B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 32 – June 30, 2025
President Anthony Galindo checks in:
Raul Deleon and Henry Flores from the C League have signed up to play in our league. They are being assigned to Purple for the summer session while Larry Florentino, Pat Scott, and Mike Velaney recover from their injuries. Welcome to the B League, Raul and Henry.
Raul Deleon and Henry Flores arriving for Purple’s game versus Gray at 11:30.
Games of Monday June 30:
10:30 a.m., Blue (0-3) at Green (1-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Blue 5 0 2 0 2 9 Green 0 0 4 3 3 10 Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Green – Greg Lloyd (innings 1-4) and Chunky Wright (buffet). Mercenaries: Blue – Terry O'Brien, Ray Pilgrim, and Boo Resnick; Green – Peter Atkins and Jack Spellman (entered for Greg Lloyd in the buffet). Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – Tommy Gillis. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Joe Dayoc (2 for 2), David Pittard (3 for 3), Steve Sandall (3 for 3 with a double), and Jimmy Sneed (2 for 2 with a double); Green – Buddy Gaswint and Chris Waddell (both 3 for 3 with a double) and Jack Spellman (1 for 1).
Weather report: 85 degrees, felt like 91. Humidity 62%. Wind from the South 7 MPH. Mostly sunny.
Blue jumped off to a quick lead, scoring five runs on Jim Foelker’s game-opening walk, four singles, and Daniel Baladez’s two-run triple without making an out in the top of the first inning. But Greg Lloyd settled in after that rough start, blanking Blue in the second and fourth and allowing just two runs in the third, in each of those middle innings stranding three runners. After shortstop Ralph Villela ranged into short right field to run down Rip Wright’s fly to open the second inning, Joe Dayoc singled and Jimmy Sneed doubled, but Greg got both Terry O’Brien and Ray Pilgrim to ground out to Ralph, and Blue did not score. Four singles resulted in two runs for Blue in the top of the third, David Pittard and Daniel Baladez driving in the runs with two-out hits. In the fourth, Joe Dayoc and Jimmy Sneed both singled with one out, but Greg again retired Terry O’Brien and Ray Pilgrim, on a 4-6 force to second baseman Doc Hobar and a pop to shortstop Ralph Villela.
Green was slow to get untracked against Tommy Deleon, but eventually got back into the game. The bottom of the first began with a fine play by David Pittard and Daniel Baladez to retire Ralph Villela on a hard grounder to third base, Daniel making an outstanding scoop of David’s short-hopped throw, which beat Ralph by inches. Doc Hobar, Mike Garrison, and Chris Waddell each lined a single to load the bases. Greg Lloyd came up and lined a ball to right-center, but Terry O’Brien got a good jump on it, charged in and made the catch; Mike, thinking the ball would drop in, initially started for third, quickly reversed course, but Terry’s strong throw to Jimmy Sneed covering second beat Mike back to the bag, for an inning-ending L-9, 9-6 double play.
Tommy got another double play to end the bottom of the second. Buddy Gaswint led off with a ground single past third base. Tommy got Phil Stanch to hit a two-strike pitch foul to the right field, then got Billy Hill to hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Jimmy Sneed, who converted a 6u., 6-3 double play.
Working with a 7-0 lead, Tommy got two quick outs to start the bottom of the third, but the top of Green’s order had better success in its second look at his offerings: Ralph Villela lined a double to left field and scored on Doc Hobar’s single past shortstop. Mike Garrison’s single put runners on the corners for Chris Waddell, who brought them both in with a fly ball double to left field, off Jim Foelker’s glove. Chris then scored the fourth run of the inning on Greg Lloyd’s single to right. Buddy Gaswint lined a single to left, and Greg took third, but Buddy was out trying for second on the throw, 7-6-5-4 (Jim Foelker to Jimmy Sneed to David Pittard to Tom Brownfield).
Green then tied the game with three runs on four consecutive one-out hits in the bottom of the fourth. Billy Hill and Chunky Wright singled with one out. Billy’s runner scored and Chunky took third on Peter Atkins double to right. Ralph Villela then singled to left field, both Chunky and Peter scoring to knot the score at 7-7 entering the buffet.
Greg Lloyd was injured swinging the bat in the bottom of the third, tearing or at least straining a bicep. Greg moved to first base for an inning, Chunky Wright taking the mound for the top of the fourth, and then left the game prior to the buffet. I was told to get myself into the game, at third base. No balls were hit my way, which was fortunate because I hadn’t thrown at all and who knows what would have happened. Boo Resnick led off the top of the buffet with a double, and he held second on Jim Foelker’s ground out to shortstop Ralph Villela. Steve Sandall followed with a double, Boo scoring to put Blue ahead. Steve tagged and took third on Tom Brownfield’s fly to Phil Stanch in right field, then scored on David Pittard’s single, David’s third run-scoring hit of the game, good for four RBI. Chunky got Daniel Baladez to hit into a 6-4 force to end the inning.
So Green was chasing two to tie, three to win in the home half. Chris Waddell led off with a sharp single to left-center. Jack Spellman, batting for Greg Lloyd, singled to right, Chris stopping at second. Buddy Gaswint ripped a pitch to center-ish, as I recall it; both Chris and I scored on the hit, and Buddy wound up at third with a two-run, game-tying triple. Phil Stanch deposited Tommy Deleon’s next pitch down the right-field side, uncatchable and fair by a foot or two, Buddy trotting home with the winning run, Green walking off the victory. Final score: Green 10, Blue 9
11:30 a.m., Gray (3-0) at Purple (2-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 0 5 1 4 0 10 Purple 5 1 5 2 X 13 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Gray – Mike Malay; Purple – Bobby Miller and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Scott Wright and Tommy Deleon; bases – Jim Foelker. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Tommy Gillis (3 for 3 with two doubles); Purple – Richard Battle (3 for 3 with a double), Spike Davidson (3 for 3), Rick Jensen (2 for 2 with a walk), and Bobby Miller (2 for 2 with two doubles). Home run: Jim Aaron (over the fence)
Dave Berra’s weather report: 88 degrees, feels like 95, humidity 55%, wind SSE at 11 MPH, partly cloudy. Beautiful summer day.
Well-played game by both teams. Spike Davidson held Gray scoreless in the top of the first, working around Tommy Gillis’s one-out double, and Purple jumped to an early lead with five runs in the home half on five singles, Richard Battle’s double, and Mark Hernandez’s sacrifice fly to right-center, a good catch there by Morgan Witthoft for the only out Purple made in the frame.
Gray tied the game with five runs in the top of the second, on four singles, Morgan Witthoft’s walk, and Tommy Gillis’s second double in as many at bats, which drove in the fourth and fifth run. Purple went back ahead with one run in the bottom half: Bobby Miller doubled with one out, then scored from second on Jack Spellman’s fly to right-center, another good catch by Morgan Witthoft, moving to his left; Bobby, taking advantage of Morgan having to turn most of the way around to throw in, never hesitated in going for home.
Gray immediately tied the game in the top of the third, on an over-the-fence home run to right-center by Jim Aaron, leading off the inning.
Jim Aaron receives a Plucker’s coupon from base umpire Jim Foelker following his home run in the top of the third inning.
Gray then loaded the bases on a Dagwood singles sandwich – Jack Crosley singled, Adam Reddell flied out to Raul Deleon in right-center, George Romo singled, Morgan Witthoft popped out to shortstop Rick Jensen, Hal Darman singled – but Spike Davidson escaped the jam by getting Jack Kelly to hit looper to first baseman Mark Hernandez, who impressively reached high to make the catch without actually leaving the ground.
Purple reclaimed the lead, it turned out for good, with five runs in the bottom of the third. Four of the first five batters singled, though Spike Davidson was thrown out 8-6-4 (Paul Rubin to George Romo to Mike Malay) trying to stretch his into a double. With two runs in and two out, Bobby Miller hammered a ball to center that gapped the outfielders; it would have been a triple for sure, possibly a home run, but for Larry Young running ahead of him; Larry stopped at third, and Bobby at second. They both scored when Jack Spellman’s base hit to right-center skipped past Morgan Withhoft for a triple. Rick Jensen’s single to right brought in Spellman with the fifth run.
Gray got back within a run by scoring four times in the top of the fourth. Singles by Mike Malay, Paul Rubin, and Tommy Gillis loaded the bases to start the inning, and everyone advanced on Jim Aaron’s fly to Raul Deleon in deep right-center. Jack Crosley walked, re-loading the bases, and Adam Reddell doubled, driving in Paul and Tommy. George Romo’s high fly to Richard Battle in deep left field brought in Jack with the fourth run.
Purple bought itself some breathing room with two runs on four singles in the bottom of the fourth, and entered the buffet leading 13-10. That turned out to be the final score, as Spike Davidson retired the side in order in the top half. Hal Darman grounded out to shortstop Rick Jensen, whose strong throw to first beat Hal’s pinch-runner by inches. Jack Kelly swung through a two-strike pitch. And Mike Malay flied out to Bobby Miller in left-center. Final score: Purple 13, Gray 10
12:30 p.m., Red (1-2) at Maroon (2-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 1 2 0 2 1 6 Maroon 5 5 5 5 X 20 Pitchers: Red – Joe Bernal; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Red – Daniel Baladez, David Brown, Jim Foelker, and Ray Pilgrim (entered for Daniel Baladez in the fourth inning); Maroon – Tommy Gillis and Adam Reddell. Umpires: home – Rick Jensen; bases – Larry Young. Perfect at the plate: Red – David Brown (2 for 2 with a double and a triple) and Jack McDermott (3 for 3 with a triple); Maroon – Ivan Budiselic (3 for 3 with two doubles), Tony Garcia and Adam Reddell (both 3 for 3), Tom Kelm (2 for 2 with a walk), and Bobby Miller (4 for 4 with two doubles).
Dave Berra’s weather report: Ditto the 11:30 report, but hotter.
Man, not an easy out in the Maroon lineup these days, and it showed in this game, as they put up five runs in four straight innings against one of B League’s best pitchers: on six hits, including three doubles, in the first; on seven singles, the last five after two were out, in the second; on four singles and two doubles without making an out in the third; and on a double, a walk, and five straight singles, all after the first two batters were retired to start the bottom of the fourth. Five Maroon batters were perfect at the plate, and as a team Maroon was 25 for 31 with six doubles and a walk, for an average of .806, an on-base percentage of .813, and a slugging percentage of an even 1.000. Whoo-ee.
Red just couldn’t keep up. They briefly led after scoring a run on a walk and three singles in the top of the first, leaving the bases loaded, and Maroon needing just two batters in the home half – Ken Brown and Bobby Miller hit back-to-back doubles to start it – to erase that advantage. Red scored two runs in the second, on David Brown’s RBI triple and Jim Foelker’s sacrifice fly – Jack McDermott tripled with two out, but was stranded when Ken Brown caught Jack Spellman’s drive to right-center. (Unfair of Ken to be properly positioning himself.) Jeff Stone threw a scoreless third, working around Joe Bernal’s one-out single.
In the fourth, Red got its first three runners on base, and got two home. Jim McAnelly drew a lead-off walk and Donald Drummer singled. David Brown doubled, Anthony Galindo, running for Jim, scoring on the hit. Second and third, none out. The runners held on Jim Foelker’s pop to shortstop Tony Garcia. Daniel Baladez grounded to third baseman Adam Reddell and only made it about a third of the way up the line before going down in a heap with a popped hamstring – he had to be helped from the field, which truly sucks. (Ray Pilgrim came into the game in Danny’s place.) When play resumed, Jack McDermott singled in Donald, but the inning ended with Jack Spellman grounding back to the box, a truly terrible at bat.
The game’s one controversy came when Ken Brown, pinch-running, was nearly thrown out at home: the relay to the plate from David Brown short-hopped catcher Jim McAnelly, who made a terrific play to corral the ball against his hip just before Ken reached the line. But, as umpires Rick Jensen and Larry Young correctly ruled, this was not a legal catch per USSA rules, which state you must have control of the ball in your hand or mitt. Red had come in to the visitors dugout after the initial out call, and had to return to the field. (Sad trombone.) I can’t even remember whether this happened in the second (most likely) or fourth inning, as all that scoring runs together in my head, and Gawd it was hot.
Technically the teams did not flip-flop, even though Maroon was leading by 15 entering the buffet. Red got hits from three of its first four batters, loading the bases, but got just one more run, Joe Bernal scoring on Jim McAnelly’s sacrifice fly to Ken Brown in right-center. Final score: Maroon 20, Red 6
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Gray | 3 | 1 | .750 | 0 | 51 | 37 | 14 | L1 |
| Purple | 3 | 1 | .750 | 0 | 45 | 34 | 11 | W1 |
| Maroon | 3 | 2 | .600 | 0.5 | 54 | 57 | -3 | W1 |
| Orange | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 42 | 32 | 10 | W1 |
| Green | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 38 | 38 | 0 | W2 |
| Red | 2 | 3 | .400 | 1.5 | 50 | 70 | -20 | L1 |
| Blue | 0 | 4 | .000 | 3 | 36 | 48 | -12 | L5 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Gray | 1-0 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Purple | 3-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Maroon | 3-0 | 0-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Orange | 1-1 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-2 | ||
| Green | 2-1 | 0-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1-1 | ||
| Red | 0-2 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-0 | ||
| Blue | 0-1 | 0-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-2 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 15 |
| Gray | 3 | X | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
| Green | 2 | 2 | X | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| Maroon | 2 | 4 | 3 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 15 |
| Orange | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | X | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| Purple | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | X | 2 | 14 |
| Red | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 12 |
| TOTAL: | 12 | 14 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 15 | 93 |
2025 season home run leaders:
Tim Coles – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Bobby Miller – 4
George Brindley – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
David Brown – 2
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Mike Garrison – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Pat Scott – 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
Jimmy Sneed – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Ralph Villela – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Scott Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Scott Wright – June 5
Schedule for Monday July 7:
10:30 a.m.: Maroon (3-2) at Gray (3-1), Purple umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Purple (3-1) at Blue (0-4), Maroon umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (2-2) at Orange (2-2), Blue umpiring
Red has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Note that we are off this Thursday, then move permanently to Krieg field 2 beginning with next Monday’s games. Gray can reclaim at least a tie if not outright possession of first place with a win over the Maroon berserkers at 10:30. Blue is 0-4 for the session, but two of those losses, including today’s, were by just one run – they’ll look to turn it around against a Purple squad that is 3-0 as home team, but 0-1 as visitors so far this session. And Green and Orange, the two .500 teams, battle at 12:30. Will neighborhood fireworks plus the Town Lake big-uns prompt my cat to spend Friday night hiding beneath the bed in the ground-floor bedroom? One thing is certain: only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Good news: From Orange manager David Brown comes word that Rex Horvath (above left in a file photo, really just a cheap ploy to get myself some face time) underwent knee-replacement surgery today. Rex said it went well, he expects to go home tomorrow, and he says hi to everyone.
Happy and safe Fourth of July, everyone – see you next week!