Calgary Baseball Community Mourns

The FMBA is saddened to announce the passing of Calgary Twins player Isaac Johansen. Isaac passed away on July 14th, and was 19 years of age.
This was Isaac’s first year with the Calgary Twins and the FMBA, but he had long been a member of the baseball community in Calgary through Babe Ruth, the Bucks and PBA.
On behalf of the entire league, we want to extend our deepest sympathies to Isaac’s loved ones, friends and our brothers on the Calgary Twins.

Week 1 Complete, Diamondbacks Sticks Scorching, Cardinals Gloves Missing, and More….

With Week 1 of the 2021 FMBA Season in the books, it’s time to take a look back at the action from around the league:

Diamondbacks Roaring Out of the Gate

The Diamondbacks are off to a 4-0 start and have grabbed first place in Division A on the backs of some stellar offensive performances this week, J.P. Willner chief among them. The FMBA Player of the Week went 8-15 with 4 HR’s, 9 RBI, and 7 runs scored on the week while posting an absurd 1.896 OPS. It was more than just Willner destroying baseballs though, as the Dbacks had 5 of their regular starters check-in with an OPS over 1.500! Their pitching held up all week and the 45 runs of support we good enough to net them 4 wins this week. The Diamondbacks are now off until June 30th when they start their season series with the White Sox.

May 2022 Player of the Month

#PlayerTeamABHAVGOBPSLGOPS2B3BHRRBIRSB
11Lane AmanWhite Sox18110.6110.6520.7781.430110385

Cardinals Historic Defensive Struggles Drop Them To Bottom of Division B

The longest tenured organization in our great league has struggled in the early going. The offense has been there, but their 15 errors (!) across their first four games has cost them the opportunity to stay in most of their games, and their offense so far has only been able to bail them out of 1 of those 4 games, saddling them with a 1-3 record. The team is full of veteran leadership, so a turnaround is certainly not out of the question, perhaps the COVID layoff has just given them a bad case of the yips, but if any team is capable of sneaking up from behind the rest of this division it’s them. They are in action this Wednesday night at 6:30pm against the Longhorns.

Giants Victim of Tough Early Schedule

The Giants were off to a promising start when they dimed the Twins on Opening Day to jump to 1-0, but then they ran into the buzz saw that is the Diamondbacks offense. Their next 3 games were against the Dbacks and if it wasn’t for Steven Latos’ stellar outing in their last game Sunday night, all three may have been blowouts. The FMBA Pitcher of the Week made two starts for his club this week, throwing more innings than anyone in the league and earning a win in his first appearance against the Twins before taking the tough loss Sunday night to cap off the week. He ended up with 11.0 IP, 12 K, 2 BB and allowed only 6 H and 2 ER to finish the week with an ERA of 1.27 and miniscule 0.727 WHIP. The Giants schedule lightens up significantly as they roll into their series with the last place Twins on Thursday at 6:30pm.

May 2022 Pitcher of the Month

#PlayerTeamIPGSWLERAWHIPCGBBKSOSVHRERK/7BB/7
27Curtis SmithWolfpack122200.000.6723250052014.581.75

Longhorns Lose Key Piece of Staff To Injury, Still Hunting First Win

2021 got off to a rough start for the Longhorns, who lost their ever-reliable starter Ted Eisthen to a freak injury in their opener when he was struck in the elbow by a line drive comebacker against the Cardinals. The Longhorns had gotten out to an early lead in that game, but the loss of a core player and teammate seemed to take the wind out of their sails as they would end up dropping the game 11-10. They played their second game the very next night against the Dinos and walked 13 batters, the Dinos capitalized and blew the game open in the 4th inning to get their first win of the year. The Longhorns find themselves winless albeit with only two losses, and their three games this week will be against the Cardinals and their defensive woes, so perhaps this series is just what the doctor ordered for them to right the ship.

Guns and Canadians Both Off To 3-1 Starts

The Guns and Canadians both jumped out to strong starts in the win/loss column. The Canadians lost a tight one in their opener versus the Wolfpack as they just couldn’t get their offense going, but three games against the Cardinals and their hapless defense to close out the week seemed to warm the bats up as they scored 22 runs in those three games after being held to one unearned run against the Pack. The Guns followed a similar path in that they dropped their opener to the White Sox before running into a struggling Twins team for three games to finish out the week. Guns SS Luke Carmichael looked like he had Player of the Week honours locked up early in the week before his bat cooled off a little on the weekend and the Diamondbacks started smashing baseballs all over the yard. He still enjoyed a solid week at the plate however and popped his first home run of the campaign as well.

Light Schedule For Sox, Dukes, Dinos, Pack

The season kicks off in earnest during Week 2 for these four teams as each only got the chance to play 1 game during Week 1 of the season either due to weather or just a light early schedule. Each team will have 3 games on tap against their respective divisional opponent (Sox vs. Dukes, Wolfpack vs. Dinos).

2021 Schedule Released

The 2021 baseball season is finally upon us! With recent news of restrictions being lifted and Alberta moving into Phase 1 or re-opening with Phase 2 on the immediate horizon, the Foothills Major Baseball Association and its member clubs are pleased to announce that we will indeed be having a season in 2021.

This year will feature an 18-game regular season schedule for 11 teams split into two divisions. Unfortunately we will be cancelling all of our annualized events in 2021 like the Wayne Leitch Memorial Tournament, the FMBA Home Run Derby, and there will be no 2021 All-Star Game for a second consecutive season (although All-Star rosters will still be announced after the regular season).

The season kicks off on Sunday June 13th with a game between the Longhorns and the Cardinals at 8:30am at Glen Hansen field, it will be a full day of baseball at our park, as that game will be followed up by 4 others.

2020 State of The League Survey Released

As the FMBA approaches our AGM on November 21st, 2020 (via video conference this year), all players and stakeholders across the league are now invited to take part in our 2020 State of the League Survey! Each person can only take the survey once, so please be thoughtful in providing your answers.

This is an opportunity for everyone in the league to submit feedback and make their voices heard (anonymously if desired) leading up to the AGM so the Executive can identify issues that are important to our members, please feel free to send in your feedback to help guide the conversation on how we can improve the league moving forward!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FMBA2020

Weather Slows Action This Week, Both Divisions Still Up For Grabs

Sidearm Nation take series, division lead from cardinals

In what would end up being the only full series that was played this week, Sidearm Nation took two games and the season series from the Cardinals. Sidearm Nation received big production at the plate from Jake Hesselink and Jordan Smith this week, who tallied a combined twelve hits (four of which went for extra bases) through nineteen at-bats. They crossed the plate six times and knocked in five runs between the two of them as well. The Cardinals were able to salvage one game in the series on the back of Aren Nelson’s complete game victory on the mound in Game 2. Nelson only allowed four hits and three walks while striking out five during the gem. The Cardinals start their final series of the season on Monday when they take on the Calgary Wolfpack coming off of their bye week. Sidearm Nation has a single game with the Guns prior to the August Long weekend.

white sox olson back in the win column, sox take only completed game this week

The White Sox and Guns suffered a Game 2 rain out during this series, and Game 1 on Tuesday night was suspended due to darkness in the midst of a 4-4 tie in the twelfth inning. Game 3 was able to be played as originally scheduled, however, and the White Sox took the game by a score of 4-2 over the Guns. Sox ace Tony Olson got the start and bounced back from a loss his last time out with a strong complete game outing to give the Sox a chance to sweep a series for the first time this year. Olson struck out nine in the contest, pushing his league-leading total to thirty-two. Sox OF Brendan Rose stayed hot going 3-3 with a double, and Dan Chappel cranked his first home run of the year with a three run shot in the third inning.

diamondbacks split two with canadians, sergent shoves

The Diamondbacks and Canadians also lost a game to rain this week, but were able to play two on Sunday in which the Canadians took Game 1 with a 6-5 extra inning victory. FMBA Player of the Week Joe Sergent followed that with a complete game in a 9-1 Game 2 win, evening out the series at a game a piece. Sergent allowed no earned runs while striking out ten and only surrendering three hits and one walk. Josh Trybuch stood out offensively for the Canadians this week going 3-8 and smacking his first home run of the season, while Brendan Sutherland and JP Willner did most of the damage at the plate for the Dbacks. JP was a ridiculous 6-9 across the two games with three doubles and a triple while driving in a team leading five RBI. Sutherland chipped in with a 4-7 line and two RBI of his own.

May 2022 Player of the Month

#PlayerTeamABHAVGOBPSLGOPS2B3BHRRBIRSB
11Lane AmanWhite Sox18110.6110.6520.7781.430110385
Longhorns win their first of the year in two-game split with dukes

This was the closest series of the week, with both games being decided by a single run. The Longhorns took the early game behind a complete game effort on the mound Ted Eisthen. Jade Alberts was the only Horn with multiple hits in the game, one of which was a double, but the story of this game was the eyes at the plate for the Longhorns. They drew nine walks from the Guns pitching staff which helped keep the traffic heavy on the bases for the handful of base hits they did have. Game 2 was the opposite story, as the Dukes won the nightcap with a strong pitching performance from Lucas Silva, who struck out nine Longhorns in only six innings on his way to earning the victory. He only allowed two hits and didn’t allow an earned run in the start either. Star Dukes OF Miles Hunter had a monster game at the plate going 3-3 with two doubles and two RBI while scoring once himself.