B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 2 – March 5, 2026
Games of Thursday March 5:
10:30 a.m.: Green (0-1) at Orange (0-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 0 0 5 0 0 5 Orange 2 3 1 0 X 6 Pitchers: Green – Chunky Wright; Orange – Tommy Deleon. Mercenary: Green – Phil Stanch. Umpires: home – Rip Wright; bases – Marvin Krabbenhoft. Perfect at the plate: Green – Phil Stanch (2 for 2); Orange – Jack Crosley (2 for 2).
Weather report: 74 degrees with 80% humidity at game time, wind from the SSE at 11 MPH, mostly cloudy. I never checked again, but it got warmer and sunnier as the day went on – a really pleasant, spring-like day.
A defensive battle, this one, Tommy Deleon shutting Green out in four of their five at bats by getting them to pound the ball into the ground, Chunky Wright allowing Orange zero, one, two, and three runs in its at bats. Each team had only two extra-base hits, doubles, among Green’s 14 hits and Orange’s 12.
Tommy got six ground ball outs in the first two innings, working around singles by Steve Sandall (grounded past shortstop) and Tom Brownfield (grounded up the middle; Peter Atkins made a terrific stop and tried to flip the ball over his back for a force, to no avail) in the first, and allowing only a one-out ground single up the middle to Jimmie Maloy in the second.
Orange had a bit more success early on, scoring twice in the first and three times in the second. Matt Levitt led off the bottom of the first with a walk, and Peter Atkins followed with a double. Matt scored on Adam Reddell’s sacrifice fly to left-center, Steve Sandall making a good catch moving to his left, and Don Solberg drove in Peter with a Texas League single to center.
Pat Scott led off the second with a line double to left-center, and the next three batters – Jack Crosley, Tommy Langa, and Hal Darman knocked singles – Tommy’s drove in Pat, Hal’s delivered Jack. Chunky Wright caught Matt Levitt looking at a called strike three. Peter Atkins lined a single to left field to score Tommy from second. Steve Sandall made a good play coming in on Adam Reddell’s fly to left-center, knocked down by the wind, and had a chance to double Hall off second, but Doc Hobar couldn’t find the bag with his foot after catching Steve’s peg in, and Hal got back. Didn’t matter, as Chunky got Don Solberg to pull a two-strike foul to the right side for the third out.
Green erased Red’s 5-0 lead with a five-run outburst in the top of the third, amassing seven hits, all well struck – five singles and back-to-back doubles by Steve Sandall (driving in the first run) and Mike Garrison (driving in the second and third). Even Orange’s one out in the inning was hit hard, Terry O’Brien lining out to second baseman Tommy Langa. Ivan Budeslic and Jimmie Maloy followed with singles to complete the rally.
Red reclaimed the lead with a run in the home half. Singles by Mark Hernandez, Tommy Deleon, and (after Pat Scott popped out to second baseman Doc Hobar) Jack Crosley loaded the bases. Terry O’Brien fielded Tommy Langa’s grounder to his right and threw to third for the 6-5 force, Mark’s pinch-runner scoring. Hal Darman squared up on a pitch, but his liner was hit directly at Steve Sandall for the third out.
Green loaded the bases but did not score in the top of the fourth. Chunky Wright led off with a line drive to right-center that Pat Scott made a good catch on, battling the wind (a problem all day for the outfielders). Boo Resnick grounded a ball to third and was safe when Adam Reddell airmailed his throw well to Mark Hernandez’s left. Line singles to right field by Phil Stanch and Doc Hobar loaded the bases. Steve Sandall grounded back to the box – Tommy Deleon fielded the ball cleanly and threw to catcher Hal Darman for the force at home. Mike Garrison skied a ball to left field, but Don Solberg was perfectly positioned and made the catch.
Orange did not score in the bottom of the inning. Matt Levitt lined out to third baseman Ivan Budiselic to start the frame, and Peter Atkins grounded out to shortstop Terry O’Brien, first baseman Tom Brownfield making a nice clean scoop of a throw in the dirt. Adam Reddell singled to right field and Don Solberg, batting right-handed, knocked a hit through the 5-6 hole, but Chunky Wright got Mark Hernandez to fly out to Mike Garrison in left field.
Entering the buffet, Green needed a run to tie. Tom Brownfield led off with a fly to right field; coming in and to his left, Jack Crosley made a fine running catch for the first out. Terry O’Brien grounded a ball up the first-base side; Mark Hernandez fielded it cleanly, but couldn’t beat Terry to the bag, Terry legging out an infield single. Tommy Deleon got Ivan Budiselic to hit a two-strike foul tip for the second out. Jim Maloy came up and hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Peter Atkins, who made a good play on the ball and flipped to Tommy Langa covering second for the final out.
Final score: Orange 6, Green 5
11:30 a.m.: Red (1-0) at Purple (0-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 1 5 5 1 5 17 Purple 3 4 2 5 4 18 Pitchers: Red – Trent Peacock; Purple – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Red – George Brindley and David Brown; Purple – Scott Wright (entered for Billy Hill in the third inning). Umpires: home – Rex Horvath; bases – Jimmie Maloy. Perfect at the plate: Red – David Brown (3 for 3 with a double), Mark Dolan (3 for 3 with a walk and a double), and Anthony Galindo (4 for 4 with three doubles); Purple – Rick Kahn (4 for 4 with a double and a triple) and Scott Wright (2 for 2).
This was one hell of a game. I’m pretty certain I’m not going to be able to do it justice, but here goes.
Red scored a single run in the top of the first, as Mark Dolan led off the game with a walk and scored from first on Anthony Galindo’s line-drive double to the gap in left-center. Anthony tagged up and took third on Tim Coles’s fly to right-center, a good catch by Rick Kahn, but was stranded when Ray Pilgrim caught Trent Peacock looking at a called strike three and got Marvin Krabbenhoft to ground back to the box.
Trent then took the mound and retired Peter Sundquist (two-strike foul liner down the third-base side) and Jimmy Sneed (fly to George Brindley, I think it was, in right-center), but the net four Purple batters hit safely: Mike Malay singled to right field and took second on a sloppy throw back to the infield; Rick Kahn tripled to right field, driving in Mike; Joe Roche doubled to left field, his drive glancing off Donald Drummer’s glove, Rick scoring; and Ray Pilgrim lined a single up the middle, Joe scoring. Larry Shupe drove a pitch to left field, but Donald Drummer was well positioned and made the catch to end the inning.
Red found its range in the second inning, scoring five times on four singles and doubles by David Brown and Anthony Galindo, the last three hits coming after two were out, after Ray Pilgrim caught George Brindley looking at a pitch that just clipped the front right corner of the mat. Purple scored four times in the home half, staying ahead 7-6, all the runs scored after two were out, on hits by the first four batters in the lineup in their second time through: singles by Peter Sundquist and Jimmy Sneed and doubles by Mike Malay (line drive over Anthony Galindo’s head in left-center) and Rick Kahn (off the glove of right fielder Rip Wright).
Red put up another five in the top of the third, but this inning was absolutely gonzo. Trent Peacock led off with a single, and Marvin Krabbenhoft walked. Johnny Lee grounded into a 5-4 force, Marvin’s runner out at second, Trent advancing to third. Donald Drummer hit a two-strike foul, a pop down the third-base side, for the second out. Rip Wright singled through the 5-6 hole, Trent scoring and Johnny Lee’s runner, Anthony Galindo, advancing to second.
[Beginning of crazy.]
David Brown singled to right field. Rip advanced to second and turned toward third, but stopped after a couple steps. David, thinking Rip was going to third, started for second base and got over halfway there before realizing Rip had NOT gone for third.
David Brown: I rounded 1B and went partway to 2B in case the throw from RF went to 3B. Jimmy [Sneed] cut the throw at 2B and ran me back toward 1B. He threw to Joe [Roche] at 1B so I turned and saw that 2B was unguarded.
When Jimmy threw to Joe, Rip took off for third. David raced to second base
David Brown: Rick ran from his position at 3B as I ran to 2B. I then looked to 3B and discovered that it was completely empty so I rounded 2B and headed to third. Then things got really crazy. As I ran toward 3B, I discovered that Rip had not run home when I was in the brief rundown between 1B and 2B but had instead run through the base and was watching me running around like an idiot along with other Red team players outside the dugout. When Rip ran over to 3B, I realized my mistake, stopped, and began to retreat toward 2B. The ball was thrown to Rick [Jensen], who was returning to guard 3B and potentially get me in another rundown.
Rick Jensen: I don’t remember any of this before I got the ball in hand. I got it (from whom I don’t know) between 2nd and 3rd with both Brown and Rip in front of me towards 3rd. Brown hadn’t quite arrived and Rip had already run through 3rd. Brown couldn’t return to 2nd because I was blocking him with the ball. Rip knew he had to return to touch 3rd before he went any farther. I just knew I did not want Brown heading back to 2nd to cause more confusion so I moved towards him with the ball. Rip finally touched 3rd and broke for home.
David Brown: In the midst of the crazy, Rip noticed that Larry Shupe had abandoned home plate to help cover 3B. Rip, Rick, and Larry all ran toward the plate. Rip won the drag race down the 3B line and I ran to 3B.
Rick Jensen: I wanted Rip to cross the commit line before I threw it home, or risk another chaotic rundown. He did, and when I looked to throw home, Catcher Larry Shupe was neither on the plate or looking at me, so I thought my only option was to beat Rip to the plate, which I thought I could and thought I did, but umpire Rex thought otherwise.
Rick Kahn: If you take Quaaludes and listen to Stairway To Heaven backwards on your turntable, the entire play will appear. Except the runners all appear as Screaming Meanies from Yellow Submarine and Umpa Lumpas.
It more or less looked like this: 5 March 2026: Red versus Purple, top of the third
And here’s a wide-angle view of the action:
[End of crazy.]
George Brindley then singled to center field to drive in David. Mark Dolan grounded a single past shortstop, George stopping at second. Anthony Galindo doubled to left center, driving in George with the fifth run of the inning. The game was half over, Red now leading 11-7. Purple got two runs back in the bottom of the third, on four singles.
Tim Coles led off the fourth with a single, but was erased on a 4-6-3 double play, Mike Malay to Jimmy Sneed to Joe Roche, on Trent Peacock’s hard-hit two-hop grounder to second. Red got one across on consecutive singles by Marvin Krabbenhoft, Johnny Lee, and Donald Drummer, increasing its lead to 12-9.
Purple came roaring back in the bottom of the fourth with five runs, on Mike Malay’s lead-off double, six singles, and Larry Shupe’s sacrifice fly to right-center.
On to the buffet, Purple leading 14-12. Red’s first six batters hit safely in the top half, five runs out across: David Brown and George Brindley singled; Mark Dolan doubled down the left-field line, driving in David and completing a perfect day at the plate. Anthony Galindo singled up the middle, driving in George and Mark’s pinch-runner, Mark having taken himself off the bases as he felt a little light-headed. (Anthony’s hit also completed a 4-for-4 game, his first three hits doubles.) Tim Coles doubled to left field, Anthony taking third. Trent Peacock singled up the middle, both Anthony and Tim scoring.
At this point Red held the lead, 17-14, with none out. But the inning went south. Marvin Krabbenhoft came up, and requested a runner from the plate. Mark volunteered, having lost track of the fact he had taken a pinch-runner himself. By the time the mistake was realized, Marvin had taken a pitch. Marvin was called out for using an illegal runner, first out of the inning. Johnny Lee drew a walk. Donald Drummer lofted a fly down the left-field side, but Patrick Schmidt, moving way to his right, ran it down and caught it for out number two. Rip Wright came up and popped a single into short right-center field. Trent tried to score on the hit, but Rick Kahn charged the ball, caught it on a hop, and came up throwing, unleashing an on-the-fly strike home to catcher Larry Shupe for an inning-ending 9-2 base-runner kill – defensive play of the day, in my opinion.
Purple came up needing three to tie, four to win. Jimmy Sneed led off with a double to left-center. Mike Malay grounded back to the box, Trent Peacock cleanly fielding the hard hopper and throwing to first for the first out. Rick Kahn singled to right-center, Jimmy scoring. Joe Roche popped a Texas League single into short right field; Rick took off and scored from first on the hit, cutting Red’s lead to one run. Patrick Schmidt ran for Joe. Ray Pilgrim grounded a ball to shortstop David Brown, who fielded it cleanly and flipped to Mike Malay covering second, but Mike’s foot did not find the bag, and Patrick was safe. Larry Shupe’s flare to center field fell in for a bases-loading single. Rick Jensen then stepped up and delivered a classic Rick Jensen swing on a pitch low and away – here it is: 5 March 2026: Purple walks off 18-17 win versus Red
Final score: Purple 18, Red 17
12:30 p.m.: Maroon (1-0) at Gray (no record):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 4 5 4 4 0 17 Gray 2 5 4 1 6 18 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Gray – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Maroon – Tom Brownfield; Gray – Anthony Galindo (used his green chip) and Ray Pilgrim. Umpires: home – Rick Jensen; bases – Peter Sundquist. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Tom Brownfield (3 for 3 with a double and a triple) and Tony Garcia (4 for with a home run); Gray – Steve Browne (4 for 4), Dave Jaffe (3 for 3 with a walk and a double), Bobby Miller (4 for 4 with a double), and Ray Pilgrim (3 for 3). Ohtani Award: Ray Pilgrim (1). Home run: Tony Garcia (inside the park) (1).
Another barn-burner of a game that somehow ended up a walk-off 18-17 win for the home team, which in this case never led at any point in the game until the final play, as Maroon won each of the first four innings.
They jumped off to a quick lead, as Ken Brown and George Brindley opened the games with singles and Tony Garcia followed with a line drive that gapped the right-center and right fielders and rolled to the fence for an inside-the-park home run, the first of the 2026 B League season. They added one more run on three singles, the fifth run stranded at second when Anthony Galindo ranged far to his left from right-center to run down Dale Fugate’s deep fly for the third out.
Tony Garcia rounds third and heads home for the first home run of the 2026 season.
Tony then made a terrific play in the field to start the bottom of the first inning, snagging Paul Rubin’s looping liner to his backhand. Gray still managed to get on the board with two runs in the inning, as Bobby Miller doubled and Steve Browne, Jim Foelker, and Clint Fletcher singled.
Maroon kept hitting in the second, scoring five runs on six singles and Jeff Stone’s walk. Gray matched that exactly in the home half: Dave Jaffe drew a lead-off walk, six singles followed, and five runs resulted.
Both teams scored four times in the third: Maroon on George Brindley’s walk, Tom Brownfield’s double, four singles, and Jeff Stone’s sacrifice fly to right-center; Gray on five singles and Dave Jaffe’s double over Jack McDermott’s head in left field. The inning ended with a great defensive play. After Bobby Miller singled in the third run, with Paul Rubin advancing to third, Steve Browne singled to right field. That scored Paul with the fourth run; Bobby tried for third on the hit and was gunned down on a picture-perfect 10-6-2 relay, Scott Wright to Tony Garcia to David Pittard – laser show.
Maroon scored four times again in the top of the fourth. Tom Brownfield drove in the first two runs with a triple to right-center that completed a perfect day at the plate. Tom scored on Ken Brown’s single. George Brindley flied out to Scott Wright in right field; Ken tagged up and tried for second on the play, and Scott made a strong throw in to Tony Garcia. Base umpire Peter Sundquist called Ken out; home plate umpire Rick Jensen overruled Peter and said Ken was safe. Per their subsequent conversation, after the inning ended (and which I overheard), Rick thought Peter had asked for his, Rick’s, help on the play; this wasn’t the case, but by that point it wasn’t worth revisiting. Ken was safe, and subsequently scored on Tony Garcia’s single to right field, Tony’s fourth hit in as many at bats resulting in his seventh RBI of the game.
Scott Rokita singled leading off the bottom of the third.
Know Your B Leaguer: Scott Rokita made his B League debut today, going 3 for 4 at the plate and anchoring shortstop for Gray.
Jim Foelker also singled, Scott halting at second. Clint Fletcher lined a ball up the middle, a bit to the left of second base, and was robbed of a hit by Tony Garcia, shading him that way; Tony caught the ball moving to his left, between Scott and the bag, his momentum carrying him to the base to complete an L-6, 6u. double play, nothing Scott could do about it. Two-out singles by Jim McAnelly and Dave Jaffe brought Jim around to score, and Gray entered the buffet inning trailing 17-12 and needing a shutdown inning.
Ray Pilgrim provided one. He got Jack McDermott to ground back to the box to start the inning. Fritz Hensel singled past second base and into center field, but Ray retired the next two batters, getting David Pittard to ground into a 4-6 force and Dale Fugate to hit a two-strike foul down the third-base side.
Gray came up needing five to tie, six to win, with Ray Pilgrim leading off. Ray singled past shortstop into center field. Jack McDermott caught Paul Rubin’s fly to left field for the first out. Bobby Miller and Steve Browne both grounded singles through the right side, each completing 4-for-4 games at the plate, Ray coming around to score. Scott Rokita lined a single to right-center, Bobby scoring. Jim Foelker popped a ball to short left-center; George Brindley charged in and made a very nice shoetop catch for the second out, the runners holding.
Gray was now down to its last out, still trailing by three. Clint Fletcher grounded a single through the 5-6 hole, Steve scoring from second – two-run game.
Jim McAnelly lined a two-strike pitch to left field for a single, Scott scoring – one-run game.
Dave Jaffe was next. He also fell behind in the count 1-2, and also put a good swing on a tough, low pitch, lining it into left field. Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/
Anthony Galindo then stepped up and ended the game with a line single to left field to score Jim: https://www.youtube.com/
Final score: Gray 18, Maroon 17
Ray Pilgrim won his first Ohtani Award of the season, going 3 for 3 at the plate while pitching Gray to victory. Here he receives his trophy from the shrine maidens at the Tokyo Bean Throwing Festival.
2026 standings:
| Session 1 standings: | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 16 | 8 | 8 | W1 |
| Gray | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 18 | 17 | 1 | W1 |
| Red | 1 | 1 | .500 | 0.5 | 32 | 32 | 0 | L1 |
| Maroon | 1 | 1 | .500 | 0.5 | 28 | 28 | 0 | L1 |
| Purple | 1 | 1 | .500 | 0.5 | 28 | 28 | 0 | W1 |
| Orange | 1 | 1 | .500 | 0.5 | 20 | 20 | 0 | W1 |
| Green | 0 | 2 | .000 | 1.5 | 13 | 22 | -9 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Red | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Maroon | 1-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Gray | 1-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Orange | 1-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Purple | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Green | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-1 |
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Gray | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Green | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Maroon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Orange | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Purple | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Red | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL: | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Tony Garcia – 1
Ohtanis (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Joe Bernal: 1 (March 2)
Ray Pilgrim: 1 (March 5)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Monday March 9
10:30 a.m.: Orange (1-1) at Gray (1-0), Blue umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Blue (1-0) at Maroon (1-1), Orange umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (0-2) at Red (1-1), Maroon umpiring
Purple has the bye, with (secondary) priority for its players out of the bucket.
Umpire chip status:
Rex Horvath: 1 green chip
Rick Jensen: 1 green chip
Rip Wright: 1 green chip
Marvin Krabbenhoft: 1 red chip
Jim Maloy: 1 red chip
Larry Shupe: 1 red chip
Peter Sundquist: : 1 red chip
Ralph Villela: 1 red chip
(1 green chip for umpiring a full game behind the plate. 1 red chip for umpiring a full game on the bases. 2 red chips = 1 green chip. 1 green chip gets a player priority out of the bucket.)
Preview: Games have been notably close so far this season, five of six decided by one run, three on walk-offs, and every team that has played twice has lost at least once. (Clearly the Roster Committee is populated by geniuses.) We’ll see if that continues. At least two teams will finish Monday with two wins. Green, the only team with a negative run differential, will look to post something in the win column at 12:30 versus Red. Will I keep staying up way past my bedtime to provide you detailed and sometimes fictionalized reporting on crazy on-field doings? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Heads up that the season’s first Bobby Fund Burger Cookout is scheduled for Monday March 23.