B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 45 – August 21, 2025
Department of Corrections: I wrote that Boo Resnick flied out to Anthony Galindo in the buffet inning of Orange’s game versus Maroon on Monday, but Anthony was actually playing for Orange. It was Jack McDermott who made that catch. Also I failed to note that Larry Fiorentino’s inside-the-park home run was his third of the season. The Picayune regrets the errors.
Games of Thursday August 21:
10:00 a.m., Red (4-12) at Maroon (10.5 – 4.5):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 1 5 4 5 3 18 Maroon 5 3 3 5 1 17 Pitchers: Red – Joe Bernal; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Red – David Brown, Donnie Janac, and Ray Pilgrim; Maroon – Tim Coles, Jim Foelker, and Boo Resnick. Umpires: home – Tommy Deleon; bases – Peter Sundquist. Perfect at the plate: Red – Donald Drummer (3 for 3 with a triple), Anthony Galindo (3 for 3 with a walk and two triples), and Jack McDermott (4 for 4); Maroon – Bobby Miller (4 for 4 with two doubles) and Boo Resnick (3 for 3 with a double).
Last-place Red upset first-place Maroon in a hard-fought game dominated by the hitters. Red trailed most of the game, after scoring a single run in the top of the first, when Anthony Galindo tripled in Jack McDermott, who’d led off with a single, and then allowing Maroon five in the home half, on seven singles while making just one out.
Red won the next two innings, though, cutting Maroon’s lead to 11-10 entering the buffet. Seven consecutive one-out singles produced five runs for Red in the top of the second, and Joe Bernal held Maroon to three runs on five singles in the bottom half, getting key outs on strikeouts – Joe caught Ken Brown looking at a tough called strike three for the second out, a ball that just clipped the outside front corner of the mat, and then got Ivan Budiselic to foul off a two-strike pitch, stranding runners on the corners.
Red’s first four batters hit safely and scored in the third. Singles by Joe Bernal, Gary Coyle, and Mark Dolan loaded the bases, and Donald Drummer cleared them with a triple to left-center. Donald then scored on Donnie Janac’s sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in right-center. Five of Maroon’s seven hitters in the bottom of the third hit safely – four singles and a double by Bobby Miller – but only three scored: Jim Foelker’s sacrifice fly to Anthony Galindo in left-center brought in Jimmie Maloy; Tim Coles, who’d singled Jimmie to third and advanced on Jim’s fly, scored on Ken Brown’s force-out grounder back to the box; and Ken scored on Bobby Miller’s double. Jeff Stone followed with a single to center field, but Bobby was out at home on a terrific 8-4-2 relay, Anthony Galindo to David Brown to Donald Drummer – David and Jack Spellman had swapped positions, second and shortstop, for that inning, and David took Anthony’s relay and made a laser strike home.
Both teams scored five times in the fourth, Red on five singles and triples by Anthony Galindo, who drove in the first run and scored the second, and David Brown, who drove in the fourth and fifth runs. (David’s three-bagger probably would have been a home run if the fifth run hadn’t scored ahead of him; for the same reason I couldn’t credit George Brindley with a home run Monday, I can’t credit David with one today.) Maroon responded in kind: five runs on Don Solberg’s lead-off triple, five singles, a sacrifice fly by Tim Coles, and Boo Resnick’s double. This gave Maroon a 16-15 lead entering the buffet.
Jeff Stone made a good play to snag Donnie Janac’s liner back to the box to start the inning, but the next five Red batters reached base and two scored on four singles and a walk to Anthony Galindo, Anthony and Jack McDermott completing perfect days at the plate. Gary Coyle got a third run in with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to Don Solberg in left field.
Maroon needed two to tie and three to win entering the bottom of the inning, and looked to be in good shape when Bobby Miller led off with his second double (completing a 4-for-4 game) and scored on Jeff Stone’s single, making it a one-run game. But Joe Bernal got both Don Solberg and Tom Kelm to ground into force plays, Don 4-6 (Jack Spellman to David Brown) and Tom 5-4 (Gary Coyle to Spellman), keeping the tying run from getting past first base. Ivan Budiselic’s single sent Tom’s pinch-runner to third, but the game ended with Jimmie Malloy flying out to Anthony Galindo in left-center. Final score: Red 18, Maroon 17
11:00 a.m., Blue (5-9) at Green (5.5 – 8.5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Blue 0 2 2 0 2 0 6 Green 1 5 0 0 3 X 9 Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Green – Chunky Wright. Mercenaries: Blue – David Brown, Jack McDermott, and Jeff Stone; Green – Raul Deleon, Bobby Miller, and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Peter Sundquist; bases – Jimmie Maloy. Perfect at the plate: Blue – David Pittard (3 for 3 with a triple).
Dave Berra’s belated weather report: 92 degrees, felt like 98; humidity 46%; wind from the NNW at 6 MPH. Sunny. Partly cloudy. Nice!
In marked contrast to the day’s opener, this was a low-scoring affair. Chunky Wright faced just three batters in the top of the first: he walked Steve Sandall to start the game, but then got Jimmy Sneed to hit a hard one-hopper for a 5-4-3 double play, Johnny Wimpy making an excellent pivot on the play, and retired George Brindley on a fly to Bobby Miller in left-center. Green got a single run in the bottom of the frame: Ralph Villela likewise walked leading off, took second on Mike Garrison’s fly to Jack McDermott in left field, and scored on Doc Hobar’s two-out single.
Blue briefly grabbed the lead with two runs in the top of the second. David Pittard singled leading off, then was forced out at second on Jim Foelker’s grounder to shortstop Ralph Villela. Daniel Baladez came up and absolutely crushed a ball high and deep to left field, over Mike Garrison’s head, for a double, Jim stopping at third. Tommy Deleon singled to drive in Jim with the tying run, and David Brown followed with a base hit to right field that delivered Daniel; David tried for a double on the hit, but was thrown out 10-4-6, Raul Deleon to Johnny Wimpy to Ralph Villela.
Green went back ahead with five runs in the bottom of the inning, all the runs scoring after two were out, on six hits, including three consecutive run-scoring doubles, by Raul Deleon (two RBI) and Ralph Villela and Mike Garrison (one each, Mike then scoring the fifth run on Donnie Janac’s hit). Billy Hill started the rally with a line single to left field, the first of three good swings he put on the ball in the game.
Chunky Wright retired the first two batters in the top of the third, Jeff Stone on a pop to first baseman Doc Hobar and Steve Sandall on a grounder to shortstop Ralph Villela, Doc making a terrific short-hop catch of Ralph’s necessarily hurried throw. The next three batters hit the ball hard, two runs resulting: Jimmy Sneed tripled; George Brindley’s line single drove Jimmy in; and David Pittard’s triple scored George. Jim Foelker squared up a pitch, but lined it right to Ralph at shortstop.
That cut Green’s lead to 6-4, and that’s where it stayed as Tommy Deleon worked a scoreless bottom half of the third, working around Chunky Wright’s two-out single, and neither team scored in the fourth. Chunky Wright threw a three-pitch top half (grounder to Ralph Villela at shortstop, fly to Bobby Miller in left-center, and another pop to first baseman Doc Hobar), and Tommy retired three in a row after giving up a lead-off single to Jack Spellman in the home half.
Blue tied the game with a pair of two-out RBI singles in the top of the fifth, by George Brindley and David Pittard, David completing a 3-for-3 game. Green immediately untied it, scoring three runs on five singles and Johnny Wimpy’s sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in right field.
That left Blue trailing 9-6 entering the buffet. Chunky Wright made short work of the bottom of the buffet, getting Daniel Baladez to pop out to Ralph Villela at shortstop, Tommy Deleon to ground out to Johnny Wimpy at second, and David Brown to fly out to Bobby Miller in left-center. Final score: Green 9, Blue 6
Noon, Gray (8-6) at Purple (8-6):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 0 0 3 0 5 0 8 Purple 0 0 3 0 2 0 5 Pitchers: Gray – David Pittard; Purple – Raul Deleon. Mercenaries: Gray – Daniel Baladez, George Brindley, David Brown, and David Pittard; Purple – Anthony Galindo, Ralph Villela, and Johnny Wimpy. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Jack Spellman. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Jack Crosley (3 for 3 with a double); Purple – Anthony Galindo (2 for 2 with a double), Fritz Hensel (2 for 2 with a walk), and Johnny Wimpy (2 for 2). Weather update: Hotter. The humidity wasn't terrible, but there was hardly any air movement, which made it a bit of a swelter. Another low-scoring game, scoreless through two, both teams shut out in three of the first four innings. Raul Deleon retired the first three batters of the game in order in the top of the first; David Pittard gave up two singles in the bottom of the frame, but David Brown turned a nice 6u., 6-3 double play on Larry Fiorentino's grounder to David's left, just his side of second base. Here's Johnny Lee making the catch at first base:(They say the camera adds 20 pounds to the mitt.) Gray loaded the bases in the top of the second on three singles, the first two by Jack Crosley and Johnny Lee to open the inning, and then a hit up the middle by Hal Darman with one out. But Raul Deleon got out of the jam thanks to a terrific play by first baseman Larry Young, who smoothly fielded David Brown's hard grounder, stepped on the bag to retire David, then threw to Ralph Villela for the force on Hal at second for the 3u., 3-6 double play. David got quick revenge in the bottom of the inning: after Rick Jensen and Fritz Hensel singled with one out, Larry Young grounded a ball to David, again moving to his left and again making a 6u., 6-3 double play. Quote of the Day: David Brown to Larry Young after completing the double play: “Payback, you S.O.B.!” Also, here's a picture of Johnny Lee making the catch at first, after having changed into his Austin Sealor Softball jersey:
Both teams broke through in the third inning, scoring three runs on four hits and a walk. Gray scored their three after two were out, on singles by Paul Rubin (a nubber in front of home plate), George Romo (RBI liner past third base), and Jack Crosley (two-run single to right field – I heard Rick Jensen say, “Everyone knows he's going to hit it there, but there's nothing you can do to stop him.”). Purple got their three on lead-off back-to-back doubles by Ralph Villela and Anthony Galindo, Johnny Wimpy's RBI single, and, after Larry Fiorentino walked to load the bases, Raul Deleon's sacrifice fly to Paul Rubin in left-center. Back to scorelessness in the fourth, however. Morgan Witthoft led off the top half with a single and advanced to third on George Brindley's two-out double, but Raul Deleon got David Pittard to fly out to Larry Fiorentino in right-center to strand them. In the home half Morgan made a snowcone catch coming in on Rick Jensen's fly to right field to start the inning. Fritz Hensel walked, but David Pittard got Larry Young to ground into a 6-4 force to shortstop David Brown, then caught Ralph Villela's pop-up in front of the mound. Gray took the lead in the fifth, maxing out in the final five-run inning. One-out singles by the 1-3 hitters, Tommy Gillis, Paul Rubin, and George Romo, loaded the bases. Jack Crosley hit a sinking liner to right-center; Larry Fiorentino charged in and tried to make a shoestring catch, but he couldn't get to the ball in time, and it skipped past him, all three runners scoring and Jack winding up at second with a double, his third hit in three at bats, with which he drove in five runs – pretty good day's work by our former president, seen here batting in the fifth:
(Jack's looking good in his Austin Senior Sortball jersey.)
Morgan Witthoft's single to center scored Jack, and Morgan came around with the fifth run on base hits by Hal Darman, through the 5-6 hole, and David Brown, a line single to right. Anthony Galindo doubled and Johnny Wimpy singled to start the home half, Anthony scoring on Johnny's hit past third base and into left field. Johnny tagged up and took second on Larry Fiorentino's fly to Morgan Witthoft in right field, then scored on Tommy Deleon's single up the middle, but that was it for Purple in the fifth, and they entered the buffet trailing by three. Raul Deleon kept Gray from scoring in the top of the buffet. Second baseman Rick Jensen made a terrific play to his backhand to field David Pittard's hard grounder, throwing to first for the second out. But David Pittard kept Purple from getting a rally started in the bottom half by getting two quick outs, retiring Henry Flores on a fly to Tommy Gillis in left field (said Johnny Lee: “It's Charmin – squeeze it!”), and getting Rick Jensen to ground out to shortstop David Brown. Fritz Hensel singled, completing a perfect day at the plate, and Larry Young extended the inning by drawing a walk, but George Romo made a very good play on Ralph Villela's hard grounder to third base, fielding the ball cleanly and beating Fritz's pinch-runner, Matt Levitt, to the bag for the final out. Final score: Gray 8, Purple 5
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 10 | 5 | .667 | 0 | 163 | 141 | 22 | L2 |
| Maroon | 10.5 | 5.5 | .656 | 0 | 186 | 168 | 18 | L1 |
| Gray | 9 | 6 | .600 | 1 | 177 | 140 | 37 | W2 |
| Purple | 8 | 7 | .533 | 2 | 163 | 163 | 0 | L1 |
| Green | 6.5 | 8.5 | .433 | 3.5 | 136 | 157 | -21 | W1 |
| Blue | 5 | 10 | .333 | 5 | 144 | 144 | 0 | L1 |
| Red | 5 | 12 | .294 | 6 | 180 | 236 | -56 | W1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 5-2 | 5-3 | 1 | 2-0 | 2-1 | 2-2 | ||
| Maroon | 5.5-3.5 | 5-2 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 4-1 | 2-1 | ||
| Gray | 3-3 | 6-3 | 0 | 0-1 | 4-1 | 1-3 | ||
| Purple | 6-3 | 2-4 | 3 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 3-0 | ||
| Green | 3-6 | 3.5-2.5 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-4 | 1-1 | ||
| Blue | 3-3 | 2-7 | 1 | 0-1 | 3-1 | 2-4 | ||
| Red | 0-8 | 5-4 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-7 | 2-2 |
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 | 5 | 20 |
| Gray | 4 | X | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 18 |
| Green | 3 | 3 | X | 4.5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 18.5 |
| Maroon | 3 | 4 | 4.5 | X | 4 | 4 | 3 | 22.5 |
| Orange | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | X | 3 | 4 | 19 |
| Purple | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | X | 4 | 19 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | X | 15 |
| TOTAL: | 18 | 19 | 18.5 | 17.5 | 17 | 18 | 24 | 132 |
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 5
Tim Coles – 5
George Brindley – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Bobby Miller – 4
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Ralph Villela – 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 Monday August 25:
10:00 a.m.: Green (6.5 – 8.5) at Orange (10-5), Maroon umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Maroon (10.5 – 5.5) at Gray (9-6), Orange umpiring
Noon: Purple (8-6) at Blue (5-10), Gray umpiring
Red has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: One week left in Session 3, and there’s a three-way dogfight for first place. Two big games on Monday. Orange, which has lost its last two games, returns to action at 10:00 against Green, which has been playing well of late and won today. Then at 11:00 Maroon, which is technically in second place, percentage points behind Orange, but zero games behind, takes on Gray, riding the league’s longest active winning streak (two games, but still) and just one game back. Purple and Blue, with very different records – Purple is 8-7, Blue is 5-10 – both have run differentials of exactly 0 for the session. One of them will be at least +1 after their game at noon. Will the day conclude with a three-way tie for first? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Penultimate reminder:
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.