It has been another exciting and unpredictable season in TBH, 'The Toughest World in HBD'. Not only will there be a new champion there will be a first time champion...again. It takes hard work and dedication to become a TBH Champion. Just ask this season's WS finalists, jeffr24 owner of the Vancouver Clickers and psap with the Kansas City Tornado's...
Jeff and psap took over existing teams in the early seasons of TBH and have turned them into elite franchises. I could not think of a better match up to exemplify what TBH is about. Dedication, perseverance, sportsmanship and ultimately... championship. What an exciting World Series it will be.
Look at how they arrived this season.
Vancouver passed the AL WS rep the last two seasons in Atlanta under the ownership of dawgfan1974, one of the original Evangeline League owners from prior to the TBH merger. No championships in either world yet but a great competitor. Next he faced the #1 pitching team in season 8, the Jackson Nine under returning Evangeline and TBH vet mushashi. In the AL LCS he faced the Las Vegas One Arm Bandits under the TBH commissioner and long term Evangeline owner campbell1972. A first time LCS competitor however there is a history of 41 minor league championships in LV between Evangeline and TBH. LV passed two original Evangeliners, sbarrouque with the Ottawa Pilots and season 4 ML pennant winner jedielvis and the Boston Dead Kennedys. That's as tough as it gets.
...or is it?
The Kansas City Tornado's fell short of the league minimum in season 3 with only 51 wins. The Veteran's Group in TBH agreed that psap showed a strong effort and dedication to his franchise, a rebuild from a precarious former ownership, and was given the opportunity to come back for the following season. Just reaching 54 wins in season 3 KC has done nothing but improve season after season to reach the WS in season 8.
Kansas City won a hard fought series in the NL LCS against another great builder in TBH, royfranklin with the Fargo Fireflys who had the only 100 win season in the ML in season 8. Fargo beat first season owners Thunderb53 with the Honolulu Hurricanes who took over 2 time runner up and season 5 champion Cheyenne, and rwright and his Seattle Baristas. The Baristas set a new franchise ML record for wins and I am not sure but I think that was the first playoff birth in the entire history of this Evangeline original franchise. Two tough new owners. In his first series psap had to take on two time defender hornetmx and the Mexico City Pheenoms, an original More Cowbell franchise, who have shown season after season they live up to their name. Honourable mention goes to gotigers17 losing to MC, another up and comer.
Who had the harder battle? I'll leave you to decide. That they have battled from scratch to reach the ML World Series after only a few seasons in TBH is a spectacular feat. There will be no losers this season and a new TBH original will be crowned... but who will it be...?
4/8/2016 11:09 PM (edited)