B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 5, Issue 5 – March 13, 2023
Weather: A brisk 49 degrees at the start of the 10:30 game, with 66% humidity and nothing but sun. It stayed sunny and dry through all three games, warming a little bit.
Games of Monday March 13:
10:30 a.m., Green (0-2) at Purple (0-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 3 2 5 1 5 4 20 Purple 0 1 4 5 1 3 14 Pitchers: Green – Chunky Wright; Purple – Gil Delossantos and Mike Mordecai took over during the buffet). Mercenaries: Green – George Brindley and Tom Brownfield; Purple – Bobby Miller and George Romo. Umpires: home plate – Anthony Galindo and Spike Davidson; bases – Richard Battle and Morgan Witthoft; scoreboard – Dave Berra. Homerun: Adam Reddell (over the fence). Perfect at the plate: Green – Mike Hill (3 for 3 with two walks) and George Brindley (2 for 2 with two walks); Purple – Gil Delossantos (2 for 2 with a walk) and Bobby Miller (3 for 3).
Green broke out on top, as Gil Delossantos walked the first two batters of the game, Mike Hill and Donnie Janac, both of whom came around to score on Jeff Fisher’s single after advancing on Gary Coyle’s fly to deep right-center. Buddy Gaswint followed with a single, Jeff taking third while Buddy was thrown out 7-6-4 (Doc Hobar to George Romo to Don Roets, if memory serves) trying for a double. Ray Pilgrim smacked a double down the left-field line, inches fair, to drive Jeff home. Chunky Wright worked a 1-2-3 bottom half, striking out the first two hitters (swinging and foul-third-strike, respectively). Green got two more runs in the top of the second on three singles and a run-scoring force out. Purple got on the board in the bottom half when Adam Reddell’s two-out double scored Larry Bunton from first. Green made it 10-1 with five runs on five hits and a walk in the top of the third, Buddy Gaswint starting the rally with a lead-off double. Speaking of Buddy…
B League homerun hitters will receive a coupon for five free wings from Pluckers Wings Bar for every round tripper, for as long as my supply of coupons lasts. Here Buddy Gaswint receives his coupon, for his homerun on March 9.
Trailing by nine, Purple regrouped and made a game of it, scoring four times on six singles and a walk in the bottom of the third, though a pair of TOOTBLANs* kept them from getting that fifth run home. The first six batters reached and four scored. With runners on first and second, Don Roets grounded to second baseman Tom Brownfield, who flipped to shortstop Mike Hill to force Doc Hobar at second; Mike’s relay to first was too late to double up Don, but got past first baseman Ray Pilgrim; Mike Mordecai tried for home on the play, but Ray retrieved the ball and threw to catcher Jeff Broussard for the out – it was a rare 4-6-3-2 double play. Ralph Villela followed with a single to left; Don was gunned down 7-6-5, Donnie Janac to Mike Hill to Gary Coyle, trying for third.
That made the score 10-5. Green got just a single run in the top of the fourth, on three singles and a walk, leaving the bases loaded. Purple then scored five in the bottom half, the first three on Adam Reddell’s towering homerun (it was plucking deep), his first in the B League. Five singles, the last three with two out, and George Romo’s sacrifice fly got the next two in, getting Purple within a run, trailing 11-10 entering the fifth.
Adam Reddell receives his Pluckers coupon.
Green reclaimed control in the top of the fifth, scoring five times on seven singles, the last on Chunky Wright’s short pop down the third base line that fell about 18 inches fair and died in place while Jeff Fisher scored. Don Roets led off the bottom half with a triple to right field and scored on Ralph Villela’s single to left, but Chunky Wright retired the next three batters, on two grounders to the left side and a foul third strike.
Gil Delossantos retired Jeff Broussard on a grounder to shortstop to start the buffet, then walked the next four batters. Gil relieved himself – wait, not the expression I was looking for – Gil brought in Mike Mordecai as a relief pitcher. Mike got Gary Coyle to hit a hard one-hopper back to the box, knocked it down, and threw home for the force, out number two. But Jeff Fisher drove a ball to left-center field for his fourth hit of the game, a bases-clearing double that made it 20-11.
Chasing nine, Purple had its five bottom-of-the-order batters all reach to start its half of the buffet, on four singles and a walk, two runs scoring. But Mike Hill started an instructional-video-worthy 6-4-3 double play, Tom Brownfield on the pivot, on Mike Mordecai’s grounder. Jack Crosley scored on the play, but Purple was down to its last out. Doc Hobar put a good swing on Chunky’s final pitch, but Jeff Fisher hauled in Doc’s drive to left-center to end the game. Final score: Green 20, Purple 14
11:30 a.m., Blue (2-0) at Red (1-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Blue 5 0 0 0 4 5 14 Red 5 5 5 1 1 X 17 Pitchers: Blue – Spike Davidson; Red – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Red – Jeff Stone and Ralph Villela. Umpires: home plate – Gary Coyle; bases – Tim Balke; scoreboard – Dave Berra and Mike Hill. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Stan Fisher (two walks); Red – Terry Thompson (4 for 4),David Ferley (3 for 3 with a double), and Ralph Villela (3 for 3).
Blue was hot at the outset, scoring five times in the top of the first on seven singles and a great piece of baserunning by Bobby Miller. Bobby led off the game with a single through third base and took third on Anthony Galindo’s hit. Morgan Witthoft lined a ball to the right of second base that Donald Drummer made an excellent snag of; but his momentum took Donald into short center field, his back to third base, and Bobby tagged up and raced home – it was a rare sacrifice fly on a ball that didn’t get out of the infield.
Morgan Witthoft gets his Pluckers coupon, for his homerun – first of the B League season – on March 9.
Red also scored five times in the first inning on seven hits (six singles and Donald Drummer’s double to left field) and a sacrifice fly (Hal Darman, conventionally, to Anthony Galindo in left field). Then, while Jack Kelly worked his magic and held Blue scoreless over the second, third, and fourth (the only baserunners over that stretch coming on two walks to Stan Fisher and two singles), Red scored five more times in each of the second and third, knocking six hits in each frame, including doubles by Daniel Baladez and Donald Drummer and a bases-loaded triple by Paul Rubin. A single run on doubles by David Ferley and Hal Darman (over the left fielder’s head) left Blue down 16-5 entering the fifth.
Blue got four runs in the fifth, on seven singles, by the first four batters and then three with two out. Somewhere in there, Stan Fisher pinch-ran, I think for Spike Davidson, and was on third base when his turn at the plate came up, following Dale Fugate’s hit. A couple of us noticed in the peanut gallery, and I think Blue was aware, but Red was not. In the event, Jack Kelly got Jimmy Shulls to fly out to Paul Rubin in left-center to end the inning.
After Red got one run on three sngles in the bottom of the fifth, Blue entered the buffet chasing eight, with the top of its order due. Seven of the first eight batters singled, but mixed in along with a force out at second was a baserunner kill: Larry Fiorentino tried to score on Fritz Hensel’s single to right, but was out 9-4-2, David Ferley to Donald Drummer to Jeff Stone. Two more runs came across on singles by Spike Davidson and Richard Battle, but George Brindley fielded Dale Fugate’s grounder to shortstop and tossed to Donald Drummer at second for the final out. Final score: Red 17, Blue 14, Blue removed from the ranks of the undefeated.
12:30 p.m., Gray (1-1) at Gold (1-0):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 5 0 5 0 5 X 15 Gold 1 0 0 1 1 0 3 Pitchers: Gray – Greg Lloyd and Jerry Mylius (fifth and buffet innings); Gold – Jeff Stone. Umpires: home plate – Jack Kelly; bases – Donald Drummere. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Mick Parker (2 for 2 with a walk), Tom Brownfield (3 for 3 with a double), Jim Maloy (3 for 3 with two doubles), and Alex Valles (2 for 2).
Just gonna say up front, kudos to the Roster Committee: Three dates into the season, and there are no undefeated teams. Helped by the day’s only flip-flop, Gold kept Gray scoreless in even-numbered innings, but was decidedly unsuccessful in the odd-numbered ones, Gray maxxing out in each of the first (didn’t make an out), third (made two outs, but got two-out run-scoring doubles from Tom Brownfield and Jim Maloy), and fifth (made two outs, but Jim Maloy lined another two-out double, as did Trey Wall, effectively – he stopped running when the fifth run crossed the line) innings.
Play this on a loop for about 60 seconds, and you’ll get a pretty good sense of what Gray did in the odd innings:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GD0jh5G1l4O11huc3HxUMOFclcnZQOah/view
Somewhat obnoxiously, Gray played excellent defense in ALL its innings, as a result of which Gold managed just single runs in the first (Tim Bruton tripled and scored on Mike Garrison’s single), fourth (four two-out singles), and fifth (Tim Bruton and Mike Garrison singled with one out, and Mike scored on a force out). The defensive highlights included double plays in both the first (6-4-3, David Kruse to Tom Brownfield to Daniel Caravel) and second (5u., 5-4, Trey Wall to Tom Brownfield); Tom Brownfield robbing Tim Bruton of a single up the middle when he used his 50-foot wingspan (UNFAIR) to snag Tim’s line drive to his backhand; Trey Wall knocking down my line drive to his left and getting a force at second; and Mick Parker making a superb shoestring/snowcone catch of Oscar Ledesma’s short fly leading off the buffet.
Final score: Gray 15, Gold 3 (Gold was the last undefeated team)
Standings – Session One:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win%: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Gray 2 1 .667 — 33 24 + 9 W2
Blue 2 1 .667 — 42 34 + 8 L1
Red 2 1 .667 — 42 37 + 5 W1
Maroon 1 1 .500 .5 27 30 – 3 W1
Gold 1 1 .500 .5 23 27 – 4 L1
Green 1 2 .333 1 43 49 – 6 W1
Purple 0 2 .000 1.5 24 33 – 9 L2
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Gray 1-1 1-0 0 0-0 1-0 0-0
Blue 1-0 1-1 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Red 2-0 0-1 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Maroon 0-0 1-1 0 0-0 1-0 0-0
Gold 1-1 0-0 0 0-0 1-1 0-0
Green 0-1 1-1 0 0-0 0-2 0-0
Purple 0-1 0-1 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
2022 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gold Gray Green Maroon Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 0 1 0 0 1 0 2
Gold 0 X 0 1 0 0 0 1
Gray 0 1 X 0 0 0 1 2
Green 0 0 0 X 0 1 0 1
Maroon 0 0 0 1 X 0 0 1
Purple 0 0 0 0 0 X 0 0
Red 1 0 0 0 1 0 X 2
_______________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 9
Schedule for Thursday March 16:
10:30 a.m.: Purple (0-2) at Gold (1-1), Maroon umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Maroon (1-1) at Gray (2-1), Purple umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (1-2) at Blue (2-1), Gray umpiring
Red has the bye – players from that team will have priority out of the bucket.
Preview: Purple, the last remaining winless team, will look to notch its first W at 10:30 against Gold. Maroon and Green, the visitors at 11:30 and 12:30, will look to overcome that disadvantage against Gray and Blue, currently tied with (idle) Red for first place.
Keggy’s Korner:
* TOOTBLAN: Thrown Out On The Bases Like A Ninny.
Happy birthday, Tommy Deleon!