Tag: Yuba Sutter Freebirds

Oakland Ballers weekly report: Follow the Bouncing Ballers, September 1-6: Through a Crystal Ball Darkly

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Oakland Ballers rallied for ten runs against the Yuba-Sutter Freebirds in the top of the second inning for a 16-10 win on Sun Sep 6, 2026 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Wed Sep 9, 2026

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Walter Huston sang “Oh, it’s a long, long while from May to December, but the days grow short when you reach September.” Or as Lawrence Berra told us more prosaicly, “It gets late early this time of the  year.”

But sometimes, as happened the bottom of the eighth on the first of the month, when the Freebirds of Yuba-Sutter turned a 7-3 Baller lead into a 10-7 Freeboard triumph, it seemed as though a half inning would last forever. Even the following day, when the 10-7 game went Oakland’s way, their hosts  managed to make the home half of the sixth last what felt like an eternity as they they fit all their runs into that slowly stretched out frame.

When the season ended with Sunday’s kaleidoscopic win over the Firebirds, time seemed to have expanded and contracted  like an accordion that sometimes plays beautiful music and at others emits flatulent noises.

Let’s take a brief glance at each of the week’s games and then begin to see if we can make heads or tails out of them. Then we can begin to endulge in the post mortems, predictions, and other entertainments of the hot stove league.

9/1:

Winning pitcher: Rane Pffeifer (4-1)    Losing pitcher: Tyler Bates (2-1)
Time: 3:13   Attendance: 702

This game contained the eighth inning from hell, when the Ballers blew a 7-4 lead. Tyler Bates took over mound duties for Jame Pazdera, who had allowed two runs in his three innings in relief of Christian Díaz before yielding a lead off single to Issac Núñez. Bates walked Cam Yuran. Then Núñez pilferred third and scored on Zab Roos’s single that moved Yuran into scoring position. What followed seemed almost inevitable: a passed ball, a two RBI double by Cooper Hext, a walk, another stolen base, a sac fly, and a shower for Bates. Nathan Darden came in to pitch, and the onslaught continued with a stolen base, an error by Brandon O’Sullivan at short, and a single by Josh Duarte that brought in two more Freebird runs. Darden had time to unleash a wild pitch before he fanned Núñez to retire the side.

9/2:

Winning pitcher: Brock Mayer (3-0)    Losing pitcher: Tristan Wolf (4-5)
Time: 2:55   Attendance: 444

The tables were turned in this game, with Oakland coming out on top in another 10-7 slugfest .  David Thomas allowed a mere two hits in five innings of shutout ball. Brady Chåvez also surrendered two hits, but he did it in just a third of an inning, during which he managed to cough up half a dozen runs, all of them earned. Brock Mayer, who allowed an unearned run in his 3-2/3 innings on the mound, earned the win.

9/3:

There was no winning or losing pitcher. Yuba-Sutter won in second round of
KO inning.  (Round 1: Oak: Tristan Moore [0]. Y-S: Cooper Hext [0]. Round 2: Oak: Jeter Ybarra [0]. Y-S: Andrew Kirchner [1])

Time: 2:47   Attendance: 356. (10-15 minute rain delay in top of 1st)

In another topsy-turvy set-to, Ren Abe Arias pitched a complete game, which in the PBL means nine innings rather than pitching from the beginning to the end of the contest. The Japanese-Mexican right handed ace got a no decision, and the B’s suffered a loss when neither Tristan Moore nor Jeter Ybarra for Oakland nor Cooper Hext for Yuba-Sutter could hit a fair ball out of Bryant Field in two minutes or five swings, Andrew Kirchner got the one “home run” he needed to give the Freebirds credit for a win.

Abe Arias was superb, not allowing a baserunner in the four opening frames. Kirchner made a frame of his own; before he closed the scoring with his fatal blow in the Shootout in the KO Corral, he had broken the tie and the perfecto with with a homer to right  in the fifth, closing Oakland’s lead from 2-0 to  2-1. The Freebirds went up, 3-2 in the sixth on three singles, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly. Walks to Santos, Sanford, and Johnstone and sac fly from Ybarra enabled the B’s retied the  game, setting up the carnival side show.

9/4:

Pitching coach Jim Dedrick was manager for a day, replacing Aaron Miles this Friday evening. Miles served as first base coach. It’s unclear if this move has any long term significance.

Winning pitcher: James Pazdera (1-0)   Losing pitcher: Eric Vasser (1-1)
Save: Nathan Darden (1)

Time: 3:39   Attendance: 1,076

This was the game in which Ybarra drove in his 107th run of the season, making him the team’s all time (i.e., three year) leader in that category. It also was Pandora’s first win  as a proand Darden’s first save as a Baller.

9/5:

Winning pitcher: Riley Egloff (6-6)   Losing pitcher: Hunter Day (0-6)  Save: Rane Pfeifer (3)
Time: 2:15   Attendance: 809

Hunter Day pitched seven excellent innings and left trailing, 2-1, He threw 101 pitches, and both runs were earned. He gave up five hits and three walks. Julio Rosario wasn’t as ineffective as he often is, but the home run he surrendered to Zach Chamizo after retiring the first two batters he faced, put this uncharacteristic low scoring  game effectively out of reach,

9/6:

Winning pitcher: Brock Mayer (4-0)   Losing pitcher :Isaiah Williams (2-3)
Time: 3:09   Attendance: 892

Last day of the season games are notorious for their eccentricities. I’m thinking of Bert Campaneris playing a new position each inning in 1965 and Babe Ruth pitching in 1930 and 1933. Managers of teams headed for the post season used to give their usual batters an extra day of rest by letting pitchers play on the bases or in the outfield. In this season’s Baller finale, Noah Blythe, the position player who frequently gave the bullpen a rest by tossing the last inning or so of blowout losses, started for the Ballers. He moved to right in the second frame but returned to the mound with two down in the bottom of the ninth to the bookend his day. James Pazdera, who was pitching when Blythe took over, caught the last out, Kyle Carlson’s fly to right, the position Blythe had just vacated.


A  weak bullpen was a frequent problem for Oakland all season long. Today, Brock Mayer was an exception. Although he yielded a half a dozen runs in his six innings on the bump, only one was earned. He still closed out the season with an ERA of 6.41.

What follows is compilation of thoughts I’ve had about where the Ballers stand and what they stand for. It doesn’t pretend to be definitive or complete. I’d welcome comments, disagreements, and corrections, but mainly clarifications. My judgements may seem harsh, but they are tentative. When I categorize statements as ambiguous, it’s because the situation they refer to is complicated; I’m  not implying that the person or organization involved is being duplicitous, although we never can rule out that possibility.

Even before the season began there were signs of trouble. Lou Helmig had left Oakland and taken  his .884 OPS with him.. BTW, the first baseman’s father had managed Team Germany in the 2016 World Baseball Classic Qualifying Round. That team came within a hare’s breath of defeating eventual runner up Nicaragua. One time Oakland Athletic Bruce Maxwell was one of Helmig Sr,’s charges in the 10 inning battle that eliminated the Germans. Gone, too, was Michael O’Hara, whose marvelous catch, crashing into the left field wall in the ninth inning of game four was instrumental in the B’s comeback win in finals. Oakland was overwhelmed, 13-1 in marked contrast to their  respectable 5-2 defeat in ‘25.

The season started off in sub mediocre fashion, but the defending league champions started to get their act together  in the last week of the first half. The loss of Tremayne Cobb to a leg injury contributed to the Bs’  nose dive at the start of the second half, in which they lost all of the first seven games. That the team finished the half with a winning percentage of .500 was a hopeful sign for 2027, but no more to be counted on than a one run lead in the first inning of any PBL game.   The Ballers announced that the seemingly inexplicable trade of Player of the Week Jake Allgeyer to Mahoning Valley Scrappers on August 10 was made to enable him to be near his family. This raises the possibility that Allgeyer’s need was temporary and that he would be his own player to be named later. Joey Winters, who replaced Allgeyer on the roster, bolstered the team in its end of the season run. So perhaps what that complex story may end up with a happy ending. Jeter Ybarra had first impressed Ballers management with his swing; they didn’t think of him as a power hitter. He surprised a lot of people by able to both hit and hit for power, although  his home run total stagnated after he hit his 33rd of the season. Still, the erstwhile first baseman, who moved to third when Winters took over at first, kept right on hitting.  Ybarra finished the 2026 season with a new Oakland Ballers single-season record of 110 RBIs. During the home stretch, he surpassed the previous franchise mark previously held by Christian Almanza (105 )  and capped it off with a 3-for-5 performance and his 34th home run in the season finale. He ended up setting new records for a single season in batting average (.356), hits (144), and doubles (32). Of course, you have to remember that the team is only three seasons old.

Ren Abe Aris and Hunter Day are among the best of the pitchers in the league. If Oakland can retain their services for 2027, the team could be a serious contender to regain the crown it lost this year.  

Much of the Ballers’ revenue is derived from the merchandise it sells. Indeed, in many ways it’s the Oaklandish company team. That doesn’t invalidate their claim to be a community team. Oaklandish doesn’t sell only a variety of merch, as it’s called these days; it also sells Oakland and provides jobs for people who live there. In many ways it resembles Sid Bercovich’s family furniture company, the sponsor of several youth teams that played most of their home games at 20th and Wood for decades. It was good publicity for the store,  provided training and guidance for the youngsters, and was a source of pride to the community.   Some of baseball’s greatest players of the middle to late twentieth century major leagues were nurtured by that experience. They include National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductees Frank Robinson, Rickey Henderson, Joe Morgan, Willie Stargell, and Randy Johnson.

Other big leaguers who played for Bercovich sponsored teams are Curt Flood, who in spite of Barbara Lee’s proclamation on Curt Flood Day in 2026 that called him an Oakland native. was born in Houston, Vada Pinson, Dave Stewart, Bill Rigney, Jackie Jensen, Don Wakamatsu, Kevin Maas, Tommy Harper, and Charlie Beamon.

You can do well by doing good.

Another source of confusion is the tendency of articles on the PBL and Ballers web sites to conflate the Pioneer Baseball League, founded in 2022 and the Pioneer League, founded in 1939.   No one would conflate the American Association—which, like the PBLA, is an MLB partner league; Lou Helmig played for its Fargo-Moorehead franchise this year)—with the highest ranking (aside from the special status briefly accorded the PCL) in the minor leagues from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997, or with the major league American Association, sometimes fondly and sometimes reprovingly nicknamed The Beer  and Whisky League.  Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first openly Black major league player, earned that distinction  in 1884 with the Toledo Blue Stockings of that American Association.

Moses Fleetwood Walker (Photo: Wikipedia)

During the season, I frequently complained about the scoreboard and PA system’s failure to provide information in a timely fashion, as when pitching and position changes went unannounced for innings at a time. It’s hard to receive and give that sort of data when you’re attending to other tasks, and the Ballers’ staff is extremely multi-tasked; there’s bound to be slippage. Helping users of the team’s complex web site takes a lot of time away from workers charged with other duties. Ballers broadcasts on their youtube channel spend an inordinate amount of time soliciting and responding to comments on their chatbox; so much time attention that the on field action seems like a brief distraction to the chattering. I understand that the chatbox helps build a community and a sense of belonging, but I believe that the balance between reporting a ball game and discussing the strangest pet you’ve ever heard of needs some readjustment.

The Ballers have renamed their overworked, excessively multi tasked  staffers “associates.” They are workers, and to call them “associates” creates the sort of confusion that blurs the difference between owners, investors, and stockholders. The Certificate of Fan Ownership says it “is given to fan investors….,” but  only stockholders really own the team. It reminds me of when I worked for the welfare department and the state  decided to call the people we served “customers” instead of  “clients,” because the latter was demeaning. I’d like to see how the people who hire lawyers would react to being called “customers.”

The absence of real toilets at Raimondi remains a problem. Investors were told just before the season began that there were inspection problems that would delay the replacement of the malodorous otherwise unsavory portapotties. On September 29, team president Yeshaya Goldfarb frankly described the problem as financial. The two reasons for the delay aren’t mutually exclusive, but they are an indication of how unsettled puzzling the state of the Ballers can be.

I pause In these confused initial post season broodings to gaze into my crystal ball. From what I see there, I’d say the outlook for the Ballers in the next twelve months is cloudy. Let’s hope that one of those clouds is Cloud Nine.

Follow the Bouncing Ballers August 4 – August 9: That Was the Streak That Was

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The Oakland Ballers lost to the Yuba Sutter Firebirds 9-5 Sun Aug 9, 2026 (photo by Oakland Ballers)

FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALLERS, AUGUST 4-9, 2026: THAT WAS THE STREAK THAT WAS

Monday, August 10, 2026

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–There was a lot of good news to report about the Oakland Ballers this past week, but it was overshadowed by one appalling fact. So, as Gracie Allen would have said, let’s take the bitter with the batter. 

Tremayne Cobb, the key to the B’s success in their first two seasons of existence, is out for the season. Manager Aaron Miles broadcast the announcement on Raimondi Field’s center field scoreboard just before the first game covered in this week’s column, Tuesday, August 4. He didn’t emphasize only Cobb’s many on field  accomplishments; he also stressed the star’s manifold contributions to the community (or, better yet, communities)  the Ballers seek to honor and serve. When the Ballers took the field, they promptly fell six runs behind the visiting RedPocket Mobiles, a name that alludes not just to the team’s sponsor and its product but to the squad’s condition as barnstormers. Then, in a manner worthy of the Cobb-inspired 2025 Ballers, his teammates went one to crush the PBL’s roadshow franchise by the score of 18-10. It was Oakland’s third straight win, and Miles’ Militia kept on winning for the rest of the week before its surge expired from heat prostration a week later in Marysville.

The line score for the battle on the fourth reads,

RedPocket Mobiles (1-18,3-54) 600 200 200     10  12  1
Oakland Ballers (9-10,31-36) 203 900 13x      18  10  1

Winning pitcher: Brock Mayer (2-0)   Losing pitcher:  Kade Walker 1-6)
Time: 3:19   Attendance: 2,222

Whenever the Mobiles come to Oak Town, there’s a lot of murmuring in the stands that the visitors derive an unfair advantage because RedPocket provides the ABS for all games played in the Pioneer Baseball League. I dismiss that particular speculation; if there were any truth to it, the PBL’s nomads would not have the won-lost record they take with them, like the mark of Cain, wherever they go. My suspicion is that, because RedPocket relies on the profits it earns from the services it provides the league, the company agreed to sponsor a team as a place holder until the deal that established the PBL franchise that will start playing in Irvine next year goes into effect..

In any case, the Ballers settled the Mobiles’ hash pretty well in their six game confrontation in West Oakland.  The week’s contests repeated the pattern of the three games that preceded them; they were ripe with reversals, and not just because of their almost incessant exchange of leads and blown leads; individual players displayed wide swings of effectiveness. Oakland reliever Julio Rosario provides a good example. He had almost cost the Ballers their chance to reach the KO round that led to their hard earned victory on the second of the month; six days later, on Thursday, August 8, he saved  his team’s bacon with fast balls of MLB calibre for velocity and precision.That performance earned him credit for the win, his second against one loss. By the week’s end, the Ballers had compiled an eight game winning streak, making them serious contenders for a play off berth. But then, in the sweltering heat of a Marysville Sunday afternoon, they blew an early 5-2 lead and then fell irretrievably behind the eminently beatable Yuba-Sutter Freebirds in the bottom of the seventh . On the mound during the meltdown was Julio Rosario.

But that road trip ending meltdown was still four days in the future when, on Wednesday the fifth, the Ballers turned the table once more on their guests in a triumph that brought Oakland up to the .500 mark for the second half. Not bad for a team that had lost its first seven games of the semi season!

The line on Wednesday, August 5, shows how the dominant the Ballers had become, at least against the Mobiles.

RedPocket Mobiles (1-19,3-55) 101 003 000       5   7  2
Oakland Ballers (10-10,32-36) 411 202 26x      18 21  0

Winning pitcher:Christian Díaz (2-0)   Losing pitcher: Adam Christopher (0-6)Time: 2:41   Attendance: 1,547

Seven Ballers had multi hit games; a half dozen connected for doubles, and three of them hit home runs, Allgeyer smacking a pair of them. It goes without saying that Jeter Ybarra was among the fence clearers.

It also goes without saying that the Ballers scored 18 runs once more on the sixth and almost goes without saying that Ybarra knocked the ball out of the park. What requires mention is that Ybarra’s four bagger, his 31st, tied the team’s season record, set last year by Christian Almanza. Ybarra would break that record soon enough. In fact, he accomplished the feat the next day, Thursday the 6th, in the same game in which the B’s at long last surpassed the .500 mark for the second half.

Thursday the sixth, it was more of the same.

RedPocket Mobiles (1-20,13-56) 001 102 002   6  12  1
Oakland Ballers (11-10, 33-66) 440 102 03x   18 17  0

Winning pitcher: Griffin Smith (2-5)   Losing pitcher: Miguel Rosado (0-1)
Time:2:44    Attendance:1,632

That said, if you were at the ball park and lost track of the action any time after the third inning, you wouldn’t have gotten any help from the PA announcers. Pinch hitters, position switches, pitching changes, all these went unannounced. You might be told who was at the plate, but not when he entered the game or which position he was playing. You might have marked him as the second baseman when you filled in your score sheet and discovered that he was the short stop when he came up for his third at bat. You might have entered the starting pitcher as a righty and then noticed a southpaw on the mound; after a hurried search on your iphone you’d discover that he was his team’s third pitcher. None of this, however much it annoyed you, would have come as much of a surprise. After all, the Mobiles’ roster sheet, published on the PBL’s website, lists Jordan Hamberg as alleft handed pitcher and outfielder who bats at throws right handed.

And you wouldn’t have been the only person to have this experience. At least two people sitting near me were left scratching their heads. There’s more to enjoy at a Ballers game than just the game. But there IS a game going on, and that activity, as well as the folks who care about it, don’t deserve cavalier disregard like this. After all. we’re talking about the Pioneer BASEBALL League.

Next on the Ballers’ agenda was the bus ride to Marysville for a three game series at Bryant Field, the all-ABS venue where the home plate umpires read the ball or strike ruling from the scoreboard but don’t make any pitch call decisions on their own.

I’m pleased to report that the online reports from this venue now include who got the win and was charged with the loss for some of the games, an improvement over their content during the B’s previous trip to the Sacramento exurbs. They still, however, doesn’t give that information for all games nor do they show the umpires’ last names.

It was so hot in Marysville that, while the second game of the series was being played in three digit temperatures, the game time of the final match was moved forward from 6:35 Sunday evening to 11:05 in the morning in a vain attempt to beat the predicted 105 degree heat. Mad dogs and Englishmen ….

The announcement of the morning start heralded the meltdown game But first let’s take a quick glance at the prelude to the win streak’s swan song, Saturday night’s inferno was another lopsided triumph for the Ballers’ batters. Ybarra didn’t add to his home run total but still managed to go a stellar five for seven with a couple of doubles and a corresponding number of runs batted in. The only Baller to put in a plate appearance without a hit to show for it was Brendan O’Sullivan, who walked after his sole visit to the batters’ box. Oakland never trailed their hosts.

Oakland Ballers (12-10,34-36) 140 612 210 17 23 0
Yuba-Sutter Freebirds (5-17,20-50) 111 200 100 6 16 1

Winning pitcher: Tyler Bates (1-0). Losing pitcher: Luke Ridley (0-1)
Time: 3:16. Attendance: 1,418

By Saturday the 8th, winning had become old hat for the Ballers, but right handed starting pitcher David Thomas was a revelation. It took him only 65 pitches to hold the Freebirds scoreless on four hits. That’s it; no walks, no wild pitches, no hit bathers. He pitched to only two over the minimum and achieved 10 ground outs against five fly outs. That’s Rippley Believe It or Not worthy in the Pioneer Baseball League. Another newcomer, center fielder Logan Johnstone joined the usual suspects with his second hone run in as many days. He went only one for four, and so his batting average dropped to .400.

By the eighth inning, the heat had become intolerable, but the Ballers still managed to limp to a decisive, albeit Pyhrric, victory. Bask in the glory of this line score;

Oakland Ballers (13-10,35-36) 002 421 202 13 15 0
Yuba-Sutter Freebirds (5-18,20-51) 000 000 012 3 9 1

Winning pitcher;: David Thomas (1-0). Losing pitcher; Jared Schaeffer (0-2)
Time: 2:50 Attendance: 449

Every dog has its day, and in these dog days of summer, trying to beat the heat by moving the starting pitch ahead by seven hours didn’t make the weather even tolerable. Both teams suffered from it, but it was evident that the Ballers faded while the Freebirds managed to come from behind and finally end the Ballers’ unvanquished skein at eight.

Recent additions Logan Johnstone and Mitchell Sanford led the Oakland attack, and another newcomer, Ren Abe-Arias, pitched decently—by Pioneer Baseball League standards—but Valek Cisneros couldn’t hold the lead in the sixth and an error by the usually elegant fielding T.J. Rogers at short with Tyler Bates on the mound, put the Freebirds ahead for good in the eighth. Rogers’ error seemed more mental than physical. The temperature already was in the triple digits, the playing surface was baked, so a half-baked split second mental cum physical error was not unexpected. Sic transit glorious winning streak.

The Ballers’ players certainly had a full week and fruitful week. The front office, too, was pretty busy these past seven days. If it was fruitful remains to be seen. Here’s a list of Oakland’s transactions so far this month it as reported on the PBL’s website:

8/8 Placed Reed Butz on the Injury List (Injury 10 Days)
  
8/7 Acquired RHP Ren Abe-Arias from the Red Pocket Mobiles in exchange for cash considerations
Signed Nathan Darden to their 2026 roster
Acquired RHP Nathan Darden from the Red Pocket Mobiles to complete a previous trade.
8/5 Placed Charlie Hurley on the Injury List (Injury 10 Days)
8/4 Signed Logan Johnstone to their 2026 roster.
8/4 Placed Tremayne Cobb on the Injury List (Injury 10 Days)

It’s also going to be a busy week at 20th and Wood. Here’s a list of perigame activities that might entice you to arrive early at Raimondi:


Tuesday, 8/11: Bay Mitzvah, a celebration of Jewish culture. The first 750 fans to enter will receive a Ballers noisemaker.
Wednesday, 8/12: A celebration of beloved Laney College football coach John Beam’s legacy. A Coach Beam championship cup goes to the first 750 fans through the gates.
Thursday, 8/13 is Oaktoberfest, complete with Oaktoberfest Giveaways in the Scrappytown Biergarten.


All the games are scheduled to start around 6:35. And all are against the Modesto Roadsters who, at 23-1 are the PBL’s second half leaders and, at 50-22, trail Long Beach by three games for the overall crown. The Ballers numbers are 13-11, 35-37.

Lewis Rubman is a Oakland Ballers reporter at http://www.sportsradioservice.com


Oakland Ballers weekly report: Follow The Bouncing Ballers 7/5/26 and 7/6/26

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Oakland Ballers outfielder Noah Blythe (27) take a big cut at the plate against the visiting Yuba Sutter Freebirds on Sat Jul 4, 2026 at Raimondi Field in Oakland (Oakland Ballers photo)

Monday, July 6, 2026

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–When, on June 28th, the Ballers closed out their home stand with back to back wins over the team formerly known as the Yolo High Wheelers but now sporting the moniker Yuba-Sutter Freebirds, it wasn’t unreasonable to hope that the Raimondi Rowdies had recovered the knack of flirting with disaster but going to bed with success. But when the Pioneer Baseball League resumed play this past Tuesday, June 30th, the Ballers fell back into their newly acquired bad habit of ceding the last and deciding comeback to their opponent. 

That opponent was the Long Beach Coast, a new entrant in the PBL’s newly named and restructured South Division of the Pioneer Baseball League. As a new creation, the Coast don’t have an old name they could discard, but they manage to have an alias, the Regulators, which they often spring on their opponents. Whatever name the tenants of Blair Field assume, they also have a hell of a lot of talent. When the July 4th week end was over, they led the 12 team circuit with a won-lost record of 32-10, a half a game ahead of the runner up Billings Mustangs.

The Ballers, on the other hand, were like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead; when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid. Milton Berle changed that to “when she was bad, she was popular.” That’s not the case with the Ballers anywhere outside of their home territory. as the three digit attendance figures for several of their road games indicate, but there’s no denying that they’ve been playing some pretty horrid baseball recently. It showed in the line score.for the last day of June

Oakland Ballers (16-22)                     100 400 101      7  11  1

Long Beach Coast (30-8)                   000 313 001      8   9   1

Winning pitcher: Zach Voelker (2-2)   Losing pitcher: Matthew Maloney (1-1) 

Time: 3:12   Attendance: 1,984

Valek Cisneros, who was winner of the B’s previous game, in which they had defeated Yuba-Sutter in Oakland, opened the door for the Long Beach victory on Tuesday. He entered the game in the sixth inning, trying to protect a 5-4 lead and allowed three runs on a hit, two walks, and a wild pitch. To his credit, only one of those runs was earned, but that was enough to tie the score at five. The unearned tallies put Oakland fell behind, 7-5. A Conner Smith homer to left closed the gap to a single run in the top of the seventh. 

The Ballers almost pulled off when of their vaunted comebacks when, with two out and the bases empty, in the top of the ninth, Jeter Ybarra blasted a 2-0 pitch over the left field wall to knot the score at seven.

It was up to Matthew Mahoney, coming in to relieve Connor Goodwin, to hold the Coast in check and take us to a knock out round. He walked Cuba Bess on four pitches. Jaylen Edmonds ran for Bess and promptly stole second. Jacob Jablonski walked on the ninth pitch of a full count walk. Anthony Mata lay down a sacrifice bunt, fielded by Mahoney. This text book move allowed Johnny Pappas’s sacrifice fly to left to score the winning run of this too  little, too late disappointment.

The new month saw a variation on the theme with which the old month had ended. Oakland made a valiant comeback attempt that fell just short and lost to Long Beach, 8-7. A detail of the line score rubs Long Beach salt water in the Ballers’ wounds; they outhit their hosts, 15-1.

Oakland Ballers (17-2)              001 100 122           7  15  1

Long Beach Coast (30-8)           015 020 00x           8   5   1

Winning pitcher: Jake Dixon (2-0)   Losing pitcher: Charlie Hurley (1-3)

Time: 3:14   Attendance: 736.


It was close, but no cigar. Cole Percival relieved Steve Odorica after he had walked Allgeyer to open the visitors’ ninth. A Collura double and Ybarra single, and a passed ball with Brendan O’Sullivan at bat with two down allowed the B’s to draw tantalizingly close, but O’Sullivan fanned, stranding Ybarra on second

There were some interesting personnel notes to this night’s happening. One of the few portions of the PBL’s rule book that are available to the public are those pertaining to eligibility. One of those rules authorizes each team to carry a franchise player. The requirements for such a designation are that the player

·       Must have previously played at least two full years in the PBL.

·       Must have finished the immediately prior season on that specific club’s roster.

·       Can only be tagged as a Franchise Player for a maximum of one year.

·       Can serve in a player-coach capacity. 

Cole Percival, the reliever who almost blew the game in the ninth is the son of the Coast’s skipper, Troy Percival..

The other personnel item is that Oakland’s starting pitcher, Nick Bautista, who pitched decently by Pioneer League standards (two runs, both earned, on seven hits, two walks, and a hit batter in 4-2/3 innings, was traded by Oakland to Long Beach before the season began. For some reason, unknown to me, the trade was voided or never was consummated.

July 2nd  offered us a change from the couldof/wouldof spectacles of the two previous days, a complete baller meltdown. The Coast beat up on four Oakland pitchers to win, 14-1.  It was the reductio ad absurdum of a Ballers blown lead; the B’s led, 1-0, after 2-1/2 innings of play.

They never threatened again, making it easy for southpaw Garrett VanDeventer to throw the first complete game since the league was founded in 2024.           

The B’s hit into two double plays and blew several chances to turn them against Long Beach in the middle innings.

Oakland Ballers (16-23)         010 000 000      1   9  3

Long Beach Coast (31-8)       003 002 45x     14 10 1

Winning pitcher: Garrett VanDeventer (3-0)   Losing pitcher: Griffin Smith             (0-2)

Time: 2:37   Attendance: 1,089

The Oakland entourage returned home at about 10:00 the next morning, Friday, July 3, before moving on to a 7:11 start in Modesto that evening. At least they would have a legitimate excuse for a sloppy performance. And they did make play sloppy baseball, O’Sullivan let a double play ball pop out of his glove and hit third base umpire  Alan Walker cost only one run, but it set the tone for a team that already was in a slump, not having won a single game so far on this road trip.. That was the only error chalked up against the B’s, but  subsequent plays like Leehee’s failure to corral Santos’s perfect throw that turned what would have been the third out in the seventh into a double for 최병용 (that’s Byungyong Choi to you and me) are errors that don’t show up on the score sheet. Bradford’s misadventures in left during the wind tossed eighth were explicable because his recent role had been DH. Explicable or not, they had a lethal effect and sealed the Ballers eventual and seemingly inevitable doom. Neither his bumbling nor the exculpatory history behind it is a matter of statistical record.

Bad base running, like Cobb’s attempt to stretch a single in the fifth are costly self defeating mistakes but  are missing in action when you look at the box or line score.

Speaking of which, the grim line score went like this (note the early two run lead, that marks the kiss of death):

Oakland Ballers (16-24)                  200 010 000    3  9   1

Modesto Roadsters  (25-15)            013 000 03x    7 13  0

Winning pitcher: Anthony Díaz (1-0)   Losing pitcher: Hunter Day (0-1)

Time: 2:45   Attendance: 4,37

The Ballers’ 8-4 come from behind victory on Independence Day offered a glimpse of their ability to lose a lead and then regain it, raising hopes that, although long eliminated from the first half championship race, the team might come back and still qualify for the league crown with a second half surge. But it also demonstrated how damaging the squad’s sloppy play could be. Again, there were reasons for the sloppiness: Friday’s physically and emotionally exhausting game, the holiday’s  2:50 game time, and the 94o heat were challenges withwhich  both teams had to contend. The Ballers did it better.

Oakland Ballers (17-24)                100 210 022     8  15   2

Modesto Roadsters (25-16)           012 100 000     4   8    0  

Winning pitcher: Valek Cisneros (1-0)    Losing pitcher: Preston Kelly (0-1)

Tremayne Cobb once more led the Oakland attack, going three for five, including a home run to left on the second pitch of the game and an RBI double to center in the eighth episode. He hit another two bagger to center in the ninth. that one producing two runs. C.J. Blowers, the number one hurler in the Ballers rotation ,started the game for the B’s. As usual, he pitched decently by PBL standards, giving up four runs, all earned, on eight hits in 5-2/3 innings. He is the son of journeyman third baseman Mike Blowers, who played 129 games and hit .237 for or the Oakland Athletics (remember them?) in 1998.His moment  of glory in that lackluster season came on May 18, when he hit for the cycle against the White Sox. He went on to become the television commentator of the Seattle Mariners. Here’s a link to his contribution to baseball lore. It’s worth watching and listening to:. https://www.facebook.com/Mariners/videos/happy-birthday-to-mariners-broadcaster-mike-blowers-/1823433321474713/

The bottom of the sixth in the July Fourth game illustrates why frequent mistakes, whatever their circumstantial causes may be, have long run consequences. Valek Cisneros relieved Blowers with the Ballers hanging on to a 4-3 lead and a runner on first and one away. Osiris Johnson hit the ball to Brian O’Sullivan at third (remember him from the previous night’s fiasco?), and, instead the side being retired, Modesto now had the potential tying run in scoring position and the potential leading run on first. Cisneros fanned Justin Boyd and then made his own fielding error, putting both runners in scoring position. Cisneros then retired the dangerous Tyler Williams, who finished the day with a .362 batting average, on a seven pitch groundout to second..


When you can’t trust your fielders to do their job, you’ll try to strike out every batter you face, and that’s no way to do your job.  This time, Cisneros did his (if you forget about his own fielding lapse)), and Langston Burkett, who replaced him for the home half of the ninth, did his, and the Ballers survived to play a rubber game on Sunday, July 5.

They should have saved themselves the trouble. A game time of 11:00 in the morning of Sunday, July 5 and a temperature that reached into the 90s didn’t help, even though the Oaklanders had spent the night at Modesto’s Double Tree Hilton.

The game was such so long and lopsided that the official scorer didn’t bother to record the time of the final out or calculate the duration of the non contest.. (I found it by clicking on to the Ballers’ Youtube channel and checking the length of the broadcast).

Oakland Ballers (17-25)        000 003 001     4 14  0

Modesto Roadsters (26-16)   520 571 00x    20 22  0

Winning pitcher: Devyn Hernández (3-1,4.57)   Losing pitcher: Aiden Risse (1-5,4.51)

     Time: 3:40   Attendance: 455

Although Oakland’s offense managed only four runs, it did put together 14 hits. Modesto jumped ahead and never was headed off. All of Oakland’s runs were scored in two innings, three in the sixth and one in the ninth.

(Y)our battered Ballers hope to bounce back tomorrow, Tuesday the seventh, in the first of three more games against the Roadsters, this time in Raimondi Park.  As they always are on Tuesdays in Ballerland, the cheap seats go for two dollars.  The theme for this game is

“Immigrants: We Get the Job Done,” and the pin that the first 750 fans will receive looks like a grand addition to your collection (if you have one).

Game time is 6:35, the same as on the remaining weekday contests. That consistency might introduce a welcome element of stability for the Ballers as they try to regroup for the season’s second half, which will start in a week, on Tuesday, July 14.

June 29 Follow the Bouncing Ballers: A review of this week’s Oakland Ballers

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Oakland Ballers were thrilled to get a victory over the Yuba City Firebirds on Sun Jun 28, 2026 at Raimondi Park in Oakland (Oakland Ballers photo)

June 29 Follow the Bouncing Ballers

Monday, June 29, 2026

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Modesto, the home of the Ballers’newly minted regional rival in the South Division of the Pioneer Baseball League, has a long and honorable baseball tradition. Here’s a list of the professional teams, with their affiliations, that have called the city of health, wealth, and baseball 

Their home:

·       Modesto Reds (1946–1961)

o   Affiliations: St. Louis Browns, independent 

·       Modesto Colts (1962–1964)

o   Affiliations: Houston Colt .45s ]

·       Modesto Reds (1966–1974)

o   Affiliations: Kansas City Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals 

·       Modesto A’s (1975–2004)

o   Affiliations: Oakland Athletics 

·       Modesto Nuts (2005–2025)

o   Affiliations: Colorado Rockies, Seattle Mariners 

For most of that time, the California League, of which the variously named Modesto clubs were members member, bore the  rank of  High-A in the majors’ food chain.. It was demoted to just plain old A in 2021.  This had the effect of lowering the quality of minor league ball that fans from the East Bay could easily reach in San José and Stockton, as well as in Modesto, not to mention the quality of play available to local fans.  (Hang down your head, Bob Manfred.).

Here’s a link that lists some of the players who went from Stanislaus County to The Show:

. This poster may strike a nostalgic chord among old time Athletics fans.

The Roadsters play in what now is called Modern Woodman Field. Before that it was known as John Thurman Stadium, and, before that, Del Webb Field. It has a more spacious outfield with higher fences than Raimondi Park, and its winds generally are less favorable to long ball hitters than the ones that chill the air in West Oakland.21-1

In spite of this long baseball tradition and the Roadsters’ good won-lost record (21-15 as I write this), their attendance figures for the three game series with the B’s was 740, 625, and 853. Yes, the heat was extreme in Modesto, and it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump to West Sacramento (and you know what’s going on at Sutter Health Park) , but there are breezes are breezes at Modern Woodman Field, and the temperatures drop there  as the games progress or deteriorate, as the case may be.

Let’s start with the line score of the June 23rd contest.

Oakland Ballers (13-18)         005 000 003    8  12  0

Modesto Roadsters (18-13)     002 000 510   8   9    0

There was no winning or losing pitcher. Oakland won in the first round of the KO inning; Tremayne Cobb (5).

Tyler Williams (2)

Time: 3:40   Attendance 740

The series opener (or, if you prefer, the fourth game of the home and home series that the Roadsters took, two games to one, at Raimondi followed a familiar pattern. The visiting Oaklanders jumped to a 5-0 lead in the top of the third. Modesto cut that to 5-2 in their third turn at the plate. C.J. Blowers went six inning and allowed only two runs, both earned, on five hits while striking out five, but he walked another quintet and unleashed a wild pitch.  All in.all, it was a good—outstanding in the context of the PBL—performance, and well above the righty’s usually level, as realize that his in-game ERA of 3.00 lowered his season’s ERA to 7.79. Valek Cisneros took the mound to start the frame and left it with his team trailing its hosts, 7-5. Langston Burkett fanned the first batter he faced before allowing a game- tying single to right by Justin Boyd that plated the inherited runner, Jacob Lojewski.The Ballers won the knock out inning in the first round, Tremayne Cobb’s five blasts besting Tyler Williams’s two. No matter who wins these carnival side shows, the knock out inning is an abomination.

No Ballers hit a real home run, but Esai Santos , Jaden Collura , Jeter Ybarra , and Davis Drewek

hit doubles, and Jaden Collura, and Davis Drewek had three games, and T.J. McKendrick got a pair of singles.

Modesto knotted the series on the night of Wednesday the 24th.

Oakland Ballers (14-18)         200  100 000    3   6  0 

Modesto Roadsters (19-13)    012  100 02x    6  10 0

Winning pitcher: Devyn Hernández (1-0)   Losing pitcher: Aidan “Risse (0-1)   Save: Johan     Castillo (1)

Time:  2:25   Attendance: 625

The Ballers treated their starting pitcher, Aidan Reese to an early 2-0 lead thanks to Jake Allgeyer’s four bagger to center with Santos on base. (He had struck out swinging but reached first on a passed ball), but the Roadsters revved their engine and made it to home in once in the the second, twice in the third, and another time in the fourth. Risse didn’t come out to the mound at the start of the home eighth; by then he had thrown112 pitches, only 70 of them strikes. Remember that any ball a batter lays wood on is counted as a strike, no matter how much it misses the zone by. Yet Risse walked only one batter and didn’t throw any wild pitches or hit any batters. Six of the outs he recorded came on fly balls; eight on grounders. Deven Hernández, who also lasted seven frames, and Johan Castillo, who was untouched in the last two innings, condemned Oakland to another blown lead loss.

Allgeyer’s shot in the first was the only round tripper for the Ballers, and Drewek, with two singles, was the only member of the squad to garner more than one hit.

On Thursday the 25th, the Ballers were presented with a repeat of the dilemma they had faced the previous Sunday, back home in West Oakland, a rubber match. They lost that game, part of the growing pains of their revamped roster. They lost again on Thursday.

Oakland Ballers (14-19)         100 000 000    1  10  2

Modesto Roadsters (20-13)    310 010 10x    6  10  2

Winning pitcher: Omar Serrano (1-0)   Losing pitcher: Charlie Hurley (0-1)  

Time: 2:40   Attendance: 853

It was another exercise in frustration. With a game time temperature of a sweltering 890, number two batter Esai Santos blasted a 437 foot homer into the depths beyond right center field. I won’t say that the B’s offense stopped there, but it sure did stall They left ten men on base, not counting the play that ended the first frame for Oakland. After Jaden Collura rounded first on a single, a throw from right fielder Justin Boyd to short stop Jacob Lojewski nabbed the Baller catcher. The play was scored as a pick off. Oakland batters went 0-9 with runners in scoring position.

The loss was pinned on Charlie Hurley, a fine name for a pitcher. It certainly beats Walker, although Hurley issued four of them in his five innings on the bump. He was succeeded by Hunter Day, making his Ballers debut. Before Oakland acquired him, he had pitched for the independent American Association Fargo-Moorehead RedHawks. He held Modesto to two hits, one of them a double, and a walk in his one inning stint. Jacob Petersheim, who was unimpressive in his debut on June 21st, was somewhat better in this game; the run he allowed in his two inning stint was unearned.

Back at 10th Wood, on Friday the 26th the B’s didn’t have to contend with a game time temperature of 89, as they had to the night before in Modesto. When home plate umpire Tony  Pratercalled “Play” at 6:35, the thermometer read  64o.. Nor did the Miles’ Militia have to face the powerhouse Roadsters. Instead, they were up against the Yolo-Sutter Freebirds, bearers of an 11-22 record and standing two places behind the B’s in the South Division. They weren’t playing to a near empty ballpark, either. The opponents had changed, but the Ballers’ still were their own worst enemies, snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory after what could have been a comfortable, if not overwhelming, first inning advantage of six runs. But Yuba-Sutter scored in every inning but the first, and Oakland was shut out, starting in the third and lasting through the eighth.

The crowd  of 1,878  dwindled as ballers couldn’t get out of their own way. An emblematic example of that distressing tendency occurred in the top of the sixth when Colusa made a wild throw to first on what would have been an inning ending 5-2-3 double play. That twin killing that wasn’t d could have provided some impetus to the faltering B’s once notable ability to overcome as well as to throw away imposing leads. They had entered the inning trailing 10-9. They left it behind trailing 14-9.

Once again, the line score outlines the disappointing facts.

Yuba Sutter Freebirds (12-22)            024 134 121   18  18  3

Oakland Ballers (14-20)                     621 000 002   11  11  3

Winning pitcher: Sean Wiese (2-0)   Losing pitcher: Dylan Delvecchio (0-1)

Time: 3:45  Attendance: 1,878 

But the Ballers did manage to pull off a public relations triumph. They signed Liam Plunkett, a one time star of British cricket who now plays in Major League Cricket, a league that features a streamlined version of the tradition British sport. They were able to do this because of a wrinkle in the PBL’s eligibility rules that permits each team to carry one on its roster who isn’t likely to advance in professional baseball but whose presence there will be a box office draw.You’ve got to love the PBL and its idiosyncratic rules, even if the league is selective about telling you what they are.

June 27, 2026 was a Saturday, and that meant a 4:35 first pitch. I hopoe the line score will raise your spirits.

Yuba-Sutter Freebirds (12-23)           003  000 010   4   10  0

Oakland Ballers (15-28)                     100  100 03x   5    6   2

Winning pitcher: Michael Riley (2-1)   Losing pitcher: Corbin Barker (1-1) Save: Matthew Maloney (2)

Time: 2:36   Attendance: 1,921

The Ballers once more took an early lead, going ahead 1-0 in the first, only to give it up two innings later, when three Freebirds crossed the plate. But this time, the Ballers seemed to recover their 2025 mojo. Down 4-2 in after seven and a half innings, the Ballers had runners on first and second with one out against Brenton Thiels, who had relieved starter Chase Martínez an inning earlier. That caused Theis’s removal from the game brought Corbin Barker to the mound. He fanned Paul Winland on three pitches but walked Nick Lehey to clog the basepaths. Collura pinch hit for Davis Drewek. Collura drew a walk on a seven pitch  3-2 count,  bringing Ybarra, who had led off the inning with a single to center, home with the tying run and leaving the bases still FOB, Full of Ballers. Conner Smith whiffed, and there were two down. Cobb drew a walk, and Santos was hit by a pitch, which scored two runs and put the Ballers ahead, 5-4, before Allgeyer struck out to end the inning. 

Maybe something had clicked., because the Ballers came back to win Sunday’s 1:05 game with a ninth inning walk off that gave them the series and ended the week on a high note.

Yuba-Sutter Freebirds (12-24)   310 000 060   10   9 1

Oakland Ballers (16-20)             000 131 303   11 13 2

Winning pitcher: Valek Cisneros (3-0)   Losing pitcher: Tristan Wolf (1-2)

Time: 2:48   Attendance:1,844

Jeter Ybarra, who had been one of the few bright spots in the Ballers’ disappointing first months, had been in a bit of funk recently. His fielding was mediocre, and his failure of hustle on the basepaths was glaring. He might have been playing through pain, although I’m not aware of any announcement to that effect. Whatever it was that that was bothering him isn’t affecting him now. He went three for three on Sunday the 28th. He went three for five, with a double, a home run, and a home run., He still is the league leader in that category, with15.

It seemed as if the B’s had slipped back into their lead blowing sink hole when they had recovered from a 4-0 disadvantage by scoring a run in the fourth, three in the fifth, another in the sixth, and three more in the seventh. But the Freebirds surged ahead, 10-8 with a six spot in the top of the eight. But Oakland had some last minute heroics left in them and came from behind to win in walk off fashion in the bottom of the ninth with Ybarra leading the charge. He led off with a single to right, Brandan O’Sullivan pinch ran for him, which might have been a signal that something physical had kept the B’s first sacker from running all out in the recent past.. Or it might have just been good tactics, given the PBL’s designated pinch hitter and pinch runner rules. In any case, it was an unnecessary move because Winland walked, and  Leehey drove an 0-1 pitch over the fence in left center to send the B’s fans home happy. Maybe, just maybe, they’ve turned the corner.

News surface recently about a lawsuit against the city of Oakland and their tenants, the Ballers, brought by the Ajor Property Group, for damages to their facility at 1661 20th St. The plaintiffs claimed that balls hit out of Raimondi Park have caused them at least $350,000 since its renovation in 2024. The Ballers have replied that they will make good any costs to the city incurred by the suit and admits that some damage has occurred. The team also maintains that many of the claims made by Ajor have not been verified. The property in question is next to the Prescott Market, home of several pre- and post-game festivities. The Market also has indoor plumbing, which is important to Ballers’ fans because replacement of the current port-a-potties in the ballpark has been delayed because the city has yet to approve the installation of real rest rooms in the venue.

That’s about all I know about the case.

The Ballers face a tough schedule this coming week. They’ll travel to Long Beach to face the second place Coast on the 30th  through July 2nd. Then it’s back to Modesto for the rest of the week.

That’s all for now.

Lewis Rubman covers the Oakland Ballers for http://www.sportsradioservice.com