B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 48 – September 4, 2025
League president Anthony Galindo checks in:
Steve Browne will be assigned to the Green Team in place of Buddy Gaswint, who is out with a shoulder injury, and Donald Williams is going to the Red Team. A third player, Steve Guzman will be assigned over the weekend.
Effective 9/18, Peter Sundquist is finally returning from knee surgery and has also been assigned to the Red Team. Welcome back, Peter, and good luck.
On a final note, we will be returning to our regular time schedule on 9/18 and ending the Extreme Hot Weather Rule of drawing up to 12 players.
Know Your B-Leaguers:
Steve Guzman, team assignment TBD
Don Williams, Red team
Games of Thursday September 4:
10:00 a.m., Red at Purple:
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 2 0 5 0 1 8 Purple 4 1 1 5 X 11 Pitchers: Red – Joe Bernal; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Red – Hal Darman and George Romo; Purple – George Brindley. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Red – Joe Bernal and Jack Spellman (both 3 for 3); Purple – Richard Battle (3 for 3) and Larry Fiorentino (3 for 3 with two doubles).
Red and Purple open Session Four with a hard-fought game. Reds two Jacks, McDermott and Spellman, opened the game with singles and both scored, Jack McDermott on Anthony Galindo’s sacrifice fly to Richard Battle in left field, Spellman on Joe Bernal’s single up the middle. Joe took second on the late throw home, and I then pinch-ran for him, but pretty uselessly, as I failed to move up on Mark Dolan’s single and only got to third on Jim McAnelly’s hit. That loaded the bases for Don Williams, but Spike Davidson delivered two unhittable pitches, the first nicking the front edge of the mat, the next landing right on the back outside corner for a called strike three.
Purple then took the lead with four runs in the home half on seven singles, a walk, and Tim Coles’s sacrifice fly. The inning opened with Spellman misplaying Matt Levitt’s one-hop grounder to shortstop. Red managed to get out of the inning thanks to catching Larry Fiorentino, running for Spike Davidson, trying to go first to third on Raul Deleon’s single to left field – the relay went 7-6-5, Jack McDermott to Jack Spellman to Gary Coyle, Red’s best defensive play of the day. With four runs in, the bases loaded, and two out, Joe Bernal got Larry Young to ground a ball to shortstop and covered second for the inning-ending 6-1 force.
Red didn’t score in the second inning. Donald Drummer led off with a double, but Spike Davidson retired the next three batters. Purple then scored a single run in the home half, after Joe Bernal retired the first two batters. Larry Fiorentino doubled and then scored on Richard Battle’s single. Here’s the AI rendering of third-base coach Rex Horvath “waving” Larry home:
(Believe it or not, ChatGPT spat out an even worse version than this, which I’ll display in Keggy’s Korner.) (Also: Travis and Tay-Tay, such a cute couple.)
Red grabbed the lead in the top of the third with five runs on six singles and two walks. After Gary Coyle singled in the second and third runs, Jim McAnelly and Don Williams both singled, loading the bases.
(Jim’s new eyes are paying dividends.)
Donald Drummer’s bases-loaded walk forced home the fourth run, and Hal Darman singled in the fifth with a line single to left-center. Here’s Hal about to take his cut:
Purple got a single run back in the bottom half, as Tim Coles led off with a double, tagged and took third on Raul Deleon’s fly to Donald Drummer in right-center, and scored on Rick Jensen’s grounder to shortstop.
That left Red still leading by a run entering the fourth, but the lead did not last. Spike Davidson held Red scoreless in the top half, working around Jack Spellman’s two-out single, and Purple went back in the lead with five runs in the home half, on six singles, Larry Young’s double, and Spike’s sacrifice fly to Jack McDermott in left field. With four in but two out and a runner on first, Red had a chance to limit the damage, but both Tim Coles and Raul Deleon singled, Richard Battle coming around to score the fifth run. Here’s Raul delivering his two-out RBI single, as depicted by Pablo Picasso for no good reason:
Red needed four to tie entering the buffet. Joe Bernal, completing a 3-for-3 game, and Gary Coyle singled to open the inning, and Joe’s pinch-runner scored on Mark Dolan’s sacrifice fly to Matt Levitt in left-center. Jim McAnelly came up looking for his third hit, and he squared up on a pitch, but lined it within reach of third baseman Tim Coles, who grabbed it for the second out. Don Williams singled, extending the inning and bringing the tying run to the plate, but Spike Davidson got Donald Drummer to fly out to Richard Battle in left to end the game. Final score: Purple 11, Red 8
11:00 a.m., Green at Maroon:
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 0 0 2 2 0 4 Maroon 2 0 4 1 X 7 Pitchers: Green – Chunky Wright; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: none. Umpires: home – Jack Spellman; bases – Jack McDermott. Perfect at the plate: Green – Ralph Villela (3 for 3 with a home run). Home run: Ralph Villela (inside the park) (5).
A defensive battle with two excellent pitching performances, both hurlers working at the limits at both the bottom and top of the arc zone. (In retrospect I wish I’d foisted home-plate duties on Jack McDermott.) Jeff Stone shut out Green over the first two innings, allowing two singles in each frame and stranding all four runners. Maroon scored two runs off Chunky Wright in the bottom of the first, on walks to Ken Brown and Scott Wright, singles by Bobby Miller (after a 1-2 pitch that clipped the mat was called flat) and Jeff Stone, and Tony Garcia’s sacrifice fly to Mike Garrison in left field.
Maroon didn’t score in the second, Chunky working around Steve Hamlett’s two-out single, and Green tied the game with two runs on singles by four of the first five hitters in the top of the third. With two out, two in, and runners on first and second, Donnie Janac hit a ball hard down the third-base side, but Ivan Budiselic made a terrific play to short-hop the liner, keeping it front of him, and recovering the ball and tagging third for the inning-ending force.
Maroon then took control of the game with four runs in the bottom of the third. Bobby Miller led off with a double to left field, beating the defensive set that was squeezing the middle of the field. Bobby took third on Tony Garcia’s fly to Phil Stanch in right-center. The next five batters singled, three runs scoring. The fourth came in on David Corsi’s 6-4 force-out grounder. Here’s Don Solberg connecting on a single to left that drove in Scott Wright with the second run:
(Hard as I tried, I could not get Hailuo AI to make Don smile to any greater extent than this. It’s like the AI knows him.)
Jeff Stone got two outs to start the top of the fourth, with first baseman Tom Kelm making a good play going back and to his right to run down Billy Hill’s bid for a lead-off pop-fly single. Chunky Wright singled to left field to extend the inning. Ralph Villela then came up and drove a pitch exactly between left fielder Don Solberg and left-center fielder Bobby Miller. Chunky and Ralph both raced around the bases and scored on Ralph’s fifth inside-the-park home run of the season, which puts him in a tie for for first place on the home run leader board. Here’s the amended AI rendering of his swing:
That cut Maroon’s lead to 6-4. Maroon got a single run back in the home half, as Ken Brown led off with a pop-fly single to center, took third on Tony Garcia’s hit, and scored on Scott Wright’s sacrifice fly to right fielder Donnie Janac.
Green needed three to tie entering the buffet. Doc Hobar and Greg Lloyd hit back-to-back one-out singles on grounders to the left side, which brought the tying run to the plate. But Jeff Stone got Donnie Janac to fly out to Bobby Miller in left-center for the second out, and Billy Hill to ground into a game-ending 6-4 force, shortstop Tony Garcia to second baseman Scott Wright. Final score: Maroon 7, Green 4
Noon, Orange at Blue:
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 5 3 0 4 2 2 16 Blue 3 1 0 2 3 3 12 Pitchers: Orange – Ray Pilgrim; Blue – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Orange – Matt Levitt, Jack Spellman, Don Williams, and Scott Wright; Blue – Steve Guzman and Johnny Lee. Umpires: home – Jeff Stone; bases – Tom Kelm. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Tom Brownfield (4 for 4 with a double) and Steve Guzman (3 for 3).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 96 degrees, felt like 98. Humidity 28%, wind from the WSW at 5 MPH. Sunny – desert weather.
The bats came alive in this one, the two teams combining to score almost as many runs in this game as the four teams combined to score in the day’s first two contests. Orange came out hitting, scoring five times in the top of the first without making an out, on six singles and Peter Atkins’s double. Blue got three back in the home half on four singles and a walk to Jimmy Sneed. With two runs in, one out, and the bases loaded, Ray Pilgrim got out of the inning with an oddball double play: he got Jim Foelker to ground to shortstop David Brown, who threw to second baseman Jack Spellman for the force at second; Steve Sandall, running for Tom Brownfield from second, had to stop to avoid running into the grounder, so he was only a couple of steps away from me; I ran Steve toward third, made him commit, then made a truly terrible short-hop throw to third baseman Clint Fletcher, who saved me by catching it cleanly before Steve could reach the line, for an inning-ending 6-4-5 double play. As it happened, George Brindley alertly scored from third before the third out, technically not a force, was recorded – catcher Marvin Krabbenhoft had shouted at me to throw to first, as Jim wasn’t running hard from the plate, but I never heard Marvin, and so allowed the third run to score.
Orange won the second inning as well, scoring three runs on five singles and Clint Fletcher’s sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in right-center. The potential fourth and fifth runs were on second and first with two out when Marvin Krabbenhoft hit a ball down the third-base side: David Pittard made an excellent play to his left to field the ball, and then second baseman Tom Brownfield made an equally fine play to cleanly catch David’s short-hopped throw before Peter Atkins reached second, ending the inning.
Blue got one run back in the home half, which ended with another non-standard double play. Tommy Deleon walked to open the inning, and his pinch-runner advanced and scored on back-to-back one-out singles by Steve Guzman and Steve Sandall. Tom Bellavia grounded back to the box; Ray Pilgrim fielded the ball, turned and threw to shortstop David Brown covering second for the force there; David then was able to run down and tag out Steve Guzman for the third out, completing a 1-6, 6u. double play.
Neither team scored in the third. Tommy Deleon retired the side in order in the top half; Ray Pilgrim gave up singles to Jimmy Sneed and Tom Brownfield that put runners on first and second with one out in the home half, but got David Pittard to hit into a 1-6 force and Jim Foelker to fly out to Peter Atkins in left-center to strand them.
Orange extended its lead to 12-4 by scoring four runs after two were out in the top of the fourth. Scott Wright drew a one-out walk, then was forced at second on Clint Fletcher’s grounder to shortstop Jimmy Sneed. David Brown doubled Clint to third, and they both scored on Ray Pilgrim’s line single to left-center. Peter Atkins doubled, Ray’s pinch-runner scoring from first and Peter taking third on the throw home. Marvin Krabbenhoft then singled in Peter.
Blue got two back in the home half, on four singles. With two on and two out, George Brindley made a bid for extra bases with a drive to deep left field, but Matt Levitt made a really difficult, excellent catch, moving back and reaching high to haul it in. It was the second at bat in a row that George was robbed of a hit – Boo Resnick in right-center made a good catch of George’s drive for the first out in the bottom of the third.
Orange’s first three batters singled to start the fifth, Jack Spellman scoring on Don Williams’s hit, Matt Levitt coming across on Scott Wright’s sacrifice fly to George Brindley in right field. That was all, though, as Tommy Deleon got both Clint Fletcher and David Brown to fly out to Jim Foelker in right-center, Jim making a particularly good catch of David’s drive.
Blue then won the inning by scoring three times in the home half. Tom Brownfield led off with a single. David Pittard drove a fly high and deep to right field, between Boo Resnick and Scott Wright; Scott called for Boo to make the catch, which was admirably aspirational, but didn’t happen, the ball sailing past them both for a double. Jim Foelker then singled both runners in and took second on the thrown home. Tommy Deleon lined a ball down the first-base side, and Don Williams made a terrific play to his left to knock the ball down, then recover and beat Tommy’s pinch-runner – George Brindley, maybe? – to the bag for the first out. Johnny Lee grounded back to the box for the second. Here’s the AI rendering of Don Williams catching Ray Pilgrim’s throw:
(I couldn’t get ChatGPT to recreate Don’s play on Tommy’s line drive, alas.) (Nor did it do a very good job of showing Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep watching the action.) (Pretty good on the aftermath of the Phoenix dust storm, though.)
Steve Guzman singled in Jim, completing a 3-for-3 game at the plate. Steve Sandall also singled, to left field, but was thrown out 7-6-4 trying to stretch his hit into a double, a good relay from Matt Levitt to David Brown to Jack Spellman, David snapping a strong, accurate, no-look throw that ended the inning.
On to the buffet, Orange leading 14-9. They added two runs in the top of the inning. Ray Pilgrim led off with a double, a drive to the fence in left-center. Peter Atkins popped out to shortstop Jimmy Sneed. Marvin Krabbenhoft’s runner, David Brown, beat out Marvin’s grounder to the left side for an infield single, Ray’s runner, Clint Fletcher, holding at second. Boo Resnick popped out to David Pittard at third, an infield fly, for the second out. Jack Spellman came up and hit a short fly to left-center; Tom Bellavia, playing me more to go to the right, had a ways to go to get to the ball, and couldn’t make the play; the ball got past him, both runners scored, and Spellman wound up at third on the throw home. Matt Levitt fouled out to David Pittard to end the inning, but Orange led by seven entering the bottom half.
Blue had the heart of its order due. Tom Bellavia led off with a single. Ray Pilgrim got Jimmy Sneed to fly out to Peter Atkins in left-center. George Brindley singled, and Tom Brownfield completed a 4-for-4 day at the plate with a ringing double to right-center, as seen here:
(I tried so hard to make this look more like Tom. Nice of Willie Nelson to show up, anyway.)
David Pittard came up and lined a ball to right-center, but Boo Resnick got a terrific jump on and first step toward the ball, and made the catch, just at knee level, as you can see here:
Jim Foelker was next. His single drove in Tom’s pinch-runner, making it a four-run game. Tommy Deleon also singled, but Ray Pilgrim got Johnny Lee to loft a fly to right-center that Boo ran down, his fourth putout in the game, this one ending it. Final score: Orange 16, Blue 12
Session 4 standings:
| Session 4 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 16 | 12 | 4 | W1 |
| Purple | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 11 | 8 | 3 | W3 |
| Maroon | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 3 | W1 |
| Gray | 0 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | L1 |
| Red | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 | 8 | 11 | -3 | L1 |
| Green | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 | 4 | 7 | -3 | L4 |
| Blue | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 | 12 | 16 | -4 | L1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Purple | 1-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Maroon | 1-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Gray | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Red | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Green | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Blue | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3.5 | 3 | 5 | 20.5 |
| Gray | 4 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 18 |
| Green | 3 | 4 | X | 3.5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 18.5 |
| Maroon | 3 | 4 | 5.5 | X | 4 | 4 | 3 | 23.5 |
| Orange | 4.5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | X | 3 | 4 | 21.5 |
| Purple | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | X | 6 | 21 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | X | 15 |
| TOTAL: | 19.5 | 20 | 20.5 | 16.5 | 17.5 | 18 | 26 | 138 |
Green and Maroon tied their game of August 7; Orange and Blue tied their game of August 28; these are counted as half a win and half a loss for each team.
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 5
Tim Coles – 5
Bobby Miller – 5
Ralph Villela – 5
George Brindley – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Paul Rubin – 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
Tony Garcia – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Mike Malay – 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
Schedule for Monday September 8:
10:00 a.m.: Blue (0-1) at Green (0-1), Maroon umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Maroon (1-0) at Red (0-1), Blue umpiring
Noon: Purple (1-0) at Gray (0-0), Red umpiring
Orange has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: We’re starting that September period when a lot of guys will be traveling, for vacation (that’s me, New England-bound) and/or tourneys, which means more bucket picks and less sense of how teams’ cores are performing. Will Vermont-born Mrs. Keggy murder me when I can’t stop myself ooh-ing and ah-ing over the foliage as we drive from Boston to her hometown of Morrisville, Vermont? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
I am, I’m sure you’ve noticed, having all kinds of fun generating AI pictures of B League play. Not all of them pan out, but here are a couple of fails that I think you’ll enjoy
Here’s Cyborg Rex Horvath fielding a grounder. Rex isn’t going to return to play this season, I don’t think, and he’s not actually a cyborg (or is he?), but this is still an awesome picture:
And here’s what I got when I asked Hailuo AI to show Rex coaching third, waving in Larry Fiorentino running from second:
This is both incredibly wrong and absolutely glorious.
By the way, the Quote of the Day is by Mrs. Keggy, about 30 seconds ago, looking over my shoulder: “What is wrong with you?”
I’m flying to New England tomorrow, returning a week from Sunday. Next week’s editions likely will be at least a day or two late – sorry, but not really sorry, looking forward to family visits and a wedding. Have fun next week, see you all soon.