B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 6, Issue 59 – November 7, 2024
Games of Thursday November 7:
10:30 a.m., Red (7.5 – 8.5) at Maroon (9-7):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL
Red 4 5 5 0 1 0 15
Maroon 1 4 2 5 0 4 16
Pitchers: Red – Eddy Murillo; Maroon – Chunky Wright. Mercenary: Red – Jim Maloy. Umpires: home – Richard Battle and David Brown; bases – Davie Brown and Pat Scott. Perfect at the plate: Red – Tim Bruton (4 for 4 with a double) and Bobby Miller (4 for 4).
Weather: 79 degrees with 79% humidity. Wind from the ESE at 7 MPH. Cloudy, making it feel a little cooler. Pretty pleasant, really.
This was an excellent game. Red built an early lead, scoring 14 of a possible 15 runs over its first three at bats, winning each inning as Bobby Miller, Tim Bruton, and Adam Reddell each hit safely and scored in each inning. In the first Red knocked six hits (five singles and Tim’s double) and scored four runs. In the second they scored five runs on five singles, Bobby’s triple, and Denny Malloy’s double, with Denny, Tommy Langa, and Gil Delossantos each delivering a two-out, run-scoring hit. And in the third Red got five consecutive one-out singles, three runs scoring, and Mike Malay drove in the fourth and fifth with a double to left-center.
Maroon scored in each inning, but kept falling further behind. They got one run in the first on two singles and Buddy Gaswint’s run-scoring ground out. In the second they got four runs on five singles and Tom Bellavia’s double and had runners on first (Scott Wright) and second (Chunky Wright, potential fifth run) with one out. Jack Spellman hit a sharp grounder down the first-base side that Mike Malay made a good play on, to his backhand, easily beating me to the bag; Chunky, seeing the play at first, didn’t try to advance from second, as the force was off, but Scott had run for second, so there they both were. Mike threw to shortstop Tim Bruton, and Chunky belatedly tried for third, but was tagged out by third baseman Adam Reddell for a 3u., 3-6-5 double play, just as Red practiced in spring training. Maroon then got three runs in the bottom of the third on Joe Roche’s single to right field, which drove in Buddy Gaswint and Jimmy Sneed, who had singled and doubled with one out.
Red led 14-7 through three, but only managed one run the rest off the way. They loaded the bases in the top of the fourth on singles by Denny Malloy leading off and Gil Delossantos and Hal Darman with one out, but Chunky Wright got Jim Maloy to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. Maroon then scored five runs in the home half on four singles, a walk to Chunky Wright, and Jimmy Sneed’s rally-capping two-run double, his second in as many at bats. That cut Red’s advantage to just two runs.
Bobby Miller and Tim Bruton singled to start the fifth, both completing 4-for-4 games, Bobby taking third on Tim’s hit and then scoring on Adam Reddell’s sacrifice fly to Anthony Galindo in left-center. Eddy Murillo followed with his third hit of the game, a single to left field, Tim stopping at second. Chunky Wright once again escaped with an inning-ending double play, getting Mike Malay to ground to third baseman Jack Spellman; I stepped on second for the force on Tim, then saw that Mike hadn’t run for first. I jogged the ball across the diamond, intending to make a short toss to first baseman Joe Roche, but Eddy was playing prevent defense and clearly was intent on knocking the throw down, so I just continued to the base and stepped on it to complete the 5u., 5u. double play, which I’m 50% certain was the first in B League history (who knows what craziness happened before 2013).
Maroon wasn’t able to take advantage, however. Singles by Tom Bellavia and, with two out, Dave Jaffe and Joe Dayoc loaded the bases, but Chunky Wright grounded to shortstop Tim Bruton, who tagged second himself for the third out.
Red led by three entering the buffet, but wasn’t able to add to its advantage. Denny Malloy led off with a single, but Chunky Wright retired the next three hitters on balls in the air, getting Tommy Langa on a low liner to third base, Gil Delossantos on a line drive to Dave Jaffe in right field, and Hal Darman on a fly to Scott Wright in left field.
So Maroon needed three to tie, four to win in the home half. Scott Wright led off with a dinky single on a pop in front of shortstop and took third on Jack Spellman’s single to right field. They both scored on Anthony Galindo’s triple to center field, cutting Red’s lead to one run. Buddy Gaswint doubled to left field, driving in Anthony with the tying run. Jimmy Sneed flied out to Jim Maloy in left field, Buddy holding. Joe Roche then came up. Here’s the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln-4fanefn8
Chunky Wright has the final word: “Man, that was some comeback.”
Final score: Maroon 16, Red 15, Maroon recording its fourth walk-off victory of the session.
(Sorry, not much visual content in this issue aside from the video. I played in two games, umpired the third, didn’t have much chance to take pictures. Sometimes the recaps have to be enough.)
11:30 a.m.: Blue (12-3) at Green (7-8):
1 2 3 4 5 6 BUFFET FINAL
Blue 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 5
Green 4 0 0 2 0 2 X 8
Pitchers: Blue – Joe Bernal; Green – Tommy Deleon. No mercenaries. Umpires: home – Scott Wright; bases – Jack Spellman. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Steve Sandall (3 for 3 with a double); Green – Paul Rubin (4 for 4).
Weather: 79 degrees with 79% humidity, still pretty cloudy.
A briskly played, low-scoring game, so it went a full seven innings. Blue broke on top with a run in the top of the first, as Pat Scott led off the game with a double to right field, took third on Tony Garcia’s fly to Phil Stanch in right, and scored on Steve Sandall’s ground-ball single up the middle. Joe Bernal followed with a single to the 5-6 hole, but Tommy Deleon retired George Romo and George Brindley on fly balls.
Green grabbed the lead with four runs in the home half and never trailed again. Its first four batters hit safely and scored: Ralph Villela, Paul Rubin, and Mike Hill opened the frame with singles, Ralph coming around to score, and Paul and Mike scored on Jack McDermott’s triple, a drive to center over Pat Scott’s head. Jack held on David Pittard’s grounder to shortstop George Romo, then scored on Tommy Deleon’s single to right. Mike Garrison also singled, Tommy’s runner stopping at second. The runners advanced on Phil Stanch’s grounder to first base, Dale Fugate making a nice play on the ball and stepping on first for the out. Daniel Baladez hit a looper over shortstop; George Romo made a nice play moving back to grab it, a bit of a snowcone play, for the third out.
Neither team scored in the second and third innings. Both got two singles and stranded both runners in the second. After Tommy Deleon got two outs to start the third, Ralph Villela making a shoetop-high grab of Pat Scott’s liner for the second, Tony Garcia singled and Steve Sandall doubled, both to right field, putting runners on second and third for Joe Bernal. Joe hit a sharp grounder up the middle; Tommy got a piece of it, enough to slow and deflect it within reach of Ralph Villela, who fired a strike to first that just beat Joe – it was a bang-bang play, but I (base umpire Jack Spellman) am sure I got it right. (Blue disagreed generally, George Romo especially.) Joe shrugged it off and retired Green 1-2-3 in the bottom half.
Blue scored twice in the top of the fourth. George Romo singled and George Brindley walked to start the inning, and both advanced on Jeff Fisher’s ground out to first baseman Daniel Baladez. Richard Battle walked, loading the bases. Terry Thompson grounded a ball up the middle, looked like a hit off the bat, but Ralph Villela made a great play to his left to get to it, and flipped to Mike Hill for the force at second; both Georges scored on the play, George Brindley never hesitating as he rounded third and raced home.
Green got those back in the home half. Joe Bernal got two quick outs to start the inning – recorded seven consecutive outs from the top of the second to this point – but the next three batters singled: Jim McAnelly past first base; Ralph Villela to left-center, Jim’s runner advancing to third and Ralph taking second on the throw; and Paul Rubin to left field, both runners scoring.
Blue did something similar in the next inning, the top of the fifth. After Tommy Deleon recorded two outs to start the frame, Pat Scott singled, Tony Garcia hit a triple past Jack McDermott in right-center, Pat scoring, and Steve Sandall singled up the middle to drive in Tony.
Jack McDermott and Dave Pittard singled to open the bottom of the inning, but never advanced, as Joe Bernal retired Tommy Deleon on a two-strike foul, got Mike Garrison to line out to third baseman Tony Garcia, and fielded Phil Stanch’s grounder up middle and threw to first for the third out.
Blue trailed by one entering the sixth, the final five-run inning, but Tommy Deleon kept them from scoring. George Romo led off with a single. Tommy made a terrific backhanded catch of George Brindley’s liner back to the box for the first out. Jeff Fisher took a walk. Richard Battle hit a fly to left field; Mike Garrison, moving in and to his right, ran it down for the second out. Terry Thompson hit a grounder to third baseman David Pittard, who threw to second for the force there.
Green got themselves some breathing room with two runs, scored after two were out, in the bottom half. Daniel Baladez singled to left to start the inning. Jim McAnelly hit a two-strike foul. Joe Bernal snagged Ralph Villela’s grounder up the middle and threw to George Brindley at second for the force there. Paul Rubin singled, Ralph stopping at second. Crossing up the scouting report, Mike Hill pulled a single to left field; Ralph was off on contact and scored, but Blue botched the relay and Paul wound up scoring also, on the overthrow, Mike winding up at second. Jack McDermott flied out to Pat Scott in left-center, but Green had itself a three-run cushion entering the buffet.
Tommy Deleon worked a quick 1-2-3 inning to seal the victory, getting both Dale Fugate and Jerry Mylius to ground to shortstop Ralph Villela (two more strong throws by Ralph, who had a terrific day in the field). Pat Scott flied out to Paul Rubin in left-center to end it. Final score: Green 8, Blue 5
12:30 p.m.: Gray (5-10) at Purple (6-9):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL
Gray 0 1 0 5 0 0 6
Purple 1 0 5 5 5 X 16
Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Purple – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Purple – Anthony Galindo, Ray Pilgrim, and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Mike Garrison; bases – Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Ivan Budiselich (3 for 3); Purple – Clint Fletcher (3 for 3 with a double and a triple), and Jim Foelker, Jack Spellman, Peter Sundquist, and Mike Velaney (all 3 for 3).
Weather report: 84 degrees, 69% humidity, wind SE 8 MPH. The clouds started to dissipate, and when the sun came out it was pretty warm.
Not much scoring in the early going, with Gray turning two double plays and Purple one. Gray loaded the bases in the top of the first on David Kruse’s lead-off single and two-out walks to Donnie Janac and Johnny Lee, but came away with nothing as Daniel Carvajal fielded Jack Kelly’s grounder to first and beat runner-from-home David Kruse to the bag. Purple got a run in the home half. Clint Fletcher doubled leading off and took third on Peter Sundquist’s single to left field. Jeff Stone grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, Mark Dolan to David Kruse to Johnny Lee, Clint scoring on the play. Johnny Lee threw home, nearly catching Ivan Budiselich by surprise, but he really didn’t have a chance of completing the triple play.
Gray got that run back in the top of the second: Mike Mordecai singled leading off, took third on Ivan Budiselich’s line single to right, and scored on Chris Waddell’s sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in left-center. Jim then led off the bottom of the inning with a single and took second on Mike Velaney’s hit, but they both wound up stranded, as Jack Kelly got Rip Wright to pop out to Johnny Lee and first, then got Larry Young to hit a grounder to second baseman Mark Dolan, who threw to second for the force there; Gray got a cheap double play out of it because Larry forgot he’d taken a runner from home, ran past the commit line, and was called out.
Jeff Stone worked a scoreless top of the third. Tommy Gillis grounded out to shortstop. Don Solberg hit a very high pop that started out headed for short right field, then drifted in and toward second base; I should have moved over and taken it, but who likes a ball hog, so I left it for Larry Young, who couldn’t get to it, Don winding up at first with a wind-blown single. I made up for it on the next ball in play: Donnie Janac hit a liner to my left that I caught on the short hop; my momentum took me to second to the force there, and Daniel Carvajal was able to corral my low throw to first to complete the 6u., 6-3 double play.
Purple broke through in the bottom of the inning, and wound up scoring five runs on seven hits in each of its next three at bats. All its runs came with two outs in both the third and fourth. In the third, Jeff Stone and Mike Velaney knocked run-scoring doubles. Gray got five runs in the top of the fourth on four singles, Mike Mordecai’s walk, and Tommy Gillis’s rally-capping two-run double; Purple got those back in the home half, Clint Fletcher with a triple and Jeff Stone with a double to right driving in two each.
Gray did not get a runner past first in the top of the fifth, Tommy Gillis’s lead-off single followed by two ground-ball force outs and Jack Kelly caught looking at a called strike three. Purple pushed its lead to double digits with another five runs in the bottom half, on Daniel Carvajal’s lead-off triple, a drive to left-center, and six singles.
Purple led 16-6 entering the buffet. Mike Mordecai fouled a two-strike pitch for the first out. Ivan Budiselich singled, completing a 3-for-3 day at the plate, and so did Mark Dolan. Chris Waddell skied a ball to left field; Clint Fletcher had to charge in to get to it, and he got his glove on it, but couldn’t hold on. But this left Mark hung out to dry – he’d started to retreat to first when Clint got his glove on the ball, then couldn’t reverse and get to second before Clint’s throw reached Mike Velaney for the force. David Kruse came up and squared up on a pitch, driving it to right field, but right at Anthony Galindo, who caught it for the final out. Final score: Purple 16, Gray 6. Purple won all four of its meetings versus Gray this season.
Standings – Session Four:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Blue 12 4 .750 — 205 158 +47 L1
Maroon 10 7 .588 2.5 205 194 +11 W1
Green 8 8 .500 4 195 196 – 1 W2
Orange 7.5 8.5 .469 4.5 188 193 – 5 W1
Red 7.5 9.5 .441 5 218 226 – 8 L2
Purple 7 9 .438 5 179 186 – 7 W1
Gray 5 11 .313 7 183 220 -37 L3
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Blue 8-0 4-4 2 1-0 5-0 3-0
Maroon 6-3 4-4 4 0-0 3-2 4-3
Green 4-4 4-4 2 0-0 2-4 2-3
Orange 4-3 3.5-5.5 1 0-1 2-3 2-2
Red 2.5-6.5 5-3 1 1-1 3-4 2-3
Purple 3-5 4-4 0 0-0 2-4 0-0
Gray 4-4 1-7 1 0-0 2-2 2-4
Orange and Red tied their game of October 24.
2024 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gray Green Maroon Orange Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 4 3 6 6 4 5 28
Gray 5 X 4 4 5 0 5 23
Green 4 3 X 5 3 7 5 27
Maroon 2 4 5 X 6 2 5 24
Orange 1 4 4 3 X 5 3.5 20.5
Purple 4 5 3 6 4 X 3 25
Red 5 4 4 2 5.5 4 X 24.5
________________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 21 24 23 26 29.5 22 26.5 172
Season home run leaders:
David Kruse – 7
Tim Coles – 6
Ken Brown – 4
Peter Atkins – 3
Gregory Bied – 3
Tim Bruton – 3
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Paul Rubin – 3
Pat Scott – 3
George Brindley – 2
Clint Fletcher – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Gary Kubenka – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Ralph Villela – 2
David Brown – 1
Jack Crosley – 1
Jeff Fisher – 1
Anthony Galindo – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Tommy Gillis – 1
Rex Horvath – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Denny Malloy – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
Eddie Ortiz -1
David Pittard – 1
Joe Roche – 1
Steve Sandall – 1
Morgan Witthoft – 1
Schedule for Monday November 11:
10:30 a.m.: Green (8-8) at Orange (7.5 – 8.5), Maroon umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Maroon (10-7) at Gray (5-11), Orange umpiring
12:30 a.m.: Purple (7-9) at Blue (12-4), Gray umpiring
Red has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Down to the final week of the regular season. Teams probably will be a bit shorthanded, as some players are off to Phoenix for end-of-year tournaments, and Blue has already wrapped up the Session Four title, so there’s a bit less urgency to wins and losses, though I guess seeding for the end-of-season tourney could be affected by the results. Green and Orange are both looking to finish above .500 for the season; whoever loses at 10:30 Monday will not. Maroon can clinch second place for the session with a win over Gray at 11:30; Gray will get a better seeding in the tourney than Maroon if they win. Purple needs to beat Blue at 12:30 in order to finish .500 for the session; they’ve already clinched a top-three seeding. Will the Veterans Day Air Force flyover above Krieg happen while Rick Jensen is in Phoenix? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.