was asked if he wanted a runner, which he reluctantly took (Ken Brown). Paul Rubin followed by walking and asked Gary, who was now coaching at first, to run for him. Gary said yes, and he and Paul called to the umpire [Ralph Villela] as Gary took the base. Gary was ruled out for replacing a runner after he himself had used a runner.
Games of Monday June 22:
10:30 a.m.: Orange (0-0) at Purple (0-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Orange 0 5 3 5 7 20 Purple 0 5 3 4 4 16 Pitchers: Orange – Tommy Deleon; Purple – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Purple – Gary Coyle, Terry O'Brien, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Larry Shupe and Larry Young. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Jack Crosley and Pat Scott (both 3 for 3 with a walk), Adam Reddell (3 for 3 with a walk and two doubles), Don Solberg (4 for 4 with a double), and Jack Spellman (4 for 4 with two doubles); Purple – Rick Jensen and Rick Kahn (both 3 for 3). Home run: Jimmy Sneed (over the fence) (1).
Dave Berra’s weather report: Summer!
After neither team scored in the first, they changed into their hitting kilts and proceeded to go to town. Orange put a pair of runners on base in the top of the first on back-to-back one-out singles by Jack Spellman and Pat Scott, but Ray Pilgrim got Mark Hernandez to ground sharply to shortstop Jimmy Sneed, who started a tight 6-4-3 double play, Rick Jensen on the pivot. Tommy Deleon got three ground-ball outs in the bottom half, working around Mike Malay’s two-out single.
Hitting tartans in place, both teams scored five times while making two outs in the second, Orange on Adam Reddell’s lead-off walk, three singles, an RBI force-out grounder by Tommy Deleon, and doubles by Don Solberg and Jack Spellman; Purple on Ray Pilgrim’s walk and six singles.
Then each team scored three runs in the third, Orange on walks to Pat Scott and Jack Crosley plus four singles. Purple’s first four batters singled to start the home half, one run scoring, then Ray Pilgrim knocked a sacrifice fly to Matt Levitt in left-center to drive in the second. Rick Jensen singled to re-load the bases, and Rick Kahn scored the third run on Gary Coyle’s force-out grounder, shortstop to third base, Adam Reddell’s throw home too late to catch Rick.
Orange scored five times again in the top of the fourth, all coming after two were out. Jack Spellman and Pat Scott knocked back-to-back one-out singles, and Spellman scored on Mark Hernandez’s sacrifice fly to Rick Kahn in right-center. (Side note: Great to see Rick back in action.) The next five batters ripped two-out hits: Adam Reddell and Peter Atkins delivered consecutive RBI doubles, and Don Solberg, Jack Crosley, and Matt Levitt knocked clean singles.
Purple stayed close, scoring four times in the bottom of the fourth, its first six batters reaching base: Scott Wright tripled, Billy Hill walked, and Scott and Billy’s pinch-runner both scored on Jimmy Sneed’s double; Mike Malay’s single drove in Jimmy, and singles by Shane Hill and Rick Kahn loaded the bases. Jack McDermott hit a deep fly to Don Solberg, well positioned in left field, and Mike tagged up and scored the fourth run. Ray Pilgrim hit a sharp grounder to third baseman Adam Reddell, who started an around-the-horn double play, Pat Scott making an outstanding pivot at second base, to end the inning.
Orange led by just one run entering the buffet, but everyone in the lineup (except Matt Levitt, denied the opportunity) kept hitting: nine consecutive batters reached base, on six singles, Peter Atkins’ walk, and doubles by Jack Spellman and Adam Reddell (second of the game for each), seven runs scoring, the flip-flop called with runners on first and second, none out, Matt at the ready. Five Orange players were perfect at the plate in this game, and all contributed to the buffet-inning outburst. Here they are, in their hitting kilts:
Left to right: Jack Crosley, Adam Reddell, Don Solberg, Jack Spellman, (you may need to squint) Pat Scott, and Orange team mascot Bevo The Copyright Impinger.
Purple came up needing eight runs to tie. Rick Jensen led off with a single, completing a 3-for-3 day at the plate, and Gary Coyle singled as well. Second baseman Pat Scott made a terrific play on Terry O’Brien’s hard grounder to his right, keeping the ball in front of him and making a quick toss to second for the force and the first out. Rick took third on the play, then tagged and scored on Scott Wright’s sacrifice fly to Peter Atkins in right-center. Billy Hill knocked a clean single to left-center. Jimmy Sneed came up and absolutely crushed a 3-1 pitch, sending it over the fence in left field, about five feet fair, for a three-run over-the-fence home run, one of the most impressive blasts of the season to date, seen here in its highland glory:
That got Purple to within four runs, which was the deficit when the game ended, Peter Atkins in right-center making a good running catch of Mike Malay’s drive for the final out.
Purple had just the two Ricks, Kahn and Jensen, perfect on the day. Here they are, with Purple mascot Crypto Grifter:
Final score: Orange 20, Purple 16
11:30 a.m.: Blue (no record) at Maroon (1-0):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Blue 5 1 2 3 X 11 Maroon 2 0 0 1 0 3 Pitchers: Blue – Joe Bernal; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Blue – Ralph Villela, with Anthony Galindo entering for Daniel Baladez in the bottom of the second; Maroon – Trent Peacock. Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – Dave Berra. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Daniel Baladez (1 for 1), Joe Bernal (2 for 2 with a walk), David Brown (2 for 2 with a double), and George Romo (3 for 3); Maroon - . Fritz Hensel (1 for 1 with a walk).
Weather update: The KXAN weather app said it was 89 degrees, felt like 101, with 64% humidity; wind from the South at 8 MPH; partly cloudy.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: Blue sent a message early on, scoring five times in the top of the first on Joe Bernal’s lead-off walk, five singles, and a triple on a drive to center field by Tom Bellavia that drove in the first two runs. Blue wound up leading pillar to post, Joe limiting the top of Maroon’s order to two runs in the top of the first (back-to-back one-out doubles by George Brindley and Ken Brown followed by Scott Wright’s single to right field), and to just one run the rest of the way.
The first out in the bottom of the first was on Steve Browne’s grounder to shortstop – David Brown fielded it cleanly and made a strong, necessarily hurried throw to beat the speedy Mr. Browne; first baseman Daniel Baladez made a great stretch to catch the ball while keeping a foot on the bag, but tweaked a hamstring and wound up leaving the game.
Blue added a single run in the second: Ralph Villela singled with one out, took third on Joe Bernal’s single up the middle, and scored on Ken Mockler’s sacrifice fly, a liner to right-center that Trent Peacock made a good catch on.
Maroon got lead-off hits in the home half by Fritz Hensel (liner to right-center) and Alan Phillips (grounder to shortstop David Brown, whose flip to Joe Bernal covering second was dropped, all runners safe), but Joe escaped the jam, getting Dean Hector to ground into a 6u., 6-3 double play to David and Trent Peacock to fly out to Ralph Villela, who’d moved to right-center after Daniel Baladez left the game and Anthony Galindo entered and took over in right.
Blue increased its lead to 8-2 with two runs in the top of the third. George Romo and Donnie Janac knocked one-out singles. David Brown lined a double to right field, George scoring and Donnie following him when the relay in was mishandled. David took third on the play. Anthony Galindo grounded a ball to third baseman Alan Phillips, who made a good cross-diamond throw to put out Anthony; David broke for home and was gunned down by Dean Hector, whose throw to catcher Fritz Hensel beat David by a full step, for a 5-3-2 double play, the best defensive play of the day in your correspondent’s opinion.
Joe Bernal held Maroon scoreless again in the bottom of the third, working around George Brindley’s one-out single, a grounder to the 5-6 hole – David Brown got to it, but George outran the throw.
Blue made it 11-2 with three runs on five singles in the top of the fourth inning. Maroon loaded the bases to start the home half, on singles by Jeff Stone and David Pittard and a walk drawn by Fritz Hensel, but came away with just one run, Jeff scoring on Alan Phillips’s grounder to shortstop, David Brown throwing to George Romo for the force at third. David then fielded Dean Hector’s grounder to the shortstop hole and threw to second for the force on Alan. Joe got Trent Peacock to ground back to the box to end the inning.
With Blue leading by eight runs, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Maroon had the top of its order up, but couldn’t get much going. Joe Bernal got Steve Browne to hit a two-strike foul to right field and George Brindley to fly out to Tom Bellavia in right-center. Ken Brown singled up the middle, but Larry Young fielded Scott Wright’s grounder down the first-base side and stepped on the bag for the final out.
Final score: Blue 11, Maroon 3
The pop star Ado presents Joe Bernal (winning pitcher, 2 for 2 with a walk at the bat) with his fifth Ohtani Award of the season as visiting Japanese fans clean up the mess made by the Beer Garden denizens.
12:30 p.m.: Gray (1-0) at Red (1-0):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 2 0 0 0 2 4 Red 2 4 1 5 X 12 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Red – Trent Peacock. Mercenaries: Gray – David Brown and Matt Levitt; Red – Alan Phillips, Jack Spellman, and Jeff Stone. Umpires: home – Steve Browne; bases – David Pittard. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Clint Fletcher (3 for 3); Red – Tommy Gillis (3 for 3 with two doubles), Jack Spellman (2 for 2), and Jeff Stone (3 for 3 with a double).
Tied through one, each team scoring twice in the first – Gray on a single-double-single sequence by its first three hitters, Paul Rubin, Scott Rokita, and Jim Foelker, Jim then erased on a 6-4-3 double play started by Ralph Villela on Daniel Carvajal’s grounder; Red matching that in the bottom half with singles by Ralph and Anthony Galindo sandwiching an RBI double by Tommy Gillis.
After that, though, Red took control, scoring ten unanswered runs over the next three innings. Trent Peacock held Gray scoreless and hitless in the second and third, working around a two-walk walk to David Brown in the second and a lead-off walk to Paul Rubin in the third. In the fourth Trent was betrayed by mercenary second baseman Jack Spellman, who dropped a pop off the bat of Clint Fletcher, then failed to catch a short pop just behind second by Jack Kelly – both eminently catchable balls. Gray still wasn’t able to score in the inning, Trent getting David Brown to ground into an inning-ending out, 4-3.
Red took the lead for good in the bottom of the second with four runs on six singles and Ralph Villela’s sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in right-center.
Jack Kelly got two outs to start the bottom of the third, second baseman Mike Velaney making an excellent play on Johnny Lee’s hard-hit ball to his left, Marvin Krabbenhoft hitting a two-strike foul. Red still got a run, as Jeff Stone doubled and scored on Jack Spellman’s pop-fly single to right field.
Red put the game out of reach with five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Ralph Villela and Tommy Gillis hit back-to-back doubles to open the frame, Tommy completing a 3-for-3 game at the plate. Trent Peacock singled to right-center; Tommy tried to score, but was gunned down 9-6-2, Jim Foelker to David Brown to Jim McAnelly, the moral of the story having something to do with not making the first out of the inning on the bases, but it was kind of lost in the flurry of hits that followed Anthony Galindo’s 6-4 force-out grounder: Richard Battle and Johnny Lee singled, Anthony coming around to score; Marvin Krabbenhoft walked, just barely checking his swing on a 3-2 pitch that was about an inch short of the mat, loading the bases; and Jeff Stone cleared the bases with his third hit in as many at bats, Marvin’s pinch-runner Ralph Villela scoring from first on the single.
Red led by ten entering the buffet. Trent Peacock continued his domination, getting Matt Levitt to foul out and Paul Rubin to ground back to the box to start the inning. Scott Rokita hit his second double, and the next three batters singled – Jim Foelker’s hit drove in Scott, and Jim came around to score on hits by Daniel Carvajal and Clint Fletcher, Clint completing a 3-for-3 game. Mike Velaney hit a hard one-hopper to third baseman Jeff Stone, who made a clean play on the glove, took his time while Spellman got to the bag, then made a strong throw for the game-ending force at second.
Pitching star Trent Peacock and hitting star Tommy Gillis (3 for 3 with two run-scoring doubles) celebrate Red’s victory as Red mascot Femicular the Speed Maxxer looks on.
Final score: Red 12, Gray 4
2026 standings:
| Session 3 standings: | ||||||||
| Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Red | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 29 | 20 | 9 | W5 |
| Blue | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0.5 | 11 | 3 | 8 | W1 |
| Orange | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 34 | 32 | 2 | W1 |
| Maroon | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 20 | 23 | -3 | L1 |
| Gray | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 20 | 26 | -6 | L1 |
| Green | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1.5 | 16 | 17 | -1 | L1 |
| Purple | 0 | 2 | .000 | 1 | 28 | 37 | -9 | L6 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Red | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Blue | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Orange | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Maroon | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | ||
| Gray | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Green | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | ||
| Purple | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | ||
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 18 | |
| Gray | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 9 | |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 13 | |
| Orange | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 | |
| Purple | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| Red | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 11 | |
| TOTAL: | 4 | 13 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 11 | 78 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Terry O’Brien – 5
Ralph Villela – 5
Steve Browne – 3
Tony Garcia – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
David Brown – 2
Tim Coles – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Allen Phillips – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jack Spellman – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
Richard Battle – 1
Joe Bernal – 1
George Brindley – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
Trent Peacock – 1
Scott Rokita – 1
George Romo – 1
Luis Sanchez – 1
Steve Sandall – 1
Jimmy Sneed – 1
Scott Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Ralph Villela – May 26
Ohtani Awards (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Joe Bernal: 5 (March 2, March 19, March 30, April 16, June 22)
Ray Pilgrim: 4 (March 5, March 23, March 26, June 1)
Tommy Deleon: 3 (April 6, April 30, June 11)
Spike Davidson: 1 (May 4)
Rex Horvath: 1 (March 30)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Thursday June 25:
10:30 a.m.: Red (2-0) at Blue (1-0), Maroon umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Maroon (1-1) at Orange (1-1), Red umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Purple (0-2) at Green (0-1), Orange umpiring
Gray has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Blue faces another challenger at 10:30, a surging first-place Red team which has won its last five games. The winner will end the day in first place for the session. Maroon and Orange will battle at 11:30, the winner getting above .500 and remaining just a game or half a game out of first. One of Purple and Green will get their first win of the session in the 12:30 game. Unfortunately, I’m going to miss the action, as I leave for a week in New England Wednesday. The Picayune will likely arrive in your in-box a day or two later than usual. Will I be fueling my AI image-making and second-hand reporting with way too much Dunkins, while annoying my Rhode Island friends and family with the assertion that HEB’s doughnuts are actually superior? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
This cooler…
…and this mitt…
…were left behind today. Jeff Stone has the cooler and will bring it Thursday. Let him know if it and/or the mitt is yours.
Podcast review: It’s Complicated
This is as much eulogy as review, as hosts Renato Mariotti, a friend of a friend, and Asha Rangappa are calling it quits after 172 episodes. Renato, a former federal prosecutor, and Asha, a former FBI special agent, went to Yale Law School together and break down the day’s legal and political stories from the perspective of working lawyers, translating legalese into plain English. I’ve really enjoyed it, but, topical as it is, I doubt it’ll be worth revisiting. Fun and informative while it lasted, though. New England content: Not a whole much. Canadian content: Nope. Listening speed: Regular speed.
Rating: 
, RIP.