The Blast from the Past concept is great. Pick one team from your ownership/management timeline and enter that team into a bracket. It will be a… blast.

But getting down to one team is hard.  I’m going to walk through my process of elimination with you today.  I’ve played 941 seasons, so this could take a while.  In fact, I expected to write a quick blog/article thing, but it has taken so long because I get sucked into playoffs, schedules, stats, drafts and posts about all these teams.

First I wanted to narrow it down to a league.  This was harder than I expected.  I ‘grew up’ with Cards Clubhouse and in that league I have the most seasons, playoffs, and championships.  The Classic League is the reason I’m still playing this game, where I’ve developed friendships with so many leaguemates.  I had so much fun with my 1000 run 7th Inning Stretch team (and won 5 WS games in a single postseason).  I had my longest postseason success in Peter Gammons Memorial League and The Dirty Dozens.

Ultimately, I chose to represent TCL with a team. It will be nowhere near my strongest team possible. Mostly because less competitive leagues tend to allow an experienced owner to accumulate better assets. But it is the league that drove my activity over the years. In this league I had a couple realistic choices. The first is a legendary team from a legendary time. Small Ball had multiple 100 game winning teams in 2007-2009 and my team couldn’t advance in the playoffs. This would give that team a chance to win a playoff series. The downside for me is that I didn’t build that team entirely myself. Second, is championship and dismantleship. Third, is a team with Harold Cole.

Fourth, is the best team I built without inheritance. This team is balanced, has a top 20 TCL all time pitcher and a top 10 TCL all time hitter. Strong defense, decent rotation depth and enough EN to hide a bad bullpen. But mostly, it’s a team that I enjoyed. I enjoyed them so much that I didn’t dismantle them after they won. I rode them off the cliff, so much that I was earning strikes and trying to recover for the next decade. It’s going to be fun bringing back those guys, and seeing if they stack up against the other powerhouses of the game. And if they don’t, well, it was fun looking back at the team and all the other teams that didn’t make the cut.

So get in there and find a team to enter. I’d try to convince you more but I’m busy looking at old teams.

Also, don’t eat the gum!!! Gross.