B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 6 – March 23, 2026
Department of Corrections: I missed that Matt Levitt was perfect at the plate in Orange’s game of March 19, going 1 for 1 with two walks.
Roster note: B League President George Brindley checks in:
We have assigned Daniel Baladez to the Purple team. We now have 2 teams with 12 players and will be adding more players to the other rosters as players return to play.
Games of Monday March 23:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (2-2) at Red (2-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 5 5 4 5 3 22 Red 5 5 1 3 3 17 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Red – Trent Peacock. Mercenary: Gray – Jeff Stone. Umpires: home – Peter Sundquist and Rick Jensen; bases – Larry Shupe and Joe Roche. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Daniel Carvajal and Dave Jaffe (both 4 for 4), Clint Fletcher (4 for 4 with a double and a triple), Scott Rokita (4 for 4 with two doubles and a triple), Paul Rubin (4 for 4 with a triple and a home run), and Jeff Stone (3 for 3 with a double); Red – Richard Battle and Mark Dolan (both 4 for 4 with a home run), Tommy Gillis (3 for 3), and Johnny Lee (4 for 4). Home runs: Richard Battle (inside the park) (1), Mark Dolan (inside the park) (1), and Paul Rubin (inside the park) (1).
The lists of players who had perfect days at the plate – ten of them – and those who hit home runs – three of them – tell the story of this high-octane game.
Both teams scored five runs in each of the first two innings, while making only three outs, one for each team a run-producing sacrifice fly. Clint Fletcher tripled and Scott Rokita doubled to start the game, and Ralph Villela (double), Mark Dolan (inside-the-park home run), and Anthony Galindo (double) opened the bottom of the first with extra-base hits; Richard Battle’s inside-the-parker produced Red’s fifth run of the first inning.
Mark Dolan had a big day for Red, going 4 for 4, scoring four runs, and driving in three, the first two with his inside-the-park homer in the bottom of the first inning – Chuck Norris (R.I.P.) urges Mark on as Marvin Krabbenhoft and Red team mascot Grumpy Red Pepper look on.
Richard Battle connects on his home run to cap Red’s five-run outburst in the top of the first. Engrossed in his book, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, Red Pepper the indifferent mascot missed the play.
In the second inning, Scott Rokita doubled in Gray’s first two runs, then scored ahead of Paul Rubin on Paul’s inside-the-park home run. Rip Wright and Tim Coles delivered run-producing two-base hits in the bottom of the second.
Jim McAnelly and Gray team mascot Lone Gray Wolf look on as Paul Rubin completes his inside-the-parker in the bottom of the second. Robert Redford approves, and Barbra “Don’t Call Me Babs” Streisand accompanies on “The Way We Were.”
Gray was the first team to crack, sort of, scoring “only” four runs in the top of the third, with Jeff Stone (RBI double) and Scott Rokita (RBI triple to right field) delivering extra-base hits. Jack Kelly then held Red to a single run in the home half, on three consecutive one-out singles.
Gray posted another five-run inning in the top of the fourth, on five singles and Clint Fletcher’s pop-fly double to the right side, a ball Mark Dolan raced after, but that caromed off his chest and away from him. Red scored three times with two out in the home half, on a sacrifice fly by Tim Coles that brought in Mark with the first run, then five consecutive singles.
Gray led 19-14 entering the buffet, and quickly caused the flip-flop to be invoked, scoring three runs on five consecutive hits – a lead-off triple by Paul Rubin, 4 for 4 in the game and missing the cycle by a double – and four singles. (On Jim McAnelly’s, Clint Fletcher, running from home, made it almost to second base, stopping just short and successfully retreating to first – a most excellent adventure.)
Red came up needing eight to tie, with the top of the order due. Four of the first five batters hit safely, Ralph Villela and Tim Coles knocking doubles, and Mark Dolan and Johnny Lee completing perfect games at the plate with singles, Ralph and Mark scoring. Tim scored on Trent Peacock’s sacrifice fly, a liner to Dave Jaffe in right field, well played for the second out. Richard Battle completed his 4-for-4 game with a single past third base, but the game ended on Marvin Krabbenhoft’s fly to Paul Rubin in left-center.
Final score: Gray 22, Red 17
11:30 a.m.: Purple (2-2) at Green (1-3):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Purple 2 4 5 5 5 21 Green 4 5 5 5 0 19 Pitchers: Purple – Ray Pilgrim; Green – Rex Horvath. No mercenaries. Umpires: home – Jim McAnelly; bases – Jim Foelker. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Shane Hill and Ray Pilgrim (both 4 for 4 with a double) and Mike Malay and Peter Sundquist (both 4 for 4); Green – Tom Brownfield, Larry Fiorentino, and Rex Horvath (all 3 for 3), Ivan Budiselic and Chunky Wright (both 2 for 2 with a walk), and Gary Coyle (4 for 4). Ohtani Award: Ray Pilgrim (2).
Weather report: 78 degrees with 50% humidity, wind from the South at 2 MPH, beautiful sunny day, just about perfect softball weather.
Another high-scoring contest, both teams putting up crooked numbers in every inning through the top of the buffet. No home runs, but Purple knocked four doubles to one official double and one woulda-been a double for Gray.
Green actually held the lead at the end of each of the first four innings. Rex Horvath, making his 2026 debut following knee-replacement surgery, held Purple to two runs in the top of the first, escaping out of a bases-loaded jam. Green scored four runs on six singles in the bottom half, Shane Hill’s hard-hit RBI double past first base the key hit.
Purple scored four times on seven singles and a walk in the top of the second, but again left the bases loaded. The first out of the inning came on a nice defensive play by Green second baseman Tom Brownfield, who used his reach to get to an opposite-field looper by Daniel Baladez. One of the hits, another rocket off Shane Hill’s bat after Shane refused a walk, resulted in the second out, as it nailed Mike Malay flush on the shin – on him so quick, Mike had no chance to get out of the way. It hurt like the Dickens, judging from Mike’s anguished shout. Here’s what it looked like a little later:
The Bachelorette got canceled, which is sad, but the upside is that this left Taylor Frankie Paul available to tend to Mike Malay’s leg after he was struck by Shane Hill’s line drive in the top of the second. I’m not a doctor, but was it really necessary for Taylor to detach the leg before treating it?
Green wound up winning the inning, scoring five times on seven singles without making an out in the home half.
Both teams scored five times in the third while making one out, Purple on five singles and Larry Shupe’s second walk, Green on lead-off walks drawn by Chunky Wright and Ivan Budiselic, three singles, and Steve Sandall’s two-run double on a line drive to right field.
Both teams scored five times again in the fourth, on seven hits, Purple making two out in the top half (the last four hits and three runs coming with two down), Green not making one in the home half until after the fifth run had scored – Ivan Budiselic was called out for running into third baseman Rick Jensen while going first-to-third on Jimmie Maloy’s single, which had driven in Mike Garrison, running for Chunky Wright, with the fifth run.
Green led 19-16 entering the buffet. Purple took the lead with five runs on seven consecutive one-out hits in the top half, all pretty well struck. Mike Malay, ignoring his injured shin, singled to right to complete his 4-for-4 game. Shane Hill singled to left-center, also completing a 4-for-4 effort. Ray Pilgrim ripped a gapper that rolled to the fence in center field, scoring both Mike and Shane and also completing a 4-for-4 game. Pat Schmidt grounded a single into right field. Billy Hill’s hard-hit grounder took a bad hop – did I mention we were back at Krieg 3 today? – and was unplayable for shortstop Gary Coyle, everyone safe, the bases loaded. Joe Roche unloaded them with a line-drive double to right field. Rick Jensen’s line single to right put runners on the corners with one out. But Rex escaped the jam, getting Daniel Baladez to ground to shortstop Gary Coyle (nice scoop of a low throw by first baseman Ivan Budiselic) and Larry Shupe to pop out to short.
Green came up needing two runs to tie, three to win. Ray Pilgrim retired Boo Resnick on a grounder to shortstop, Jimmy Sneed moving to his right and making a strong throw from the hole. Terry O’Brien, a late arrival and addition to the Green lineup, popped a ball foul down the third-base side, playable and caught by Rick Jensen for the second out. Steve Sandall singled past first base. Gary Coyle hit a sharp grounder to the right of shortstop Jimmy Sneed – Jimmy made a good play to get to the ball, but when he tried to draw it in to this throwing hand, it squirted out of his glove and away, good for an infield hit, Gary completing a 4-for-4 game and now representing the tying run. Mike Garrison came up and drove a pitch to left-center, but he got a little under it and Peter Sundquist was playing the right depth to haul it in for the final out.
Final score: Purple 21, Green 19
Ray Pilgrim earned his second Ohtani Award of the season, going 4 for 4 with a double while pitching Purple to victory. He received his award from the feline station master at the Wakayama Prefecture train station.
12:30 p.m.: Orange (3-2) at Blue (3-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 0 1 0 0 3 1 5 Blue 3 4 5 0 X X 12 Pitchers: Orange – Tommy Deleon; Blue – Lawrence Page. Mercenaries: Orange – George Brindley and Jack McDermott (entered for Larry Young in the fourth inning). Umpires: home – Larry Fiorentino; bases – Steve Sandall. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Jack Spellman (2 for 2 with a walk and a triple); Blue – George Brindley (2 for 2), David Brown (3 for 3 with two doubles), and Tom Brownfield (3 for 3 with double and a triple).
Lawrence Page made his pitching debut for Blue, and it was a good one, as he held Orange to just one run over the first four innings. He was effectively wild, walking four batters, but not allowing an extra-base hit until the fifth inning, and overall getting eight outs on ground balls, eight on balls in the air, and two on foul third strikes.
He got plenty of run support, Blue building a 12-1 lead through three innings: three runs on four hits, including doubles by Tom Bellavia, David Brown, and Ken Mockler, in the bottom of the first; four runs on six singles in the second; and five runs on five singles and Tom Bellavia’s triple in the third.
Orange’s… Well, maybe not so much Orange’s as just MY lone highlight over the early going was throwing out David Brown trying for a double on a pop fly behind first base in the second inning. I couldn’t get to it on the fly, but played it on the bounce, turned and… well, here’s a very accurate picture of it:
Yeah, I might be talking about this at the Cranston High School East Class of ’76 reunion in July. They probably won’t believe me.
That play kept David from having two-base hits in each of his three at bats. He doubled leading off the bottom of the fourth, but Tommy Deleon stranded him, retiring the next three batters on balls in the air: Ken Mockler on a fly to Matt Levitt in left-center, good catch by Matt, David tagging and taking third; Lawrence Page on a pop to second base; and Phil Stanch on a liner to first baseman Mark Hernandez, excellent play at about knee height on a hard-hit ball.
Orange showed some sign of life in the top of the fifth, scoring three runs and getting its only extra-base hits of the game. Tommy Langa led off with a single. With one out Jack Spellman drove a ball just over the head of Tom Bellavia in left-center – tough play for Tom, as the ball was hit hard and directly at him – for a triple, Tommy’s runner Matt Levitt scoring. Peter Atkins followed with a double to score Spellman, and Adam Reddell’s single brought in Peter.
That cut Blue’s lead to 12-4, the eight-run difference and the enticing smell of grilling hamburgers convincing the teams that a double flip-flop was in order. Orange got one more run across in the buffet, singles by Mark Hernandez and Pat Scott putting runners on the corners, Mark’s runner then scoring on Jack Crosley’s sacrifice fly to Phil Stanch in right-center. Lawrence Page then induced two grounders to shortstop David Brown to end the game.
Final score: Blue 12, Orange 5
2026 standings:
| Session 1 standings: | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 4 | 1 | .800 | 0 | 62 | 44 | 18 | W3 |
| Gray | 3 | 2 | .600 | 1 | 80 | 77 | 3 | W1 |
| Purple | 3 | 2 | .600 | 1 | 73 | 75 | -2 | W2 |
| Orange | 3 | 3 | .500 | 1.5 | 66 | 67 | -1 | L2 |
| Red | 2 | 3 | .400 | 2 | 69 | 74 | -5 | L2 |
| Maroon | 2 | 3 | .400 | 2 | 54 | 61 | -7 | L2 |
| Green | 1 | 4 | .200 | 3 | 56 | 62 | -6 | L1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 3-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Gray | 1-1 | 2-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Purple | 1-1 | 2-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1-1 | ||
| Orange | 2-1 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2-1 | ||
| Red | 2-1 | 0-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2-2 | ||
| Maroon | 2-0 | 0-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Green | 1-2 | 0-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-2 |
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| Gray | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Green | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Orange | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| Purple | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Red | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| TOTAL: | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 18 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Richard Battle – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
George Romo – 1
Paul Rubin – 1
Ralph Villela – 1
Ohtanis (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Joe Bernal: 2 (March 2, March 19)
Ray Pilgrim: 2 (March 5, March 23)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Thursday March 26:
10:30 a.m.: Maroon (2-3) at Purple (3-2), Red umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Red (2-3) at Orange (3-3), Maroon umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (1-4) at Blue (4-1), Orange umpiring
Gray has the bye, with (secondary) priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: I only just realized that these will be the final games of Session One. Blue can clinch first place either with a loss by Purple at 10:30 or with a win over Green at 12:30. Purple will be trying to finish at .500, as will both teams at 11:30. Green came up a little short today, but the addition of Larry Fiorentino and return of Rex Horvath will make them a competitive force in Session Two. Will Mike Malay be waking up very sore tomorrow morning? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Umpire chip status:
David Brown: 1 green chip
Larry Fiorentino: 1 green chip
Rex Horvath: 1 green chip
Rick Jensen: 1 green chip
Jim McAnelly: 1 green chip
Jeff Stone: 3 green chips
Ralph Villela: 1 green chip
Rip Wright: 1 green chip
Larry Young: 1 green chip
George Brindley: 1 red chip
David Brown: 1 red chip
Ken Brown: 1 red chip
Jim Foelker: 1 red chip
Marvin Krabbenhoft: 1 red chip
Tommy Langa: 1 red chip
Jim Maloy: 1 red chip
Trent Peacock: 1 red chip
Steve Sandall: 1 red chip
Larry Shupe: 1 red chip
Peter Sundquist: 1 red chip
Mike Velaney: 1 red chip
Ralph Villela: 1 red chip
Scott Wright – 1 red chip
Larry Young: 1 red chip
(1 green chip for umpiring a full game behind the plate. 1 red chip for umpiring a full game on the bases. 2 red chips = 1 green chip. 1 green chip gets a player priority out of the bucket.)
Keggy’s Korner:
Today was the season’s first Bobby Fund Cookout of the season. Here are some (non-AI) pictures:
Tommy Langa’s truly great jambalaya.
Many thanks to Bruce Barnett for pulling this together, and to everyone who brought food.
Today’s left-behind items – two mugs and a batting glove:
David Brown has them and will bring ’em Thursday.
Jeff Stone forwards the latest Umpire’s Corner piece from the SSUSA newsletter:
Umpires Corner by Donna McGuire 032026 20260323_06084165