WEEKLY VIDEO

Our weekly feature, Baseball Videos! These are from YouTube or other sources and may have advertisements in them but they are usually worth it. Each week or so we will feature a different video. YouTube or other similar websites are the host for these video's and I assume the videos are not copyright protected if they are on the YouTube website. If a video is taken down it is done by YouTube. Enjoy!!

5-18-25 There have been a lot of baseball themed movies. Some are good, some are bad. When you think about a baseball movie you generally think about the overall experience. How good is the story; how does the plot unfold. You generally do not think about how the actors played baseball. They need to be somewhat realistic but that is not the major focus. Here is a video that one man evaluates the baseball aspect of the movie. Check out "I Watched Every Baseball Movie and Ranked Them by How Well the Actors Played Baseball".

Click here to play this weeks video clip...

If you would like to replay an old video check out the Video Archive on the left side of the website.

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LEAGUE NOTES:

FBN 2025 - 5-1

The 2025 season is in full swing. Our first inter-league games are starting as we are about at the quarter pole of the season. Everyone has been on time so far. Let's keep up the good work and let's all have fun!

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TEAM NOTES:

ADMIRALS ORDERS - 5-14

In a recent series vs. Burlington, Brent Rooker lit up the scoreboard lights with the following 4 game numbers: 7-14, 4 HRs including a grand salami, 5 runs, 10 ribbies, and a stolen base. For the season, Rooker is hitting .369, a power line of 9-1-16, 43 runs, and 44 ribbies. Rook's OBP is .410 with a slug % of .622 for an OPS of 1.032 ........ Carlos Correa is also having a great 1st half, hitting .389. His OPB is .448, slug % is .678, with OPS an even better 1.126. Sadly, word on the street is that his old foot problems may be acting up again ........ Yorktown pitching has been somewhat better, with the team ERA reduced to 4.73. HRAs have not been as numerous, but 86 in 56 games played is still a macabre number ........ Josh Hader has picked it up after a slow start. Hader is now at 27-14-11-42 with an ERA of 2.33 and 42 Ks in those 27 innings. He also has 9 saves to go with 2 wins against only 1 loss.

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DEVIL DOODLES - 5-14

After floundering at or under .500 for the first two blocks of the season, the Blue Devils have finally showed signs of putting it together getting back to back sweeps of Yorktown and Hotlanta to move to a season high 30-22 record. Comparing to last season, the team was 37-15 - 7 games better at this point. However, it is certainly encouraging to be on an 8 game winning streak.

The pitching staff has been terrific all season and the team ERA is at its lowest point of the year at 2.99. Gerritt Cole is 4-2 2.23 in 7 starts having to miss Block 2 with an injury. Patrick Sandoval has been a nice surprise going 3-2 3.03. The only struggling starting pitcher has been Aaron Civale at 3-3 4.70 and that isn't too bad. The bullpen has been "lights out" most of the year. Of the 9 relievers who have pitched this season, 7 of them have ERA's under 2.45 and 4 of them under 1.61. Closer Raisel Iglesias, after a couple shaky early outings, has recorded 17 saves in 21 games. Overall, the pitching staff is walking just 2 batters/game while striking out almost 9/game. They are on pace to walk only 355 batters which would shatter the team record of just 411 walks back in 2012.

The struggling offense for most of the year has shown signs of coming around increasing the team BA to .245 - a nice improvement from the .231 at the end of Block 2. Bobby Witt Jr has finally shown signs of life moving his BA from .179 up to .239. Still very disappointing but at least trending positively. His 7 HR's and 19 RBI are just stunningly poor. Corey Seager hasn't fared much better batting just .233 with 8 HR's and 17 RBI. Way off their potential . . .
Freddie Freeman continues to be the team MVP batting .285 with team leading 31 runs, 31 RBI, 18 doubles and 10 HR's.

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89ERS REPORT CARD - 5-1

We finished block two at 27-13. We lost one series and that was to the mighty Klubbers. Klees hit 6 HRs and scored 20 runs in the 3-game series. Our ERA for the series was 6.67. Entering the series the team ERA was 3.40. "You have to give Klee's credit; they fought us tough to the end," said Casey Stengel.

Going into block 3 we needed to make a number of roster changes. Devin Williams and Dennis Santana went on the block 3 IL. Both pitchers need rest. They will be able to return to the club in block 4. In their place Nick Sandlin and Keegan Thomas were promoted. Sandlin in 13 games at AAA had an ERA of 2.28. In 23.2IP he had only given up only 10 hits while walking 6. He also had 32 Ks. Thomas ERA was 2.32. In 31IP he gave up 10 hits but he did walk 26. He'll need to improve his control to be of help in the FBN. He did K 44.

Austin Martin was sent down to AAA as he was batting .234 with 4D and 1HR. Casey and Stick Michael decided that they needed some extra power in the outfield. Promoted was Adolis Garcia. Garcia was hitting .241 with 16D & 4HR at AAA.

NOTE: Last night in Garcia's his first game after being called up he hit a HR, double and a single as he went 3-3 with 2 RBI and a SB. Garcia said, "It was just all timing. I had pretty good rhythm at the plate tonight. You've got to take advantage of mistakes when you finally get called up. A couple pitches were definitely up a little bit - right in my zone." We started Block 3 with a 2-2 split with California.

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REPORT CARD FROM THE SCHOOL YARD - 4-14

After a 6-0 start in Block 1 the team finished with 2 losses at Wall Street for an overall record of 13-8. We moved into Block 2 by welcoming Hotlanta. We lost the first game. That gave us a losing streak of 3 games. We were able to take the next three from Hotlanta. Illinois was next to visit the School Yard. We won all three games by one run to match our opening streak of 6 games. Traveling to Connecticut we surprisingly won all three games to increase the winning streak to 9 games. Next we travelled to Burlington. We took the first two games to make our winning 11 in a row.

Burlington manager Robert Clemente said "We've had enough!" Burlington snapped our winning streak by winning game 3, 2-1. Burlington loaded the bases in the 7th. Caballero walked and stole 2nd. Andre Pallante replaced Tyler Anderson. A wild pitch put Caballero on 3rd. Another wild pitch scored the go ahead run. Pallante then K'ed, Marte and Urchela and got Castellanos to ground out but the damage was already done.

TEAM HI-LITES: - The team hired Fred McGriff to help Jim Hickman with left handed batters. The team has responded as it is hitting at a .269 clip compared to last year at this time when the team was hitting .219. LHB'ers hitting .299, RHB'ers hitting .264 and SHB'ers .259. The team has scored 162 runs and has hit 36 home runs.

Pitching coach Al Jackson has turned the pitching around this year. Last year the team ERA was 4.29 at this point. This year it is 3.11. When asked what is the difference, Jackson said five of the 6 starters have ERA under 3.50. The pen is 7-2-11 with a 2.83 ERA. "When everyone believes it makes things easier", said Jackson.

BATTER UP - Next up for the 89ERS is a visit by Klee's on the 22nd.

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US JARHEAD SCUTTLEBUTT - 4-1

Somehow the Jarheads are hanging just above .500 with a paltry BA of .226 and a total of 90 runs scored. The infield combined: Goldschmidt 1b .183, McNeil 2b .188, DeJong 3b .188, IKF ss .241, and not much help from OFers, Noel .167, Mullins .210 and Acuna .205.

Shrapnel:
USJ First round pick Yoshi Yamamoto posted a 2-1, 2.31 record in Block 1 but is headed down to Parris Island for inning conservation. For Block 2, Bowden Francis was called up to fill his spot in the rotation.

Waiver Wire pickup Anthony Rendon(1-10 .100) was also sent down to PI and 4th round DP Trey Sweeny will get the call-up.

All or Nothing.
Mike Trout, is 4 for 11, and all 4 hits have been homeruns. (.364 4HR 9RBI) Trout started 1 game and was 1-2 with a HR. The other 9 ABs were PH appearances, good for 3 more HRs.

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DEVIL DOODLES - 3-30

The defending NL Champion Blue Devils opened play in their 39th season in the FBN with middling results - struggling to a 10-11 record after Block 1. Last year, the team got off to a much better start at 14-7. Connecticut will look to put things together in the 2nd block of games.

The problem certainly hasn't been the pitching. The pitching staff has a 3.04 ERA with every active pitcher having an ERA under 3.68. Zach Eflin is the only pitcher over a 4.00 ERA at a respectable 4.26. Gerrit Cole has been outstanding with a 1.73 ERA allowing just 17 baserunners in 26 innings with 33 strikeouts. Yet he has a hard luck 1-2 record. Merrill Kelly leads the staff with a 3-2 3.41 ERA.

The team struggles have centered around a very disappointing offense. Expected to be a very good offense, the team batted .235 in the block scoring less than 4 runs/game. Bobby Witt Jr has gotten off to a brutal start batting just .179. He has only 2 HR's and 4 RBI in 21 games while leading the team with 20 K's. Without getting on base, he hasn't been able to utilize his speed either as he only achieved 1 stolen base all block. Corey Seager has also struggled batting just .226. He's hit 4 HR's but only has 7 RBI. Freddie Freeman has been the most productive with 6 doubles, 4 HR and 14 RBI but that is still below his normal output.

Gotta believe the offense will turn things around at some point . . . we'll see . . .

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Older team articles can be found in the Team Article Archive on the left side menu.

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2025 INSIDE THE FLY BY NIGHT
Written by Ed Griffin
March 2025

Hey guys,
Here you go. Six divisions. Should be a fun season. Good luck to everyone (except Glen who never needs it).
Let's roll!
Ed