B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 43 – August 14, 2025
Department of Corrections: I failed to note that Spike Davidson was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate in Purple’s game versus Maroon on Monday. The Picayune regrets the error.
Games of Thursday August 14:
10:00 a.m., Gray (7-6) at Red (4-10):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 5 0 0 5 4 14 Red 3 2 0 0 3 8 Pitchers: Gray – Jeff Stone; Red – Gil Delossantos. Mercenaries: Gray – Jeff Stone; Red – George Brindley, Donnie Janac, and Chris Waddell. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Peter Sundquist. Perfect at the plate: Gray – George Romo (3 for 3 with two doubles), Paul Rubin (3 for 3 with a walk and a double), and Morgan Witthoft (2 for 2 with a walk); Red – Donald Drummer and Chris Waddell (both 3 for 3).
Dave Berra's weather report: 88 degrees, felt like 97; humidity 63%; wind from the South at 8 MPH. Sunny! Beautiful! Gray scored five times in the top of the first on Tommy Gillis's double, Jack Crosley's walk, Adam Reddell's sacrifice fly, and five singles, the last of these a liner by Hal Darman to left-center that drove in the fifth run, concluding a rally to which almost the entire lineup contributed – only the mercenary, pitcher Jeff Stone, did not bat, and Jeff proceeded to win the inning by holding Red to three runs, driven in by Anthony Galindo (the first two) and Gil Delossantos (the third) with doubles after Jack McDermott and Jack Spellman led off the bottom half with singles. Mark Dolan made a bid for extra bases with a line drive to left field, but Tommy Gillis made the outstanding defensive play of the day, moving to his right to make a backhanded catch – if that ball gets past him, Mark likely would have circled the bases. Gil Delossantos then held Gray scoreless over the second and third, working around Paul Rubin's one-out single in the second inning and stranding George Romo at second after he led off the third with a double. Gil then retired Jack Crosley on a fly ball to George Brindley in right-center, walked Morgan Witthoft, and got Mike Malay to hit a ball off the end of the bat for an inning-ending 6u., 6-3 double play. Red had tied the score with two runs in the bottom of the second on singles by the first four batters – mercenaries Chris Waddell and Donnie Janac, and 1-2 hitters Jack McDermott and Jack Spellman. Donald Drummer led off the bottom of the third with a single and took third on Chris Waddell's base hit, but Jeff Stone worked out of the jam, making a good play to snag Donnie Janac's liner up the middle, then retiring Jack McDermott on a fly to Paul Rubin in left-center. Somehow there were only about seven minutes left on the clock at the end of the third inning, so the teams entered the fifth knowing it was the last five-run inning. Gray made the most of it, reclaiming the lead by scoring five times on four singles and two-base hits by Paul Rubin (one RBI) and George Romo (two RBI). Red might have escaped with only two runs allowed: Adam Reddell, with one out (good catch by Chris Waddell of Hal Darman's liner to third base) and runners on the corners, grounded back to pitcher Gil Delossantos; I think we had a 50-50 chance at a 1-6-3 double play, but Gil saw Paul Rubin break from third base and elected to throw home to catcher Donald Drummer for the out there. George followed with his two-run double and scored the fifth run of the inning on Jack Crosley's line single to center. Jeff Stone then blanked Red in the home half. Johnny Lee made an excellent play to his backhand of Jack Spellman's one-hop smash down the first-base side for the first out. Anthony Galindo and Dale Fugate singled, putting runners on the corners, but Jeff got Gil Delossantos to ground back to the box for a 1-6-3 double play, George Romo on the pivot, as seen here:(George was saying I never run any pictures of him. Thanks, ChatGPT-5!) On to the buffet. Morgan Witthoft and Mike Malay led off the top half with singles. Johnny Lee hit a two-hopper back to the box and Gil threw to second for the force, but I didn't have a play at either first or third. That hurt. Hal Darman lined out to shortstop for the second out, but Jeff Stone singled in Morgan, and back-to-back walks to Paul Rubin and Tommy Gillis loaded the bases and drove home Johnny Lee's runner. Adam Reddell then came up and ripped a two-run single that put Gray ahead 14-5 and prompted the teams to flip-flop. Red's first four batters singled in the bottom half of the buffet, Donald Drummer and Chris Waddell completing 3-for-3 games at the plate, Mark Dolan and Donald scoring. Jeff Stone retired Donnie Janac and Jack McDermott on balls in the air – a pop to second baseman Mike Malay by Donnie, a fly to Paul Rubin in left-center by Jack – and Red was down to its last out. Jack Spellman's single brought in George Brindley, and Anthony Galindo drew a walk to load the bases, but the game ended on Dale Fugate's fly to Paul in left-center. Final score: Gray 14, Red 8, Red's home record for the session falling to 0-8 11:00 a.m., Orange (10-3) at Purple (6-6): 1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Orange 1 5 1 3 0 10 Purple 5 5 1 3 X 14 Pitchers: Orange – Terry Thompson; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Orange – Jack McDermott and Adam Reddell; Purple – Tom Brownfield, David Pittard, George Romo, Jack Spellman, and Morgan Witthoft. Umpires: home – Gil Delossantos; bases – Peter Sundquist. Perfect at the plate: Orange - Clint Fletcher (3 for 3 with a double); Purple – Spike Davidson (3 for 3), Fritz Hensel and Larry Young (both 2 for 2 with a walk), and George Romo (3 for 3 with a double). Dave Berra's weather update: 90 degrees, felt like 99. Humidity 55%. Wind from the South at 7 MPH. Sunny – great!
Clint Fletcher led off this game with a pop-fly single to left field that your correspondent, playing that position, got a late jump on and failed to catch; but Clint, reasonably, thought he could stretch the hit into a double and took off for second. I made a quick and accurate (if not especially strong) throw in to Tom Brownfield covering the bag, and, after umpires Gil Delossantos and Peter Sundquist conferenced, Clint was called out. Hal Darman disagrees, but I think the moral of the story is, Agent 99 loves Maxwell Smart even though he’s a doofus. No, sorry, that’s the moral of Get Smart! The moral in this case is, don’t run on Spellman’s mighty gun.
Orange still managed to score a run in the inning, as Terry O’Brien and Daniel Carvajal followed with singles, Terry taking third on Daniel’s hit and then scoring on David Brown’s 5-4 ground out. But Purple won the inning, scoring five runs on six singles and Larry Fiorentino’s double in the bottom half.
Both teams scored five runs while making just one out in the second. Orange’s rally was methodical: Marvin Krabbenhoft drew a lead-off walk, the next three batters singled, Adam Reddell hit a sacrifice fly, Clint Fletcher doubled, and Terry O’Brien hammered a drive down the left-field side that might well have been a home run but for Clint scoring the fifth run ahead of him. (Terry dead-pulling the ball with authority is dismaying for those of us who had pegged him as an opposite-field hitter.)
Looking at the scoresheet, I see that Purple’s rally was also methodical: Morgan Witthoft singled leading off, and, after Tom Brownfield flied out to Boo Resnick in left field, Purple’s next sit hitters all reached base: Matt Levitt singled, and both he and Morgan scored on Larry Fiorentino’s triple to the fence in left-center. Spike Davidson was next, as Rick Jensen had wisely and preemptively removed himself from the game after batting in the first inning – Rick explained that he gave blood yesterday, and that plus the day’s heat and humidity left him feeling not wholly himself. It was a smart move to not push too hard in the August Austin heat.
As Shakespeare noted, discretion is the better part of valor.
Anyway, Spike singled in Larry. Fritz Hensel and Larry Young both drew walks, loading the bases. Jack Spellman poked a single to right field to drive in Spike’s and Fritz’s pinch-runners with the fourth and fifth runs – Larry Shupe was playing me crazy deep in right, he had no chance of getting to the dinky hit 30 or so yards in front of him before the runners scored.
Each team scored one run in the third inning. Daniel Carvajal doubled leading off for Orange and scored on David Brown’s single, but Spike Davidson retired the next three batters. Purple got that back with three consecutive one-out singles by mercenaries George Romo, Morgan Witthoft, and Tom Brownfield.
And then each team scored three times in the fourth inning. Orange got four hits in a row to start the inning: singles by Larry Shupe and Jack McDermott, a double by Adam Reddell that drove in Larry, and a single by Clint Fletcher that drove in Jack. Terry O’Brien’s sacrifice fly to Larry Fiorentino in right-center – that’s more like the scouting report, Terry, thanks! – brought in Adam. Spike Davidson then got Daniel Carvajal to ground into a 5-4 force, good play by third baseman David Pittard. David Brown came up and lined a ball to right field, but Morgan Witthoft made a quick first step to his left and executed a fine running catch of the drive for the third out.
Similarly, Purple got hits and runs scored by the first three batters in the home half, Spike Davidson, Fritz Hensel, and Larry Young all completing perfect days at the plate and loading the bases. Jack Spellman fouled off a tough two-strike foul after taking a very hittable 3-1 pitch for a strike (dumb!) for the first out. David Pittard’s fly to Jack McDermott in left-center was deep enough to score Spike’s pinch-runner. George Romo then completed a 3-for-3 game with a two-run double.
Purple led by four entering the buffet. Terry Thompson opened the inning with a single. Marvin Krabbenhoft flied out to left field, Jack Spellman making a bit of a snowcone catch. (Bad fundamentals.) Boo Resnick singled. Larry Shupe grounded a ball down the third-base side; David Pittard made the play and stepped on third for the second out. Jack McDermott came up and worked the count to 3-2. Spike Davidson then delivered an unhittable pitch that curved back and just clipped the front-outside corner of the mat for a called strike three to end the game. Final score: Purple 14, Orange 10, Purple ending Orange’s four-game winning streak.
Noon, Blue (3-9) at Maroon (9.5 – 3.5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Blue 5 0 5 2 3 X 15 Maroon 1 0 1 0 2 0 4 Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Maroon – Tom Kelm. Mercenaries: Blue – David Brown, Clint Fletcher, and Mike Malay; Maroon – Anthony Galindo and Matt Levitt. Umpires: home – Spike Davidson; bases – Larry Young and Larry Fiorentino. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Daniel Baladez and Tom Brownfield (both 3 for 3 with a double); Maroon – Matt Levitt (2 for 2). Weather update: 95 degrees, felt like 103 (ouch). Humidity 42% (which, not certain I believe that). Wind from the South at 7 MPH. Sunny. I was glad not to be playing a third game. The one-sentence summary of this game is: Tommy Deleon shut Maroon down, holding a team that had the second-highest runs-per-game average for the session coming in (11.5, a tick behind Gray's 11.9) to just four runs on 11 hits over six innings. Blue led pillar to post, scoring five times on seven singles in the top of the first and never looking back. Maroon managed just a single run in the home half, Jeff Stone scoring from first on Don Solberg's two-out pop-fly hit to right field. Neither team scored in the second inning, both halves ending with good defensive plays. Tom Kelm retired Blue in order in the top half, with second baseman Scott Wright making an outstanding play on Steve Sandall's grounder to the 3-4 hole for the third out: Scott ranged to his left to field the ball, then made a quick backhanded flip to first baseman Ivan Budiselic, beating Steve by a step. In the bottom half, Jimmie Maloy singled with one out and, after David Corsi lined out to Steve Sandall in left-center, tried for third on Anthony Galindo's single to left-center, only to be gunned down on an 8-6-5 relay, Steve Sandall to David Brown to David Pittard. Blue increased its lead to 10-1 with five runs in the top of the third, a couple of extra-base hits making the rally. David Pittard tripled in the first two runs with a Spellman-esque pop-fly triple to right field with one out. After Tommy Deleon followed with a walk, Daniel Baladez hammered a drive over the head of left fielder Don Solberg and to the fence, scoring David and Tommy's runner and winding up at second. Daniel took a runner, who scored the fifth run on Clint Fletcher's two-out single up the middle. Maroon loaded the bases with none out in the bottom of the third, singles by Matt Levitt and Scott Wright sandwiching Ken Brown's walk, but came away with just one run, Matt scoring on Jeff Stone's grounder to the 5-6 hole, fielded by David Brown, who threw to David Pittard for the force at third. Scott tagged and took third on Don Solberg's fly to right fielder Jim Foelker, but he and Jeff were stranded when Tommy Deleon got Tom Kelm to foul off a two-strike pitch. Blue added two runs in the top of the fourth on Tom Brownfield's double to deep center field, Steve Sandall and George Brindley scoring after they'd knocked back-to-back one-out singles. Tommy Deleon then retired the side in order in the bottom of the frame, making a good play on Jim Maloy's hard grounder back to the box, knocking it down, recovering it, and throwing to first for the second out. Blue's first four batters singled and three scored in the top of the fifth, the third run coming across on a 1-4-3 double play, Tom Kelm to Scott Wright to Ivan Budiselic, off the bat of Mike Malay. That put Blue ahead 15-2 entering the bottom of the final five-run inning, and ensuring the game would flip-flop even if Maroon scored five times. Which they didn't – the got three across on five singles, the last three with two out, but left the bases loaded.I did take this good picture of Don Solberg, on second base, and David Brown, playing shortstop for Blue, in the top of the fifth, after Tom Kelm's single loaded the bases. Following the flip-flop, Tommy Deleon completed his outstanding pitching performance by retiring Maroon in order. He got Jim Maloy to pop out to David Brown, as seen here –
– Steve Sandall in left-center and second baseman Mike Malay looking on – then got David Corsi to swing through a two-strike offering, and ended the game by getting Anthony Galindo to fly out to Steve Sandall in left-center field.
Final score: Blue 15, Maroon 4, Blue snapping its three-game losing streak and moving out of last place for the session, ahead of Red.
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 10 | 4 | .714 | 0 | 156 | 125 | 31 | L1 |
| Maroon | 9.5 | 4.5 | .679 | 0.5 | 153 | 143 | 10 | L1 |
| Gray | 8 | 6 | .571 | 2 | 169 | 135 | 34 | W1 |
| Purple | 7 | 6 | .538 | 2.5 | 143 | 148 | -5 | W1 |
| Green | 5.5 | 7.5 | .423 | 4 | 120 | 136 | -16 | L1 |
| Blue | 4 | 9 | .308 | 5.5 | 128 | 134 | -6 | W1 |
| Red | 4 | 11 | .267 | 6.5 | 161 | 209 | -48 | L1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 5-1 | 5-3 | 1 | 2-0 | 2-0 | 2-2 | ||
| Maroon | 5.5-2.5 | 4-2 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 3-1 | 2-0 | ||
| Gray | 3-3 | 5-3 | 0 | 0-1 | 4-1 | 1-3 | ||
| Purple | 6-2 | 1-4 | 3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 3-0 | ||
| Green | 2-5 | 3.5-2.5 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-3 | 1-1 | ||
| Red | 0-8 | 4-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-6 | 1-2 | ||
| Blue | 2-3 | 2-6 | 1 | 0-1 | 2-1 | 2-4 |
Green and Maroon tied their game of August 7; it is counted as half a win and half a loss for each team.
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 19 |
| Gray | 4 | X | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 17 |
| Green | 2 | 3 | X | 4.5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 17.5 |
| Maroon | 3 | 4 | 4.5 | X | 3 | 4 | 3 | 21.5 |
| Orange | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | X | 3 | 4 | 19 |
| Purple | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | X | 4 | 18 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 14 |
| TOTAL: | 17 | 19 | 17.5 | 16.5 | 16 | 17 | 23 | 126 |
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 5
Tim Coles – 5
George Brindley – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Bobby Miller – 4
Anthony Galindo – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Ralph Villela – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 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 Monday August 18:
10:00 a.m.: Purple (7-6) at Green (5.5 – 7.5), Red umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Red (4-11) at Blue (4-9), Green umpiring
Noon: Maroon (9.5 – 3.5) at Orange (10-4), Blue umpiring
Gray has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Big game’s at noon, Maroon and Orange battling in the Texas heat for first place after both lost today. That contest is preceded by Red and Blue at 11:00, Red looking to escape last place, albeit by percentage points, with a victory, Blue somehow five games under .500 for the session despite a decent -6 run differential. Purple and Green play in the opener, Purple with a chance to tie idle Gray for third place with a victory, Green looking to finish the session at or over .500. Will residual exhaustion from this Saturday’s Krieg tourney affect the quality of play Monday? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
I missed seeing Jerry “Top Gun” Callen when he was in Austin on Monday, in the process belatedly receiving the coveted Horse’s Ass trophy for having finished last in the 2024 Twin Peakers fantasy football league. Thanks to Tommy Deleon for forwarding this photo.
Follow up to Encyclopedia Keggy Junior and the Case of the Missing Kayak Paddles: Air Canada located the paddles, which had been sent to Miami instead of Austin because… no explanation was forthcoming. Nor did they indicate why Junior’s kayak was delivered through the regular-size baggage chute at Austin Bergstrom. They did say they were sorry, so there’s that.
It’s not too early to make plans for Labor Day weekend:
Johnny Lee and the Arctic Blues Band will be at Bar Louie at the Embassy Suites, 270 Bass Pro Drive, in Round Rock, Friday August 29 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
And Boo Resnick and Hotcakes will be at Donn’s Depot, 1600 West Fifth Street in Austin, Saturday August 30 from 9:00-ish p.m. to 1:00-ish a.m.