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| MARLINS SOFTBALL: The Greatest Show On Dirt! |
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Greetings! Welcome to the official web site of the Fall River Marlins -- the "Greatest Show on Dirt" -- who wrapped up their 15th season in the Somerset Sunday Morning Softball League!
Wow, almost 15 freaking years, imagine that? Like sands through an hourglass, the time between 1993 and this season just seemed to pass us all by.
It seemed like yesterday when I got together with Barry Robidoux and Bob "Fitzy" Fitzgerald the Tuesday before Christmas in 1992 at Leone's (now known as the Regatta) for a night of drinking and karaoke. It was then, during Jim Pine's memorable rendition of "Proud To Be An American" when Fitzy said something about wanting to play softball the next summer.
That sounded like a good idea to Barry and me, but the one problem was, who do we know in the softball world? We didn't have any connections and we didn't know of any leagues looking for new teams.
But as a wise man once said, "Softball is partying, and partying is softball." So if you can crash a party, there's no reason why you can't crash softball, and that's what we did when we found out the Somerset Sunday Morning Softball League had an opening, we went right after it and locked up a spot.
We had the teal jerseys, and we loaded our teams with "prospects" and a few veterans. But then we had to name our team. What to call it? A few names were tossed around, like "Jane Girl's Addiction" and the "Kings Inn Krew", but then we decided to name ourselves after one of the new expansion teams in the National League, so we picked the Marlins; after all, the Rockies wore pinstripes and looked too much like the friggin' Yankees!
That inaugural season of 1993 was certainly a tough one for our squad. Not only did our "baseball swings" not go a long way in the sport, but we paid the price early and often for our countless nights of Saturday night clubbing, drinking, and partying. It was commonplace to see one of us go 0-for-4, make a couple errors in the field, and then yak out all the beer and shots we did in Providence the night before.
But there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and this team did show some promise. We had guys like Fitzy, Pat Kelly, and Dave Gluchacki really click in the second half of the season. And we won a few games, none more significant than our 12-10 victory over the first-place Highland Spa Razorbacks. It's the first time in league history a last-place team (and believe me, we were dead last at the time at 1-16) beat a first-place team (they were 16-1).
Of course, changes were made in the offseason to improve the ballclub, and some big pickups were made. The Class of '94 might have been one of the best of all-time, and it featured several Marlins who would make important contributions in that summer and for seasons to come, standouts like Mike Brillo, Steve Charboneau, Corey Hebert, and Rob Lachapelle. We greatly improved that year, winning 10 games and losing five others by 1 or 2 runs. At one point during the season, we won eight out of 10 games and found ourselves at the end of June with a winning record and a hold of third place in the standings!
The team then fell on hard times over the next few seasons, and no season was tougher than the 1995 season, which saw us win just two games and go through 25 different players just to finish the season.
While the Marlins won 22 games over the next five seasons, Barry and I decided to do a side project and play in the Fall River Scholarship City Co-ed Softball League. That league formed in 1995, and we ended up playing in 1996 for Hartley's Pork Pies, which finished fourth in the 'B' Division and made the playoffs.
It was on that team where we played with standouts like Izzy Navarro, Jay Conroy, and Eric Furtado, and when the '96 season ended, we went our separate ways with Hartley's and formed own our team called the Diamondbacks (after the new National League team which was going to take the field in 1998).
Like our first year in Somerset, we had our downs and ups, but then we caught fire in the second half of the season and clinched fourth place in the 'B' Division and the playoff berth that accompanied it. We even did pretty well in that game against the top-seeded Outlaws, losing to the eventual champions, 18-12.
Our future looked good, so good, in fact, that we got promoted to the 'A' Division in '98 and came through with a 10-win season.
As for the Sunday Morning team, years of sub-mediocrity ended in 1999 when we enjoyed a breakthrough season, winning 16 games and earning our first-ever trip to the semifinal round of the playoffs.
Since then, we've won 144 games from 1999 to last year and we've made the semifinals in seven of the last eight seasons. Unfortunately for us, we've also lost all seven of those semifinal series, but hopefully, 2007 will be the year we get that "one more yard" and vault into the finals.
As for our co-ed team, we tasted the fruits of success in 2001 when we posted a 12-4 record and won the 'B' Division championship by sweeping American Dryer in the finals. The 2001 season saw the ballclub undergo a radical facelift and change its name (Marlins), division (B), and roster (seven newcomers). We even won six individual awards at the season-ending banquet, something never done before in team history!
This season, the Sunday Morning team is back in full force (and 14 strong) and still working a little harder to return to the upper chunk of the standings!
But above all, we're all looking toward a fun-filled summer, complete with parties, beer-drinking, concerts and tailgating at the Tweeter Center, the beach, wild times, and yes, some softball! Win or lose, 2008 promises to be an eventful season, so to our fans (and we know you are out there), we hope you come back and follow our team again next season, and we'll leave a nice cold Bud in the cooler for you!
This is cool. Softball's back, and we're there. We've got the balls and we've got the blue chips. Hope to see y'all at the yard!
Be Good To Yourself,
-- Eric B.
Posted by Eric Benevides, Mon Apr 28, 2008 @ 2:51 PM 0 Comments |
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