B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 19 – May 14 (published May 15), 2026
Coming to you a day late as I was at the Avett Brothers concert last night.
President George Brindley has announcements:
Dean Hector will be assigned to the Maroon team; he currently plays in the C division and decided to play in both divisions.
Larry Shupe will be reassigned to the Blue team starting this Monday May 18.
Our thoughts and prayers will be with Green team manager Chunky Wright as he has knee-replacement surgery next week, with Dale Fugate as he has surgery for his broken lower leg next week; and with John Wimpy as he continues his rehab. Hopefully John returns to play in June.
Please remember to bring and drink plenty of water, so we can ALL stay hydrated as the temperatures are starting to heat up.
We are Thankful, Grateful, and Blessed to be able to play softball at our age – let us remember to have fun and respect our umpires.
Games of Thursday May 14:
10:30 a.m.: Red (2-7) at Blue (9-0):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Red 1 5 0 4 0 2 12 Blue 0 0 0 3 4 1 8 Pitchers: Red – Trent Peacock; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Red – George Brindley, Tom Brownfield, Jim Foelker, and Jack Spellman; Blue – Paul Rubin. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Red – George Brindley (3 for 3) and Tim Coles (4 for 4 with a double).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 82 degrees, felt like 83; 49% humidity; wind from the South, 8 MPH; sunny – all summer should be like today!
Filling in for Ralph Villela, who’s bowling in Reno (not a euphemism – Ralph literally is competing at the 2026 U.S. Bowling Congress Open Championships), Donald Drummer stepped in to manage Red. He drew four mercenaries, and somewhat counterintuitively arranged them defensively by putting two infielders, Tom Brownfield and Jack Spellman, in right and right-center field alongside actual outfielder Jim Foelker, and had very good outfielder George Brindley play shortstop. Just saying up front: Donald is a genius.
Red scored a single run in the top of the first, as Mark Dolan led off with a single, tagged and took second on Trent Peacock’s fly to right fielder Donnie Janac, and scored on Tim Coles’s single.
Spellman in right-center was immediately challenged in the home half by Ken Mockler, who led off the inning with a high, slicing fly that Spellman, moving in and to his left from his very deep starting point improbably caught cleanly, albeit barely, at knee level. Tom Bellavia and Larry Young followed with singles – Larry’s was to right-center, Spellman charged it and came up throwing, but Tom easily beat the lollipop throw to second – but Trent Peacock stranded them both by getting both George Romo and Joe Bernal to hit two-strike fouls.
Red then scored five times in the top of the second. Its first six batters singled, three runs scoring. With the bases loaded, Trent Peacock drove in the fourth run with a 4-6 force-out grounder, JC Schmeil to David Brown, Trent beating the relay to first. Tim Coles drove in the fifth run with a single.
Trent then retired the side in order in the bottom half, not allowing a ball out of the infield: he got David Brown to hit a two-strike foul to the right side, retired Daniel Baladez on a grounder to shortstop George Brindley, and got JC Schmeil to pop out to George.
Neither team scored in the third. Tommy Gillis singled to start the top half, but Joe Bernal got Marvin Krabbenhoft to line out to second baseman JC Schmeil, then started a 1-6-3 double play, David Brown on the pivot, on Rip Wright’s grounder back to the box. Trent Peacock allowed a single to Donnie Janac to open the home half, then got three outs in the air: Paul Rubin on a fly to left fielder Tommy Gillis; Ken Mockler, making a bid to gap Tom Brownfield and myself with a deep drive to right-center, but robbed by Tom, who made a tremendous catch moving back and to his right; and Tom Bellavia on a drive to right-center, right at Spellman.
Red extended its lead to 9-0 with four runs in the top of the fourth, on three singles and RBI doubles by Tom Brownfield, Jim Foelker, and Tim Coles.
Blue finally broke through with three runs in the top of the fourth, Trent Peacock getting three more outs on balls in the air to his mercenaries. Larry Young singled and, after George Romo lined out to Spellman, shifted over almost to straightaway center field, Joe Bernal walked. David Brown fouled another ball off to the right side, then flied out to Spellman in right-center. Daniel Baladez’s single drove in Larry (or his pinch-runner, I didn’t clock it). JC Schmeil then came up, batting left-handed, which neither Jim Foelker nor I had seen before. (I found out later that JC is dealing with a shoulder injury that’s affecting his right-handed swing, is why he elected to bat from the left side.) JC’s first swing resulted in a foul ball, and didn’t look good at all, so Jim and I squeezed up on him, playing the line. Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle, that was a terrible decision – JC absolutely crushed the next pitch, driving it way over our heads to straightaway center field for a two-run triple. Unfazed, Trent stranded JC at third, getting Donnie Janac to pop out to shortstop George Brindley.
Here’s JC tripling to center field. Not the best AI picture I’ve ever presented, but it took me nine iterations just to get ChatGPT to show JC batting left-handed.
Joe Bernal held Red scoreless in the top of the fifth. He allowed lead-off singles to Rip Wright and George Brindley, but got Tom Brownfield to hit into a 4-6-3 double play, on a hard-hit one-hopper to JC Schmeil, another fine play by B League’s Gold Glove second baseman, then got Jim Foelker to swing through a two-strike pitch.
Blue got back within striking distance by scoring four runs in the bottom half, but lost a run to a base-running gaffe. Paul Rubin led off with a single, then was forced out on Ken Mockler’s grounder to shortstop George Brindley, who tossed to Mark Dolan covering the bag. Tom Bellavia hammered a triple to center field, but David Brown, running from first for Ken, was called out on appeal for missing second base – Donald Drummer made the appeal, Mike Garrison made the out call; David politely disputed the call, but Mike held firm. The next three batters singled, David drew a walk, and Daniel Baladez knocked a two-run single. The inning ended with JC Schmeil, again batting from the left side, grounding out to second baseman Mark Dolan.
Red entered the buffet leading 10-7. Jack Spellman led off with a pop just beyond the infield grass between first baseman Larry Young and second baseman JC Schmeil; JC got to the ball, but it had a lot of spin on it and popped out of his mitt for a cheap-ass single, pretty much the only kind of hit I ever get off Joe Bernal. I was forced out at second 5-6 on Mark Dolan’s grounder to George Romo, David Brown covering the bag. Mark advanced on Trent Peacock’s ground out to Larry at first base. Tim Coles came through with his fourth straight run-scoring hit, a line single to right-center to drive Mark in. Jim Foelker ran for Tim. Tommy Gillis hammered a drive to deep left-center that drove Jim in, though just barely – Jim hesitated rounding third, and a good relay home might have cut him down, but Joe wasn’t able to handle the throw in cleanly, and Jim was safe. Marvin Krabbenhoft singled to extend the inning, but Joe got Rip Wright to ground back to the box, Joe throwing to second for the inning-ending force.
Blue came up chasing five runs. Donnie Janac led off with a low liner that third baseman Tim Coles made a good play on, to his left. Paul Rubin walked. Ken Mockler again hit a ball to right-center, but got a bit under it – it was a very high fly that Spellman hardly had to move to get to for the catch. Paul tagged and took second on the play, then scored on Tom Bellavia’s single. The game ended somewhat anticlimactically when Trent Peacock got Larry Young to hit a two-strike foul for the final out.
And, lo, there was celebration throughout the land as Blue’s 13-game winning streak, going back to the third game of the season, was brought to an end.
Final score: Red 12, Blue 8
11:30 a.m.: Green (4-6) at Purple (2-7):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 3 4 4 2 3 X 16 Purple 2 0 3 0 2 0 7 Pitchers: Green – Trent Peacock; Purple – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Green – Jack McDermott, Trent Peacock, and George Romo; Purple – Adam Reddell. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Daniel Baladez. Perfect at the plate: Green – Gary Coyle (3 for 3 with a walk) and Rex Horvath (4 for 4 with a triple); Purple – Mike Malay (3 for 3). Home runs: Mike Garrison (inside the park) (3) and Larry Fiorentino (inside the park) (2).
Weather update: 85 degrees, feels like 86; humidity 44%; wind from the South 9 MPH; sunny.
Green led pillar to post, putting up crooked numbers in all five of its at bats, winning each inning, and getting a solid pitching performance from mercenary hurler Trent Peacock, earning his second win of the day.
Doc Hobar led off the game with a line double to right field, and Mike Garrison followed with an inside-the-park home run on a drive to deep center field, his third homer of the season, tying him for the league lead. Ray Pilgrim retired Larry Fiorentino and Steve Sandall, but consecutive singles by Gary Coyle, Rex Horvath, and Tom Brownfield got Green a third run.
Mike Garrison knocks his third home run of the season as the Avett Brothers look on.
Purple’s first three batters – Patrick Schmidt, Phil Stanch, and Shane Hill – each singled to start the bottom half, Patrick coming around to score, Phil then scoring on Ray Pilgrim’s sacrifice fly to let fielder Mike Garrison.
Green solidified its lead in the second, scoring four times in the top half on four singles and two walks, then holding Purple scoreless in the home half – Mike Malay hit a one-out single, but was erased on a 4-6-3 double play, Gary Coyle to Rex Horvath to Tom Brownfield.
Green got four more runs in the third, on three singles and Larry Fiorentino’s three-run inside-the-park home run on a drive to right field.
Now, that’s some good photojournalism. Larry Fiorentino rips his second home run of the season.
Purple got two back in the home half. Mike Garrison made a very good catch of Adam Reddell’s drive to left field leading off, moving to his left to run down the drive. Patrick Schmidt followed with a double and Phil Stanch a single, another line drive to right field, to put runners on the corners. Patrick scored on Rick Kahn’s pop-fly single to left field. Both Phil and Rick scored on Ray Pilgrim’s double, a line drive to the fence in left-center.
Another long hit got Green two more runs in the top of the fourth. After Gary Coyle lined a single to left field to open the inning, Rex Horvath, making his first appearance at shortstop of the season, ripped a triple down the left-field line, Gary scoring. Rex then came in on Trent Peacock’s sacrifice fly to Phil Stanch in right-center. Trent then blanked Purple in the home half, working around one-out singles by Mike Malay and Rick Jensen.
Green scored three times in the fifth on Mike Garrison’s lead-off double, Larry Fiorentino’s walk, singles by Gary Coyle and Rex Horvath completing perfect games at the plate, and an overthrow. Purple’s first four batters singled in the bottom half, two runs scoring, but Trent Peacock got the next three batters to hit into force plays, 6-5 (Rex Horvath to George Romo), 6-4 (Rex to Gary Coyle), 6-4 (ditto).
With Red winning by nine runs, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Mike Malay singled to open the inning, completing a 3-for-3 game. Rick Jensen followed with a line single over shortstop; Mike tried for third on the play and was thrown out 8-5, Steve Sandall to George Romo, George tagging Mike when the Steve’s throw pulled him off the bag. Adam Reddell flied out to Mike Garrison in left field and Patrick Schmidt grounded into a 6-4 force, Rex Horvath to Gary Coyle, to end the game.
Final score: Green 16, Purple 7
12:30 p.m.: Orange (6-3) at Maroon (7-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Orange 2 0 0 2 1 5 Maroon 5 4 5 5 X 19 Pitchers: Orange – Tommy Deleon; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenary: Orange – Jim Foelker. Umpires: home – Joe Roche; bases – Larry Shupe. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Pat Scott (2 for 2); Maroon – Ken Brown and Allen Phillips (each 3 for 3 with a double), Tony Garcia (4 for 4 with two doubles), David Pittard (1 for 1 with two walks), and Scott Wright (3 for 3).
Dave Berra’s weather update: Warmer, still beautiful!
Not much to say about this one that isn’t obvious from the line score: Maroon opened a can of Whoop-Ass ® on Orange, scoring 19 of a possible 20 runs over their four at bats, making only eight outs along the way, half its lineup perfect at the plate on the day. Tony Garcia led the way, going 4 for 4 with two doubles, each hit driving in runs, a total of five RBI. Tony also started a 6-4-3 double play in the top of the fourth, short-circuiting the nearest thing to a rally Orange had on the day, after its first four batters singled. Ken Brown and Allen Phillips also delivered RBI doubles, Jack McDermott scored four times, and I developed a crick in my neck watching runner after runner go first to third on singles.
It’s Katie bar the door as Tony Garcia doubles in Jack McDermott with Maroon’s first run and Jeff Stone and Drowsy Sentinel open the ceremonial can of Whoop-Ass ®.
The offensive support was way more than Jeff Stone needed, as he was his usual tough self, limiting an Orange lineup that scored 15 runs over its last four innings of play Tuesday to just five runs on 11 singles (no extra-base hits) in five innings today. Pat Scott was the only Orange batter who didn’t make an out, knocking singles in each of his two at bats.
Last thing I’ll note: Each game today saw opponents playing for just the second time this season, and in each game the winning team evened the season series at one game apiece.
Final score: Maroon 19, Orange 5
2026 standings:
| Session 2 standings: | ||||||||
| Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 9 | 1 | .900 | 0 | 126 | 86 | 40 | L1 |
| Maroon | 8 | 2 | .800 | 1 | 147 | 93 | 54 | W3 |
| Orange | 6 | 4 | .600 | 3 | 117 | 125 | -8 | L1 |
| Green | 5 | 6 | .455 | 4.5 | 139 | 133 | 6 | W1 |
| Red | 3 | 7 | .300 | 6 | 120 | 138 | -18 | W2 |
| Gray | 3 | 8 | .273 | 7 | 131 | 162 | -31 | L6 |
| Purple | 2 | 8 | .200 | 7 | 112 | 155 | -43 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 4-1 | 5-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Maroon | 4-1 | 4-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 3-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Orange | 3-2 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 2-0 | ||
| Green | 2-3 | 3-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 4-1 | 0-2 | ||
| Red | 0-5 | 3-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0-0 | ||
| Gray | 1-5 | 2-3 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1-3 | ||
| Purple | 0-5 | 2-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 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 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 | |
| Orange | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | |
| Purple | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
| Red | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | |
| TOTAL: | 2 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 57 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Tony Garcia – 3
Ralph Villela – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Steve Browne – 2
Tim Coles – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 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
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 Monday May 18:
10:30 a.m.: Green (5-6) at Red (3-7), Blue umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Blue (9-1) at Gray (3-8), Red umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Purple (2-8) at Orange (6-4), Gray umpiring
Maroon has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: There are seven dates left in Session Two, and suddenly we have a bit of a race for first place, as the end of Blue’s winning streak and Maroon extending its winning streak to three has cut Blue’s lead to just one game. Maroon, which has the session’s best offense (14.7 runs/game) run differential (+54) has the bye Monday. Blue will try to get back on the winning track and extend its lead at 11:30 versus Gray, coming off the bye and looking to put an end to its six-game losing skein. Blue is 3-0 versus Gray so far this season. Green and Red, both coming off wins, play at 10:30. Red leads the season series 2-1. One of Orange or Purple will end their brief losing streak at 12:30. Orange leads that season series 2-1. Will I remember to text my brother Adam to wish him a happy birthday? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Scott Wright is holding these left-behind items.
Podcast review: Decoder Ring
Host Willa Paskin is your high school valedictorian who seemed too intimidatingly smart to talk to, but turns out to be approachable and hilarious. This biweekly series examines occasionally serious but mostly light pop-culture ephemera, like red-string conspiracy boards, British teeth, the history of laugh tracks, the development of blinding car headlights, Lonelygirl15, the ascension of protein, etc. It’s a very entertaining listen. New England content: Occasional/incidental. Canadian content: None I’ve noticed. Listening speed: 1X, it’s a smart podcast, worth paying close attention to.
Rating: 