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