Who are the Best NBBA Franchises?
Who are the greatest NBBA Franchises in the history of Beepball? Some know the St. Paul Gorillas won the first ever series in 1976. The Albuquerque True Sight ripped off 8 titles between 1981 and 1989. We also know the Austin Blackhawks have nine titles in two different decades (the 90’s and the 2010’s). The West Coast Dawgs own seven titles of their own over a 13 year span. The Taiwan Home Run and the Indy Thunder each have five wins. I always love to call out the Chicago Comets because they won it with a home grown team in 2003. Other teams with titles include the Minneapolis BSF (what does BSF stand for anyway?), Ft. Worth Road Runners, The Indy Eagles, Bayou City Heat, Kansas All-Stars and most recently, the Indy Edge.
I do not pretend to know much about beepball prior to 2003, my rookie year as a coach in the league. Here is what I do know. The rules have changed over the years, making the game different (amongst them, the base distance has changed from 90 feet to 100 feet and the amount of strikes defining a whiff has changed a few times). The World Series was a 4 day event for many years. There are also more teams playing now than in the early years. In my first World Series in 2003, there was just 13 teams and the games started on Wednesday (not Tuesday). The league peaked at 24 teams in 2015.
So, for some fun, I thought I’d make an attempt to explore the question of “who is the best franchise in beepball history?” This comparison will be data driven and in no way considers things like roster turnover, quality of coaching, demographics of the team, finances, roster sizes or anything else. It just looks at World Series wins and years attending the World Series. The twist on this take is that I’m only counting seasons starting from 2006 forward. We could call this the “Seeded Bracket Era”. Let that sink in for a moment.
Ok – I hear purists complaining already. It’s near impossible to compare the game back then and today. Try to find the stats on your own. Try to find a list of when major rule changes occurred? Though I love being a beepball geek with the best of them, I’m not even sure if we have all of the stats dating back to the start of this league. We surely do not have them on the web or available to the public. Also, right now, even in today’s game, it’s a ton of work to determine if games entered the 12 run rule or not (this needs to change and I have hopes it will for 2024!). Additionally, I’m lazy, I have a family, a job and a team to run. I needed to draw a line in the sand. That line is 2006.
In 2006, the NBBA made a change for the better and adopted a seeded double elimination bracket for its format of the World Series. For the first time ever, every team entering the Series could compete for a World Series Title. For the first time ever, the teams would be seeded. The seed was initially based on the previous year’s finish. This was welcome for a few reasons. First, the old format was a mess and bad for a league that wanted to grow. It did not allow all teams equal opportunity to win a title. Second, the new format promised more games and more games against equivalent levels of play. Third, the hope was it would have less blow out games.
Looking back at 2003
Let’s start with a history lesson in what I recall of the old format. Once the league determined the amount of teams coming to the series, the teams were randomly placed into pools. Only the top two teams from each pool would be allowed to play in what was called the championship bracket. The rest of the teams played in something nicknamed the barbecue bracket. I witnessed firsthand what a colossal mess this was in my first year in the league. Let’s explore what I witnessed.
In 2003, 13 teams traveled to Denver, Colorado on what were some of the nicest fields I have ever seen at a World Series. They even had massage therapists on site for the players and coaches. I mistakenly thought every World Series would be on plush fields with the ability to get muscles worked on after the games by a licensed professional. I digress. The league took the 13 teams and placed them into 4 brackets. One bracket had four teams and the other 3 brackets had just three teams. The brackets were as follows:
| Bracket A | Bracket B | Bracket C | Bracket D |
| Bayou City Heat | West Coast Dawgs | Oklahoma City Bombers | Austin Blackhawks |
| Cleveland Scrappers | Rocky Mountain Eagles | Kansas All-stars | Chicago Bluff |
| Columbus Vipers | Tyler Tigers | Boston Renegades | Florida Sandspurs |
| Chicago Comets |
Teams in bracket A needed those massages as soon as they saw the brackets to calm their stress levels! Any educated Beep baller knew that bracket was loaded and one team was going to get the shaft. Any beep baller could have predicted the top two teams in brackets B,C& D. Everyone knew the second place team in bracket C would not be Boston. Tyler and Boston were 2nd year teams. Florida was a first year team. Chicago and Rocky Mountain were also not championship caliber teams. Everyone knew this – but the format was in stone.
2003 Results
Pool play played out like this – with all eyes on Bracket A
In Bracket A, Three teams tied sending people to the massage tables 🙂
| Standings | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 |
| Bayou City Results (2-1) | Lost to Cleveland 10-7 | Beat Columbus 10-2 | Beat Chicago 9-5 |
| Chicago Results (2-1) | Beat Columbus 8-2 | Beat Cleveland 10-9 | Lost to Bayou City 9-5 |
| Cleveland Results (2-1) | Beat Bayou City 10-7 | Lost to Chicago 10-9 | Beat Columbus 4-2 |
| Columbus Results (0-3) | Lost to Chicago 8-2 | Lost to Bayou City 10-2 | Lost to Cleveland 4-2 |
Bracket B – Played out as expected
| Standings | Game 1 | Game 2 |
| West Coast Results (2-0) | West Coast beat Tyler 21-4 | West Coast beat Rocky Mountain 21-0 |
| Rocky Mountain Results (1-1) | Rocky Mt beat Tyler 6-3 | Rocky Mt lost to West Coast 21-0 |
| Tyler results (0-2) | Tyler lost to Rocky Mt 6-3 | Tyler lost to Rocky Mt 6-3 |
Bracket C– Sent the right two teams to the championship bracket
| Standings | Game 1 | Game 2 |
| Kansas Results (2-0) | Kansas beat OKC 14-12 | Kansas beat Boston 7-0 |
| Oklahoma City Results (1-1) | OKC lost to Kansas 14-12 | OKC beat Boston 12-1 |
| Boston results (0-2) | Boston lost to Kansas 7-0 | Boston lost to OKC 12-1 |
Bracket D -Played out as expected
| Standings | Game 1 | Game 2 |
| Austin Results (2-0) | Austin beat Bluffs 13-3 | Austin beat Florida 13-0 |
| Chicago Bluff Results (1-1) | Bluff lost to Austin 13-3 | Bluff beat Florida 7-0 |
| Florida results (0-2) | Florida lost to Austin 13-0 | Florida lost to Bluff 7-0 |
Bracket A had to go to a tie breaker. I do not recall what that tiebreaker was (it does not appear to be run differential, runs allowed or runs scored), but I do recall anger, swearing and the Scrappers getting the shaft and being sent to the BBQ bracket with their hopes of a title being crushed…on a tie breaker in pool play. They were clearly a better team than both the Chicago Bluff and Rocky Mountain Eagles who were “playing” for a championship. I put playing in quotes because they were going to get crushed.
What happened next? The Bluff and Eagles lost in their first round games by a combined score of 23-1. They then had the fortune of playing each other (where the Bluff beat the Eagles 5-4) and then the Bluff got shut out 11-0 by OKC. Cleveland walked through the BBQ bracket winning three games by a combined score of 34-6. Meanwhile the Comets went on to upset the Dawgs for the title. Remember, Chicago beat Cleveland by just 1 run in pool play. It was clear this system was flawed and needed to be fixed.
The Seeded Bracket Era
JT Herzog did the research and the legwork (which was no small undertaking) to bring a better format to the league. The first year of this format was in 2006. There were some minor tweaks to the format over the years including a change to how the seeds were snaked. Then in 2019, the league made a change to the way it seeds the teams. The initial and primary reason for this change was how the league handled great teams who missed the previous World Series. Too often, a team like Taiwan (but also San Antonio and the Indy Edge in their first years) would get seeded near the end of the brackets and ruin a few teams hopes of improving their seed (mostly teams in the 7-10 range). This happened because they would pick up an early loss to this mis-seeded team that would often finish in the top of the standings.
Through the years, the format has attracted more teams. Maybe the sport has become more popular, maybe the format change generated more interest. Maybe the format change made it more desirable to play games as teams were guaranteed to play games if they went 0-2 at the World Series. As an example. in 2005, The Renegades had a Wednesday (the games started a day later in the week in these years) round robin bracket that contained Austin, Taichung County and Stockton. After going 1-2 on the day, we were put in the BBQ bracket. Our first opponent was Oklahoma City who 12-runned us 18-6. We then lost to Long Island 9-4. That was our whole world Series. We played 5 games in 2 days and went two and screw in double elimination. We paid to be there for the week, but were done in two days. Other teams were also sitting around doing nothing and we could have been playing more games.
Since the new format, the series has ranged between 14 teams as the low (2007, 2008, 2009) and 24 teams (2015). Over the 17 seasons the average amount of teams at a series has been 18 squads. Between 2015-2018 – we had a run of four years of 20+ teams and the league has seen 20 teams just one other time (2013).
What If?
So, this got me thinking. We all know who some of the top teams in league history are because of the titles they won. However, what if we looked at things through a different lens? Could we define the best franchises of this era?
With the MLB MVP voting recently completed I adopted that algorithm. I went back in time to 2006 and looked at all of the brackets. A team was awarded 15 points if they won the title. A team got 9 points for finishing second, 8 for third all the way down to 1 point for a 10th place finish. Only ten teams received points each year.
I then tallied this up for every year from 2006-2019, and then 2021-2023. Along the way, I created some categories. They include
- World Series appearances
- Top 10 finishes
- Top 6 finishes
- Top 5 finishes
- Top 3 finishes
- Titles
You may ask…why top 6 finishes? Well, I put that there as I have seen a few teams tank the 5/6 game in the past to play their bench, especially earlier in the history of this new format.
Now, some will argue this is not fair and this scoring is not relevant. Stop. You don’t need to read on. I did this for fun, absolutely nothing rides on this. Yes, there were some great teams prior to 2006. Yes, some teams played the bulk of their games before 2006 as well. A team like Austin won a ton of titles, but most of them were before the new format. Chicago won a title as well, before the new format. None of that is accounted here. The teams most impacted by this are Austin, Cleveland, Chicago, Bayou City, West Coast, Taiwan and Kansas. But I had to draw a line in the sand somewhere. This seemed to be the easiest way to do it. Additionally, the key rules (100 foot bases and 4 strikes) have remained the same since 2006, making this a good time period to compare.
Key points to know
There are a few things to understand about this analysis.
- There have been 17 total world series with this new format (between 2006-2023 and excluding 2020)
- During this time, only six different teams have won the title
- Longevity matters in this ranking. A team who competes every year has value. It is hard to run a successful beepball team and keep them coming back year after year.
- For the purpose of this, we made some decisions to combine some teams and not others. The combinations include
- PA Wolfpack and Philly Fire
- Carolina Pride and Carolina Warriors
- RHI Extreme and Indy Edge
- Canada and Toronto Blind Jays
- Daytona Bats and Braille Bandits
- Rocky Mountain Eagles and Colorado Storm
- Teams that we did not combine include
- Atlanta Eclipse and Atlanta Chaos
- New Jersey Lightning and New Jersey Titans
- Wichita Sonics and Wichita Falcons
Again, I mean no disrespect to any team who performed well prior to 2006. If you can dig up the stats, brackets, scores and reconstruct those years, go ahead and have fun! Through google, I found this page: https://www.nbba.org/history/ but it is missing some info and has nothing about the standings each season. I urge the league to improve upon this and show our deep history. It gives credit to the teams who did all the hard work. It will be something that would draw some traffic to the web site as well. Traffic is great for sponsors!
Two last things, this list only includes teams with a top ten finish. Some teams never finished top ten and some were one and done, never returning to the series. Lastly, nothing was done here to adjust the different ways the teams have been seeded throughout the years. We just looked at how they finished (whether they got hurt by Taiwan getting seeded last or not).
The Rankings
- #1 Indy Thunder – 118 points: They have both longevity (attending all 17 world series) and the most titles of any team in this span with five. They have also finished top 10 in 16 of the 17 seasons.
- #2 Austin Blackhawks – 112 points: Another team with 17 years of longevity and two titles to their name. Austin also has 16 top 10 finishes, as 2023 was the first time they finished outside the top 10 in their history. They have 6 top 3 finishes (2nd most) and 12 top 6 finishes (2nd most).
- #3 Bayou City Heat – 109 points: The third team with 17 World Series attended. However, this team has not won a title since the new format arrived. They have the most top 5 finishes (13) which is 4 more than their next opponent.
- #4 RHI Extreme/ Indy Edge – 93 points: Though this team changed names, they were pretty much a similar team with many of the same players and coaches. This is the first team on the list without 17 appearances, as they have 12 appearances. They have been a top 6 team in 11 of those 12 seasons and have been top 10 every year. Don’t forget, they have won the title the past two seasons.
- #5 Taiwan Home Run- 90 points: A top 5 team who has not been at a series since 2017 and has made just 42% of the series. The thing is, since the new format rolled out, they have finished top three all 8 times they have attended. Oh, by the way, they also won 3 titles, 3rd most in this new format.
- #6 West Coast Dawgs -78 points: They rank 5th out of the top 10 teams yet they appeared in the least amount of World Series with just six appearances. The Dawgs had a dynasty run for a few years at the start of this new format. They were dominant and won 4 times and every season which they attended they finished first or second. Their team played their last World Series in 2011.
- #7 Chicago Comets – 77 points: These guys are the gold standard for how to run a beepball team the right way. Though they won a title in 2003, that does not count here. They have attended all 17 World Series and until this year, were a top 10 team every season. 7 top five finishes and 2 top three finishes are what have them so high on this list.
- #8 Boston Renegades -68 points: SURPRISE. This likely shocks a lot of teams. Longevity matters as Boston made 16 of the 17 series, missing only 2021 because of COVID. Boston has done something no other team has done…work its way from the basement of the league in 2002 to a title game in 2016. 7 consecutive top 5 finishes since 2015 help. Boston also has 15 top 10 finishes in 16 seasons of this format. Boston is one of just 11 teams in the history of this format with multiple top three finishes.
- #9 Colorado Storm – 66 points: Colorado had a good run but played their last World Series in 2018. This franchise dates back to the 80’s as the Rocky Mountain Eagles. However, since the new format rolled out, they were always the Colorado Storm. They got a boost to their performance when Kansas folded as a team. For years, many Kansas players ate a lot of innings for the Storm and helped them to three third place finishes. They also finished top 10 in all 13 of their seasons including 8 top 6 finishes.
- #10 San Antonio Jets – 57 points: With just 7 world Series appearances, they are very high on this list. Only The Dawgs had less appearances and are ahead of them. Though they are seeking their first title, they have 5 top 3 finishes including 4 consecutive second place awards since 2019. They also have finished top 6 every year they have attended the series.
- #11 Kansas All-Stars – 41 points: This team would be much higher if their stats prior to 2006 were included. However, a line in the sand had to be drawn. They are the lowest ranked team who has won a title in this world series format (2007). They had 4 top 5 finishes in the 5 seasons they played in this format. They were a force. They just don’t have the longevity in the league as a team with this format with their 5 appearances.
- #12 PA Wolfpack/Philly Fire – 19 points: This team has just 8 Appearances. As the Wolfpack, they were at the 2006-2008 Series and earned a 7th place finish in 2007. They also had a 10th place finish as the Fire in 2018. Their points have added up over the past two seasons with back to back 4th place finishes.
- #13 New Jersey Titans – 16 points: The Titans have 7 appearances as a team. They got their points taking home two 5th place spots in 2019 & 2021. They surprised a lot of Non East coast teams this year with a 7th place finish.
- #14 Carolina Pride/Warriors – 13 points: This team started in 2008 and had 6 World Series appearances under two names. They had 1 top 6 finish (2013) and 5 top 10 finishes. They have not been back to a series since 2014.
- #15 Southwest Slammers – 10 points: The Slammers started in 2009 and made 8 appearances with their last one in 2016. Their best finish was 8th place in 2012 and they had 5 top 10 finishes.
- #16 Cleveland Scrappers – 8 points: This long time franchise celebrated 40 years in 2023 but they have had just 7 appearances at a series since the format changed. They are the last team on this list with a top 5 finish. They accomplished that in 2006 when they took 4th place. They have just one other top 10 appearance, taking 10th in 2007.
- #17 Minnesota Millers – 8 points: They lose a tiebreaker to Cleveland as their best season was a 7th place finish in the 2014 series. They have 13 World Series appearances and 4 top 10 finishes.
- #18 Tyler Tigers – 7 points: Tyler is tied for the most appearances with 17. Their successful run started in 2018 topping out with an 8th place finish in 2018 and totaling 4 top 10 finishes since that season.
- #19 Long Island Bombers – 6 points: The Bombers are one of just ten teams with double digit World Series appearances with 11. They had a three year absence between 2009-2011 but since then have never missed back to back years. Their best finish was in 2008 when they took 7th place out of 14 teams. They have 3 top 10 finishes with their last being in 2021 when they took 10th place out of 19 teams.
- #20 Indy Extreme – 5 points: They had just one World Series appearance in 2021 and they shocked the league taking 6th place. Most of their roster had experience playing for other teams prior to 2021 and most of the players went back to play for the Thunder and Edge after this season.
- #21 Atlanta Chaos – 4 points: This version of Atlanta joined the league in 2021 and in 3 World Series appearances have locked up two top 10 finishes. Their best finish was an 8th place finish in 2021.
- #22 Gateway Archers – 4 points: Gateway also has three World Series appearances since 2021. They lose the tiebreaker to Atlanta because their highest finish has been 9th, which they have accomplished twice.
- #23 Houston Hurricanes – 3 points: They had one 8th place finish in 2023 when the field had 19 teams. They have had just 2 World Series appearances as a team though all of their players have had plenty of experience with other teams.
- #24 BCS Outlaws – 3 points: BCS also had an 8th place finish in their 6 World Series appearances. They are below Houston because they did it in a field of 18 teams.
- #25 Columbus Vipers – 3 points: This old time team had just two appearances in the World Series when the format shifted. The last time they were at the series was 2007 when they took 8th place in a field of 14 teams. Keep in mind, they played many years in the older format.
- #26 Atlanta Eclipse -1 point: This version of Atlanta joined the league for the 2013 series and played 4 straight seasons. They were a homegrown team that folded when they got poached after their 10th place finish in 2016.
- #27 Wichita Sonics – 1 point: This version of the Sonics restarted in 2009 and made 6 World Series appearances. Their best finish was a 10th place finish in 2009 in a field of 14 teams.
Below is a table with all of the stats in them. For those with vision, the Bold Red numbers represent the top scores in each category. Teams in Italics are no longer active (I was unable to find the date of the first World Series Colorado – contact me if you have it)
| Rank | Team | 1st WS | Total points | WS appearances | Top 10 Finish | Top 6 finish | Top 5 finish | Top 3 Finish | Titles |
| 1 | Indy Thunder | 2002 | 118 | 17 | 16 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| 2 | Austin Blackhawks | 1987 | 112 | 17 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 2 |
| 3 | Bayou City Heat | 2001 | 109 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 6 | 0 |
| 4 | RHI Extreme/Edge | 2011 | 93 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 2 |
| 5 | Taiwan Home Run | 1997 | 90 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 3 |
| 6 | West Coast Dawgs | 1994 | 78 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| 7 | Chicago Comets (Fastar Comets 1995-2002) | 1995 | 77 | 17 | 16 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| 8 | Boston Renegades | 2002 | 68 | 16 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| 9 | Rocky Mountain Eagles/Colorado Storm | 1985 | 66 | 13 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| 10 | San Antonio Jets | 2016 | 57 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 0 |
| 11 | Kansas All-Stars | 2000 | 41 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 12 | PA Wolfpack/Philly Fire | 2006 | 19 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | New Jersey Titans | 2015 | 16 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | North Carolina Pride/Warriors | 2006 | 13 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | Southwest Slammers | 2009 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Cleveland Scrappers | 1987 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | Minnesota Millers | 2012 | 8 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | Tyler Tigers | 1996 | 7 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | Long Island Bombers | 2002 | 6 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | Indy Extreme | 2021 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | Atlanta Chaos | 2021 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | Gateway Archers | 2021 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Houston Hurricanes | 2022 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | BCS Outlaws | 2015 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | Columbus Vipers | 1995 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Atlanta Eclipse | 2013 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | Wichita Sonics | 2009 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Above are all of the teams who finished in a top 10 slot since the format changed. Nine of the 27 teams in this list (33%) did not play a game in the 2023 season and those teams are likely no longer going to play a game. It should also be noted that another 22 teams have played in at least one World series during this time but have no top ten finishes to their resume.
An Attempt at Data Based Seeding
In 2019, we started to seed the teams differently than in the past. We made an attempt to be smarter with seeding
Though, its been just four years, here is what the standings look like since we made this change
| Rank | Team | 1st WS | Total points | WS appearances | Top 10 Finish | Top 6 finish | Top 5 finish | Top 3 Finish | Titles |
| 1 | Indy Thunder | 2002 | 43 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 2 | Indy Edge | 2011 | 42 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | San Antonio Jets | 2015 | 36 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| 4 | Austin Blackhawks | 1987 | 20 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 | Boston Renegades | 2002 | 20 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | New Jersey Titans | 2015 | 16 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Bayou City Heat | 2001 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Philly Fire | 2006 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Chicago Comets | 1995 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Indy Extreme | 2021 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Atlanta Chaos | 2021 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Gateway Archers | 2021 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | Tyler Tigers | 1996 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | Houston Hurricanes | 2022 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | BCS Outlaws | 2015 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Long Island Bombers | 2002 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Tie breaker info
- Austin is ahead of Boston because they had more top 3 finishes
- Atlanta is ahead of Gateway and Tyler because their best finish was 8th
- Gateway is ahead of Tyler as they had two 9th place finishes to Tylers one 9th place finish
- Houston is ahead of BCS because their 8th place finish was with 19 teams while BCS was with 18 teams
It’s notable that three teams from the East coast are Top 8 on this list as East Coast beepball has improved since 2015 and has had multiple teams in the top 5 in 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Final Thoughts
About the League
In summary, running a beep baseball team is one of the hardest things one can do. It takes dedicated volunteers, dedicated players. It takes money, patience and to be successful, you need to establish a culture where everyone feels valued and agrees to the team goals. A few things should stand out on this list
- Very few teams ever win a World Series. Most of them have an all-star feel to them
- There is not a lot of parody in this league because many teams build themself up by raiding other teams of their talent
- Boston is the only team on this list who has a top 5 finish with all of their players started in their program and originating from the Boston area
Now, this list can surely be picked apart. Is it right to award a team a top 10 finish with a field of 14 teams the same as with a field of 24 teams? Is it right to rank teams with these points? This is just a fun way to look at the recent history of our league. My hope is this will spur some ideas for us to honor our past, honor the teams who have played in these contests. My hope is these teams will not be forgotten and their accomplishments celebrated for years to come. Too often, we hear people complaining about the format of the series. I can assure you; this format is light years ahead of how it used to work. If the league ever gets larger, we may be forced to change things. One thing is for sure, the current format gives everyone opportunity.
About the Seeding Process
I would like to see the Rankings process continuously improve. We need to learn from mistakes that were made. We need to get better at measuring the things that are important. We need to be more data oriented and get better at collecting data. Some of my immediate asks include:
- We need to make sure that all 12 run games are documented as such and the inning the game entered the 12 run rule
- We need to enforce rosters being locked before the seeding process begins. In 2023, there were two legit all-star names left on rosters who did not come to the series
- We need to do a post mortem about what teams learned about the process so we can continuously improve
- We need less focus on game results through the season because most of those games are not played with full rosters and often times players are almost barn yarding during the season as they play for multiple teams
- I feel we need to go back to only allowing teams who have played in 3 out of 5 World Series the opportunity to rank. In 2023, three out of the four least accurate rankings came from teams who did not play in 3 out of the last 5 World Series. This could be changed to allow a team the opportunity to ask to vote (and the committee can decide if they are qualified or not. This would likely keep Houston in the process for example). This should help minimize bias and popularity contests.
If we can do better with the Rankings committee – we can assure that teams will have a better chance to finish in an appropriate seed.
Thanks and Credits
We would like to to thank the following people for their help with facts on this: Steve Guerra, Terri Smolka, Steve Stambaugh, Fonzie Medrano, Neal McDonald, Janet Leonard, Jeff Dell and Kevin Barrett (updated in April 2025 with feedback from Larry Reed).