B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 49 – for September 8, 2025
Apologies, all, for the lateness – I’m unable to maintain my production schedule while traveling.
Roster update: Steve Guzman has been assigned to Blue team; he made his debut with them in the 10:00 game.
Games of Monday September 8:
10:00 a.m., Blue (0-1) at Green (0-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Blue 5 0 3 3 2 13 Green 0 5 5 0 1 11 Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Green – Chunky Wright. Mercenary: Green – Ray Pilgrim. Umpires: home – Jeff Stone; bases – Scott Wright. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Tommy Deleon (2 for 2 with a walk); Green – Donnie Janac (3 for 3 with a double), Ray Pilgrim (3 for 3), and Ralph Villela (4 for 4 with a double).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 75 degrees, felt like 75. Humidity 60%, wind from the ENE at 6 MPH. Cloudy – excellent!
Hard-fought, well-played game, it looks like from my New England perspective. Blue scored five times in the top of the first, on five singles, Jimmy Sneed’s triple on a drive to right-center, and David Pittard’s walk, the walk and the last three singles all coming with two out. Tommy Deleon then blanked Green in the home half, working around singles by Ralph Villela and Mike Garrison.
That script was flipped in the second inning: Chunky Wright shut out Blue in the top half, allowing just a one-out single by Steve Sandall, with shortstop Ralph Villela making a good play moving back and to his right* to run down Tom Bellavia’s pop into short left field for the second out; and Green scored five times in the bottom half, on six singles, Ralph Villela’s double, and Greg Lloyd’s sacrifice fly to Tom Bellavia in left-center.
* Just making stuff up here, of course, and elsewhere where I employ an asterisk.
Blue went ahead with three runs in the top of the third, on four singles, Tommy Deleon’s walk, and Jim Foelker’s sacrifice fly, to Steve Browne in left-center. Steve then made a terrific play to run down Steve Sandall’s fly to left-center, robbing him of extra bases with a running catch to his (flips coin…) left*.
Green took the lead for the first time in the game with five runs in the bottom half, on seven singles, the last two, by Ray Pilgrim and Ralph Villela, coming with two out and pushing across the third, fourth, and fifth runs.
Green led 10-8 entering the final five-run inning. Blue scored three times in the top half to go ahead by a run, David Pittard’s triple to right field the key hit: it drove in Tom Bellavia and George Brindley, who’d singled, with the first two runs, and David scored the third on Daniel Baladez’s base hit. Here’s David putting a hurt on Chunky Wright’s pitch, as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck look on:
Not sure why David feels the need to wear a helmet and full uniform.
Tommy Deleon held the lead by blanking Green in the bottom of the fourth. Back-to-back two-out singles by Chris Waddell and Doc Hobar put runners on the corners, but Tommy got Chunky Wright to ground out to shortstop Jimmy Sneed for the third out.
Blue scored twice in the top of the buffet, increasing its lead to 13-10. Shortstop Ralph Villela made a good play on Steve Guzman’s lead-off grounder to the 5-6 hole* for the first out, but the top of Blue’s order came through with three straight hits – singles by Steve Sandall and Tom Bellavia, and a double by Jimmy Sneed that drove in Steve – followed by George Brindley’s fly to Phil Stanch, which was deep enough for Tom to tag and score on. Tom Brownfield’s single extended the inning, but Chunky Wright denied David Pittard’s bid for a 4-for-4 game by getting David to hit a two-strike foul for the third out.
Green needed three to tie in the bottom of the buffet. Donnie Janac made a good start of it, ripping a double to right field to complete a 3-for-3 game. Tommy Deleon retired the next two batters, however, getting Greg Lloyd to bounce back to the box and Steve Browne to fly out to Jim Foelker in right-center, Donnie tagging and taking third on the play. Ray Pilgrim was up next and singled, completing a 3-for-3 day at the plate, Donnie scoring to draw Green to within two. Singles by Ralph Villela (4 for 4 in the game) and Phil Stanch loaded the bases, the tying run at second and the potential winning run at first, but the game ended with Mike Garrison grounding into a 6-4 force, Jimmy Sneed to (I think) Steve Guzman. Final score: Blue 13, Green 11
11:00 a.m., Maroon (1-0) at Red (0-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 0 0 2 2 0 4 Red 2 0 4 1 X 7 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Red - . Mercenaries: Maroon - ; Red - . Umpires: home – ; bases – . Perfect at the plate: Maroon - ; Red - .
Dave Berra’s weather report: 84 degrees, felt like 84. Humidity 41%, wind from the ENE at 5 MPH. Sunny New England summer day.
David Brown provides this superb recap of the day’s second game:
Before the game started, Maroon Coach Dave Berra pointed out that Red is the only team against whom Maroon has a losing record this season. In seven previous games, Red had won 4 and Maroon had won 3. Interesting…
The game opened with a walk-double-single sequence by Ken Brown, Tony Garcia, and Scott Wright that plated Maroon’s first two runs. Jeff Stone hit a ball hard to right-center field, but Steve Sandall made a nice running grab for the first out of the inning. Scowlin’ Don Solberg singled to RF before Red pitcher Donald Drummer induced a fly out to Steve Sandall and a ground out to Don Williams at 2B. Don’s play was noteworthy as he knocked down a hard grounder, scrambled a few steps into the outfield to retrieve the ball, and then tossed the ball to 2B in time to get the force out. Don took a tumble on the throw but he had a smile on his face when he walked to the bench.
In the home half of the first inning, Jack McDermott, Anthony Galindo, Gary Coyle, and Don Williams all singled to plate two runs and place runners at the corners. The team took a 3-2 lead on Mark Dolan’s sacrifice fly to LCF. Dale Fugate popped out to shortstop Tony Garcia for the second out of the inning before Jim Mcanelly plated Red’s fourth run of the inning with a line drive to right field. Maroon pitcher Jeff Stone then induced a ground out to 3B Tim Coles, who tossed to Scott Wright at 2B.
Maroon went 3-up, 3-down in the top of the second inning. Red then scored five in the bottom of the inning with a walk by Donald Drummer; singles by Steve Sandall, Jack McDermott, and Gary Coyle; and doubles by David Brown and Anthony Galindo. Trailing 9-2, Maroon had the top of their batting order up in the third and it was a near carbon copy of the first inning. A BB-1B-1B sequence plated a run and placed runners on first and second. Tony Garcia managed to score the second run of the inning on back-to-back fly outs to Steve Sandall in RCF. Tom Kelm came to the plate with two outs and pinch runner Jim Foelker at 2B. Tom hit a ground ball to the 5-6 hole which SS David Brown fielded and threw to Gary Coyle, who was scrambling back to 3B. Realizing that Jim was going to beat him to the bag, Gary reached out and tagged Jim before he crossed 3B. Clever move from the Louisiana dude!
Jeff Stone dominated the bottom of the third, converting a come-backer from the first batter into an out and then turning a second come-backer into a 1-4-3 double play after giving up a walk to Mark Dolan. Maroon looked to build on its first winning inning of the game, but Donald Drummer sandwiched a hard line drive single to left center field by Tim Coles with a fly out to RCF and ground ball outs to SS and himself. The bottom half of the Red line-up produced three runs on four singles and the team finished the fourth inning with a 12-4 lead.
In the fifth, Ken Brown led off an inning for the third time in the game. Donald finally threw Ken a strike and he lined a ball to RCF for a single. Ken scored on a double to RF by Tony Garcia. Scott Wright then scorched a ball down the right field line that went all the way to the 300 ft marker. After being waved home by the third base coach, Scott chose to blow kisses to his teammates and fans who were cheering him on as he headed toward his third HR of the season. Unfortunately for Scott, he failed to notice that Mark Dolan had hustled to the fence to retrieve the ball and that Steve Sandall and David Brown had set themselves between Mark and home plate. Three on-target throws resulted in a catch at home plate by Jim McAnelly just before Scott reached the scoring line. Normally soft-spoken home plate umpire Tommy Deleon bellowed “You’re out!” loud enough that the birds in the trees beyond the outfield fence shrieked and took flight.
Editorial note: Here is a highly realistic rendering of the play at home plate. No Pluckers for Scott!
(Weird that David didn’t mention the appearance of Philadelphia Karen, fresh from swiping a home run ball from a nine-year-old, after she unexpectedly rushed in from the third-base side to try to grab the home-run ball from Jim and replace it with a ball she’d taken from the visitors’ dugout bucket. All for naught, as it wasn’t a home run anyway, I guess is why David didn’t bother bringing it up. Back now to his recap…)
The next two batters in the Maroon lineup singled, but Donald held them to two runs with a line-out and a strikeout. Red matched Maroon’s two runs in the fifth with three singles and a double by Gary Coyle.
Red led 14-6 as the two teams entered the buffet. Donald Drummer induced a ground out to shortstop to start the inning. Tim Coles then hit a towering fly ball to the fence in LCF that Anthony Galindo got to but couldn’t catch. A fly ball to RCF yielded Steve Sandall’s sixth putout of the game, the second out of the inning. The top of Maroon’s lineup got to hit for a fourth time in the game, and they produced four consecutive hits (including a triple by Ken Brown) that produced three runs. Donald got the third out of the inning and the 18th in the game with a strikeout on a foul ball with two strikes. Red won their fifth game in eight tries vs Maroon by a final score of 14-9.
Final score: Red 14, Maroon 9, Red winning a home game for the first time since Session Two. Note that Maroon’s 1-2-3 hitters, Ken Brown, Tony Garcia, and Scott Wright – each reached base in all four of their plate appearances, going a combined 10 for 10 with two walks by Ken, two doubles by Tony, and a triple each by Ken and Scott. Ken and Tony each scored four times; only one other player in Maroon’s lineup, Tim Coles, scored even (only) once.
Noon, Purple (1-0) at Gray (0-0):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Purple 0 5 1 5 0 2 13 Gray 1 0 3 1 0 0 5 Pitchers: Purple – Spike Davidson; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Gray – George Brindley, Anthony Galindo, Jack McDermott*, and Don Solberg. Umpires: home – Donald Drummer; bases – Jim McAnelly. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Richard Battle (3 for 3 with a walk and two doubles) and Spike Davidson (3 for 3).
* David Brown was initially selected from the bucket, but came out for Jack McDermott in the top of the first inning, as David explains:
In case you are confused about my brief appearance in the 12:00 game: My chip was selected for the Purple vs Gray game. Jack Kelly asked me to play SS and we took the field in the top of the first. George Romo fielded a ground ball and pop-up at 3B to start the inning with two outs. After Richard Battle hit a single, Raul Deleon hit a line-drive that I caught at SS. Larry Young then motioned me to meet him at the mound. He asked if I had played the previous game. When I said yes, he said that I was playing illegally because I was on a bye and playing a second game before Jack McDermott (whose chip had also been in the bucket) had gotten to play a second game. Jack McDermott took my place in the lineup and played 3B on defense with George Romo shifting to SS.
Dave Berra’s weather report: 84 degrees, felt like 84. Humidity 41%, wind from the ENE at 5 MPH. Sunny – a New England summer day.
Purple put this one away with a pair of five-run innings, but Gray battled hard, actually outscoring Gray 4-3 in the other four innings. They won the first, as Jack Kelly returned to play and blanked Purple in a hitless top of the first, working around a two-out walk to Richard Battle; they then scored a single run in the home half, as Morgan Witthoft singled with one out and scored from first on Johnny Lee’s hit, marked in the scoresheet as a single, but I choose to believe it was a line drive that gapped the outfielders and would have been for extra bases but for the runner from home*. Here, by the way, is Morgan at the plate in the first inning:
Purple seized control in the second inning, scoring five runs on seven singles and a walk to Matt Levitt while making just one out in the top of the inning, Spike Davidson working around Jack McDermott’s two-out single and shutting out Gray in the bottom half.
Purple looked poised for another big inning in the third, as Richard Battle led off with a double and three of the next four hitters singled, Richard scoring and the bases loaded with one out. The third single was by Fritz Hensel, seen here striding to the plate:
But Jack Kelly worked out of the jam, getting Rick Jensen to line out to shortstop George Romo and Mark Hernandez to pop out, also to George.
Gray then got three runs back with a two-out rally in the home half, its one through six hitters knocking four singles before Dave Jaffe walked and one more after. They left the bases loaded, as Matt Levitt ran down Hal Darman’s fly to left-center for the third out, but cut Purple’s lead to 6-4.
But Purple scored five more in its next at bat, on six hits, the last four – three singles and Tim Coles’s double – coming after two were out.
Gray kept battling, though. Tim Coles made a terrific grab of Jack McDermott’s liner down the third-base side to start the bottom of the fourth, but the next four batters singled, one run scoring and the bases loaded for Morgan Witthoft. This time Spike Davidson got the better of the battle, as Morgan grounded into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play, Larry Fiorentino to Rick Jensen to Mark Hernandez.
Neither team scored in the fifth. Fritz Hensel, so ripped, singled and Rick Jensen walked to start the top half, but Jack Kelly retired the next three hitters. Spike Davidson worked a 1-2-3 bottom half, making a great grab of George Romo’s liner up the middle for the second out.
Purple led by six entering the buffet. Jack Kelly got Matt Levitt to fly out to Anthony Galindo in left-center to open the inning, but Larry Fiorentino singled, Richard Battle doubled (completing a 3-for-3 game), and Raul Deleon singled them both in (Raul’s fourth and fifth RBI of the game). That made it 13-5 and prompted the teams to flip-flop.
Spike Davidson got Jack Kelly to ground to shortstop Rick Jensen to start the bottom of the buffet. Hal Darman singled. Jack McDermott grounded to third baseman Tim Coles, who threw to second for the force there; thinking there were already two out, Jack didn’t run hard from home, and was easily doubled up, the 5-4-3 double play, Larry Fiorentino on the pivot, ending the game. Final score: Purple 13, Gray 5
Session 4 standings:
| Session 4 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Purple | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 24 | 13 | 11 | W4 |
| Orange | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0.5 | 16 | 12 | 4 | W1 |
| Red | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 22 | 20 | 2 | W1 |
| Blue | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 25 | 27 | -2 | W1 |
| Maroon | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 16 | 18 | -2 | L1 |
| Gray | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1.5 | 5 | 13 | -8 | L2 |
| Green | 0 | 2 | .000 | 2 | 15 | 20 | -5 | L5 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Purple | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Orange | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Red | 1-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Blue | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Maroon | 1-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Gray | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | ||
| Green | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 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 | 3 | 5 | 21.5 |
| Gray | 4 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 18 |
| Green | 3 | 4 | X | 3.5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 18.5 |
| Maroon | 3 | 4 | 5.5 | X | 4 | 4 | 3 | 23.5 |
| Orange | 4.5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | X | 3 | 4 | 21.5 |
| Purple | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | X | 6 | 22 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | X | 16 |
| TOTAL: | 19.5 | 21 | 21.5 | 17.5 | 17.5 | 18 | 26 | 141 |
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 – 5
Tim Coles – 5
Bobby Miller – 5
Ralph Villela – 5
George Brindley – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Doc Hobar – 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
Mike Malay – 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
Schedule for Thursday September 11:
10:00 a.m.: Green (0-2) at Gray (0-1), Orange umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Orange (1-0) at Purple (2-0), Green umpiring
Noon: Blue (1-1) at Maroon (1-1), Purple umpiring
Red has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Pretty straightforward: one of the winless teams will win at 10:00; one of the undefeated teams will lose at 11:00; and one of the 1-1 teams will win and move into second or perhaps a tie for first. Will I get away with bringing my laptop to Tyler Del Sesto’s wedding reception and working on Issue 50 of the Picayune when not stuffing cake in my face Friday night? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
It’s been a fun vacation week in New England so far, this past weekend-plus spent in Stowe, Vermont. Mrs. Keggy informs me that this is Shoulder Season, which means in between summer and peak foliage, after school has started, so a bit less crowded and a somewhat older set of vacationers, as can be seen wandering around the church in downtown Stowe:
My sister-in-law, Mrs. Keggy’s sister Beth, was married in this church.
Here’s a picture from this morning of Keggy Junior and Mrs. K at Peterson Brook:
We’re in Boston currently, heading to western Massachusetts Thursday for Tyler’s wedding. Probably will be late with the next edition, too.