B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 55 – September 29, 2025
Department of Corrections: 2025 – 1954 = 71, not 61. (I’m a text guy, not a numbers guy, though that doesn’t stop me from regretting the error.)
Games of Monday September 29:
10:30 a.m., Maroon (4-2) at Green (3-3):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 5 0 3 1 2 11 Green 5 0 4 1 0 10 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Green – Chunky Wright. Mercenaries: Maroon – Hal Darman, Mike Malay, and Paul Rubin. Umpires: home – Tommy Deleon; bases – George Brindley and Jim Foelker. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Tom Kelm and Jeff Stone (both 3 for 3; Ohtani Award for Jeff) and Bobby Miller (3 for 3 with a double and a triple); Green – Donnie Janac (2 for 2). Home run: Doc Hobar (inside the park) (3).
Weather report: 81 degrees, felt like 82. Humidity 46%, wind from the NNW at 3 MPH. Mostly sunny, some high clouds.
A close, well-played game, beginning to end, between teams battling for second place. Both scored five times on six hits while making just one out in the first inning. Ken Brown led off the game by drawing a walk, took third on Bobby Miller’s double to left field, and then both Ken and Bobby scored on Tony Garcia’s sacrifice fly to Donnie Janac in deep right field. The next five Maroon hitters singled, three more runs coming across. Green matched that in the home half: its first four batters singled, Steve Browne doubled down the left-field line, and Greg Lloyd singled, four runs coming across. Chris Waddell delivered the fifth with a sacrifice fly to Bobby Miller in left-center field.
Then neither team scored in the second: Chunky Wright retired Maroon in order in the top half; Jeff Stone gave up a lead-off single to Donnie Janac to start the bottom of the frame, then retired the next three batters.
Maroon briefly went ahead with three runs in the top of the third. Bobby Miller ripped a triple to center field to open the inning, and scored on Tony Garcia’s single through the 5-6 hole. Scott Wright drove a pitch to deep left-center, but Steve Browne made a terrific catch, drifting back and then reaching high to grab the ball, robbing Scott of extra bases and forcing Tony to scramble back to first. Infield singles by Jeff Stone (a liner off Chunky Wright’s glove) and Tom Kelm (grounder to shortstop that bad-hopped Ralph Villela) loaded the bases. Tommy Langa lined a single to left, driving in Tony. Paul Rubin hit into a 4-6 force out, Doc Hobar to Ralph Villela, Jeff Stone (or his pinch-runner, not sure) scoring. Mike Malay was next. He refused a walk and then hit a sharp one-hopper to down the third-base side; Johnny Wimpy made a clean catch on the short hop and then a strong throw to Doc Hobar at second for the inning-ending out.
Green took the lead for the first time with four runs in the bottom of the inning. Ralph Villela doubled leading off, a line drive to left field, and scored on Phil Stanch’s single to right. Mike Garrison singled as well. Doc Hobar then came up and lined a ball to left field – Paul Rubin charged the ball, but couldn’t reach it before it fell in and then skipped past him, all the way to the fence, Doc circling the bases for a three-run inside-the-park homerun, his third of the season. Here’s Doc cracking it:
That was four runs in. Jeff Stone then retired the next three batters, aided by a couple of good defensive plays. Steve Browne hit a ball to short right field, but Mike Malay denied him a hit, racing in to make a shoe-top-high catch. Greg Lloyd lined a ball to the right side, but second baseman Tommy Langa reached to his left and made a fine play to snag it. Paul Rubin then caught Chris Waddell’s fly to left field.
Both teams scored a single run in the fourth. Greg Lloyd retired Maroon’s first two hitters on grounders to shortstop Ralph Villela. Bobby Miller then legged out a triple to left field, just beating a strong throw in from Mike Garrison. Tony Garcia picked up his fourth RBI of the game with a double to center field that sent Bobby home. Green got that back in the home half: Donnie Janac, the only Green hitter who did not make an out, and Bobby Hill both hit ground-ball singles to the left side. Donnie took third on Chunky Wright’s force-out grounder back to Jeff Stone, then scored on Johnny Wimpy’s base hit.
The clock ran out moments after the end of the bottom of the fourth, and plate umpire Tommy Deleon declared that the next inning would be the buffet, though not everyone on Maroon heard him. (This was the first of two sub-optimally communicated messages.) Maroon came up trailing by one. Jeff Stone and Tom Kelm led off with singles, both completing 3-for-3 games. (Tony Garcia ran for Tom from home.) Tommy Langa flied out to Donnie Janac in right field; Ken Brown, running for Jeff, tagged and took third on the play. Paul Rubin smacked a single to center field, driving in Ken with the tying run, Tony stopping at second. Mike Malay then singled to left-center; Steve Browne came up throwing to shortstop Ralph Villela, whose strong relay to third baseman Johnny Wimpy beat Paul to the bag – rather than running through, Paul ran to the bag, and the throw did just beat him. Almost unnoticed amidst the excitement at third base was that Tony scored on the play, putting Maroon ahead by a run. (Second bit of less-than-perfectly communicated news.) The inning ended with Hal Darman grounding into a 6-4 force, Ralph Villela to Doc Hobar.
Mike Garrison led off for Green in the home half of the buffet. He grounded a ball to shortstop; Tony Garcia fielded it cleanly and made a strong throw to first to just beat Mike for the first out. Doc Hobar grounded back to pitcher Jeff Stone for the second. Steve Browne worked a base on balls, putting the tying run on base. Greg Lloyd grounded a ball up the middle, just to the left of second base; moving to his left, Tony Garcia fielded the ball and in a single motion stepped on the bag for the game-ending force out.
Final score: Maroon 11, Green 10
11:30 a.m., Blue (2-4) at Orange (5-1)
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Blue 5 2 0 0 0 7 Orange 5 1 5 2 X 13 Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Orange – Terry Thompson. Mercenaries: Blue – Tony Garcia, Jack Spellman, and Scott Wright (entered for Daniel Baladez in the bottom of the third); Orange – Gary Coyle, Jeff Stone, and Peter Sundquist. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Blue – David Pittard (2 for 2 with a walk); Orange – David Brown (3 for 3 with a home run), Gary Coyle (1 for 1 with a walk), Marvin Krabbenhoft (2 for 2 with a walk and a double), Jeff Stone (2 for 2), and Terry Thompson (3 for 3 – Ohtani Award). Home run: David Brown (inside the park) (7).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 85 degrees, feels like 85. Humidity 37%. Wind from the North at 2 MPH. Partly cloudy. Nice day!
Blue played this pretty tough in the early going, and led through two innings, but Orange poured it on, shutting out the visitors over the final three frames to win going away.
Both teams scored five times in the first inning. Blue sent its entire lineup to the plate to start the game, getting five singles and three walks, the last two free passes, to Rip Wright and Jack Spellman, coming with the bases loaded and forcing in the fourth and fifth runs. Orange responded with five runs on six hits, not making an out in the home half: Peter Atkins led off with a double, and David Brown followed with an inside-the-park home run, I think to center or right-center field, his league-leading seventh of the season. Ray Pilgrim, Boo Resnick, and Terry Thompson followed with singles, Ray’s pinch-runner scoring the third run. Marvin Krabbenhoft then stepped up and absolutely crushed a ball to left-center, Boo and Terry’s pinch-runner easily scoring the fourth and fifth runs.
David Brown hits his seventh home run of the 2025 season. (Might be the 2025 B.C. season.)
Blue went back ahead with two runs in the top of the second. George Brindley and Jimmy Sneed led off with consecutive doubles, George scoring on Jimmy’s hit, Jimmy scoring on David Pittard’s single.
Orange got one back in the home half. Peter Sundquist singled and Gary Coyle walked with one out. Jeff Stone knocked a single to right-center; Peter scored on the hit, but a strong throw from Tony Garcia to David Pittard cut down Gary trying for third, 9-5. Singles by Peter Atkins and David Brown loaded the bases, but Tommy Deleon escaped the jam by getting Ray Pilgrim to fly out to Jim Foelker in left field.
Terry Thompson found his groove in the top of the third inning, and wound up blanking Blue the rest of the way. In the third he gave up a two-out hit to Jack Spellman that turned from a single into a triple when it skipped past right fielder Larry Shupe, but Terry retired George Brindley on a pop to shortstop David Brown to strand the runner. Orange then took the lead by scoring five times in the home half, on five singles, a walk drawn by Marvin Krabbenhoft, and Peter Sundquist’s sacrifice fly to left fielder Jim Foelker.
More of the same in the fourth: after allowing one-out singles to Tom Bellavia and David Pittard, Terry Thompson retired Jim Foelker on a fly to left-center, Peter Atkins making an outstanding play to run the ball down, and got Daniel Baladez to ground into a 4-6 force. (Daniel re-injured his hamstring running after an errant throw in the bottom of the third, and was replaced in the field by Scott Wright, but kept his place in the lineup.) Orange then scored two runs on five singles and Boo Resnick’s sacrifice fly to Tony Garcia in right-center; the inning ended with Terry Thompson’s pinch-runner (not sure who it was – possibly Peter Atkins) thrown out 8-6-2, Tom Bellavia to Jimmy Sneed to Rip Wright, trying to score on Larry Shupe’s single to left-center – Jimmy’s throw home to Rip was a laser strike.
Orange led by six entering the buffet. Terry Thompson got two quick outs to start the inning, getting Tommy Deleon to line out to second baseman Jeff Stone and Rip Wright to pop out to third baseman Gary Coyle. Tony Garcia singled, but the game ended with Jack Spellman hitting a weak grounder to Jeff Stone at second for the final out.
Final score: Orange 13, Blue 7
Jeff Stone and Terry Thompson both won Ohtani Awards today, pitching their teams to victory while being perfect at the plate.
12:30 p.m., Purple (2-4) at Red (3-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Purple 2 1 5 3 3 2 16 Red 2 4 0 2 0 5 13 Pitchers: Purple – Spike Davidson; Red – Donald Drummer. Mercenaries: Purple – David Brown and Mike Malay; Red – Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Terry Thompson; bases – Marvin Krabbenhoft and Larry Shupe. Perfect at the plate: Purple – David Brown (3 for 3 with a triple) and Raul Deleon (3 for 3 with a walk and a triple); Red – Gary Coyle (4 for 4 with a double).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 86 degrees, feels like 86. Humidity 35%. Wind from the Northeast at 3 MPH. Partly cloudy. Perfect softball weather!
Similar to the 11:30 game, Red built an early lead but couldn’t hold it, Purple scoring in every inning, outscoring Red 11-2 over the three innings going into the buffet, when Red rallied to make the game seem closer than it really was.
A couple of good defensive plays helped Red limit Purple’s scoring in the first two innings. In the first, Raul Deleon tripled with one out and, after Richard Battle walked, scored on Mark Hernandez’s single. Spike Davidson also singled, Richard scoring. Fritz Hensel ripped a liner back up the middle, but Donald Drummer made a terrific play on the ball and snapped a quick throw to first to double up David Brown, running for Spike. Red tied the game with two runs on singles by its four batters in the bottom of the frame, the inning ending on a 6-4-3 double play, Rick Jensen to Raul Deleon to Mark Hernandez, on Rolando Rodriguez’s grounder.
Rick Jensen and Henry Flores led off the second with singles. Rick took third on Larry Young’s fly to Rolando Rodriguez in right-center, then scored on David Brown’s single, Henry advancing to third. Mike Malay lined a ball down the first-base side, but was robbed of a hit by Dale Fugate, who made a terrific backhanded catch. Dale reversed his momentum and tried to tag David before he could retreat to first, but David evaded the tag and scrambled back. Donald Drummer then got Matt Levitt to hit into a 5-4 force, Gary Coyle to Jack Spellman, to end the inning, Gary’s strong throw beating David to the bag by half a step. Red then scored four times on six singles, the last three hits and all of the runs coming after two were out.
That was the high-water mark for Red. Purple grabbed the lead with five runs in the top of the third, on Raul Deleon’s lead-off walk and six singles, Larry Young driving in the third and fourth runs and David Brown the fifth with two-out hits. Spike Davidson then blanked Red in the home half, working around Rolando Rodriguez’s lead-off single.
Purple won the fourth inning, scoring three runs on five singles in the top half, holding Red to two runs on Gary Coyle’s two-out, two-run double in the bottom half.
The game’s highlight came in the top of the fifth. Henry Flores led off with a single. Larry Young then hit a grounder to shortstop Scott Wright. Scott’s legs went out from under him as he stepped to his right to field the ball, and he went down on his side, but he somehow managed to field the ball cleanly and, from nearly a prone position, flip the ball to Jack Spellman covering second, hitting me chest-high; I was able to relay to first and complete the ugly-looking but totally effective 6-4-3 double play, as seen here:
Two out, none on, but Purple still managed to push across three runs. David Brown tripled, completing a 3-for-3 game, and scored on Mike Malay’s single. Matt Levitt walked. Raul Deleon singled, also completing a 3-for-3 outing, Mike scoring. And then Richard Battle drove in Matt with a base hit.
Rolando Rodriguez led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, but was erased on a 5-4-3 double play, Mike Malay to Raul Deleon to Mark Hernandez, on Dale Fugate’s grounder. Jim McAnelly grounded out to Rick Jensen.
Purple led by six entering the buffet and made it eight with four consecutive singles without making an out, prompting the teams to flip-flop. Seven of Red’s first eight hitters singled in the bottom half, five runs scoring, with Gary Coyle completing a 4-for-4 game. That got Red within three of forcing Purple to bat again, but the game ended with Spike Davidson retiring Dale Fugate on a fly to David Brown in right-center and Jim McAnelly on a grounder to shortstop Rick Jensen.
Final score: Purple 16, Red 13
Session 4 standings:
| Session 4 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 6 | 1 | .857 | 0 | 97 | 61 | 36 | W3 |
| Maroon | 5 | 2 | .714 | 1 | 75 | 64 | 11 | W3 |
| Red | 3 | 4 | .429 | 3 | 82 | 80 | 2 | L1 |
| Purple | 3 | 4 | .429 | 3 | 79 | 82 | -3 | W1 |
| Green | 3 | 4 | .429 | 3 | 73 | 77 | -4 | L2 |
| Gray | 2 | 4 | .333 | 3.5 | 55 | 68 | -13 | L2 |
| Blue | 2 | 5 | .286 | 4 | 62 | 91 | -29 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 4-0 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 0-1 | ||
| Maroon | 3-0 | 2-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 01/01/00 | ||
| Red | 2-2 | 1-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1-0 | ||
| Purple | 1-2 | 2-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-1 | 0-1 | ||
| Green | 2-2 | 1-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-1 | ||
| Gray | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-1 | ||
| Blue | 1-2 | 1-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 2 | 6 | 2 | 3.5 | 4 | 5 | 22.5 |
| Gray | 5 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 20 |
| Green | 3 | 5 | X | 3.5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 21.5 |
| Maroon | 4 | 5 | 6.5 | X | 4 | 5 | 3 | 27.5 |
| Orange | 5.5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | X | 4 | 4 | 26.5 |
| Purple | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | X | 7 | 23 |
| Red | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 | X | 18 |
| TOTAL: | 23.5 | 24 | 23.5 | 18.5 | 18.5 | 22 | 29 | 159 |
Green and Maroon tied their game of August 7; Orange and Blue tied their game of August 28; these are counted as half a win and half a loss for each team.
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 7
Tim Coles – 5
Mike Garrison – 5
Bobby Miller – 5
Ralph Villela – 5
George Brindley – 4
Anthony Galindo – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Doc Hobar – 3
Mike Malay – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Scott Wright – 2
Jim Aaron – 1
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Ken Brown – 1
Gary Coyle – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Jack McDermott – 1
Ken Mockler – 1
Ray Pilgrim – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Scott Wright – June 5
Walk-off grand slam:
David Brown (inside the park) – August 4
Ohtanis (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Jeff Stone – 9 (March 20, April 17, July 17, July 21, July 28, September 11, September 15 (2), September 29)
Spike Davidson – 7 (June 19, June 30, August 4, August 7, August 14 (2), September 8)
Tommy Deleon – 6 (March 3, March 13, April 14, April 28, May 12, September 8)
Tom Kelm – 4 (March 3, March 13, May 1, June 16)
Joe Bernal – 3 (March 3, April 3, June 5)
Ray Pilgrim – 3 (April 14, August 4, August 7)
Terry Thompson – 3 (July 31, September 15, September 29)
Donald Drummer – 2 (May 1, August 11)
Jack Kelly – 2 (March 10, May 12)
Greg Lloyd – 1 (June 26)
David Pittard – 1 (June 2)
Chunky Wright – 1 (June 9)
Schedule for Thursday October 2:
10:30 a.m.: Red (3-4) at Maroon (5-2), Gray umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Gray (2-4) at Purple (3-4), Maroon umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (3-4) at Blue (2-5), Purple umpiring
Orange has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Maybe a forced day off will throw Orange into a tailspin. At any rate it will enable three teams to pick up half a game in the standings, with Maroon poised to move to just half a game out of first if they can prevail over Red at 10:30. Maroon’s the only team playing on Thursday that’s over .500 for the session, which (glass half full) speaks to the league’s parity, or perhaps (glass half empty) to the two best teams being head and shoulders over the rest. Will players show up Thursday in a weakened state owing to having scrupulously observed World Vegetarian Day on Wednesday, or will we be in domination mode in advance of Mean Girls Day, on Friday? Only one thing is certain: Get in the car, loser, we’re going shopping.
Keggy’s Korner:
It was a treat seeing old friend Chris Rolig at Krieg today.
Go Red Sox.