Welcome to THE FLY-BY-NIGHT BASEBALL ASSOCIATION web site!

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CHECK OUT OUR LEAGUE LOGO

Thanks to Vic Handel we have a new league Logo! Check it out above. The logo features dice that show 2 and 6 which is tribute to the first ever game in the FBN which was played on 2/26/74. The gold borders signify our 50th golden anniversary. Of course we have the "Established 1974" featured along with bats, balls, and gloves to show that we feature all aspects of baseball. Good job Vic!

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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!!

 

7-6-25 The history of baseball is broken into eras. No not "E.R.A." but era. We have the deadball era, the steroids era, the division alignment era. Baseball historians have described sevaral more. Do you know all the generally accepted baseball eras. I only know a few. Here is a chance to learn about them all. Check out this video, "Every MLB Era 1840s-Present Explained In 15 Minutes".

 

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:

THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER - 7-2

The 2025 season is more than half way complete. This season is flying by. We are now moving onto the "Dog Days of Summer". The season has pretty much sorted out the teams who have chances from those who do not. Five of the six division are pretty much locked up (I hope I'm not speaking too soon). The wild card races are the thing to watch. Who will capture those three spots in each league. It should be fun. Good Luck to everyone for the rest of the season.

 

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TEAM NOTES:

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY - 7-1

Joe Carter was named player-manager on November 27, 1995 upon the retirement of Ralph Houk. The team was on auto-pilot in 2000 and out of the FBN completely in 2001. Carter returned to the dugout when the franchise re-emerged for the 2002 campaign. As of July 1, 2025, Carter's career record is 2,408 - 2,057 (.539) with two World Series Championships. MIke Henneman has been the pitching coach since 1998, when he replaced Dan Quisenberry.

Most Managerial Wins:
Connie Mack 3,731
Tony LaRussa 2,884
John McGraw 2,763
Bobby Cox 2,504
JOE CARTER 2,408
Joe Torre 2,326

 

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DEVIL DOODLES - 6-29

The Blue Devils have continued their inconsistent play, especially on offense. After getting to their high point of the season at 11 games over .500 (43-32) - they then struggled to go 3-7 over their last 10 games to drop back to 46-39. Although not bad and still in solid playoff position - the record is a far cry from last year when the team was 61-24 at this point in the season - 15 games worse.

The offense continues to struggle with a .238 team batting average. Blue Devils have scored 3 runs or less in 15 of their last 22 games - very disappointing. Even Freddie Freeman, who was sensational for most of the year, has seen his batting average plummet from over .300 down to .265. He still leads the team with 18 HR's, 50 RBI, 58 Runs and 29 doubles. Bobby Witt Jr has bumped his BA up to a somewhat respectable .254 but is on pace for less than 80 runs and 80 RBI for the season. Corey Seager has been brutal batting just .215 with 12 HR's and 32 RBI. With the "Big 3" not producing as expected - it is not a surprise that the team is struggling to gain any consistency.

Fortunately, the pitching staff continues to be solid with a 3.27 ERA. It has been an overall positive staff performance as no one particular pitcher has stood out. The most wins for a starting pitcher is seven with Zach Eflin (7-5). The bullpen has been the key as 8 of the 9 relievers that have pitched have ERA's under 4.00 and 7 relievers have ERA's under 3.00. Raisel Iglesias has been excellent overall closing games with 23 saves and a 2.06 ERA. Phil Maton has been a nice surprise in the pen pitching 40 innings and allowing just 31 base runners with 41K's and a 1.37 ERA.

For team records, the pitching staff is on pace to walk only 393 batters - this would break the franchise record of just 411 walks in 2012.

 

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BLUE NOTES - 6-10

The Blues staff ERAs and statistics are just BAD. No other way to put it. For sure the offensive and fielding stats are bad as well, but that was expected. We thought we had a couple starters and relievers that would be good - or at least okay. Greene and Webb should be pretty good, Verlander and Darvish should be at least tolerable. Holton and Fairbanks should be pretty good. Greene has been almost pretty good - team leading 3.43 ERA - but 48 walks in 86 innings have hurt, leading to a 3-4 record. Webb falls into the tolerable category - 3.86 ERA, 7-9 record, 1.46 WHIP. Verlander and Darvish have been just plain BAD. Darvish has a 5.69 ERA and has given up 22 home runs in 74 innings. Verlander has a 8.17 ERA after 12 starts. His WHIP is 1.78.

Holton has one of the best reliever cards out there. He was doing pretty well until round 4 games when he lost 3 games on homers in the bottom of the 9th. He has a 6-4 record with 6 saves and a 2.55 ERA - pretty good. Fairbanks has also been "pretty good".

Despite having one 1 pick prior to pick 118, last year's draft may turn out to add some significant help to the 2026 Blues team. Addison Barger (216), Schneemann (118), and the return of Toro (164) will help offensively and Justin Martinez (48), Mike Soroka (142), Anthony Bender (193), and Luke Little (208 who is tearing up AAA so far this year) will be added to the staff. We are already waiting for next year.

 

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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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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

 

AMERICAN LEAGUE - Divsion A

Projected Finish
1) Bissel Cove
2) Blue Grass
3) Arsenal
4) Atlanta

Ok, so this is easily the most one sided division. BC will likely win by 30 games. This isn't even one of Glen's best teams. Tucker and Casas were hurt...Carroll and Rodriguez had down years...still this team is young and loaded. It will be an uphill battle in the years to come for BG, AG and AT. Coming off of it's championship BG's offense tanked. They have some pitching with Webb, Greene and Holton, but not much pop in a year when the HR is king. Arsenal has some pop with Harper, Hernandez, Merrill et all, but next to no pitching. Atlanta has a lot of young talent led by Skenes, Guerrero and Tatis...but pitching is very thin after Skenes. Maybe next year for them. I feel confident there will be no wild card team coming ouf of this division.

....click here to see projected team details for the American League Division A

 

AMERICAN LEAGUE - Divsion B

Projected Finish
1) Belmont Street
2) Yorktown
3) Hotlanta
4) Grayson

Another AL division that looks like a one team race. The Boars are solid, not great but the balance of offense, SPing and RPing makes them easily the most complete team in the division. They don't appear to be a great playoff team but should be good over 162 games. Picking up Blanco was very big to round out the rotation. Rooker has turned into a beast for the Admirals, who definitely have some weapons. However, the pitching gives up too many long balls in a HR friendly park. Jim J regularly over achieves...great manager, but he will have his work cut out with the mediocre bunch. No real studs anywhere...just some decent players, HT looks like a .500 team to me. If you LOVE THE LONGBALL, the Grits are your play. Judge alone will probably hit 70. GG will easily hit 300 bombs and give up another 300. The average score of a Grits' game will probably surpass what the NE Patriot's did last year...with about the same W-L results. I'd say there is a good chance the Admirals are a wild card team, but it's wait til next year for HT and GG.

....click here to see projected team details for the American League Division B

 

AMERICAN LEAGUE - Divsion C

Projected Finish
1) California
2) Lake Wobegon
3) Urpaign
4) Louisville

This is the best division in the AL. Still, it looks like a one team race. After a busy offseason the Dreamers are locked and loaded and I'd say the favorite to come out of the AL. Massive seasons by Ohtani and Soto and a very deep rotation will lead to north of 100 wins. The pen is solid, not great, but won't be necessary during the regular season. It's possible all three wild card teams could come out of this division. All three are flawed but solid. LW is good, but I don't like all of the LH SPing. Good offensive squad though with Betts, Yelich and Lindor at the top. Hitting vs RHP will be the Achilles heal for UR...that's a big short coming. But solid SPing the pen is good. Secret weapon = Guether! Louisville can play some D! Three 1's in the infield and three 1's in CF. Yikes. Just hit it to Altuve. A pretty good rotation and pen as well. Who are Walker and Gaddis?! This should be a fun division to watch.

....click here to see projected team details for the American League Division C

 

NATIONAL LEAGUE - Division A

Projected Finish
1) Connecticut
2) National
3) Hazardville
4) Klee's

I'm going to say this is the best division in the league. I think CT, NB and HZ will all make the playoffs. Sorry Roland...if you were in Glen's division you'd be a second place wild card contender. In this division I just don't see it. CT has a very good offense. Witt had a monster season. Their SPing is just ok, but the pen is top notch with Iglesias and Hoffman. The Bohemians are like those Chiefs used to be...will hit lots of HRs...with a wrinkle...they can actually pitch. Yates = Yikes! SS is a problem though. Ahmed is a good D replacement, but will be tough to win with Bogaerts and Moore manning the bulk of the duties. I'm sure a trade will come. The Kegs are also solid. Duran and Greene's breakouts and Skukbal at the top of the rotation makes them tough. It should be a dog fight to win the division. I like CT, but who knows. And the Klubbers are not bad. Could they surprise again like last year? I'm betting against that.

....click here to see projected team details for the National League Division A

 

NATIONAL LEAGUE - Divsion B

Projected Finish
1) Norwich
2) Allyn Street
3) US
4) Wall Street

I believe this is Norwich's division to lose. Solid team...good D, balanced lineup, deep Sping and fantastic back end of the pen with Adam and Miller. The 89ers and Jarheads are not bad, and Rob and Bill are great managers so they will not go away easily. AS's lineup is shallow and the pitching is mediocre at best. The Jarheads' offense took a beating with the Trout and Acuna injuries and Goldschmidt aging out. They have a few pitchers with Ragans, Francis and Yamanoto, but I don't think that will be enough to keep up with Norwich. Wall Street is not bad either and Kenny is a good manager so will do well subbing for Joe. Adding Horwitz to the lineup is a nice boost and Nola, Eovaldi and Grasnow are not chopped liver. The pen is pretty shallow though. I think maybe one wild card team could come from this division, but I wouldn't count on it.

....click here to see projected team details for the National League Division B

 

NATIONAL LEAGUE - Divsion C

Projected Finish
1) Zanti
2) Burlington
3) Illinois
4) Southboro

Only sure thing here is that Southboro sucks per Rich's plan and will probably have the top pick in next year's draft. Illinois is pretty good, but a bit weak vs RHP and the written instructions thing makes it tough for them to compete as they normally struggle on the road. Good SPing should keep them in the mix though. Burlington is similar...not great vs RHP, solid rotation, OF not great and a fantastic closer in Estevez but a dicey pen after that. That leaves Zanti who I make a favorite to win the division. The resurrection of Sale and nice pickups in Bride and Profar make a difference. If they struggle it will likely be the pen letting them down. Outside of Southboro this should be a competitive division.

....click here to see projected team details for the National League Division C

 

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