[Hendu Style]

In late October, 1979, shortly after the Tropico Suns swept the Appaloosa Bucks in the Sim Series to win the franchise's first-ever championship, the SBL Commissioner's Office announced that the league would be expanding with two teams on the West Coast. Owners in the Colonial League were initially outraged that the two expansion teams would be added to the Pioneer League, until the Senior Circuit realized that owners in both leagues would receive expansion fees from the fledgling teams, and the Junior Circuit would now have a tougher field to contend with to get playoff bids.

The teams would be located in Emerald Bay and Durango, two diametrically opposite cities on opposite ends of the West. Emerald Bay is nestled in the remote far northwest corner of SimNation, bordering Canada to the North. The city had gone through an economic and population boom when the once-hazardous tiberium that polluted the Bay, giving it a beautiful aqua-colored shimmer, was harnessed into a valuable commodity that was rare and sought after. Ironic how something so toxic could be so valuable to a city. In the deserts of the Southwest, meanwhile, Durango had turned into a thriving metropolis. Hurricane Priscilla in the Gulf Coast Region had forced Spring Training to move to Durango, feeding the baseball-hungry desert town and giving it an unquenchable thirst for big league baseball.

Both cities were awarded franchises in late 1979, and would join the fold for the 1982 season, plenty of time for Emerald Bay and Durango to construct new stadiums. And, more importantly, come up with team names and logos.

The ownership group in Durango let the public decide its fate via a newspaper poll in the Durango Republic. Not surprisingly, most names centered around the unforgiving deserts of Durango, with the names Diamondbacks, Gila Monsters, and Inferno earning votes. But in the end, Durangans hung their hat on the name "Rattlers," and it stuck. And so the Durango Rattlers were born.

In Emerald Bay, Tiberium tycoon Lloyd Leland hired a firm to come up with a name and logo for his franchise. Pioneers, Pilots, and AquaSox were all bandied about, with the latter nearly being named the winner. But at the last second, Leland reportedly had a change of heart, wanting to honor the fallen city of Atlantis. The Emerald Bay millionaire decided to name his team the "Tritons." In Greek mythology, Triton is the son of Poseiden and Amphirite, and is the messenger of the sea. Neptune was Poseiden's counterpart in Greek lore, so Leland viewed the Tritons as an homage to the doomed city of Atlantis and the Neptunes.

And with that, the Rattlers and the Tritons were born. Two neophyte franchises ready to join the SBL as the league's first expansion squads since 1966.