B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 18 – May 12, 2026
Department of Corrections: Two mistakes from my recap of the May 7 Maroon-Red game: 1. I listed “Gray – Luis Sanchez” as the home team pitcher; that should have been “Red – Trent Peacock.” 2. And I failed to note that George Brindley was perfect at the plate for Red, going 4 for 4 with a home run. It’s almost as though I’m paying so much attention to creating dumb AI pictures that I’m losing track of actual facts. I regret the errors, but I’m not promising I’ll stop making them.
Games of Tuesday May 12:
10:30 a.m.: Green (4-5) at Maroon (6-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 5 0 0 0 0 5 Maroon 2 5 5 5 X 17 Pitchers: Green – Ray Pilgrim; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Green – David Brown, Hal Darman, Matt Levitt, and Ray Pilgrim. Umpires: home – Joe Roche; bases – Patrick Schmidt. Perfect at the plate: Green – David Brown (2 for 2 with a double), Matt Levitt and Jim Maloy (each 2 for 2); Maroon – Steve Browne (3 for 3 with a double), Tony Garcia (3 for 3 with two doubles), Fritz Hensel and Allen Phillips (each 2 for 2 with a walk), and David Pittard (1 for 1 with two walks).
Weather report: 77 degrees, felt like 77; 63% humidity; wind from the East, 1 MPH; mostly sunny.
Green came out hot, scoring five times in the top of the first, the first two on four consecutive one-out singles, David Brown’s two-out line double to right field bringing in two more, and David scoring on Matt Levitt’s ground ball single. But after that, it was all Maroon – they got two runs back in the bottom of the first, Tony Garcia doubling home Jack McDermott, taking third on the throw home, and scoring on Steve Browne’s ground single to the right side, and then Jeff Stone blanked Green over the final four innings. Jeff worked around Steve Sandall’s two-out double in the second; David Pittard turned an inning-ending 5u., 5-3 double play in the third; Tony Garcia started an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play in the fourth; and Jeff worked around a two-out walk to Gary Coyle in the buffet.
Meanwhile Maroon was scoring five runs in each of the second, third, and fourth innings: on two walks, four singles, and Steve Browne’s line double to right field in the second, the last four hits coming with two out; on Ken Brown’s lead-off triple, two singles, two walks, two run-producing force-out grounders to shortstop David Brown, and Tony Garcia’s RBI double in the third; and on six singles, Scott Wright’s double, and Ken Brown’s sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Final score: Maroon 17, Green 5
11:30 a.m.: Purple (2-6) at Blue (8-0):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Purple 0 0 5 1 0 0 6 Blue 4 2 0 3 2 X 11 Pitchers: Purple – Ray Pilgrim; Blue – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Purple – Jack McDermott, Steve Sandall, and Jack Spellman; Blue – Don Solberg and Jeff Stone. Umpires: home – Scott Wright and David Pittard; bases – David Pittard and Tony Garcia. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Jack Spellman (2 for 2 with a walk and a home run); Blue – Larry Young (3 for 3). Home run: Jack Spellman (inside the park) (1).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 79 degrees, feels like 81; humidity 59%; wind ENE 4 MPH; mostly sunny – beautiful day!
Ray Pilgrim and Jeff Stone dueled again, Jeff again coming out on top. He extended his scoreless-inning streak to six before Purple broke through in the top of the third inning, scoring five runs on Jack Spellman’s lead-off walk, three singles, and RBI doubles by Steve Sandall and Shane Hill.
Jeff had retired the side in order on three ground balls in the top of the first. Ray Pilgrim and Phil Stanch singled to start the second, but Jeff escaped that jam, with Blue very nearly pulling off the season’s first triple play. Ray was on second and Phil on first when Rick Jensen grounded a ball up the middle. David Brown fielded it and stepped on second. Ray, seeing the force at second, thought David would throw to first and that his best move was to return to second; David, seeing Ray coming back to the base, turned and tagged him out. There was tumult around the base, with David, the two runners, second baseman JC Schmeil, pitcher Jeff Stone, and base umpire Tony Garcia all milling about, as very accurately rendered here:
I think David might have had a shot at the triple play had he thrown to first, but I think he was late to realize this, and Rick made it to first. We wait, like Vladimir and Estragon, for the triple play that may never come.
Blue had established an early lead, scoring four times in the bottom of the first on five singles, adding two more in the second on George Romo’s two-out, two-run double. That second out came on a tremendous catch in left center field by Steve Sandall, racing back to make an over-the-shoulder catch of Ken Mockler’s bid for extra bases. Mike Velaney called it the catch of the season, and I’m inclined to agree, though it turned out not to be the game’s only outstanding defensive play.
Purple drew within a run with its five-run third inning rally, and then held Blue scoreless in the home half, as Ray Pilgrim retired Donnie Janac on a liner to left fielder Phil Stanch, JC Schmeil on a pop to second baseman Mike Malay, and David Brown on a scorching one-hopper to Mike, who paused a beat to allow Shane Hill to get positioned at first, and then snapped a strong throw that beat David to the bag by a step.
Jeff Stone got the first two batters in the fourth to ground out to shortstop Dave Brown. Jack Spellman lined a ball to right field; Ken Mockler came on and tried to make a shoestring catch, but the ball fell in front of him and skidded past, and Spellman was able to round the bases for his first home run of the season – a good relay might have had me at home, but the throw drew catcher Daniel Baladez off the mat. Here it is:
Ken told me later that he figured, with no one on, it was worth risking the extra-base hit, and he’s not wrong. Jeff then retired Jack McDermott on yet another grounder to David Brown, and the teams entered the bottom of the inning tied 6-6.
Blue quickly untied it. Daniel Baladez and Jeff Stone led off with singles, and Daniel’s runner – David Brown, I believe – scored on Don Solberg’s sacrifice fly to Patrick Schmidt in right-center. Ken Mockler doubled, no catching this deep drive to center field, Jeff’s runner (JC? Tom? Your honor, I don’t recall.) scoring from first. Larry Young knocked his third straight single, driving in Ken.
Jeff Stone then shut out Purple in the fifth, thanks to two outstanding plays by JC Schmeil at second base. First he snagged a liner to his left by Steve Sandall, leading off. Patrick Schmidt singled and Mike Malay doubled, putting runners on second and third. Shane Hill came up and absolutely scorched a liner toward right-center, but JC made a leaping grab of it to his backhand, somehow an even better, more difficult catch than he made on Steve, for the second out, effectively snuffing the rally. Jeff then got Ray Pilgrim to ground out to David Brown for the third out.
Jeff helped his own cause with a two-out, two-run single in the bottom half, increasing Blue’s lead to 11-6. That was the final score, as Jeff worked a scoreless top of the buffet, stranding two runners, getting the final out on Jack McDermott’s fly to Tom Bellavia in left-center field.
Final score: Blue 11, Purple 6
12:30 p.m.: Red (1-7) at Gray (3-7):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 0 3 1 5 6 15 Gray 1 1 3 2 1 8 Pitchers: Red – Trent Peacock; Gray – Luis Sanchez. Mercenaries: Red – George Brindley, Matt Levitt, Allen Phillips, and Scott Wright; Gray – Daniel Baladez, David Pittard, Jack Spellman, and Phil Stanch. Umpires: home – Lawrence Page; bases – David Brown. Perfect at the plate: Red – Richard Battle (4 for 4), George Brindley (3 for 3 with a triple), and Scott Wright (3 for 3); Gray – Dave Jaffe (3 for 3).
Dave Berra’s weather update: Warmer, still beautiful!
Low-scoring affair in the early going, Gray holding a slim 5-4 lead through three, but Red found its groove over the final two innings and put the game away.
They went out in order in the top of the first, Luis Sanchez getting Mark Dolan on a grounder to shortstop (bang-bang play at first; Mark might have been safe), Anthony Galindo on a foul to catcher Jim McAnelly (good play), and Tim Coles on a fly to Paul Rubin in deep left-center (lot of hang time). Gray won the inning by scoring one run on three singles, Dave Jaffe’s and Mike Velaney’s coming after two were out, bringing Paul Rubin around to score.
Red grabbed the lead in the top of the second with three runs on three singles and Matt Levitt’s two-run, two-out double. Gray got one back in the bottom half: Jack Spellman led off with a grounder to second baseman Mark Dolan, was safe on a combination of a bobble plus an overthrow that allowed me to take second. David Pittard followed with an RBI single to right field. Phil Stanch popped out to shortstop George Brindley, and Daniel Baladez grounded into a 6-4 force – initially Daniel was called out at first, but after consulting with home umpire Lawrence Page, base umpire David Brown overruled himself and correctly called Daniel safe. Didn’t matter: while Paul Rubin drew a walk to extend the inning, Trent Peacock got Luis Sanchez to ground out to Mark to strand the runners.
Red scored a single run on three consecutive two-out singles in the top of the third. Gray reclaimed the lead with three runs on five singles in the home half.
Red started hitting for real in the top of the fourth, scoring five runs with a bunch of hard-hit balls. George Brindley led off with a triple and scored on Scott Wright’s single, tying the game. Matt Levitt grounded a ball up the middle; shortstop Spellman made a diving stop and flipped to Mike Velaney for the force at second. Allen Phillips doubled, Matt scoring from first to put Red back in the lead. Luis Sanchez retired Mark Dolan on a bouncer back to the box, but could not get the third out: Anthony Galindo walked, and Tim Coles, Trent Peacock, and Richard Battle all knocked clean singles, three more runs coming across.
Gray got two runs back in the bottom half, on Luis Sanchez’s triple to right-center and three singles, but entered the buffet trailing 9-7.
Red put the game out of reach and caused a flip-flop by scoring six times on two walks (to Mark Dolan and Anthony Galindo) and seven singles, all the runs coming across after two were out. George Brindley and Scott Wright completed 3-for-3 games at the beginning of the frame, and Richard Battle capped the rally with his fourth hit in as many at bats.
Chasing eight runs, Gray got a lead-off single by David Pittard, but Trent Peacock got both Phil Stanch and Daniel Baladez to ground into 4-6 force outs, Mark Dolan to George Brindley (Daniel again hustling down the line to beat the relay and thwart the double-play bid). Singles by Paul Rubin and Luis Sanchez extended the inning, Daniel’s pinch-runner (David Pittard? I’m not sure.) coming around to score. Jim Foelker lofted a fly to pretty deep left-center that Anthony Galindo hauled in for the final out.
Final score: Red 15, Gray 8
2026 standings:
| Session 2 standings: | ||||||||
| Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 9 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 118 | 74 | 44 | W13 |
| Maroon | 7 | 2 | .778 | 2 | 128 | 88 | 40 | W2 |
| Orange | 6 | 3 | .667 | 3 | 112 | 106 | 6 | W1 |
| Green | 4 | 6 | .400 | 5.5 | 123 | 126 | -3 | L2 |
| Gray | 3 | 8 | .273 | 7 | 131 | 162 | -31 | L6 |
| Red | 2 | 7 | .222 | 7 | 108 | 130 | -22 | W1 |
| Purple | 2 | 7 | .222 | 7 | 105 | 139 | -34 | L1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 4-0 | 5-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Maroon | 3-1 | 4-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 3-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Orange | 3-2 | 3-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 2-0 | ||
| Green | 2-3 | 2-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 3-1 | 0-2 | ||
| Gray | 1-5 | 2-3 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1-3 | ||
| Red | 0-5 | 2-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0-0 | ||
| Purple | 0-4 | 2-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1-1 | ||
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 14 | |
| Gray | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 9 | |
| Orange | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | |
| Purple | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
| Red | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | |
| TOTAL: | 1 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 54 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Tony Garcia – 3
Ralph Villela – 3
Steve Browne – 2
Tim Coles – 2
Mike Garrison – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
Allen Phillips – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
Richard Battle – 1
Joe Bernal – 1
George Brindley – 1
David Brown – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Larry Fiorentino – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
George Romo – 1
Luis Sanchez – 1
Pat Scott – 1
Jack Spellman – 1
Ohtani Awards (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Joe Bernal: 4 (March 2, March 19, March 30, April 16)
Ray Pilgrim: 3 (March 5, March 23, March 26)
Tommy Deleon: 2 (April 6, April 30)
Spike Davidson: 1 (May 4)
Rex Horvath: 1 (March 30)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Thursday May 14:
10:30 a.m.: Red (2-7) at Blue (9-0), Green umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Green (4-6) at Purple (2-7), Blue umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Orange (6-3) at Maroon (7-2), Purple umpiring
Gray has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: It hardly seems possible, but we’ve reached the middle of May and have three games in store in which the teams have only played one another once to this point. Blue won its first meeting with Red; Red, coming off a convincing win today, will try to end Blue’s 13-game winning streak. Purple won the only time they played Green; one of these teams will get back on the winning track after losing today. And Orange won the only time they met Maroon. Both teams have short winning streaks going – one game for Orange, two for Maroon – and are looking to stay close to Blue for the session lead. Will I commute by kayak to Krieg to mark the 222nd anniversary Thursday of the start of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, or stick with my bike in honor of Bike to Work Day on Friday? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Mike Garrison forwards this:
In case it’s difficult to read, the gist is that there will be a celebration of the life of the great, and greatly missed, Kenny Jordan on Sunday May 24 from 3:00 to 5:00 at the home of Mindy Croom, at 5003 Crestway, Austin 78731. I’ll be there for sure.
Anthony Galindo checks in:
Someone accidentally took my pair of Black Oofos sandals and left theirs behind. The pair I have now appear to be size 11 or 12 and mine are size 10. Please let me know if someone has my sandals.
Lost and found:
This red batting donut was left behind today. It says “Rick” on the side, but Rick Jensen says it isn’t his, and Rick Kahn wasn’t at Krieg today. Unless someone claims it, I can only assume it is One True Donut of B League Power, and that Larry Shupe will claim it as his Precious.
Podcast review: Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
In which Conan O’Brien, along with co-hosts Sona Movsesian and Matt Gourley, interviews people, mostly from the comedy world, about their careers and outlooks. He can be a bit of a suck-up (though he’s got nothing on Amy Poehler), but he’s always self-deprecatingly funny, and his guests, like Conan, tend to be smart, funny, and well spoken. It’s a deeply entertaining podcast. I listen to both Friend and the Fan sub-podcast, in which Conan interviews/berates/makes comedy with non-entertainment-world people. Even the commercials are funny (though I’ll skip them if I’ve heard them before). New England content: Scads, Conan leans into his Massachusetts roots. Listen to the Denis Leary episode from earlier this year if you’re in need of hearing some great Masshole accents. Canadian content: Haven’t noticed any; Conan is less obsessed than I am with our northern neighbors. Listening speed: 1X, don’t want to miss anything, the jokes and bits come fast.
Rating: 