B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 17 – May 1, 2025
Department of Corrections:
Omissions: Ken Brown, Tom Kelm, and Terry O’Brien were perfect at the plate in Maroon’s game this past Monday.
Commission: It was Tommy Gillis whose throw resulted in Jimmie Maloy being out at home Monday, not Don Solberg.
The Picayune regrets the errors.
League president Anthony Galindo checks in, in the wake of the tragic death of A League’s Curtiss Leitsch Sunday night:
PARD has placed a defibrillator in the storage room by field 2. In case of an emergency please use code 4135 to access the device. PARD has also requested that we leave the defibrillator in storage unless it is needed. We are not allowed to remove it and keep it at the field. Also as a reminder, be sure you have listed an emergency contact and any medical conditions on your registration form. All managers should have this information for their teams when at the field. Thanks for your cooperation.
(Jerry Callen makes the excellent suggestion that players note their emergency contact and any medical conditions in Sharpie on the brims of their caps.)
Weather report: Not too hot today, but very sticky: 82 degrees with 72% humidity at the start of the 10:30 game, partly cloudy with a light wind from the south, about 8 MPH. By the start of the 12:30 game it was up to 89 degrees; the KXAN weather app lied, saying humidity was down to 50%, which my soaked-through jersey vehemently argues against; still partly cloudy, wind still from the south at around 9 MPH.
Games of Thursday May 1:
10:30 a.m., Gray (2-5) at Green (1-5):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 3 4 1 5 1 14 Green 1 5 5 1 3 15 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Green – Chunky Wright. Mercenaries: Gray - Peter Atkins, David Brown, Jim Foelker, and Scott Wright; Green – George Brindley, Anthony Galindo, and Jack Spellman; Steve Sandall entered for Phil Stanch in the buffet after Phil left to a leg muscle pull. Umpires: home – Marvin Krabbenhoft; bases – Dave Berra. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Peter Atkins (2 for 2 with a walk); Green – Anthony Galindo and Mike Garrison (both 3 for 3 with a double), Jack Spellman (3 for 3), and Ralph Villela (4 for 4). Home run: David Brown (inside the park) (1).
With a number of players absent to this week’s Grapevine tourney, all three of today’s games featured large numbers of difference-making mercenaries. This turned out to be the best game of the day, a hard-fought affair that came down to the final batter.
Gray jumped off to an early lead, its first three batters hitting safely and scoring to open the game: Tommy Gillis tripled and scored on Morgan Witthoft’s single; George Romo singled; Morgan and George advanced on Adam Reddell’s fly to right field. Hal Darman’s line single to left field drove in Morgan, and Peter Atkins delivered a two-out single to bring in George. Green got one back in the home half. Ralph Villela and Doc Hobar led off with singles, and Phil Stanch grounded into a 4-6 force. Mike Garrison ripped a double to right-center, Ralph trotting in with Gray’s first run; Phil Stanch, after momentary hesitation rounding third, tried for home and was thrown out 9-4-5-2 (Morgan Witthoft to David Brown to Adam Reddell to Hal Darman), a perfectly executed relay.
Gray scored four times in the top of the second, its first four batters knocking singles and eventually coming around to score. I believe it was in this inning that Tommy Gillis got a single on a short pop in front of third base that nobody could get to because of how far back everyone, self very much included, was playing. Morgan Witthoft’s bases-loaded single drove in the first two runs, George Romo’s sacrifice fly to Mike Garrison in left field brought in the third, and Adam Reddell’s double scored Morgan with the fourth. Hal Darman made a bid for extra bases with a drive to left-center, but Anthony Galindo made a good play to run it down for the second out, and Chunky Wright got Jack Kelly to ground out to first baseman Doc Hobar.
Green then put across five runs in the home half, on six singles and George Brindley’s double, two-out hits by Phil Stanch and Mike Garrison completing the rally. That cut Gray’s lead to 7-6.
Gray scored a single run in the top of the third: lead-off singles by Peter Atkins and Scott Wright put runners on the corners, and Peter scored on David Brown’s sacrifice fly to Donnie Janac in right-center. Green then grabbed the lead with five runs in the bottom half, on four singles, doubles by Chunky Wright and Anthony Galindo, and George Brindley’s sacrifice fly to Morgan Witthoft in right-center, the only out Green made in the frame.
Gray then turned the tables, winning the fourth inning 5-1. Their five runs in the top half all came with two out. Following a pair of one-out singles and a force at second, Peter Atkins drew a walk to the load bases. Scott Wright’s single drove in Adam Reddell and Jack Kelly’s pinch-runner. And then David Brown ripped a three-run inside-the-park home run to right-center, easily beating the relay home. Green got a single run back on three singles in the bottom of the inning, and entered the buffet trailing 13-12.
Two great guys: David Brown receives a Pluckers coupon from Gray manager Jack Kelly after David’s three-run inside-the-park home run in the top of the fourth.
Jim Foelker led off the buffet with a single, setting the stage for the top of Gray’s lineup. Chunky Wright retired Tommy Gillis, 3 for 3 to that point, on a two-strike foul. Morgan Witthoft and George Romo followed with singles, loading the bases. Adam Reddell lofted a fly to Mike Garrison in left field, deep enough to advance all three runners, Jim scoring to make it 14-12 Gray. Hal Darman again put the ball in the air, but again Anthony Galindo was well positioned and able to make the catch, for the third out.
Green had its mercenaries up to start the bottom half. Jack Spellman and Anthony Galindo both singled, putting runners on the corners, the tying run at first. George Brindley’s fly to Peter Atkins in left scored Spellman, cutting Gray’s lead to one run. Ralph Villela singled, completing a 4-for-4 game, Anthony advancing to third. Doc Hobar’s single brought in Anthony, tying the game, Ralph racing to third. That brought up Steve Sandall, who’d entered the game in place of Phil Stanch after Phil tweaked a leg muscle while running in the bottom of the fourth. Steve just needed to hit a ball deep enough to drive in a very fast runner, Ralph, from third, and that’s what he did – here’s the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Green walks it off on Steve’s sacrifice fly. Final score: Green 15, Gray 14, Green recording its first walk-off win of the season.
11:30 a.m., Orange (4-3) at Red (1-6):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 0 0 0 2 1 0 3 Red 0 5 5 3 3 X 16 Pitchers: Orange – Tommy Deleon; Red – Donald Drummer. Mercenaries: Orange – Richard Battle, George Brindley, Hal Darman, Tommy Deleon, and Adam Reddell; Red – Tom Brownfield and Steve Sandall. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: Red – Donald Drummer (3 for 3), Jack McDermott (4 for 4), and Steve Sandall (3 for 3 with a double). Home runs: Peter Atkins (inside the park) (1) and George Brindley (inside the park) (3).
Neither team scored in the first inning – Orange got a lead-off single from Peter Atkins, but didn’t advance a runner any further; Red loaded the bases with one out but couldn’t get Jack McDermott in from third – but after that it was all Red, the league’s under-performingest team finally putting together a solid game on both sides of the ball, very much helped by mercenaries Steve Sandall (3 for 3 with an RBI double, three runs scored) and Tom Brownfield (RBI single in his first at bat, two-run double in his second, his pinch-runners scoring each time). Tom also played a terrific game at second base: five putouts and three assists, one of the assists part of a fly-out double play, his final putout a leaping grab of David Brown’s liner for the final out of the game.
Donald Drummer blanked Orange in each of the first three innings, in the second giving up a lead-off single to Larry Shupe, then retiring the next six batters he faced, five on ground balls. First baseman Dale Fugate made a terrific play to his backhand on Tommy Deleon’s hard grounder, catching it cleanly on the short hop and tagging the bag for the final out in the top of the third.
Red scored five times in each of the second and third inning, on four consecutive one-out singles, Jack Spellman’s two-run triple, and Anthony Galindo’s sacrifice fly in the second; and on four singles and back-to-back doubles by Steve Sandall and Tom Brownfield in the third, the last five hits and all of the runs coming after two were out.
Orange got on the board when Peter Atkins led off the fourth with an inside-the-park home run, a drive to the fence in center field. One-out singles by David Brown and Marvin Krabbenhoft put runners on the corners for Larry Shupe, who lined a pitch to left-center. Anthony Galindo was well positioned and caught the ball moving to his left; David tagged and scored, but Marvin wasn’t able to get back to first before Anthony relayed to Tom Brownfield, who threw to Dale Fugate to complete the SF-8, 8-4-3 double play, David passing the home line before the third out was recorded.
Red won the inning with three runs in the home half. Jack Spellman led off with a single, and Anthony Galindo walked. Gary Coyle’s single scored Spellman, Anthony taking third and Gary advancing to second on the throw in. Dale Fugate popped out to shortstop David Brown, but Rolando Rodriguez lined an extra-base hit to left-center; both Anthony and Gary scored, though Rolando was thrown out trying for a triple on a well-executed 8-6-5 relay (Richard Battle, I believe, to David Brown to Terry O’Brien).
George Brindley legged out an inside-the-park home run to right-center with one out in the top of the fifth; that turned out to be the final Orange score of the game. Red Added three runs on five singles and Anthony Galindo’s second sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning and took a 16-3 lead into the buffet. Tommy Deleon led off with a single, but Donald Drummer retired Orange’s 1-3 hitters on balls in the air, Peter Atkins on a pop to second baseman Tom Brownfield, Terry O’Brien on a fly to Rolando Rodriguez in right-center, and David Brown on the liner that Tom snagged to end the game. Final score: Red 16, Orange 3, Red snapping its five-game losing streak and recording its first home victory of the session.
Peter Atkins and George Brindley won’t have to have a cage match to determine ownership of the Pluckers coupon, I’ll get a second one to them soon. Their inside-the-parkers accounted for two-thirds of Orange’s scoring today.
12:30 p.m., Maroon (4-3) at Purple (6-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 3 1 0 4 5 X 13 Purple 0 0 2 0 1 0 3 Pitchers: Maroon – Tom Kelm; Purple – Donald Drummer. Mercenaries: Maroon – Jim Foelker, Jack McDermott, and Ralph Villela; Ttom Brownfield entered for Steve Hamlett in the bottom of the fourth; Purple – George Brindley, Gary Coyle, Donald Drummer, Anthony Galindo, Rolando Rodriguez, and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Jim McAnelly; bases – Larry Shupe. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Tom Kelm and Don Solberg (both 4 for 4); Purple – Jack Spellman (2 for 2 with a triple and a walk).
That’s right, Purple needed six mercenaries to fill out its lineup, and we weren’t a huge help, going a combined 5 for 16, not scoring any runs, driving in just one (on a fielder’s choice). Tom Kelm was very effective on the mound for Maroon – though he walked five, he allowed only ten hits over six innings, just one of those for extra bases – and Maroon led the game pillar to post.
Maroon scored three times in the first, on Ken Brown’s lead-off double and four consecutive one-out singles. Matt Levitt and Rick Jensen singled to open the home half, but the next three Purple batters flied out, to left (Don Solberg), left-center (Jack McDermott), and right-center (Ken Brown).
Ken scored again in the second, drawing a two-out walk and coming around on singles by Scott Wright and Don Solberg. Tom Kelm stymied Purple again in the bottom half. He got two more fly balls to start the inning to Jack McDermott in right-center and then Jim Foelker in right. Jack Spellman tripled to right-center, but I didn’t try to score on Donald Drummer’s grounder to shortstop Scott Wright – I thought if I broke home, Scott might throw me out, and I didn’t think he’d throw out Donald. He didn’t, but Donald and I both wound up stranded when Tom got Rolando Rodriguez to ground into a 6-4 force, Scott to Tommy Langa.
Tom Kelm and Tommy Langa opened the third with singles, but Donald Drummer got both Steve Hamlett and Ralph Villela to ground to shortstop, resulting in a 6-4-3 double play and a 6-3 third out. Purple then got on the board with two runs in the bottom half. Rick Jensen and Richard Battle drew back-to-back one-out walks and then scored on singles by Rex Horvath and Gary Coyle.
That cut Maroon’s lead to 4-2, but was as close as Purple would get. Maroon put across four runs in the fourth on five singles and Tommy Langa’s double, all after Donald Drummer had retired Jack McDermott and Jim Foelker to start the inning. With four runs in, runners on second and third, and two out, Steve Hamlett hit a sharp ground ball between the mound and shortstop that Jack Spellman was able to get to and field on a short hop, the throw to first beating Steve by a step. Steve stumbled over the orange/outside bag and went down, and wisely left the game at that point – hopefully not seriously injured, but banged up and probably pretty sore for a couple or three days. Tom Brownfield came in from the Beer Garden to catch for Maroon.
Tom Kelm worked around a lead-off walk in the bottom of the fourth, getting both Donald Drummer and Rolando Rodriguez to hit two-strike fouls and Matt Levitt to ground to shortstop Scott Wright for the force at second.
Maroon put the game out of reach with five runs in the top of the fifth on Ralph Villela’s lead-off triple and six singles, the last four coming with two out, and a bunch of them well-placed pop flies that Purple couldn’t get to.
Purple got just one back in the bottom of the fifth, loading the base on two walks and a single. Anthony Galindo’s grounder to Scott Wright got a run in, but resulted in a 6-4 force for the second out. George Brindley flied out to Ken Brown to end the inning.
With Purple down by ten runs, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Singles by three of the first four batters loaded the bases, but the game ended with Scott Wright turning a nice 6u., 6-3 double play on Rick Jensen’s grounder to Scott’s left. Final score: Maroon 13, Purple 3, Purple’s five-game winning streak brought to an end.
Session 2 standings:
| Session 2 | Games | Runs | Runs | Run dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 6 | 1 | .857 | 0 | 91 | 61 | 30 | W2 |
| Purple | 6 | 2 | .750 | 0.5 | 94 | 88 | 6 | L1 |
| Maroon | 5 | 3 | .625 | 2 | 103 | 88 | 15 | W2 |
| Orange | 4 | 4 | .500 | 2.5 | 88 | 88 | 0 | L2 |
| Green | 2 | 5 | .286 | 4 | 92 | 99 | -7 | W1 |
| Red | 2 | 6 | .250 | 4.5 | 92 | 108 | -16 | W1 |
| Gray | 2 | 6 | .250 | 4.5 | 85 | 113 | -28 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins: | wins: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 3-0 | 3-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 3-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Purple | 2-2 | 4-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-0 | ||
| Maroon | 2-1 | 3-2 | 2 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 2-1 | ||
| Orange | 2-2 | 2-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 1-0 | ||
| Green | 1-3 | 1-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1-1 | ||
| Red | 1-4 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0-1 | ||
| Gray | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 1-2 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 10 |
| Gray | 1 | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Green | 0 | 2 | X | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Maroon | 1 | 3 | 2 | X | 1 | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Orange | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Purple | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | X | 2 | 10 |
| Red | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | X | 6 |
| TOTAL: | 4 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 51 |
2025 season home run leaders:
Bobby Miller – 4
George Brindley – 3
Tim Coles – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Tommy Gillis – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
David Brown – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Mike Garrison – 1
Doc Hobar – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Terry O’Brien – 1
Jimmy Sneed – 1
Jack Spellman – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Schedule for Monday May 5:
10:30 a.m.: Purple (6-2) at Gray (2-6), Blue umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Blue (6-1) at Maroon (5-3), Gray umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (2-5) at Orange (4-4), Maroon umpiring
Red has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: All three of Monday’s games are between teams that are 1-1 against each other so far this season. Blue (+30) and Maroon (+15), the teams with the best and second-best run differentials for the session, face off at 10:30, Blue returning from its bye alone in first place and hoping to maintain its half-game edge over Purple, which faces Gray at 10:30. Green and Orange are separated by just seven runs in differential, but Green through some bad luck is three games under .500. They’ll have a chance to boost themselves and drag down Orange at 12:30. Will a nepo baby – three offspring of American Pharoah and Justified are in the race – win this year’s Kentucky Derby? Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
This bottle of prescription nitroglycerin pills was left in the visitors dugout today. Dave Berra took possession, to ensure they’d be kept cool until they can be returned to their rightful owner. Let Dave know if they’re yours.
Johnny Lee and the Arctic Blues Band will be playing at Lighthouse at the Lake (513 Sleat Drive, Briarcliff TX) this Saturday May 3 at 7:00 p.m. I think there will be a few B Leaguers in attendance — hope to see you there.