B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 6, Issue 16 – May 23, 2024
£3.00 (Prices in the Outer Hebrides may be higher)
Weather: Dave Berra, inadvertently (I think, or maybe it was totally vertent), described the weather with a haiku:
Constant cloud cover
Kept the temperature, like,
Tolerable, man.
(I added a couple syllables, lest the Haiku Society rescind my license, but you get the drift.)
Games of Thursday May 23:
10:30 a.m., Gray (4-3) at Maroon (5-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 2 3 5 1 4 X 15 Maroon 0 2 2 0 2 2 8 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Maroon – Chunky Wright. Mercenaries: Gray – Paul Rubin and Morgan Witthoft; Maroon – George Brindley, Jeff Stone, and Rip Wright. Umpires: home plate – Hal Darman; bases – Donald Drummer. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Joe Roche and Chunky Wright (each 4 for 4). Home run: Ken Brown (inside the park).
Gray grabbed an early lead and never relinquished it, scoring two runs on singles by the first four batters of the game, then adding three runs in the top of the second on an inside-the-park home run to right field by Ken Brown in the second. Jack Kelly held the top of Maroon’s lineup scoreless in the bottom of the first, working around a pair of singles, stranding those runners by retiring Marvin Krabbenhoft on a liner to third baseman Mike Mordecai. Maroon got on the board with two runs on four singles in the bottom of the second.
Gray solidified its advantage by scoring five runs after two were out in the top of the third: mercenaries Paul Rubin and Morgan Witthoft knocked RBI singles, Ken Brown drove them both in with a triple to left field, and Tommy Gillis doubled in Ken. Maroon got only two back in the home half, again on four singles.
Leading 10-6 entering the fourth, Gray added just one run, on three consecutive two-out singles, in the top half, but won the inning when Jack Kelly blanked Maroon in the bottom half, working around Anthony Galindo’s two-out single.
Gray increased its lead to 15-4 with four runs in the top of the fifth on four singles, triples by Tommy Gillis and Donny Janac, and Don Solberg’s sacrifice fly. Once again Maroon was able to respond with only two runs on four singles in the home half.
With Maroon trailing 15-6, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Maroon added two runs before running out of outs, this time on five singles, with Joe Roche and Chunky Wright completing perfect days at the plate. (While no single Gray batter was perfect at the plate, as a team they went 21 for 35 (.600) with five extra-base hits (.886 team slugging percentage). Maroon batters also had 21 hits, but all were singles, and they had 38 at bats (.553 team average and slugging), and did not draw a walk, while Gray drew three). Final score: Gray 15, Maroon 8, Gray leapfrogging Maroon to take over second place for the session.
11:30 a.m., Red (6-3) at Purple (4-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Red 5 3 5 0 2 X 15 Purple 1 0 0 0 5 1 7 Pitchers: Red – Gil Delossantos;Purple – Tom Kelm. Mercenaries: Red – Anthony Galindo, Johnny Lee, and Don Solberg; Purple – Daniel Baladez, Tommy Gillis, Donnie Janac, Rip Wright, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Dave Berra and someone else, not sure who. Perfect at the plate: Red – Gil Delossantos (3 for 3 with a walk), Anthony Galindo (2 for 2 with a walk), and Johnny Lee (3 for 3); Purple – Donnie Janac (3 for 3).
Red came roaring out of the gate in this one: five runs on seven singles, a walk, and Morgan Witthoft’s sacrifice fly in the first one; three runs on four singles in the second, Morgan driving in the last two with his hit, the inning ending with Purple turning a 5-4-3 double play, Scott Wright to Mike Velaney to Rip Wright; and five again in the third, on a walk, five singles, and Tim Bruton’s sacrifice fly. (Morgan drove in another run with another single in that inning, and in his final at bat, in the fifth, picked up his fifth RBI of the game with his third hit.)
Mike Velaney pivoting on the around-the-horn twin killing.
Vying for game MVP with Morgan was Gil Delossantos, who singled his first three times up and walked his fourth, and on the mound held Purple to a single run over the first four innings. That came in the first, when Jeff Stone singled in Clint Fletcher. Following Jeff’s hit, Gil retired 11 of the next 15 batters he faced through the bottom of the fourth.
Even though Red did not score in the top of the fourth, they led 13-1 entering the final five-run inning, and tacked on two more in that frame, on three singles and Gil’s base on balls.
Purple’s bats finally came to life in the home half, as they scored five runs, the last four with two out, on four singles, two walks, and Tom Kelm’s two-run double to left-center, the game’s only extra-base hit.
Too little too late, though, and with Red still leading by nine, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Scott Wright and Donnie Janac both singled to start the inning, but a 4-6-3 double play, Boo Resnick to Tim Bruton to Johnny Lee, was a rally-killer. Scott scored on Mike Velaney’s single, and Clint Fletcher extended the inning with a base hit to left-center, but the game ended with Gil Delossantos getting Jeff Stone to ground back to the box for the final out. Final score: Red 15, Purple 7, Red finally ending the streak of games won by the team with the lesser record, and solidifying its hold on first place.
I’ve been trying to figure out a way to stream Big Ben’s gong as a means of signalling the advent of the buffet inning.
12:30 p.m., Orange (1-7) at Blue (3-5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 1 2 3 0 0 4 10 Blue 5 5 1 2 3 X 16 Pitchers: Orange – Tommy Deleon; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Orange – Daniel Baladez, Tim Bruton, Tommy Deleon, and Tommy Gillis. Umpires: Home plate – Jeff Stone; bases – Scott Wright. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Tommy Deleon (3 for 3) and Tony Garcia (4 for 4); Blue – Joe Bernal (3 for 3) and Jeff Fisher (3 for 3 with a walk and a triple).
Orange opened the game with singles by four of the first five hitters, but came away with just one run, as Joe Bernal got Ray Pilgrim to hit into a 6-4-3 double play, David Brown to George Brindley to Dale Fugate, following Matt Levitt’s and Tony Garcia’s hits. Blue then grabbed the lead with a five-run inning in the bottom half: Pat Scott and David Brown led off with doubles, five of the next six batters singled, and Dale Fugate drove in the fifth run with a sacrifice fly to left field.
More of the same in the second inning: Orange scored two runs on four consecutive two-out singles, but Blue put across five again, on a walk to Jeff Fisher and five singles, the last four runs coming with two out.
Orange won the third inning, scoring three runs on four singles and a double to the fence in left field by Daniel Baladez, all the scoring taking place with two out, holding Blue to a run on three singles in the home half.
That made it 11-6 in Blue’s favor, but Orange wasn’t able to get any closer, as Joe Bernal faced the minimum number of batters (and, for all I know, might have thrown the minimum number of pitches) while blanking Orange in the fourth and fifth. There was an oddball double play in the top of the fourth: with one out and a runner on first, Fritz Hensel grounded into a 5-4 force, but when George Brindley airmailed his throw to first, the (unnamed) pinch-runner tried to advance to second and was declared out.
Orange meanwhile was extending its lead, scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth on four straight one-out singles (almost five, but “Quick Hands Tommy” Deleon, so named by Dave Berra, snagged Dale Fugate’s liner back to the box), and three runs in the bottom of the fifth on three singles and Jeff Fisher’s two-run triple to the fence in right field, that knock completing a perfect day at the plate by Jeff.
Orange was chasing ten runs in the top of the buffet. Of the first four batters Joe Bernal faced, two (Daniel Baladez and Tommy Deleon, Tommy completing a perfect day at the plate) singled, and two (Tommy Gillis, on a foul, and Matt Levitt, swinging) struck out. The next four batters singled, Tony Garcia also completing a perfect day at the plate, and four runs scored, before Joe got Larry Shupe to ground into a game-ending 6-4 force. Final score: Blue 16, Orange 10
Standings – Session Two:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Red 7 3 .700 — 152 132 +20 W1
Gray 5 3 .625 1 104 83 +21 W1
Maroon 5 4 .556 1.5 126 118 + 8 L1
Green 5 4 .556 1.5 116 114 + 2 W3
Purple 4 4 .500 2 105 98 + 7 L3
Blue 4 5 .444 2.5 106 108 – 2 W2
Orange 1 8 .111 5.5 93 150 -57 L1
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Red 2-2 5-1 0 0-1 4-0 1-1
Gray 2-1 3-2 1 0-0 2-1 2-2
Maroon 2-4 3-0 1 0-0 1-2 1-0
Green 1-4 4-0 1 1-0 0-1 1-1
Purple 2-3 2-1 0 0-0 1-2 0-1
Blue 2-3 2-2 1 0-0 1-1 1-0
Orange 1-3 0-5 0 0-0 0-2 1-2
2024 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gray Green Maroon Orange Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 1 1 1 2 1 1 7
Gray 2 X 1 1 2 0 1 7
Green 1 0 X 1 0 1 2 5
Maroon 0 2 2 X 2 0 1 7
Orange 0 0 1 0 X 1 1 3
Purple 1 0 2 1 2 X 0 6
Red 2 1 1 1 1 2 X 8
_________________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 6 4 8 5 9 5 6 43
Season home run leaders:
Tim Coles – 5
Gregory Bied – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
David Brown – 1
Ken Brown – 1
Tim Bruton – 1
Jack Crosley – 1
Jeff Fisher – 1
Clint Fletcher – 1
David Kruse – 1
Denny Malloy – 1
Eddie Ortiz – 1
Dave Pittard – 1
Morgan Witthoft – 1
Schedule for Thursday May 30 (no games on Memorial Day Monday):
10:30 a.m.: Gray (4-3) at Maroon (5-3), Red umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Red (6-3) at Purple (4-3), Maroon umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Orange (1-7) at Blue (3-5), Purple umpiring
Green has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Only three dates left in the session, and Red is in the driver’s seat, with only two games remaining, next Thursday at 10:30 against last-place Orange – though a win is not a foregone conclusion, as one of Orange’s three wins this season was versus Red. The four teams clustered one to two games behind Red square off at 11:30 (Purple at Maroon) and 12:30 (Green at Gray), each just the second time these teams have played so far in 2024. Will I finally quit foisting pictures of UK waterfowl upon readers of the Picayune? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
I can’t this week, but you should go see Johnny Lee and Arctic Blues Band at Mr. Catfish tomorrow night, Memorial Day, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., and Mike Mordecai at the Elephant Room (https://elephantroom.com/calendar) from 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.
Then, next Saturday night June 1, Mike will be playing with Extreme Heat at Saxon Pub, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Here’s the promotional copy:
Extreme Heat
June 1 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Extreme Heat comes back to Saxon Pub!
It is rare when a band performs together for a decade, much less two decades…But Austin’s EXTREME HEAT has a performance life that spans five decades.Formed in 1977 from the critically acclaimed band Steam Heat (1974), EXTREME HEAT cut its musical teeth playing legendary Austin venues like the Armadillo, Liberty Lunch, Steamboat, Antone’s, and the Saxon Pub. During the 1980’s and 1990’s EXTREME HEAT’s eclectic, funky jazz and rock-influenced sound was heard throughout Texas as a constant presence in the clubs and music festivals of Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, Amarillo, and Tyler.It was also during this period that the band released four albums and were the winners of readers polls and the subject of reviews and articles in music publications across the state.
In the 50 years they have been together, EXTREME HEAT has traveled and performed extensively throughout the U.S.A. They were especially well known to audiences in Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas, where they came to represent the Texas and Austin music scene to a generation of listeners in those states. EXTREME HEAT continues to entertain audiences with their funky old-school sound 50 years after their inception.
