B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 6, Issue 58 – November 4, 2024
Games of Monday November 4:
10:30 a.m., Purple (6-8) at Green (6-8):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL
Purple 0 0 0 0 0 3 3
Green 1 0 4 5 X X 10
Pitchers: Purple – Jeff Stone; Green – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Purple – Kevin Brown and Donnie Janac. Umpires: home – Eddy Murillo and Hal Darman; bases – Morgan Witthoft and Donald Drummer. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Ken Brown (2 for 2); Green – Mike Hill and Jack McDermott (both 3 for 3). Home run: Paul Rubin (inside the park) (3).
Weather: 78 degrees (Heat Index 83) with 81% humidity, cloudy. (At some point the lights came on.) Wind from the SSE at 11 MPH, knocking down fly balls all day.
Between the wind knocking down balls in the air, Green playing airtight defense, and some masterful pitching, Tommy Deleon took a three-hit shutout and a 10-0 lead to the buffet, for which the teams double-flip-flopped after Green scored five times in the bottom of the fourth. Tommy gave up a two-out single to Jeff Stone in the first, retired the side in order in the second, allowed a one-out single to Ken Brown in the third, and again retired the side 1-2-3 in the fourth. Jim Foelker led off the fifth with a single and was forced out at second 4-6, Mike Hill to Ralph Villela, on Rip Wright’s grounder, Rip hustling down the line and beating the relay. Rick Jensen grounded a ball up the middle but within Ralph’s reach; said Rick as he ran to first, “There’s the double play,” and he wasn’t wrong – Ralph took it himself, 6u., 6-3. Through five innings, Purple didn’t manage to get a runner past first base.
Green didn’t have that difficulty. Its second hitter of the game, Paul Rubin, slashed an opposite-field hit to left field that scooted past Donnie Janac and almost to the fence; Paul circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run, his third of the season, and a lead that Green would never relinquish, though it took a while for the offense to get untracked. Despite loading the bases on singles by Mike Hill and Jack McDermott and a walk to Tommy Deleon after Paul’s homer, Green did not score again in the first, as Jeff Stone got Tommy Deleon on an infield fly (dropped by second baseman Ken Brown, but no advance) and Mike Garrison on a fly to Jim Foelker.
Green manager Jeff Broussard awards a Pluckers coupon to Paul Rubin following Paul’s inside-the-parker in the bottom of the first.
Green didn’t score in the second, Jeff Stone working around Daniel Baladez’s one-out single and getting the third out himself with a good play to knock down Ralph Villela’s grounder back to the box and snap a throw to first that beat Ralph by a step. But Green broke through in the third and fourth, scoring four in the third on four singles and two walks, and then five in the fourth, all with two outs. Ralph led off the inning by beating out a grounder to third, but was forced at second 3-6, first baseman Daniel Carvajal making a fine play to his right on Paul Rubin’s sharp grounder. Mike Hill singled. David Pittard grounded back to Jeff, who threw to second for the force. Jack McDermott grounded a ball a bit to the left of second base – shortstop Rick Jensen moved to his left for it, but could only kick it, slowing it down, but not stopping Paul from scoring nd David from taking third. Tommy Deleon walked, loading the bases for Mike Garrison, who cleared them with a double to right-center. Mike advanced to third on Trey Wall’s ground single to the right side. Daniel Baladez drove in the fifth run with a sharp single down the third-base side, fair by inches.
Purple finally broke through in the buffet, though it was definitely too little and too late. Tom Kelm, Ken Brown, and Donnie Janac all singled, loading the bases with no one out for the top of the lineup. Peter Sundquist grounded a ball to third baseman David Pittard, who beat Ken to the base for the force at third.
Quote of the Day: Scott Wright: “Ken didn’t hear the gun go off.”
Jim Foelker, running for Tom, scored on the play. Clint Fletcher doubled to right, Donnie scoring and Peter taking third. Jeff Stone singled, also to the right side, driving in Peter, Clint halting at third. Daniel Carvajal grounded to shortstop Ralph Villela for what turned out to be a game-ending 6-4-3 double play, Mike Hill on the pivot – it was a bang-bang play at first, but Donald Drummer was emphatic with his out call. Final score: Green 10, Purple 3
11:30 a.m.: Red (7.5 – 7.5) at Blue (11-3):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET EXTRA FINAL
Red 0 2 3 2 8 0 15
Blue 5 4 3 1 2 1 16
Pitchers: Red – Eddy Murillo; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenary: Red – Gary Coyle. Umpires: home – Mike Garrison; bases – Mike Hill. Perfect at the plate: Red – Donald Drummer (3 for 3) and Eddy Murillo (3 for 3 with a walk); Blue – George Brindley and Steve Sandall (3 for 3 with a walk) and George Romo (3 for 3 with a double and a walk).
Weather: Much the same as game one until the top of the fourth, when we got a two- or three-minute rain burst. After that it started to clear a bit.
Best game of the day. It looked like it would be a laugher for Blue, leading 9-2 after two and 13-7 entering the buffet, but Red battled back and very nearly won.
After Joe Bernal blanked Red in the top of the first, Blue scored five times on two walks and five singles off Eddy Murillo in the home half.
Red got on the board with two runs in the top of the second, on four singles and Boo Resnick’s sacrifice fly on a line drive to Richard Battle in left field. Hal Darman extended the inning with a single down the third-base side that gave Donald Drummer a chance to drive in the second run with a clean single up the middle. Blue won the inning, however, scoring four times on six singles by the first seven hitters in the bottom half.
Each team scored three times in the third. Red got theirs on three singles, Tim Bruton’s double, and an overthrow by shortstop George Brindley trying to complete an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play on Morgan Witthoft’s grounder that allowed Adam Reddell to score the third run. Joe Bernal got out of the inning thanks to a good play by second baseman Terry Thompson, who battled the gusting wind to catch Denny Malloy’s high pop to the right side.
Eddy Murillo got two quick ground outs to start the bottom half, but Billy Hill walked and Jerry Mylius lined a single to right field (a carbon copy of his hit one inning earlier), putting two runners on for the top of the lineup. Pat Scott’s golf swing at an ankle-high pitch resulted in a line single to center field, George Brindley (running for Billy) scoring. Steve Sandall walked to load the bases, and George Romo singled to left-center, driving in Jerry and Pat.
Red won the fourth inning, scoring twice in the top half on a double to right field by Gary Coyle that scored Hal Darman and Donald Drummer, then holding Blue to one run on singles by the first three hitters in the home half, Eddy Murillo retiring three in a row to leave two runners stranded.
So Blue led by six entering the buffet. Red proceeded to put together a terrific nine-hit (all singles) rally, pushing across eight runs. Joe Bernal recorded two outs on grounders, the first back to the box by Denny Malloy for a 1-2 force at home, the second a 6-4 force on Gary Coyle. Boo Resnick scored on Gary’s fielder’s choice, cutting Blue’s lead to two runs. Bobby Miller followed with a bloop single to left field, Morgan Witthoft (running for Hal) scoring – one-run game. Tim Bruton singled to center, Gary scoring to tie it up, and when the relay back to the infield was misplayed, Bobby was able to score and Tim advance to third, Red now ahead by one. Rick Kahn lofted a fly to right field that Jeff Fisher made a good read on and took a good route to get to, but it glanced off his glove and fell in for a hit, Tim scoring. Adam Reddell followed with another fly out that way, and this one Jeff settled under and caught.
Red needed three outs to pull off the upset, and Eddy Murillo got two quickly on ground outs, Jerry Mylius to third baseman Adam Reddell (strong cross-diamond throw) and Pat Scott to shortstop Tim Bruton (Spellman-esque grunt on his throw, beating Pat by a step). Nothing’s easy, though. Steve Sandall lined a single to right field, completing his perfect day at the plate. George Romo drove a ball to right fielder, over the outfielders; Steve scored from first and George wound up at second with a double, also completing a perfect day at the plate. George must be battling an injury I don’t know about, as Pat Scott ran for him. Joe Bernal singled, Pat scoring to tie the score at 15 apiece. Walks to George Brindley (also perfect at the plate) and Jeff Fisher loaded the bases. (I asked Eddy afterward if the walks were semi-intentional; he said no, he just lost command.) Richard hit a foul ball was caught by catcher Denny Malloy, and the game headed to an extra inning.
Red began the top half with Adam Reddell on second, one out, one-pitch rules. Eddy Murillo took a walk – he, too, was perfect at the plate this game. Morgan Witthoft squared up on a pitch, but his line drive was hit right at shortstop George Brindley for the second out. Denny Malloy singled sharply to left field; Adam took a turn around third, but base coach Dave Berra wisely held him up, as the relay reached George just as Adam turned the corner – if he’d gone for home, he likely would have been out by 20 feet. Boo Resnick came up with a chance to put Red ahead, and lofted a ball down the right side, but it landed foul by inches for the third out.
Blue came up with Richard Battle on second. One-pitch walks to Terry Thompson and Dale Fugate loaded the bases. Billy Hill came up, and here’s the video – https://studio.youtube.com/video/WCxaD16_wQI/edit – a clean single to left field to bring in Richard with the winning run. Final score: Blue 16, Red 15, Blue clinching at least a tie for the Session Four title (they won it outright with Maroon’s loss in the 12:30 game).
12:30 p.m.: Maroon (9-6) at Orange (6.5 – 8.5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL
Maroon 0 2 0 2 1 0 5
Orange 0 4 5 3 3 X 15
Pitchers: Maroon – Chunky Wright; Orange – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Orange – Tim Bruton and Adam Reddell. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Richard Battle and Terry Thompson. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Tom Brownfield (3 for 3); Orange – Spike Davidson, Ray Pilgrim, and Adam Reddell (all 3 for 3), Fritz Hensel (4 for 4), and Jimmie Maloy (3 for 3 with a double).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 84 degrees, Heat Index 89, cloudy, wind SSE gusting to 15 MPH. The rain held off.
The “Perfect at the plate” list tells the story of this game: Maroon got a terrific game, on both sides of the ball, from Tom Brownfield, while Orange had five batters who were perfect on the day, and as a team batted .735 (25 for 34). Maroon batters not named Tom (Bellavia and Brownfield) went 12 for 26, a .461 average. Tough to win a B League game with that kind of (non-) hitting.
Neither team scored in the first inning. Spike Davidson worked around Anthony Galindo’s two-out single in the top half, getting good plays behind him on wind-blown pops that were caught by shortstop Tim Bruton and second baseman Eddie Ortiz. Fritz Hensel and Doc Hobar singled to start the bottom half, pinch-runner Matt Levitt beating the throw from right-center field to take third on Doc’s hit; Doc tried to take second on the play, but third baseman Tom Bellavia’s throw to Tom Brownfield beat him to second, for a 9-4-5-4, Buddy Gaswint to Tom Brownfield to Tom Bellavia back to Tom Brownfield. Matt held at third on Peter Atkins’ grounder to shortstop – Jack Spellman looked Matt back, would have thrown for him if he’d broken for the plate, and Joe Roche was ready to throw home after taking the peg to first. Tom Brownfield then made a good play to his right and a very strong throw to first on Eddie Ortiz’s grounder.
Maroon drew first blood in the top of the second, scoring two runs on four singles. Story of the game: Orange’s first SEVEN batters singled in the home half, four runs scoring, Maroon managing to steal an out on a 9-4-5 relay (Buddy Gaswint to Tom Brownfield to Tom Bellavia, again) that caught Jimmie Maloy trying to take third on Tim Bruton’s hit. With four in and two runners on, Maroon caught a break when Doc Hobar hit an infield fly to Tom Brownfield: Matt Levitt didn’t hear the call, and/or thought there were two outs, and broke for second, so was easily doubled up after Tom made the catch.
Maroon had a baserunning gaffe of its own in its next at bat. Scott Wright led off the third with a single. Jack Spellman hit a sharp grounder to second baseman Eddie Ortiz. Scott stopped before Eddie could tag him out, and Eddie threw to first for the out there, but Scott didn’t resume running right away, and wound up being thrown out at second for a 4-3-6 double play, Eddie to Ray Pilgrim to Tim Bruton.
Orange then took control of the game by scoring five runs on seven hits, including doubles by Eddie Ortiz and Jimmie Maloy, in the home half, the last four hits coming with two out.
Maroon got two runs back in the top of the fourth on singles by five of the first six batters, but left the bases loaded.
Maroon had a chance at keeping Orange from adding to its lead in the bottom of the fourth. Doc Hobar led off with a single and was forced at second on Peter Atkins’ grounder. Eddie Ortiz singled. Ray Pilgrim then hit a hard grounder to shortstop, a tailor-made double-play ball, but on its third hop it exploded off the Krieg 6 infield and over me – I got a piece of glove on it, really didn’t slow it down at all as it headed into left field, Peter scoring. Eddie and Ray’s pinch-runner followed on Spike Davidson’s hit, the inning finally ending on a belated 6-4-3 double play. (I can’t complain about the bad hop hurting Maroon, as Tim Bruton was victimized by at least two, might have been three, untrue hops on balls hit by Maroon.)
Maroon got a single run in the top of the fifth on three consecutive one-out singles. Spike Davidson then started an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play on Joe Roche’s grounder back to the box. Orange won this inning, too, scoring thrree runs on five singles in the home half, which ended with another 6-4-3 double play.
Those runs put Orange up by ten heading into the buffet. Maroon got one-out singles by Marvin Krabbenhoft and Tom Brownfield (Tom completing his perfect day at the plate), but the game ended with Spike Davidson retiring Dave Jaffe (2 for his first 2) on an infield pop that Spike himself caught, then getting Joe Dayoc to hit a hard grounder to third base, Adam Reddell making a good play to knock the ball down, then beat Marvin’s pinch-runner (Scott Wright, I think) to the bag for the final out. Final score: Orange 15, Maroon 5, the home teams completing a sweep of the day’s games, and Orange recording its 20th win of the season. (Every team now has at least 20 to 28 wins and 20 to 29 losses, which speaks to the league’s parity, as does no team currently having an active winning or losing streak greater than two games.)
Standings – Session Four:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Blue 12 3 .800 — 200 150 +50 W2
Maroon 9 7 .563 3.5 189 179 +10 L2
Orange 7.5 8.5 .469 5 188 193 – 5 W1
Red 7.5 8.5 .469 5 203 210 – 7 L1
Green 7 8 .467 5 187 191 – 4 W1
Purple 6 9 .400 6 163 180 -17 L1
Gray 5 10 .333 7 177 204 -27 L2
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Blue 8-0 4-3 2 1-0 5-0 3-0
Maroon 5-3 4-4 3 0-0 3-2 3-3
Orange 4-3 3.5-5.5 1 0-1 2-3 2-2
Red 2.5-6.5 5-2 1 1-1 3-4 2-2
Green 3-4 4-4 2 0-0 2-4 2-3
Purple 2-5 4-4 0 0-0 2-4 0-0
Gray 4-4 1-6 1 0-0 2-2 2-4
Orange and Red tied their game of October 24.
2024 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gray Green Maroon Orange Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 4 3 6 6 4 5 28
Gray 5 X 4 4 5 0 5 23
Green 3 3 X 5 3 7 5 26
Maroon 2 4 5 X 6 2 4 23
Orange 1 4 4 3 X 5 3.5 20.5
Purple 4 4 3 6 4 X 3 24
Red 5 4 4 2 5.5 4 X 24.5
________________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 20 23 23 26 29.5 22 25.5 169
Season home run leaders:
David Kruse – 7
Tim Coles – 6
Ken Brown – 4
Peter Atkins – 3
Gregory Bied – 3
Tim Bruton – 3
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Paul Rubin – 3
Pat Scott – 3
George Brindley – 2
Clint Fletcher – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Gary Kubenka – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Ralph Villela – 2
David Brown – 1
Jack Crosley – 1
Jeff Fisher – 1
Anthony Galindo – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Tommy Gillis – 1
Rex Horvath – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Denny Malloy – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
Eddie Ortiz -1
David Pittard – 1
Joe Roche – 1
Steve Sandall – 1
Morgan Witthoft – 1
Schedule for Thursday November 7:
10:30 a.m.: Red (7.5 – 8.5) at Maroon (9-7), Blue umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Blue (12-3) at Green (7-8), Maroon umpiring
12:30 a.m.: Gray (5-10) at Purple (6-9), Green umpiring
Orange has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Blue has clinched first place for the session, so at this point we’re all just getting reps in in advance of the end-of-season tourney. Orange and Maroon play at 10:30, Orange with a chance to catch Maroon for second place; Maroon can clinch second with a win. The 11:30 game will be something of a playoff preview between the winners of Session Four and Session Three. Gray is back in action at 12:30 against Purple, needing a win in order to escape last place. Will mercenaries determine who wins the tourney? One thing is certain, as it is for many things: It all comes down to turnout.
Keggy’s Korner:
Paige Bristol checks in – so far, so good:
Alvin’s first surgery went well. The left arterial blockage needed two stents. The right is 100% blocked, which has caused extensive scar tissue on the right side of his heart. They are leaving that as is for right now.
He is still quite loopy from the very good meds, but not too loopy to keep him from cracking jokes with the nurses and doctors. So, he obviously came through this first surgery just fine. 😉
The second surgery will be Wednesday morning at 11:30 for the valve replacements.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. It has meant the world to us. He wanted me to tell y’all how much he loved the signed softball and that he will treasure it always.
Paige