B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 58 – October 9, 2025
Games of Thursday October 9:
10:30 a.m., Green (4.5 – 4.5) at Purple (4-5):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 1 4 2 0 1 9 17 Purple 5 0 1 4 4 4 18 Pitchers: Green – Greg Lloyd; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Green – Gary Coyle; Purple – Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Donald Drummer; bases – Jim McAnelly, Peter Sundqueist, and Jack McDermott. Perfect at the plate: Green – Billy Hill (4 for 4); Purple – Spike Davidson (2 for 2 with two walks – Ohtani Award), Larry Fiorentino (3 for 3 with a walk and a double), Henry Flores (3 for 3 with a double), and Rick Jensen (2 or 2 with a walk).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 80 degrees, felt like 83. Humidity 66%, wind from the NE at 7 MPH. Fair – perfect!
This was a barn-burner.
Green loaded the bases on three singles in the top of the first, but came away with just one run, on Donnie Janac’s sacrifice fly, despite Purple failing to execute a turnable double play: Ralph Villela led off with a single, and Phil Stanch followed with a hard one-hopper back to pitcher Spike Davidson; Spike wheeled and pegged a good throw to shortstop Rick Jensen, but in his eagerness to make the throw to first, Rick got his throwing hand’s ring finger in front of the ball and wound up bobbling it, both runners safe, Rick’s finger bloodied and numbed. Rick switched positions with third baseman Jack Spellman, but the ball immediately found him as Mike Garrison grounded to the third-base side; Rick fielded the ball and raced Ralph for third base; Ralph swerved left to avoid Rick’s tag and actually made it to the base line before Rick got to the base, but was called out for leaving the baseline, a proper call (in my opinion). Chris Waddell followed with a bases-loading single, and Donnie’s fly to Matt Levitt in left-center delivered Phil with Green’s first run.
Purple then grabbed the lead with five runs in the bottom of the first, not making an out: the first three batters singled, Matt Levitt scoring; the next three walked, with Spike Davidson’s and Fritz Hensel’s coming with the bases loaded and forcing in runs; and then Rick Jensen and Henry Flores singled in the fourth and fifth runs.
Green tied the score with four runs in the top of the second, all coming after two were out. Ralph Villela singled in the first run; Phil Stanch’s single loaded the bases; and Mike Garrison hammered a three-run double. Greg Lloyd then retired Purple 1-2-3 in the home half, with Donnie Janac making a good play moving to his right to run down Jack Spellman’s line drive to right field and Ralph Villela grabbing Matt Levitt’s liner to shortstop.
Green went ahead in the third inning, scoring two runs in the top half. Singles by Greg Lloyd, Johnny Wimpy, and Billy Hill loaded the bases with one out. Spike Davidson got Steve Browne to hit a two-strike foul, but Gary Coyle came through with a clean single that drove in two. Larry Fiorentino led off the bottom of the inning with a double and scored on Spike Davidson’s two-out single, so Green led 7-6 entering the fourth.
Spike Davidson threw an immaculate inning in the top of the fourth, retiring Green’s 2-3-4 hitters on three pitches: Phil Stanch grounded back to the box; Mike Garrison lined out to third baseman Rick Jensen; and Chris Waddell grounded out to shortstop.
Purple then went back ahead with four runs in the home half. A walk to Rick Jensen and singles by Henry Flores and Larry Young loaded the bases. Jack Spellman drove a pitch to right-field that likely would have cleared the bases, but landed a foot or so foul; Spellman then fouled off the next pitch for a strikeout. But Matt Levitt singled in Rick, the bases remaining loaded. Then Larry Fiorentino ripped a base hit to left-center, all three runners scoring, though Larry was thrown out 8-6-4 (Steve Browne to Ralph Villela to Johnny Wimpy) trying for a double.
Purple led 10-7 entering the final five-run inning. Spike Davidson got two quick outs on balls in the air to second baseman Raul Deleon, a pop by Donnie Janac and a humpback liner by Greg Lloyd. Johnny Wimpy, Billy Hill, and Steve Browne followed with singles, Johnny coming around to score. Gary Coyle drove a ball down to deep left field, but Richard Battle was well positioned and made the catch.
Purple extended its lead with four runs in the bottom of the fifth on five consecutive one-out hits, four singles and a two-run double by Henry Flores, completing a 3-for-3 game.
So Purple led 14-8 entering the buffet. Green had the top of its lineup due up, and proceeded to put on a hitting clinic. Ralph Villela and Phil Stanch led off with back-to-back doubles, cutting Purple’s lead to five runs. Larry Fiorentino made a good play to run down Mike Garrison’s drive to right-center for the first out. The next six batters – Chris Waddell, Donnie Janac, Greg Lloyd, Johnny Wimpy, Billy Hill, and Steve Browne – each singled, four more runs coming across. One of those singles, might have been Chris’s, was a sharp grounder to shortstop that took a bad final hop and hit me square in the cup, which, thank goodness for the cup.
Billy Hill lines his fourth hit of the game, an RBI single to center field in the top of the buffet.
Gary Coyle came up with Green down by just one run and drove a pitch to deep right-center (I think), resulting in a two-run sacrifice fly as the relay home was too late to catch Billy Hill’s pinch-runner. Steve Browne tagged and took third on the play. Ralph Villela came up and hit a two-hopper to shortstop, a nice big Sunday hop for Spellman, but I elected to try to throw out Steve heading home instead of going after Ralph – I had less confidence I could out-throw Ralph moving up the line, but Steve broke on contact and went hard for home, and my throw to catcher Fritz Hensel was low and not caught cleanly and anyway didn’t beat Steve. Ralph wound up at second, and it was altogether a terrible decision at my end as Phil Stanch followed with a triple, Ralph easily scoring Green’s ninth run of the inning. Mike Garrison came up and drove a pitch to left field, but but Richard Battle made a good catch moving to his right, running down the ball just before reaching the foul line, a clutch catch – it was the third straight at bat in which Mike squared up on a pitch but came away with nothing to show for it.
Green led 17-14 entering the bottom of the buffet, Purple with the heart of its order due up. Larry Fiorentino drew a walk. Raul Deleon singled up the middle. Richard Battle drew his second walk of the game, loading the bases, and then Spike Davidson drew his second run-scoring walk of the game, forcing home Larry. Fritz Hensel stepped up and absolutely crushed a pitch, lining it to center field and past the outfielders, all three runners scoring for a walk-off Purple victory.
Fritz Hensel’s walk-off three-run hit left Philadelphia Karen weeping for joy.
Final score: Purple 18, Green 17
Spike Davidson receives his eighth Ohtani Award of the 2025 season.
11:30 a.m., Red (4-4) at Gray (2-6):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 2 1 2 1 4 10 Gray 4 5 1 3 X 13 Pitchers: Red – Joe Bernal; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Red – Bobby Miller, Steve Sandall, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Rick Jensen; bases – Larry Young. Perfect at the plate: Red – Jack Spellman (4 for 4 with a double and a triple); Gray – Jack Crosley and George Romo (both 3 for 3), Tommy Gillis (3 for 3 with two doubles), and Dave Jaffe (walked in both plate appearances). Home run: Paul Rubin (inside the park) (3).
Dave Berra’s weather update: 83 degrees, felt like 87. Humidity 59%. Wind from the NE at 6 MPH. Sunny – we could play all year with weather like this!
Gray welcomed Jim Aaron back, and his return paid an immediate dividend, as he started a 6-4-3 double play off Joe Bernal’s grounder to the shortstop hole that short-circuited Red’s rally in the top of the first inning. Jack McDermott had singled, Jack Spellman tripled to right-center to drive Jack in, and Peter Sundquist walked to start the game, and Spellman scored on the double play, but that was all Red would get in the inning.
Jim Aaron started a 6-4-3 double play in his first inning back in B League after returning from Taos, New Mexico.
Gray then scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth, denied a fifth on a technicality. Paul Rubin led off with an inside-the-park home run to right-center, his third of the season, seen here:
One out later Jack Crosley and Adam Reddell singled and Tommy Gillis doubled, Jack scoring. George Romo singled Adam in. Johnny Lee’s sacrifice fly to Peter Sundquist in left-center field delivered Tommy. Singles by Jack Kelly and Hal Darman loaded the bases for Dave Jaffe, who drew a walk to, seemingly, force in George. But neither Dave nor Hal advanced and touched the next base, and on appeal Dave was called out and George’s run was erased. The moral of the story being, touch your base.
It was but a speed bump for Gray, however. Jack Kelly held Red to one run on three singles in the top of the second. Gray then scored five times on seven hits in the bottom half, but really it was five hits and three errors by second baseman Jack Spellman, having a truly awful time of it in the field. Mike Malay singled and Paul Rubin doubled to start the frame. Jim Aaron singled, Mike scoring. Jack Crosley hit a pop single to the right side just beyond the infield – Paul scored on the play, Jim wound up at second, Jack at first. Then Adam Reddell popped a ball just beyond the 3-4 gap; I moved back and to my left, had the ball in my glove, and dropped it. I picked it up, had all the time in the world to throw to second to force Jack, but hurried and shanked the throw past shortstop Bobby Miller. Then Tommy Gillis hit a hard two-hopper to my left; I fielded it cleanly, turned and threw to second, and damned if I didn’t shank the throw again, but even worse, not getting it within ten feet of Bobby despite having, once again, plenty of time to make the play. Here’s more or less what it looked like:
The fudge, of course, represents the epithet I screamed, leaving the librarians in the stands aghast.
George Romo then singled in Adam, and Gray had a five-run inning and a 9-3 lead without having made an out.
Red managed to win the third inning, scoring twice in the top half – back-to-back doubles by Spellman and Peter Sundquist to open the inning, Gary Coyle driving in Peter with a single – and holding Gray to one in the bottom half, on Mike Malay’s sacrifice fly to Jack McDermott in left field. But Gray won the fourth: Jack Kelly held Red to one run on three two-out singles in the top half, and Gray pushed across three runs on four singles and Tommy Gillis’s second double in the home half, Tommy, Jack Crosley, and George Romo all completing 3-for-3 games.
Gray led 13-7 entering the buffet. Red put together its best inning of the day, knocking five singles and a double, by Bobby Miller, the last four hits coming with two out, and scoring four times before Jack Kelly got Peter Sundquist to pop out to third baseman George Romo in foul territory to end the game.
Final score: Gray 13, Red 10, Gray snapping its four-game losing streak.
12:30 p.m., Orange (7-1) at Maroon (5-4):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Orange 0 5 3 3 1 12 Maroon 1 3 0 0 7 11 Pitchers Orange – Terry Thompson; Maroon – Tom Kelm. Mercenaries: Orange – Peter Sundquist; Maroon – Adam Reddell, Paul Rubin, Ralph Villela, and Jack McDermott (entered for Adam Reddell in the top of the fourth). Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – Jack Kelly. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Clint Fletcher (4 for 4 with a double) and Terry O'Brien (walked in each of his three plate appearances); Maroon – Tom Kelm (2 for 2 with a walk) and Adam Reddell (1 for 1).
Weather update: 88 degrees, felt like 92. Humidity 48%. Wind from the NNE at 7 MPH. Mostly sunny.
This game achieved the only-in-B-League trifecta of being one in which the teams flip-flopped and the visiting team won by one run on a walk-off.
Maroon got off to a good start, holding Orange scoreless in the top of the first inning, stranding three runners. Clint Fletcher led off the game with a line single up the middle. Terry Thompson grounded to shortstop Ralph Villela, who threw to Tommy Langa for the force at second; Tommy’s throw to first then clipped Terry on the nose, bloodying it, as more or less seen here:
(Today I learned that Google AI studio won’t allow to me to prompt it to portray violence or injury, which… really?)
Peter Atkins hit a pop to short right field that Ralph Villela ran down because of course he did, his range is ridonculous. A single by Daniel Carvajal and a walk to Terry O’Brien loaded the bases, but Ralph turned Ray Pilgrim’s grounder up the middle into an inning-ending 6-4 force.
Terry got treatment in the Beer Garden – ice, not beer, and really it was self-treatment – as seen here (non-AI picture)…
…and, remarkably, went out to pitch the bottom of the inning. He gave up one-out singles to Scott Wright and Don Solberg, then walked both Tom Kelm and Ivan Budiselic, Scott coming around to score, but he left the bases loaded, getting Tommy Langa to pop out to David Brown and Steve Hamlett to hit into a 4-6 force, Terry O’Brien to David.
Orange took the lead with five runs in the top of the second on five clean singles and Clint Fletcher’s double. Maroon got three back in the home half, on four singles and Bobby Miller’s double to right.
Orange then won both the third and fourth innings, scoring three times in each while Terry Thompson blanked Maroon in the home halves. Meat-and-potatoes rallies by Orange: three runs on Terry O’Brien’s walk and five singles in the top of the third; three more on three singles, a throwing error, and two walks in the top of the fourth, which saw a very scary moment. Orange loaded the bases on singles by Peter Atkins and Daniel Carvajal and a walk to Terry O’Brien, his third in as many trips to the plate. Ivan Budiselic caught Ray Pilgrim’s foul pop down the third-base side for the first out. David Brown lined out to second baseman Tommy Langa for the second out, excellent play by Tommy, but then he threw past first trying to double up Terry, and the runners all advanced, Peter scoring. Marvin Krabbenhoft lined a hit to right field, and the scary moment arrived: coming in to field the ball, Adam Reddell has his knee – left knee, I think, not 100% certain, though – buckle under him. You never want to see that. Adam was able to leave the field on his own power, but left the game, Jack McDermott setting down his Dos Equis and picking up his glove and going out to right field.
Tom Kelm escaped without further damage, but Maroon, after not scoring in the bottom of the third – Tommy Langa led off with a single, but was erased on a 6-4-3 double play, David Brown to Terry O’Brien to Daniel Carvajal, was blanked again in the fourth, in very similar fashion: Paul Rubin led off with a single, but was erased on a 6u., 6-3 double play by David Brown on Jack McDermott’s grounder. Bobby Miller lined a ball to the right side, but within Terry’s reach, low to his left for the third out. (Man, that Orange infield is so, so solid.)
With Orange leading 11-4, the teams agreed to flip-flop for the buffet. Maroon then proceeded to put together a terrific rally, pushing across seven runs to tie the game. Scott Wright walked to start the inning. Daniel Carvajal caught Don Solberg’s foul pop just behind first base for the first out. The next five batters reached base, on three singles and walks to Ivan Budiselic and Steve Hamlett. That got four runs in. Paul Rubin squared up a pitch and lined it to right-center field, but Clint Fletcher made an excellent catch for out number two. Jack McDermott came up and lined a triple to right field, driving in two more runs, getting Maroon within one. Bobby Miller’s double into right field drove in Jack, tying the game. The inning finally ended with Scott Wright popping out to shortstop David Brown.
Orange, now effectively the home team, came up needing one run to win. Clint Fletcher grounded a ball to third base and simply outran Ivan Budiselic’s cross-diamond throw for a lead-off single. Terry Thompson singled sharply through the 5-6 hole, Clint stopping at second. Peter Atkins was next, and here’s the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Peter hit a grounder sharply up the middle, just beyond the reach of second baseman Scott Wright, and Clint easily scored from second – a good throw home was caught cleanly but too late by catcher Steve Hamlett as Orange walked off the win.
Final score: Orange 12, Maroon 11
Session 4 standings:
| Session 4 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 8 | 1 | .889 | 0 | 118 | 80 | 38 | W5 |
| Maroon | 5 | 5 | .500 | 3.5 | 108 | 107 | 1 | L3 |
| Purple | 5 | 5 | .500 | 3.5 | 115 | 117 | -2 | W1 |
| Green | 4.5 | 5.5 | .450 | 4 | 116 | 115 | 1 | L1 |
| Red | 4 | 5 | .444 | 4 | 108 | 106 | 2 | L1 |
| Blue | 3.5 | 5.5 | .389 | 4.5 | 87 | 110 | -23 | W1 |
| Gray | 3 | 6 | .333 | 5 | 87 | 104 | -17 | W1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 5-0 | 3-1 | 2 | 0-0 | 3-0 | 2-1 | ||
| Maroon | 3-2 | 2-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1-1 | ||
| Purple | 3-2 | 2-3 | 2 | 0-0 | 2-1 | 2-2 | ||
| Green | 3-2 | 1.5-3.5 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 0-0 | 2-2 | ||
| Red | 2-2 | 2-3 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1-0 | ||
| Blue | 2.5-2.5 | 1-3 | 0 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-1 | 0-0 | ||
| Gray | 2-2 | 1-4 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-2 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 2 | 6.5 | 3 | 3.5 | 4 | 5 | 24 |
| Gray | 5 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 21 |
| Green | 3.5 | 6 | X | 3.5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 23 |
| Maroon | 4 | 5 | 6.5 | X | 4 | 5 | 3 | 27.5 |
| Orange | 5.5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | X | 5 | 4 | 28.5 |
| Purple | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | X | 7 | 25 |
| Red | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 | X | 19 |
| TOTAL: | 24 | 26 | 25 | 21.5 | 18.5 | 23 | 30 | 168 |
Green and Maroon tied their game of August 7; Orange and Blue tied their game of August 28; Green and Blue tied their game of October 2; these are counted as half a win and half a loss for each team.
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 7
Bobby Miller – 6
Mike Garrison – 6
Tim Coles – 5
Ralph Villela – 5
George Brindley – 4
Anthony Galindo – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Doc Hobar – 3
Mike Malay – 3
Paul Rubin – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Tony Garcia – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Scott Wright – 2
Jim Aaron – 1
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Ken Brown – 1
Gary Coyle – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Jack McDermott – 1
Ken Mockler – 1
Ray Pilgrim – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Scott Wright – June 5
Walk-off grand slam:
David Brown (inside the park) – August 4
Ohtanis (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Jeff Stone – 9 (March 20, April 17, July 17, July 21, July 28, September 11, September 15 (2), September 29)
Spike Davidson – 8 (June 19, June 30, August 4, August 7, August 14 (2), September 8, October 9)
Tommy Deleon – 6 (March 3, March 13, April 14, April 28, May 12, September 8)
Joe Bernal – 4 (March 3, April 3, June 5, October 2)
Tom Kelm – 4 (March 3, March 13, May 1, June 16)
Ray Pilgrim – 3 (April 14, August 4, August 7)
Terry Thompson – 3 (July 31, September 15, September 29)
Donald Drummer – 2 (May 1, August 11)
Jack Kelly – 2 (March 10, May 12)
Greg Lloyd – 1 (June 26)
David Pittard – 1 (June 2)
Chunky Wright – 1 (June 9)
Schedule for Monday October 13:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (3-6) at Blue (3.5 – 5.5), Purple umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Purple (5-5) at Maroon (5-5), Blue umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Red (4-5) at Orange (8-1), Maroon umpiring
Green has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Gray and Blue, battling to escape the Session 4 cellar, reenact the Civil War at 10:30, while the two .500 teams, Purple and Maroon, battle for second place at 11:30. Which schizo version of Red will show up against Orange at 12:30, the clutch-hitting, solidly defending crew that’s +2 in run differential for the session, or the inconsistent, throw-it-around bunch that’s under .500? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.