B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 6, Issue 46 – September 23, 2024
Games of Monday September 23:
10:30 a.m., Maroon (4-1) at Gray (1-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 1 0 3 5 1 3 13 Gray 3 0 1 0 5 5 14 Pitchers: Maroon – Chunky Wright; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Gray – Hal Darman. Umpires: home – Jeff Stone and Tom Kelm; bases – Tom Kelm and Mike Velaney. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Anthony Galindo (4 for 4 with a double) and Marvin Krabbenhoft and Joe Roche (both 4 for 4); Gray – Ken Brown (4 for 4 with a double).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 85 degrees (Heat Index 91), humidity 63%, partly cloudy, slight breeze, muggy.
This was a well-played, hard-fought game. Gray won the first inning, holding Maroon to a single run in the top half, on two singles and a run-scoring fielder’s choice, then scoring three times in the home half. Ken Brown led it off with a single and raced home on David Kruse’s triple to center field. Tommy Gillis smashed a one-hop grounder to third base; David waited for the throw to first before breaking for home, and scored without a throw. Don Solberg then tripled to right field and scored on Gary Coyle’s sacrifice fly to Anthony Galindo in left center. Anthony then made a nice running catch, ranging far to his left, of Johnny Lee’s fly to center.
Neither team scored in the second, both Jack Kelly and Chunky Wright working out of jams. Maroon got lead-off singles by Joe Roche and Marvin Krabbenhoft, but neither runner advanced on Buddy Gaswint’s liner to shortstop David Kruse and Joe Dayoc’s fly to Don Solberg in left. Alvin Gauna’s single loaded the bases, but Jack got Chunky to ground into an inning-ending 4-6 force. In the home half, Chunky worked around Donnie Janac’s one-out pop-fly single behind second base, both second baseman Tom Brownfield and shortstop Jimmy Sneed calling and going for the ball, which fell in safe. Chunky first got Mike Mordecai to pop to Jimmy at straight-away shortstop (Jimmy issued a verbal contract dictating that Tom maintain a minimum distance of 30 feet from the play), then got Hal Darman to hit a fly to short left field, behind third base, that Jimmy made a terrific play on, racing back and to his right to run it down.
Jack Kelly retired the first two batters to start the third, but the next five singled, three runs scoring to put Maroon ahead 4-3. Gray knotted the score with a single run in the home half: Ken Brown led off with a double to left and scored on Don Solberg’s double to right.
As he had the inning before, Jack Kelly got two outs to open the fourth, but this time couldn’t find the third, seven consecutive Maroon batters knocking singles, five runs scoring. Chunky Wright then held Gray scoreless, working around singles by Jack Kelly and Mike Mordecai.
Maroon led 9-4 entering the final five-run inning, and got a single by Marvin Krabbenhoft and a double by Buddy Gaswint to start it. At this point, Maroon’s win probability must have been north of 90%. But only one run scored, Marvin’s pinch-runner coming in on Joe Dayoc’s sacrifice fly to left field. Alvin Gauna singled, but David Kruse turned a 6u., 6-3 double play on Chunky Wright’s grounder. Then Gray scored five runs on David Kruse’s walk and six singles, two-out hits by Donnie Janac and Mike Mordecai driving in the fourth and fifth runs.
That made it 10-9 Maroon entering the buffet. Maroon added three runs in the top of the inning, on four singles and Anthony Galindo’s double, his fourth hit in as many at bats. Joe Roche and Marvin Krabbenhoft singled with two out, both completing 4-for-4 games, Marvin’s hit driving in the third run. Buddy Gaswint squared up a pitch, but for the second time in the game hit a hard liner within reach of shortstop David Kruse, who squeezed it for the third out.
Gray needed four to tie, five to win. Hal Darman led off the bottom of the buffet with a clean single to right field. Ken Brown singled, completing a 4-for-4 game and sending Hal’s runner to third. David Kruse singled, Hal’s runner scoring and Ken taking third. Tommy Gillis singled, driving in Ken, cutting Maroon’s lead to 13-11. Tom Brownfield made a good play on Don Solberg’s grounder to the right side and got the force at second for the first out, Don safe at first while David advanced to third. Gary Coyle singled up the middle, David scoring to bring Gray within a run. Johnny Lee lined a ball to right field that Alvin Gauna made a nice catch of, for the second out, Don tagging up and advancing to third.
Maroon needed just one more out, but couldn’t get it. Jack Kelly lined a clean single to right field to score Don with the tying run. And Donnie Janac stepped up and knocked a single up the middle; Jack’s pinch-runner (David Kruse, maybe?) was off on contact and easily scored the winning run. Final score: Gray 14, Maroon 13
11:30 a.m., Purple (1-3) at Blue (3-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Purple 0 3 1 4 0 8 Blue 1 5 5 5 X 16 Pitchers: Purple – Jeff Stone; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Purple – Anthony Galindo, Tommy Gillis, Eddy Murillo, Boo Resnick, and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Scott Wright; bases – Marvin Krabbenhoft. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Eddy Murillo (1 for 1 with a walk) and Boo Resnick (2 for 2); Blue – Richard Battle and Joe Bernal (both 2 for 2 with a walk), George Brindley (3 for 3), and Tony Garcia and Jerry Mylius (both 3 for 3 with a double).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 89 degrees (Heat Index 95), humidity 50%. Mostly cloudy, no breeze, tolerable for summer*.
* Today was the second day of autumn.
Purple is starting to get its players back, today needing only five mercenaries to fill out its lineup, after picking up seven last Thursday. (Baby steps.) Gregory Bied made his first appearance since before Memorial Day (I think that’s what I heard, apologies if I got it wrong), and picked up where he left off, legging out a double to lead off the game. He didn’t score, however, as Joe Bernal retired the next three batters, on a fly to left and two ground outs.
Blue got on the board first with a single run in the bottom of the first. Pat Scott singled, then was forced out at second on Steve Sandall’s grounder to shortstop. Tony Garcia, making his debut with Blue, doubled to right field, Steve advancing to third. George Romo then brought Steve in with a sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in left-center. George Brindley followed with a single up the middle; Jim made a quick relay to shortstop Jack Spellman; I turned and saw Tony about a third of the way between third and home. Having learned a lesson from being torched by Mike Garrison in a similar situation last week, I charged toward Tony, more or less freezing him. When he took a step back toward third, I threw to Eddy Murillo while regretting mean but possibly funny things I’d said to Eddy in the dugout in the top half of the inning. Eddy then played the situation perfectly: he began running Tony toward the commit line, and waited until Tony had crossed it to make a chest-high throw to catcher Tom Kelm for the third out. It was a really well executed play, three good throws, and led to Purple briefly taking the lead, as they scored three runs on five singles in the top of the second.
That proved to be Purple’s high-water mark, however, as Blue scored five runs over each of its next three at bats: on four singles, Billy Hill’s walk, and Steve Sandall’s double in the second; on five singles, Terry Thompson’s sacrifice fly, and Jerry Mylius’s double in the third; and on five more singles and walks to Joe Bernal and Richard Battle in the fourth, Jerry Mylius capping that rally with a two-run single. Jerry was pretty much Blue’s game MVP, going 3 for 3 with a double and four RBI, scoring twice, and making an excellent play at first base to end the top of the third inning, cleanly catching shortstop George Romo’s short-hopped throw for the third out.
Purple scored just a single run in the third, on Tom Kelm’s sacrifice fly, and then four in the fourth, on five singles. Joe Bernal stranded two runners in that inning thanks to an excellent play by second baseman George Brindley, who ranged back and to his left into short right field to run down Jeff Stone’s bid for a pop-fly RBI single, converting it into the third out.
Blue led 16-8 entering the buffet. Tom Kelm led off with a line drive right at third baseman Tony Garcia for the first out. Rip Wright singled. Tommy Gillis flied out to Steve Sandall in right-center. And Joe Bernal caught Anthony Galindo looking at a called strike three for the final out. Final score: Blue 16, Purple 8, Blue moving into first place for the session.
12:30 p.m., Green (1-3) at Orange (3-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 3 4 5 3 0 X 15 Orange 0 0 5 0 0 2 7 Pitchers: Green – Tommy Deleon; Orange – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Green – Anthony Galindo and Eddy Murillo; Orange – Alvin Gauna, Tom Kelm, Johnny Lee, Jack Spellman (substituted for Tom Kelm in the third inning), and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Terry Thompson; bases – Tony Garcia. Perfect at the plate: Green – Anthony Galindo (3 for 3 with two doubles) and Mike Hill (3 for 3 with two triples); Orange – Peter Atkins and Scott Wright (both 3 for 3 with a double). Home run: Doc Hobar (inside the park).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 91 degrees (Heat Index 100), humidity 56%. No breeze, 5 MPH, partly cloudy – getting hot!
Green scored early and often, building a 12-0 lead before Orange finally broke through in the third inning. In the top of the first Green scored three runs as four of its first five batters hit safely, Mike Hill driving in the first run with a triple to center field and scoring the second on Mike Garrison’s single. Jack Crosley followed with a grounder to third baseman Ray Pilgrim; Ray’s throw sailed wide of second, and Mike wound up scoring on the overthrow. Spike Davidson stranded Jack at second, getting Tommy Deleon to pop out back to the mound – Spike made the catch with his back turned to home plate, making a tough play look easy – and retiring Phil Stanch on a pop to shortstop.
Tommy Deleon worked a quick bottom half of the first, allowing a one-out single to Peter Atkins, then getting Ray Pilgrim to ground to Ralph Villela, who started a 6-4-3 double play.
Green scored four times in the second inning, all the runs coming across after two were out. With one out, Jim McAnally singled and Anthony Galindo doubled, both down the third-base side. Eddy Murillo’s fly to Alvin Gauna in left scored Jim’s runner. Ralph Villela doubled to left, Anthony scoring. Mike Hill hit his second triple in as many at bats, this one to right field, Ralph scoring easily. David Pittard’s single to right drove in Mike. Mike Garrison hit a pop to shortstop, but Scott Wright was blinded by the high sun, and it fell in for a single. But Spike Davidson got Jack Crosley to make the third out, on a fly to Peter Atkins in right-center.
Tommy Deleon worked an even quicker bottom of the second, retiring the side in order, possibly on three pitches: pop to shortstop, grounder back to the box, fly to right-center.
Green then got its lead into double digits, scoring five times without making an out in the top of the third, on five singles and Anthony Galindo’s second double in as many at bats.
Orange finally got untracked in the bottom of the third. Scott Wright led off with a double to right, and walks to Johnny Lee and Alvin Gauna loaded the bases. Tom Kelm singled; Scott scored on the hit, but Larry Shupe, running for Johnny Lee, was thrown out at home – at that moment I was in the home dugout, preparing to take over for Tom, and I didn’t see the full play, only Ralph Villela’s heat-seeking-missile-strike of a throw home to catcher Jim McAnelly. I think the play went 7-6-2, Mike Garrison making the initial throw, but I’m fully prepared to buy a doughnut for whoever corrects me. It wound up not mattering, as Orange still wound up scoring five runs in the inning, the next three on Doc Hobar’s inside-the-park home run to center field, Doc nearly lapping me as I, running for Tom Kelm, chugged home just ahead of him. Peter Atkins followed with a single, took second on Ray Pilgrim’s grounder to the right side, and scored the fifth run on Spike Davidson’s single to left.
Orange manager Dave Berra presents Doc Hobar with the ceremonial Pluckers coupon following Doc’s three-run inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the third.
That briefly cut Green’s lead to 12-5. They immediately scored three more runs to get back to a ten-run advantage. Ralph Villela led offf the fourth with a triple and scored on a single by Mike Hill (3 for 3 in the game). David Pittard singled. Mike Garrison lined out to Alvin Gauna in left field. Jack Crosley’s single brought in Mike, David advancing to third. Tommy Deleon grounded a ball up the middle; Jack Spellman, who’d taken over at second for Tom Kelm, made a diving play to his backhand for the ball and flipped it to shortstop Scott Wright covering the base for the force at second, David scoring on the play. I scraped my knee and elbow diving to make a play for not my own team in a game my side was losing by ten, it didn’t stop the run from scoring, and I absolutely will do it again if I get the chance. As the missus is wont to say: “What is wrong with you?”
Orange did not score in the bottom of the fourth, Tommy Deleon working around Scott Wright’s two-out single. Neither did Green score in the top of the fifth, despite two of its first three batters reaching on singles. Spike Davidson got Eddy Murillo to line out to shortstop Scott Wright (almost a double play, but Mike Garrison, running for Jim McAnelly, got back to the bag before Scott’s throw got to Jack Spellman, and anyway I bobbled it) and Ralph Villela lined out to Doc Hobar in left-center.
Orange was blanked again in the bottom of the fifth. Alvin Gauna singled leading off, then was forced out 4-6 on Jack Spellman’s sharp grounder to second baseman Mike Hill. Doc Hobar flied out to right-center. Peter Atkins knocked an extra-base hit to center field, his third hit in as many at bats; I tried to score from first, but was beaten by half a step by the fine 8-6-2 relay, Anthony Galindo to Ralph Villela to Jim McAnelly. It was a good two-out send by Dave Berra, undone by two great throws and my being a lard ass.
There might have been some time on the clock, but the teams agreed to flip-flop and go straight to the buffet. Orange scored two runs on four singles, the last three coming with two out, before running out of outs. Final score: Green 15, Orange 7
Standings – Session Four:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Blue 4 1 .800 — 65 47 +18 W3
Maroon 4 2 .667 .5 79 67 +12 L2
Orange 3 2 .600 1 63 70 – 7 L2
Green 2 3 .400 2 58 54 + 4 W1
Gray 2 3 .400 2 74 71 + 3 W1
Red 2 3 .400 2 73 77 – 4 W1
Purple 1 4 .200 3 52 78 -26 L1
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Blue 2-0 2-1 0 0-0 2-0 0-0
Maroon 2-1 2-1 1 0-0 2-1 1-1
Orange 1-2 2-0 0 0-0 1-2 1-0
Green 1-2 1-1 0 0-0 1-1 0-1
Gray 1-1 1-2 1 0-0 1-0 1-0
Red 0-2 2-1 0 0-0 1-2 0-1
Purple 1-2 0-2 0 0-0 0-2 0-0
2024 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gray Green Maroon Orange Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 3 2 4 4 3 4 20
Gray 4 X 3 4 4 0 5 20
Green 3 2 X 4 3 5 4 21
Maroon 2 3 4 X 5 1 3 18
Orange 1 3 3 2 X 4 3 16
Purple 4 3 3 5 3 X 1 19
Red 4 2 3 2 4 4 X 19
_______________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 18 16 18 21 23 17 20 133
Season home run leaders:
Tim Coles – 6
David Kruse – 6
Ken Brown – 3
Tim Bruton – 3
Peter Atkins – 2
Gregory Bied – 2
George Brindley – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Clint Fletcher – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Gary Kubenka – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Pat Scott – 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
Morgan Witthoft – 1
Schedule for Thursday September 26:
10:30 a.m.: Purple (1-4) at Red (2-3), Green umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Green (2-3) at Gray (2-3), Purple umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Orange (3-2) at Blue (4-1), Gray umpiring
Maroon has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Orange stumbled today, but should have its full San Marcos complement present for Thursday’s game against first-place Blue – an Orange victory would result in a three-way tie for first. The other two games pit under-.500 teams looking to move up in the standings. Will Moo Deng’s viral popularity set off a rush among B Leaguers to acquire baby hippos? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.