B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 5, Issue 59 – November 16, 2023
Games of Monday November 13 were cancelled due to rain and inundated fields.
Weather: Overcast with high humidity (well above 90%) all day, and temperatures not getting above the mid-50s until we were well into the 12:30 game and the clouds started to dissipate. We did get to see Howard Spates not wearing sunglasses for the first time ever.
Injury report: Gold manager Dave Berra checks in:
Joe Dayoc is out for the remainder of the season (so might we all be) due to a blown knee. He said it’s just as well since he already had knee replacement scheduled for Dec. 5.
Games of Thursday November 16:
10:30 a.m., Gray (4-7) at Red (6-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 1 2 0 0 4 2 9 Red 1 0 0 3 1 0 5 Pitchers: Gray – Greg Lloyd; Red – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Gray – Tommy Gillis, Rex Horvath, and Peter Sundquist. Umpires: home plate – Scott Wright and Tom Kelml; bases – Mike Velaney. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Jim McAnelly (3 for 3).
Low-scoring game, as the humidity and dew-laden field seemed to weigh down the ball, and the rover was used. Neither team could gain much of an advantage over the first four innings, each scoring a single run in the first, Gray on four singles and Tom Brownfield’s sacrifice fly in the top half, three runners stranded, Red getting only one run in the bottom half despite each of the first four batters hitting safely, as Jack Spellman ran into an out like a nincompoop after following Gregory Bied’s lead-off single with a double to right-center, only to be thrown out 9-rover-5, Rick Kahn to Rick Jensen to Tom Brownfield (Tom made a great clean catch of a short-hopped relay) trying to stretch it into a triple, a dumb move with no out. The inning ended with Howard Spates lining a ball up the middle that Greg Lloyd made a great play to knock down, throwing to first for the third out. That was the first of a number of scorched line drives by Red hitters that Gray turned into outs.
Gray took the lead with two runs in the top of the second, Rex Horvath’s triple the big hit – it drove in Rick Jensen, who’d singled leading off, and Rex scored on Tommy Gillis’s hit. Greg Lloyd held Red scoreless in both the bottom of the second, working around Hal Darman’s two-out single, and the third. In that inning Jack Kelly and Gregory Bied singled with one out, but Greg got help from his defense, as Peter Sundquist made a good catch of Jack Spellman’s liner to right field, and Doc Hobar made a backhanded snag of Paul Rubin’s liner to the right of second base, a ball that was absolutely crushed – I don’t know how Doc got his glove up in time to catch a ball that looked like it was well past him.
Jack Kelly kept Gray from scoring in the top of the third, stranding two runners, and fourth, stranding one more. Red then reclaimed the lead, briefly, with three runs in the bottom of the fourth: Adam Reddell led off with a single, Scott Sovereen doubled with one out, and Hal Darman, Daniel Baladez, and Mike Mordecai each punched two-out singles.
Gray took the lead back, for good as it turned out, with four runs in the top of the fifth, as five of the first six batters hit safely, Tom Brownfield and Rick Kahn ripping two-base hits. Jerry Mylius’s sacrifice fly to left field brought in Rick with the fourth run. Every Red hitter in the bottom half hit the ball hard, but only three of the swings resulted in hits, all singles, one run scoring. Gregory Bied led off with a liner to Doc Hobar, who apparently never misses, and Howard Spates lined to shortstop Rex Horvath, ditto. (Howard was snakebit: he hit the ball hard in all three of his at bats, came away hitless, and got teased about not wearing glasses.)
Gray entered the buffet leading 7-5. The first three batters, mercenaries Peter Sundquist, Rex Horvath, and Tommy Gillis, each singled, Peter scoring, and it looked like Gray might blow the game open, but Jack Kelly retired the next three hitters, getting infield force outs off the bats of Tony Viera (Rex scoring) and Greg Lloyd, Doc Hobar popping out to third baseman Adam Reddell to end the inning.
Red needed four to tie, but Greg Lloyd retired the side in order, getting Sam Baker to ground back to the box (nice play by Greg), Hal Darman to ground to third baseman Tom Brownfield (strong cross-diamond throw), and Daniel Baladez to pop out to shortstop. Final score: Gray 9, Red 5
11:30 a.m., Green (3-8) at Maroon (6-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 0 4 5 3 3 X 15 Maroon 1 0 4 0 0 3 8 Pitchers: Green – Jeff Stone; Maroon – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Green – Rick Jensen, Adam Reddell, Jack Spellman, and Jeff Stone; Maroon – Anthony Galindo and Morgan Witthoft (entered for Larry Shupe in the fourth inning). Umpires: home plate – Jack Kelly; bases – Jim McAnelly. Perfect at the plate: Green – Adam Reddell, Jack Spellman, and Jeff Stone (each 3 for 3); Maroon – Joe Bernal (3 for 3 with a walk).
Joe Bernal worked a scoreless first inning, allowing two-out singles to Buddy Gaswint and Don Solberg, but Green had better success after that, posting crooked numbers in each of its next four at bats. Maroon briefly held the lead in the bottom of the first, loading the bases with one out on singles by Scott Wright and Rex Horvath and a walk to Joe Bernal, Scott scoring on Johnny Lee’s force-out grounder to rover Rick Jensen.
Green took the lead for good in the second. The first three batters, Tommy Gillis, Boo Resnick, and Jeff Stone, hit legitimate singles, Tommy coming around to score. Jack Spellman hit a kind-of single, a grounder to shortstop that bad-hopped Rex Horvath, everyone safe. (Not a lot of true hops today.) Adam Reddell followed with another grounder up the middle that also hopped badly; Rex boxed it, corralled it, and got his foot to the second-base bag, but Spellman, running from first, had his path to the right of second base blocked, inadvertently, by rover Mike Velaney, and was ruled safe on interference. Boo scored on the play, and the bases were loaded with none out for Rick Jensen. Rick grounded to shortstop; Rex finally got a decently clean hop, fielded the ball, and threw to Peter Atkins for the force at third; Peter then fired home and beat Jeff Stone by a step, for a 6-5-2 double play. Mike Hill and Donnie Janac followed with singles, Adam and Rick scoring, Green’s lead increasing to 4-1.
Maroon loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning on singles by Marvin Krabbenhoft, Mike Velaney, and Larry Shupe, but came away with nothing. Anthony Galindo squared up on a pitch and hit it on a line, but Mike Hill backhanded it, then snapped a throw to second to double up Mike Velaney. (Second baseman Jack Spellman suffered an ouchie on the play – details in Keggy’s Korner.)
That unusual double play in the top of the second turned out to be the only outs made by Green’s mercenaries, who on the day went a combined 11 for 12, Rick Jensen making up for his GIDP with a pair of doubles. Singles by Jeff Stone, Jack Spellman, and Adam Reddell concluded a five-run outburst by Green in the top of the third, no outs made, that left Maroon in a 9-1 hole. Maroon got four runs back in the home half, on Peter Sundquist’s lead-off triple and six one-out singles, but left the bases loaded as Jeff Stone caught Mike Velaney’s pop out down the third-base line, then fielded Larry Shupe’s bouncer back up the middle and threw to first for the third out.
Green scored three runs in the top of the fourth, Rick Jensen and Buddy Gaswint knocking two-base hits. (Somewhere in there, right fielder Larry Shupe strained a knee and wound up leaving the game, Morgan Witthoft entering in his place.) Jeff Stone worked a scoreless bottom half, getting outs in the air by Anthony Galindo (to left fielder Don Solberg), and, following Peter Sundquist’s base hit, Scott Wright (to Tommy Gillis in right-center) and Rex Horvath (to Jeff Fisher in left-center, an excellent catch ranging to his right).
Green got three more runs in the top of the fifth, the four mercenaries all hitting safely (three singles and Rick Jensen’s double), the singles-hitters scoring. Jeff Stone then hurled a scoreless bottom half. Joe Bernal singled leading off, but Jeff caught both Johnny Lee and, following Peter Atkins’ single, Marvin Krabbenhoft looking at called strike three.
With Green leading by ten runs, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Maroon got three runs across, on four singles and Anthony Galindo’s double, before running out of outs. Joe Bernal drove in the final run of the game and completed a perfect day at the plate with a two-out single. Final score: Green 15, Maroon 8
12:30 p.m., Gold (4-6) at Blue (9-2):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gold 5 5 4 0 4 18 Blue 4 5 1 0 0 10 Pitchers: Gold – Jeff Stone; Blue – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Gold – Rex Horvath and Peter Sundquist; Blue – Daniel Baladez, Tom Kelm, Johnny Lee, Adam Reddell, Jack Spellman, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home plate – Chunky Wright; bases – Mike Hill. Perfect at the plate: Gold – Rex Horvath (3 for 3 with two doubles) and Jeff Stone (4 for 4 with two doubles and a triple); Blue – Anthony Galindo (1 for 1 with two walks).
Very high-scoring game in the early going, the teams combining to score 23 of a possible 25 runs through the top of the third inning. Gold had long hits in every inning they scored: triples by Jeff Stone and Mike Garrison in their five-run first; doubles by Rex Horvath (high off the fence in left, probably a homerun in better conditions), Jeff Stone and Jack McDermott in their five-run second; another double by Rex and a triple by Ralph Villela in their four-run third (probably would have been a five-run inning but for a cheap out recorded when Larry Young overran the commit line after taking a runner from home); and a double by Jeff Stone (four hits and eight total bases in four at bats this game) in their four-run buffet inning. Not a lot you can do to defend against extra-base hits.
Blue kept it fairly close over the first two innings, scoring four times in the bottom of the first on a walk, three singles, doubles by Mark Dolan and Jack Spellman (excellent play by Peter Sundquist in right field to cut the ball off and prevent a triple, which is what I thought I had off the bat), and Scott Wright’s sacrifice fly; then five times in the second on five one-out singles and Scott Wright’s two-out triple.
It looked like it would be more of the same when Tom Kelm and Daniel Baladez opened the bottom of the third with singles, but Jeff Stone found his groove at that point, holding Blue to just 2 for 11 (both singles) with one walk over the remainder of the game. He got some help from his defense: Rex Horvath, playing his third game of the day at shortstop, snagged Mark Dolan’s liner for a key out in the third, and Peter Sundquist made an excellent play moving in and to his left to catch Adam Reddell’s drive to right field in the fourth.
Working with an eight-run cushion in the bottom of the buffet, Jeff Stone got two quick outs, retiring Tom Kelm on a fly to Ralph Villela in left field and Daniel Baladez on a bouncer back to the box. Johnny Lee singled to extend the inning, but second baseman Larry Young scooped up Mark Dolan’s grounder to the right side and threw to first for the last out. Final score: Gold 18, Blue 10, Blue’s first home loss of the session. Each of the day’s games was won by the visitors, all of whom had worse records than their home opponents entering the game. Still, owing to a shortened schedule due to the rash of rainouts the last few weeks, Blue has clinched the Session Four title.
Standings – Session Four:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Blue 9 3 .750 — 164 129 +35 L1
Maroon 6 5 .545 2.5 140 132 + 8 L3
Red 6 6 .500 3 150 148 + 2 L2
Gold 5 6 .455 3.5 141 146 – 5 W1
Gray 5 7 .417 4 126 152 -26 W1
Green 4 8 .333 5 150 164 -14 W2
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Blue 5-1 4-2 1 0-0 2-0 2-1
Maroon 3-4 3-1 2 0-1 1-1 3-1
Red 2-3 4-3 2 0-0 2-1 2-2
Gold 3-2 2-4 0 0-0 1-0 0-2
Gray 1-4 4-3 0 0-0 0-4 1-1
Green 2-5 2-3 0 1-0 2-2 0-1
2023 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gold Gray Green Maroon Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 6 7 8 4 2.5 6 33.5
Gold 4 X 4 7 4 1 4 24
Gray 2 6 X 5 4 2 7 26
Green 3 4 4 X 5 4 5 25
Maroon 5 6 4 4 X 3 6 28
Purple 1.5 1 2 0 1 X 1 6.5
Red 4 4 4 5 4 3 X 24
_______________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 19.5 27 25 29 22 15.5 30 167
Schedule for Monday November 20:
10:30 a.m.: Blue (9-3) at Maroon (6-5), Red umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Gold (5-6) at Red (6-6), Blue umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (4-8) at Gray (5-7), Gold umpiring
Preview: Final games of the regular season! With Blue having clinched first place, their 10:30 game versus second-place Maroon is pretty anticlimactic, the more so because they’ve already clinched the first and second seeds for the end-of-season tourney. (Gray has clinched third seed. Gray, Green, and Red seedings depend on Monday’s results.) Wouldn’t have guessed it even a week ago, but the game with the most stakes will be at 12:30, Green and Gray vying to not finish last for the session.
Will Eddy Murillo, absent today, complain about his lack of presence in this edition of the Picayune? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Following the 12:30 game, Gold team’s Larry Bunton reported shortness of breath, and, can’t be too careful, Austin EMTs were summoned and Big Papi taken to the hospital. He checked in later:
I am waiting on test results. It appears that an overnight stay is in order. I’m very thankful for [Larry Young’s] and Dave [Berra’s] help. Will keep you posted on any changes. Again thanks!
So, guardedly/hopefully good news, and now we can move on to the really important medical news of the day, Keggy’s boo-boo shin, suffered in game two when Mike Velaney came in (sharpened) (rubber) spikes high to second base, trying in vain not to be doubled up on Anthony Galindo’s liner to Mike Hill. Back on the Green bench, I washed the wound with one of Adam Reddell’s un-fogging wipes (which I believe is how my great uncle Arthur Lyons treated his trench foot in World War I, albeit he really went on about it, “Boo-hoo, trench warfare is so hard, and then we got gassed!” – suck it up, Art!), slapped a couple of band-aids on it, and kept playing. Back home I cleaned it properly. Here are the gruesome after-the-fact pictures:
Band-aids off.
After cleaning the cut in the shower.
Proper bandage.
Unlike Uncle Arthur, Keggy didn’t inhale mustard gas (why even carry the gas mask, Art?) (sorry – too soon?), and so should be good to play Monday.