The Florida Bombers: Welcome
| Upcoming Games | |||
| Date | Event | Time | Location |
| Sat 5/19 |
The Florida Bombers vs. Florida Pokers 18's
|
7:00 PM | TBA |
| Sun 5/20 |
The Florida Bombers vs. Florida Pokers 18's
|
10:00 AM | TBA |
| Sun 5/20 |
The Florida Bombers vs. Florida Pokers 18's
|
1:00 PM | TBA |
Florida Bombers Baseball
1998 till Present
Nation's Winningest Program
12 National Championships
38 Championships
497 Wins108 Losses5 Ties.819 All Time Winning Pct
Monday, March 19
Florida Bombers Boast About Success
The accomplishments speak for themselves for one of the charter members of the World Scout League.
When the Florida Bombers were founded by Emilio Fernandez in 1998, the team organized fundraisers such as car washes to help pay for their travel expenses. "Travel baseball hadn't really become what it has today with everything costing so much money," Florida Bombers head coach and founder Emilio Fernandez said. "We were doing car washes to help fundraise money so we could travel and play against the best competition." More than a decade later, the Bombers are one of the most successful summer teams in the country. While the Bombers began from humble beginnings they haven't been quite as humble when it comes to boasting about their long-term success. When you visit their website the first thing that greets you in big bold letters is a list of their impressive accomplishments. And the results speak for themselves: 12 National Championships including 6 WWBA National Championships, 38 Tournament Championships overall, and an .819 winning percentage all-time. The baseball club has helped to produce countless MLB draft picks, D1 college signings and big leaguers such as Mat Latos, Gaby Sanchez, Eric Hosmer, Chris Perez, Jemile Weeks and recent World Series champion John Jay. There are very few teams in the country, if any, that can match that success."On a personal level the championship that stands out the most is the 2008 WWBA title that we defeated the Illinios Sparks 3-2," Fernandez said. "It was a team with no 'household' names at the time and guys like JR Murphy and Rony Rodriguez that we believed in, when nobody else did, were able to get it done."Of the 6 WWBA Championships, the Bombers continually seemed to match up in the title game with the East Cobb Braves. "The 2010 Championship was very special because it was the first summer after my dad passed away," Fernandez recalled. "The last time he saw us play in Marietta, we blew a 10-1 lead in the championship game and lost to the East Cobb Braves. We developed a great rivalry with them that put our players in a very competitive atmosphere. So coming back in 2010 in a rematch and beating the same Braves team in a heated game, in walk-off fashion was very memorable.""I felt he had something to do with that championship."Their run of 6 18U WWBA National Championships, and a runner up as well in 8 years is a statistically amazing feat which may never be done again. Statistically speaking, the chances of outlasting the average tournament field of 100+ teams and win 6 out of 8 years is as close to an anomaly as it gets. And they aren't scared to let you know about it."Our accomplishments as a program on the field are as good as anyone's in the country," Fernandez said. "But these different websites have agendas to promote the teams they are in bed with. So you won't hear much about us on your average scouting website because I don't do well with politics."While their 2012 slogan is "Rise Above Hate", the Bombers have brought some of that hate on themselves through their often times brash, in-your-face style."Dont be confused. Myself and others in this program work very hard to succeed in the summer. These accomplishments haven't happened for us because we are luckier than anyone else. We are not an in-your-face type of program. We just get after it much differently than others and want our kids to learn how to compete in a highly competitive arena. We want to win, period, that is the most important thing for us and that prepares our players for the pressure that coaches from major colleges and professional teams are under."The Bombers have taken some heat from pro-showcase parents and coaches who claim that summer baseball is all about exposure and not winning. Fernandez has a different philosophy."Obviously our kids are still committing to college and getting drafted just like all these so called showcase teams that claim they don't care about winning," Fernandez said. "We don't promote a 'me' attitude and selfish attitude in our program. Our players play hard, they play to win, they don't care who's in the stands watching and that's why colleges love our kids."Fernandez argues that the 'hate' that they receive stems mostly from their wildly successful history."To compare this to our local NBA team, everyone hates the Miami Heat or the New York Yankees. Nobody hates the Milwaukee Bucks or the Seattle Mariners. If we weren't winning anything, nobody would care about us."While many travel programs boast about the number of college commitments that they are producing, the Bombers boast about their success as a team and as a program. "I believe it's all about the team, the team accomplishments, and earning college scholarships and accolades through winning and playing competitively. Colleges don't want to recruit players who only care about themselves, their 60 time and who's in the stands watching them. Committing to college is the beginning of their journey, not the end. You don't congratulate someone when they get to the starting line of a race. It's worked very well for us. Our players don't just commit to schools, but they often times thrive and excel at those schools in part of because of the pressure that we put on them to succeed within the team structure and not showcase themselves casually."The Bombers program lives by a somewhat cliched quote that they will play "anyone, anywhere, anytime." "Our attitude is misunderstood a lot of times. It can be taken the wrong way, but we want all of the kids in our program to have that mentality and confidence of not to be scared of anyone, or dodge playing anyone. We aren't going to be the most politically correct team out there, I admit that, and we don't always say all of the right things. But we prepare our kids to play in a highly competitive atmosphere that doesn't revolve around whoever pays the most, plays the most. Our teams practice, we coach our kids, and a lot of time and effort goes into it. So when they win, it's very gratifying and emotional and it definitely rubs coaches who collect checks at meet up at tournaments the wrong way." "We just want to play the best competition available, have a great rivalry with other teams that puts our kids in that pressure-filled arena, shake hands and go home. I don't need to go out after the game and catch a movie with the opposing coach."The Bombers are one of the many charter members of the World Scout League that aims to create exposure for players through a competitive environment that prepares them for the next level."I love the idea of the World Scout League as the hopes are to make summer ball more organized and prestigious. Not any Joe Blow or dad can just start a team and sign up. It has gotten ridiculous that some guy can just pay $2,000, join a tournament and call themselves a program.""I really like the structure in which the league hopes to operate by and I know how much work Matt and his staff have put into forming this concept over the past couple of years.""If it can all fall in place the way I think, it will be great to concentrate more on the game of baseball rather than individuals and their tools."
Monday, March 19
Florida Bombers Boast About Success
The accomplishments speak for themselves for one of the charter members of the World Scout League.
When the Florida Bombers were founded by Emilio Fernandez in 1998, the team organized fundraisers such as car washes to help pay for their travel expenses. "Travel baseball hadn't really become what it has today with everything costing so much money," Florida Bombers head coach and founder Emilio Fernandez said. "We were doing car washes to help fundraise money so we could travel and play against the best competition." More than a decade later, the Bombers are one of the most successful summer teams in the country. While the Bombers began from humble beginnings they haven't been quite as humble when it comes to boasting about their long-term success. When you visit their website the first thing that greets you in big bold letters is a list of their impressive accomplishments. And the results speak for themselves: 12 National Championships including 6 WWBA National Championships, 38 Tournament Championships overall, and an .819 winning percentage all-time. The baseball club has helped to produce countless MLB draft picks, D1 college signings and big leaguers such as Mat Latos, Gaby Sanchez, Eric Hosmer, Chris Perez, Jemile Weeks and recent World Series champion John Jay. There are very few teams in the country, if any, that can match that success."On a personal level the championship that stands out the most is the 2008 WWBA title that we defeated the Illinios Sparks 3-2," Fernandez said. "It was a team with no 'household' names at the time and guys like JR Murphy and Rony Rodriguez that we believed in, when nobody else did, were able to get it done."Of the 6 WWBA Championships, the Bombers continually seemed to match up in the title game with the East Cobb Braves. "The 2010 Championship was very special because it was the first summer after my dad passed away," Fernandez recalled. "The last time he saw us play in Marietta, we blew a 10-1 lead in the championship game and lost to the East Cobb Braves. We developed a great rivalry with them that put our players in a very competitive atmosphere. So coming back in 2010 in a rematch and beating the same Braves team in a heated game, in walk-off fashion was very memorable.""I felt he had something to do with that championship."Their run of 6 18U WWBA National Championships, and a runner up as well in 8 years is a statistically amazing feat which may never be done again. Statistically speaking, the chances of outlasting the average tournament field of 100+ teams and win 6 out of 8 years is as close to an anomaly as it gets. And they aren't scared to let you know about it."Our accomplishments as a program on the field are as good as anyone's in the country," Fernandez said. "But these different websites have agendas to promote the teams they are in bed with. So you won't hear much about us on your average scouting website because I don't do well with politics."While their 2012 slogan is "Rise Above Hate", the Bombers have brought some of that hate on themselves through their often times brash, in-your-face style."Dont be confused. Myself and others in this program work very hard to succeed in the summer. These accomplishments haven't happened for us because we are luckier than anyone else. We are not an in-your-face type of program. We just get after it much differently than others and want our kids to learn how to compete in a highly competitive arena. We want to win, period, that is the most important thing for us and that prepares our players for the pressure that coaches from major colleges and professional teams are under."The Bombers have taken some heat from pro-showcase parents and coaches who claim that summer baseball is all about exposure and not winning. Fernandez has a different philosophy."Obviously our kids are still committing to college and getting drafted just like all these so called showcase teams that claim they don't care about winning," Fernandez said. "We don't promote a 'me' attitude and selfish attitude in our program. Our players play hard, they play to win, they don't care who's in the stands watching and that's why colleges love our kids."Fernandez argues that the 'hate' that they receive stems mostly from their wildly successful history."To compare this to our local NBA team, everyone hates the Miami Heat or the New York Yankees. Nobody hates the Milwaukee Bucks or the Seattle Mariners. If we weren't winning anything, nobody would care about us."While many travel programs boast about the number of college commitments that they are producing, the Bombers boast about their success as a team and as a program. "I believe it's all about the team, the team accomplishments, and earning college scholarships and accolades through winning and playing competitively. Colleges don't want to recruit players who only care about themselves, their 60 time and who's in the stands watching them. Committing to college is the beginning of their journey, not the end. You don't congratulate someone when they get to the starting line of a race. It's worked very well for us. Our players don't just commit to schools, but they often times thrive and excel at those schools in part of because of the pressure that we put on them to succeed within the team structure and not showcase themselves casually."The Bombers program lives by a somewhat cliched quote that they will play "anyone, anywhere, anytime." "Our attitude is misunderstood a lot of times. It can be taken the wrong way, but we want all of the kids in our program to have that mentality and confidence of not to be scared of anyone, or dodge playing anyone. We aren't going to be the most politically correct team out there, I admit that, and we don't always say all of the right things. But we prepare our kids to play in a highly competitive atmosphere that doesn't revolve around whoever pays the most, plays the most. Our teams practice, we coach our kids, and a lot of time and effort goes into it. So when they win, it's very gratifying and emotional and it definitely rubs coaches who collect checks at meet up at tournaments the wrong way." "We just want to play the best competition available, have a great rivalry with other teams that puts our kids in that pressure-filled arena, shake hands and go home. I don't need to go out after the game and catch a movie with the opposing coach."The Bombers are one of the many charter members of the World Scout League that aims to create exposure for players through a competitive environment that prepares them for the next level."I love the idea of the World Scout League as the hopes are to make summer ball more organized and prestigious. Not any Joe Blow or dad can just start a team and sign up. It has gotten ridiculous that some guy can just pay $2,000, join a tournament and call themselves a program.""I really like the structure in which the league hopes to operate by and I know how much work Matt and his staff have put into forming this concept over the past couple of years.""If it can all fall in place the way I think, it will be great to concentrate more on the game of baseball rather than individuals and their tools."
Thursday, February 9
The Florida Bombers have announced a tryout date for 2012 players that have not yet comitted to college. Tryouts will be held Sunday March 25 at Coral Springs Highschool at 11 A.M.
The Bombers will be the only organization in Florida that will be shifting their efforts on those players that have ended their Highschool careers uncomitted to college.
This concept will be to give 2012 players a realistic opportunity to impress a school looking for players. The team will compete in 4 in state tournaments , as well as go on a college showcase tour. On the tour players will be working out in front of college coaches throughout the State of Florida.
"We feel that players in this position are at a disadvantage, playing in tournaments with 200 teams will not help these individual players . Our idea is to maximize these players for what they are and not what they arent. We will bring the players to the college coaches this way making sure these players dont get lost in the shuffle" .
For more information please contact coach Starr at 305-331-3878 or floridabombers@gmail.com
to register for the tryouts please click here
these teams will not be first come first serve like most every organization in Florida. You will have to make the team in order to be a part of this concept.
Thursday, January 12
By FB Staff
The Florida Bombers yes the Florida Bombers have been able to accomplish things this past 10 years that no one has even come close too.Unlike what many perfectgame readers have been told to believe by perfectgame, the Florida Bombers have done things at the WWBA National Championships that no other program has even come close to doing.The Bombers have not received the accolades and articles attention from Perfectgame that they deserve but ,the facts are undeniable.Lets take a look at what the Bombers have been able to do at the WWBA the "Nations Toughest Event" over the past 10 years.
The Bombers have a (70-6-3) record All Time at the WWBA that is a .905 winning percentage. No other program in the country even comes close to those numbers. As a matter of fact you can combine all the other programs in the country add their accomplishments together and they fall short. The Bombers have won 6 WWBA National Championships 5 Times running the table and going undefeated in the event. 5 Times the Bombers have gone (10-0) in the 7 day event. The Bombers have played in the Championship game 7 times winning 6 of those Championship Games, that is a percentage of .857 which is unheard of in any sport. Yet for whatever reason perfectgame likes to talk about other teams and their house hold names on their rosters and the one tournament that team has won etc. When we started to put this article together we were amazed at the dominance the program has had over the past 10 years , yet perfectgame has made so little of it. These are numbers that might never ever be reached , therefore we thought this article would make more people aware of this, maybe perfectgame really wasnt aware of these unreal numbers. The Bombers have never done it with the big name guys or the High Ranked perfectgame players, they have done it the Bombers way , playing hard and aggresive and playing to win. Hundreds of players take credit for these unreal numbers , players of all sizes, shapes, color ,age the one common ground was the Bombers uniform. So while other organizations that are better tied in with perfectgame get most of the glory, the facts remain that the past decades most dominant perfectgame team has been the Florida Bombers. The dominance is not only in the State of Florida but, nation wide. The Bombers are looking for another decade of dominance on the field which is where it matters most. "We have always been about the team and coaching and playing the right way, we havent done it with the high ranked players and we havent recieved the attention we deserve but , the facts are the facts and we are very proud of these achievements "says coach Fernandez.
Bombers All Time Perfectgame record
(70-6-3)
.905 winning percentage
23 game winning streak from 2004-2007
6 WWBA National Titles
1 Runner Up
9 Pool Play Bracket Winners
5 Undefeated Tournament Championships
2 Times Back to Back Champions (2002-2003)(2005-2006)
3 Straight Championship Games (2008-2009-2010)
The Bombers are a perfectgame dynasty whether it is written about or not , the Bombers accomplishments will never be duplicated , now the Bombers will build on it.
Monday, January 2
In 2012 the Florida Bombers 18's will reach 500 wins, making them one of only a hand full of programs in the history of amatuer baseball to reach 500 wins .The Bombers began as a program in 1998 ,but it wasnt till 2000 that the organization really jumped on the scene.The Bombers have averaged 42 wins a year for the last 12 years, heading into 2012.By far the Florida Bombers have done more winning than any team in the State of Florida and entering their 13th season the Bombers have persevered against the wishes of many. It is that perseverance that will make the Bombers the first ever Connie Mack World Champion in 2012. "We rise above the hate on a daily basis says Head Coach Emilio Fernandez, perseverance is what the Bombers are all about , its the backbone of this organization". "We have accomplished alot in our 12 years but, one thing that has eluded us is the Connie Mack World Championship, and we will accomplish that in 2012".
The Bombers have seen many programs come and go, some which were started specifically to dethrone the Florida Bombers , those programs have failed miserably, yet the Bombers have risen to the top.The Bombers have finished as the Nations # 1 Ranked team in 2002,2003,2005,2006,2008,2010 and finished with a ranking of # 7 in 2011."We are all about winning says Josh Starr when you win everything else falls into place, last year we underachieved so coming back strong is a must in 2012". The Bombers return 7 players from last years # 7 ranked team, and have added new talent to the 2012 roster thus far.
In 2012 the Bombers will debut in the new World Scout League as well as play host to the Memorial Weekend Invitational, FAU Showdown and National Classic. 500 wins will be a magical night the Bombers will have many alumnus in attendance, that will be a special night as the celebration will be huge. "We will put alot of effort in making sure we celebrate win number 500, we want to share it with as many people as possible , all people that have been a part of this great accomplishment in some way or another" says coach Fernandez. The magic night could come as early as opening weekend , as the Bombers will host a 3 Game Series starting May 19.
Rise Above Hate
Saturday, November 5
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| World Scout League |
Wednesday, November 2
The Florida Bombers would like to congratulate John Jay of the 2011 World Series Champion St.Louis Cardinals. Jay was a member of the Florida Bombers in 2003 where he was also part of a Championship. In 2003 Jay had the Game Tying Single in the top of the 7th Inning versus Bill Hood in the Championship game of the WWBA National Championships. The Bombers and Jay went on to win the 2003 WWBA National Title in extra Innings. John Jay becomes the first member of the Florida Bombers to win a World Series Championship. The Florida Bombers could not be prouder of John Jay. Congratulations to the Jay family and Congratulations to John Jay himself. From your proud family the Florida Bombers.
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| World Series Champion John Jay |
Wednesday, September 14
The Florida Bombers new email address as of September 14,2011 is as follow
Monday, August 15
Infielder - Cole Figueroa 2005-2006
Infielder - Corey Figueroa 2005-2006
Pitcher - Anthony Nalepa 2005-2006
Outfielder - Andrew Durden 2007
Thursday, January 26
http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=6101
18u
The East Cobb Braves 17u accomplished nearly everything a travel ball team can hope to achieve this summer. Starting with winning the 17u/18u Perfect Game-East Cobb Invitational in June, taking third at the 18u WWBA National Championship and winning both the 17u WWBA and a share of the 18u BCS, the Braves asserted themselves as a legitimate national powerhouse. The Braves are as deep as they are talented, which combined with their experience set them apart this summer.
With a true national roster, the Midland Redskins come in at #2 as they gear up for the Connie Mack World Series, where they are a strong favorite. The Redskins, who double as the Royals Scout Team at the WWBA World Championship in Jupiter look to yet again be a strong contender in that elite field. 18u WWBA National Champions, the San Diego Show find themselves at #3 after knocking off the EC Braves in an intense 18u semifinal matchup. The Show made are one of the premiere organizations on the west coast and with many of the same players from the 18u title team made another impressive run at the 17u the following week.
The East Cobb Yankees slot in right behind the Show at #4 with a strong team that finished second in the 18u WWBA and a roster littered with recent draft picks. Dulins Dodgers round out the top 5 after reaching the 18u WWBA semifinals, before being knocked off in a hard fought semifinal matchup with the EC Yankees. The defending champion Florida Bombers slipped from #1 to #7 after an early upset in the 18u WWBA playoffs after a highly impressive romp through pool play.
Click here for the entire 18u Travel Team Ranking