Game 96 Recap, Sept. 6: Five Hundy by Midnight
“Most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball” as B’s beat Freebirds 16-10 in season’s final game
by D. Silvert Homes
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MARYSVILLE—I can’t believe the final games of the Ballers season are here… and just like that, She’s Gone. As one of the 50+ B’s fans that attended the final 16-10 victory in Marysville said, “it ended the same way as last year… with a win.” That bittersweet (at best) sentiment was followed by a few groans, chortles, and eyerolls from the gathered loyalists.
I chose to title my final Dispatches writeup of the rollercoaster 2026 season after a scene from Swingers, one of my favorite movies. Vince Vaughn’s character cajoles his dejected friend (played by Jon Favreau) into a fever dream of an overnight road trip to Vegas following a nasty breakup. To me, the parallels between the movie and the Ballers season are strong.
Sometimes, Type 1 fun is the best and easiest fun. For example, the B’s 2025 season… other than splitting the first six game series vs Ogden and losing a three game set thanks in part to a two-strike, two-out game tying homer, the good guys cruised last season. I know that they faced elimination against Ogden in the league semifinals and had to battle back from being down 0-2 against Idaho Falls, but the stars aligned damn near perfectly last season. Type 1 fun is fun in the moment, fun afterwards, and just unadulterated success with No Ragrets.
Type 2 fun is the stuff that burns. It challenges. It doesn’t feel perfect in the moment. Yet, that’s what baseball is. It’s what it should be. (Note: it also leads me to crafting incomplete sentences). The 2026 season was a slog. It frankly kinda sucked at times. There were a handful of blown touchdown-sized leads. There were pitching implosions, runners left on base in high leverage situations, and plenty of pain to go around.
Yet, through all the hard moments, the coaching staff of Aaron Miles, Jim Dedrick, and James Harris kept leading these young men by example. Tyler, Yeshayah, Laura, and the other front office personnel never quit on us, and Casey’s gameday crew never stopped delivering an exceptional game day experience. It was the least I could do to show up, pay my respects, and enjoy some good baseball.
I had a crystallizing moment mid-second half when I was in Modesto to cover the Ballers’ 14-2 victory over the Roadsters for Dispatches in Game 81. In addition to watching Jeter Ybarra hit his 32nd dinger to break the franchise’s single season mark, I got to see the B’s eclipse the .500 mark for the 2nd half. Yes, they had done so earlier after eating the RedPocket Mobiles’ souls in a six game sweep, but it felt more legit this time after taking a three game set from a team that had previously been 27-3 in the second half.
After taking two of three against first half champs Long Beach the previous weekend, the boys in green returned home from Modesto and took another set from the Fighting Snowflakes, including a glorious 13-12 comeback Saturday victory on Dia de los Ballers, which saw nine unanswered runs posted in the 8th and 9th innings. Jeter Ybarra hit yet another grand slam in a big spot to cut the lead to two in the 8th. An uncharacteristic dropped ball by Cal alum and Roadsters’ 3B Max Handron combined with a catcher’s interference call by the home plate umpire was too much for the Foxes’ interim manager, who blew a gasket (get it? Roadsters?!) and got the hook. Oakland held on and for one glorious moment, had built momentum and taken three straight series from the two arguably best teams in the league.
So, here we were and here I was in the seat of Yuba County for some “end of a long season” weekend baseball. I knew I was going to miss it all, so I showed up at 4:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday to catch some vibes and some batting practice. The squad seemed loose and like they were having fun. Having played a few sports in my time, I know the mixed emotions of a long season winding down and that, as Ferris Bueller said, “life moves pretty fast… you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Game #96 began with the dulcet tones of Gareth Kwok calling first baseman and cleanup hitter Connor Smith driving in Logan Johnstone with an RBI single to break open the scoring in the top of the first. In the bottom of the first, leadoff hitter Noah Blythe stepped onto the mound (yes, you’re reading that correctly) for his tenth pitching appearance of the season and first professional start, because… why the hell not?! Blythe quickly surrendered four runs on five hits, but the squad was ready to right the ship in the second frame.
With a chance for a big shutdown inning, Freebirds starter Isaiah Williams and reliever Devin Norton combined to cede ten earned runs on six hits. Esai Santos brought Mitchell Sanford in with his first homer of the inning (yeah, that’s not a typo). Ybarra, Smith, and Leehey walked in rapid succession with the bases loaded to open up a 6-4 lead. Sanford then hit a grand slam, followed by Our Guy Esai’s second homer of the inning, and the Ballers had hung a ten spot on the Fighting Chickens and opened up an 11-4 lead.
In the third inning, our own PA announcer and in-game host Tarik Ansari headed up to broadcast a couple of frames with Gareth. Unfortunately, sure-handed SS Brendan O’Sullivan had a tough transition on a grounder and made a two-out error that kept the inning alive. A two run Isaac Nunez double followed by a two run Cam Yuran single punished the Ballers and led to a tight 12-9 score. Personally, I blame Tarik.
In the fifth, I headed up to the broadcasting booth to replace Tarik. Joking aside, he did a heckuva job calling the play-by-play in the top of the fifth and it’s a joy listening to him work alongside Gareth. When I entered the booth, Jeter Ybarra hit a 403-foot “no doubter” home run that sure didn’t look or feel like one off the bat, based on the sound and the fact that he broke his bat. It brings me immense joy to have seen his team record-breaking homer in Modesto and his final regular season tater in person, and both on the road at that. Personally, I credit myself. Esai Santos singled in Nick Leehey, Brendan O’Sullivan atoned for his miscue in the field with an RBI single that scored Mitchell Sanford, and Jeter Ybarra brought in staff ace Noah Blythe with an RBI single in the sixth inning to conclude the day’s scoring for both teams.
After the conclusion of the sixth inning, I had to make something right for my fellow Ballers faithful. I got absolutely boat raced by a Freebirds fan in a beer chugging contest on Saturday. He is (apparently!) the former mayor of Marysville and a really nice guy, as well as a Chico State Wildcat. First rule of drinking games: don’t challenge Chico State grads to drinking games.
Anyway, he issued a surprise ultimatum: if I won, I got my pride back. If I lost, he got the Ballers’ jersey off my back. I mean, how could I say no to that? I won Sunday’s contest, and even if it was pretty clear that he held back and gave me a gift victory, I was happy. After I threw down the empty cup on the top of the dugout, one of the Freebirds players looked up and said “who drank that beer, you or your shirt?” I mean, he wasn’t wrong, so I deadpanned “about 50/50.” Ballers superartist Guy Sliwinski saw me after the contest and said with a smirk “if I want a beer later, I’ll have you wring out your shirt.” I mean, he wasn’t wrong either. Even though it was my only beer of the night, I definitely changed that brewhouse-smelling shirt before the drive back home!
Back to the game… Brock Mayer came in to pitch bulk relief after Blythe’s adventurous first inning. He pitched six innings of one-run baseball, fanning seven and only giving up one run. Quinnipiac (say that five times fast!) grad and recent acquisition (I mean, it feels like everybody is a recent acquisition this year, dunnit?!) James Pazdera got five quick outs to get us to the “golden out” (if that’s not a thing, I just made it up). Aaron Miles strolled out, took the ball from Paz and made the call to the bullpen… excuse me… made the call the right field, and Noah Blythe came strolling over.
After throwing a few warmup pitches that hit 100 miles per hour (combined), Blythe got a flyout to right field to end the game. While it might be hard to do this research, I truly wonder if Noah was the only pitcher in professional baseball to start and finish the same game this year. I’m writing this, and it’s on the internet, so now it’s true. The Ballers finished the season 46-50, 24-24 in the second half.
Afterwards, the motley crew of about fifty Ballers fans (and Bryant Field stadium stalwart Mike, the guy with the big cane back middle in the pic) gathered for two fun moments. First, we created a tunnel to see the boys back to the dugout. Coach James Harris and 2B/3B Nick Leehey understood the assignment and danced their way through while most of the other guys gave us genuine, courtesy, and/or perplexed smiles. If you think it’s hard getting your hands high enough for the Jeter Ybarras of the world, try doing it for 6’6” Joey Winters. Yeesh. We then gathered in the field seats above third base for a group photo.
As we parted ways, that bittersweet feeling came over me. I’ve spoken with good friend, tattoo artist extraordinaire, and B’s in-game jack of all trades Ben Verhoek about how long the season can be. Frankly, I feel a little bit of shame feeling that way when a big week for me is attending four games, and I get to drop baseball and focus on my business and other elements of my life when the team goes on the road. Guys like Ben, the Ballers’ front office, game day operations folks, and others put a partial hold on everything in their lives for 4+ months.
All of these people could have quit on this season. Not explicitly; they’re all professional. But, as Mike Tyson’s trainer Cus D’Amato said and Iron Mike brought to the mainstream, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Aaron Miles has dealt with much tougher s--- in his three-decade career than scuffling to a sub-.500 season. Jimmy Dedrick and James Harris’ pro careers wrapped up earlier than I’d imagine they would have liked. It is my belief that they use their learned experience in decades in pro ball to impart wisdom, from both their successes and failures, into coaching up this next generation of ballplayers. I tip my cap to them and will sing their praises from the mountain top. We are lucky beyond belief to have all three of those guys coaching this team.
I am curled up next to one of my cats waxing a little sentimental about the conclusion of this season. The players didn’t quit, and Aaron, Jim and Miles used their professional experiences to teach these kids how to react when things go great and when they don’t. Hopefully a bunch of the players from this team will get a chance to play affiliated ball and/or higher level indie ball. I am excited for that for them. I’m also glad that Nick Leehey, Esai Santos and Reed Butz (welcome home, dude) got to experience both 2025 and 2026. What a ride and adventure.
I hope that you, dear reader, are juiced about next season as much as I am. We don’t know which players will return. We don’t know if we’ll get “lucky” with offseason acquisitions. All we know is that this organization, top down, cares about the city of Oakland and the team’s outcomes, on and off the field. The Ballers are in good stead heading into 2027.
And one more thing: on his Instagram after the game, pitcher James Pazdera, the guy who got relieved by Blythe at the end of the game and moved to the outfield to make the final out—one of many moments of pure charm in the game—wrote that this was “most fun i’ve ever had playing baseball.”
I know what you mean, dude.
Photos from Dan, HiJacker Mike, and Dawn Pieper.
Video recap by Ben Verhoek.
Dan Silvert was born in Berkeley, raised in Piedmont and has spent two decades living in Oakland. He is a residential Realtor® and Ballers advertiser/sponsor who referees high school/college lacrosse and trains Brazilian jiu jitsu and plays disc golf in his free time. He is grateful for the Ballers restoring his love of baseball.
