SimNation: Fictional world, real baseball

[Hendu Style]

For some, free agency turned baseball from a nostalgic game into an unromantic, unmerciful business. For others, it turned pretenders into contenders.

Since coming into the league in 1952, the Motor City Racers had been a moribund franchise. They had suffered through five 100-loss seasons in their first twelve seasons of existence, including a pitiful 50-112 season in 1957. But the Racers had slowly built up their farm systems with high draft picks, and by the 1970's, they had transformed themselves into a consistent 90-win franchise. Unfortunately, they always seemed to be a half-step behind the powerhouse Dullsville Ducks in the Colonial West. That all changed in 1974, when the free agent signings of clean-up hitter Gary "Dandy" Prosser (.261, 32 HR, 94 RBI), ace pitcher Monty Cobb (17-9, 3.16 ERA), and #4 starter Sandy Hayes (16-8, 2.84 ERA), plus the midseason trade for slugging free agent-to-be outfielder Gelu Marandici (.347, 11 HR, 49 RBI) fueled the Racers to the division title and their first-ever playoff appearance.

The Racers went on to beat the Dixie Dukes in a thrilling Colonial League Championship Series to reach the Sim Series, where they swept the Rocklyn Railers to win the championship. Free agency was changing the game for better or worse, and the folks in Motor City certainly weren't complaining.

[Hendu Style]

Motor City may have become the newest member of the championship fraternity in 1974, but that year's Hall of Fame class was well represented by two of the game's oldest franchises.

Hook Jensen and Ronnie Anderson were inducted into the Hall in '74, two players who desperately wanted to reach seemingly unreachable milestones in their respective careers.

Jensen had won 291 games by his 40th birthday, and seemed like a lock to reach 300 after winning 12 games during the 1964 season. But it wasn't meant to be, winning just 6 games over the course of the next five seasons as a reliever for the Freeport Patriots. He finished 3 wins shy of 300 at 297. But Jensen was still a first ballot HOF'er, having been an 11-time All-Star and 2-time Pitcher of the Year.

Anderson, regarded as one of the best middle infielders of his generation, spent his entire 21-year career in Dixie playing for the Dukes. He never reached 200 hits in a season, but he was a consistent .300 hitter, finishing his career with a lifetime .308 average. He played until the age of 40, hoping to reach 3,000 hits, but injuries limited his at-bats over the last three years of his playing career, and finished with 2647 hits. Like Jensen, Anderson was an 11-time All-Star, and also a two-time MVP.

[Hendu Style]

Ravaged by injuries, Gary Carnell's pursuit of the 500 homerun milestone was in serious jeopardy. The longtime Arcopolos Rockets great had signed a 2-year free agent contract with the Granite Falls Timberjacks, but was limited to just 189 games in that span, hitting a total of 33 homeruns. The leftfielder hadn't played in an All-Star Game since 1970 and was seriously contemplating hanging up the spikes and calling it a career.


Then Carnell got a call from the Dixie Dukes before the start of the '75 season. The Dukes had gone to the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons, and were looking that one final piece to push them over the top. Their offer of a 2-year, $500k contract was just what the slugger was looking for.


Fortunately for Dixie and Carnell, the deal was mutually beneficial. The slugger had a renaissance season, hitting .293 with 34 homeruns and 104 RBI in 113 games played. He carried the Dukes through the postseason, where he hit .438 with 3 homers and 7 RBI. Dixie made quick work of Appaloosa in the Sim Series, sweeping the Bucks to secure the franchise's first time since 1935.


Carnell's 33 homerun campaign had also set him up for an inevitable 500 homerun career, something only one player in the history of the SBL had ever accomplished.

[Hendu Style]

Gary Carnell's date with destiny would have to wait a bit longer than expected. Carnell was limited to 6 homeruns with the Dixie Dukes during the 1976 campaign, and decided to sign on with the Appaloosa Bucks as a designated hitter in '77. Mercifully, #500 came on June 5th, when he belted a letter-high fastball into the right field bleachers at Presidio Park against the Seals. The 500th homerun cemented his status as a first ballot Hall of Famer and one of the SBL's all-time greats.

"It was just a relief to get it over with," Carnell told an Appaloosa Register reporter after the season. "I wish other people had been in the 500 club so it wasn't such a big deal."

But Carnell was in exclusive company, along with the legendary Sam Crowley in the 500 club. Other power hitters were emerging in the SBL -- Woody Rose had come up one homerun short of Crowley's single-season record of 50 in 1976, just like Carnell -- and the game was turning into a more fan-friendly sport with homeruns being hit at a record clip. But nothing could possibly diminish Carnell's feat of reaching 500 homeruns in Santo Cielo in 1977.

The '77 campaign also featured other milestones and accomplishments. Ozzie Ortega's 32-game hitting streak enabled him to finish with an even .400 batting average (rounded up from .3996), making him the SBL's first .400 hitter since Jim Eckard and Jim Williams in 1962. Amazingly, Ozzie's hitting streak was the second longest in the SBL that season, eclipsed by Whiskey Flowers and his 40-game hitting streak later that season. Also, George "Gator" Flaherty of Kokanee made a run at the single season homerun mark, finishing with 44 in 1977.

[Hendu Style]

The SimNation Baseball League survived World War and a Revolutionary War. It was at the forefront of abolition and desegregation. But the SBL was in for another enormous hurdle just after the 1978 season. The league was eyeing expansion in the West when a Category 5 Hurricane rocked the Gulf Coast, forever changing the Nation and its game.

"Hurricane Priscilla," as it was called, was the worst storm on record. It ate up everything in its path, starting in the SimNation panhandle region, and working its way up the coast and into the River Delta. By storm's end, Priscilla had devoured the tiny island nation of Tropico, completely submerged the city of Atlantis, and flooded Bayouville. Thousands perished, millions fled. And three SBL franchises were forced to relocate.

Tropico caught the worst of the hurricane, half of its population washed out to sea, never to be seen again. The team temporarily relocated to Dixie for a season, before the island was eventually rebuilt, as was the Thunder's dome. While away from Tropico, the franchise proudly reinvented itself using the Tropico seal as its team logo, and its national flag as its uniform. The team adopted the name "Suns" during that transition season, but when it returned home to a rebuild Tropico island for its rebirth, it took on a name and logo befitting of the franchise and its island: Firebirds. Tropico had indeed risen from the ashes.

Founded in 1878, the Neptunes had weathered storms before in Atlantis, but never like this. To this day, Atlantis-Folsom County Stadium sits beneath 100 feet of ocean water, just like the rest of the city. The team had no choice but to move inland, settling upon Oak Hill, known most for its federal penitentiary, Oak Hill Prison. Eager to drop its sea-faring moniker, the team rebranded itself as the "Outlaws." Not exactly an upgrade, but certainly an homage to its new city.

The citizens of Bayouville also scattered for higher ground, its city half covered in standing water and toxic sewage. The team used a rotation of stadiums for three seasons before the city was reconstructed to satisfactory standards. Unlike the Neptunes, Bayouville would eventually stay put. And unlike Tropico, the Barons name would remain intact. But the team did adopt new uniforms as it began a new chapter in its history.

Hurricane Priscilla left an indelible mark on not only the game of baseball, but literally the map of SimNation. 1978... it is a year we must never forget.

[Hendu Style]

Here is a look at the three teams affected by 1978's Hurricane Priscilla:

[English_Ray]

I've just caught up with this entire thread - absolutely fantastic stuff. Can't wait for more updates now!

[slomo76]

MY WORD! I stumbled upon ur Moneyball II thread and honestly for a brief moment, thought it was real. In the sense that I truly thought there was going to be another book... interested, I continued to read on. AMAZING stuff! bored today at work, I thought i'd check in on Moneyball and see if there was anything new, which led me to this. I'm at a loss for words... I'm totally geeking out here being that i'm 38 years old and a father of three, but this read has been truly enjoyable. looking forward to some new material...

great stuff Hendu!

[Hendu Style]

Originally Posted by English_Ray

I've just caught up with this entire thread - absolutely fantastic stuff. Can't wait for more updates now!

Originally Posted by slomo76

MY WORD! I stumbled upon ur Moneyball II thread and honestly for a brief moment, thought it was real. In the sense that I truly thought there was going to be another book... interested, I continued to read on. AMAZING stuff! bored today at work, I thought i'd check in on Moneyball and see if there was anything new, which led me to this. I'm at a loss for words... I'm totally geeking out here being that i'm 38 years old and a father of three, but this read has been truly enjoyable. looking forward to some new material...

great stuff Hendu!

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it. I'm never sure if anyone is ever reading these, so it's nice to get some great feedback. I'll try to keep 'em coming. I need new logos and jerseys for the next phase of this story, and I'm really hoping the mod community is able to come through for me. If you ever find the time to wander over there, it would help out a ton if you just bump my threads, so they hopefully garner some attention there. Thanks for reading!

[Hendu Style]

The SimNation Baseball League finished the 70's with a bang in the 1979 season. Records were set, tears were shed, and legacies were cemented.


Not since 1934 had a player hit 50 homeruns in a single season. But 45 years after Sam Crowley set the SBL homerun record, two sluggers set their sights on "The Man." Lunar Lakes first baseman Bill DeRose seemed the most likely to break the mark. Already with two 40+ homerun seasons under his belt, the Electrics clean-up man had bashed 48 homeruns with 5 games remaining in the season, but fizzled out by going 3-for-15 with zero extra basehits to close out the year. While DeRose wilted, Leonardo Estrada bloomed.


"Leo," as he's called in Santo Cielo, had never hit more than 31 homeruns in his professional career. But the Seals first baseman put together an historic September, hitting .358 with 12 homeruns and 25 RBI in the final month of the regular season. With the attention of SimNation focused solely on the prodigious DeRose, Estrada was an afterthought in the homerun chase. He was six homeruns shy of the record with twelve games remaining in the season. But after homeruns in back-to-back nights against Kokanee and Seaside, and then a two-homer effort against the Pirates on September 19th, Leo found himself just two homers away from the record books with still a week to go in the season.


"Nobody really thought I could do it," said Estrada, a native of San Pedro de Macoris, "but I knew I could do it."


On September 21st, he hammered his 49th homerun of the year against the Federals. The following afternoon, in front of a crowd of 23,835 at PT Curry Stadium in Fort Dodge, he rocketed a Rod McCammon slider into the second row of the bleachers in right field. #50 had tied a record that stood 45 years.


The record, though, would have to be shared between Estrada and Crowley, when Leo failed to clear the wall in 13 at-bats against Lucky Palms to close out the '79 regular season at home in Santo Cielo.


Estrada may have come up short in breaking the record, but his homerun binge in September helped the Seals beat out the Stars by 4 games to win the PL West Division Crown. But the feelgood story of the season came on the other side of the Nation, in the Colonial League East.


Displaced by Hurricane Priscilla, Tropico was a team without a home. Everything about their team was temporary. They were named the "Suns." Their jerseys bore the Tropico flag. The island-nation's seal was used as their logo. While their island lay in ruin, they called Dixie home, sharing the ballpark with the Dukes. But amid all that chaos, the Suns shined in '79. Leon Wheeler set the tone for Tropico, hurling the season's only no-hitter in a 9 inning, 1 walk, 5 strikeout gem in early June. Ernie Fallon, a 27 year-old third baseman, had a breakout season for Tropico, leading the Colonial League with a .333 average, 43 homeruns, and 124 RBI... the SBL's first Triple Crown winner since Anthony Hendershot (Santo Cielo Seals, 1970). The Suns followed suit, winning their final four games of the regular season to overtake the Dukes for the CL East title. The stage was set for an unforgettable postseason.


Tropico, which in its 13-year history had never reached the playoffs, let alone the Sim Series, was the underdog despite its SBL-best 96 wins in the regular season. Its beloved Triple Crown winner had been sidelined for the entirety of the postseason with a torn rotator cuff. Its entire lineup and pitching staff lacked playoff experience. Yet, despite all of that, the Suns dispatched the Motor City Racers in short fashion in the CLCS, winning the series, 4 games to 1.


Standing in Tropico's way in the Sim Series would be the Appaloosa Bucks, a team rich with tradition, having won three championships over the previous three decades (1970, 1957, 1954). But if the Suns were intimidated by the Bucks, they never showed it, winning the first two games of the Sim Series at "home" in Dixie, and then completing the 4-game sweep at Appaloosa in games 3 and 4. For the first time in their history, Tropico was World Champions.


The 1970's were a memorable decade in the SBL, and no year defined the decade better than 1979.

[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.

[Hendu Style]

The 70's set a high standard for the SBL, but the 80's launched a strong opening salvo to begin the decade. Two players hit milestone homeruns. A pitcher was fast becoming the best of his generation. One division was decided in a one-game playoff. And Tropico was still the feel-good story of baseball.


On May 10th, 1980, newly-signed Winterhaven Warriors outfielder Wally Johnston walloped a solo homerun at Hank Pierce Memorial Stadium for his 500th career round-tripper. On May 25th, Dixie Dukes first baseman Rick O'Donnell matched that feat with a 3-run homer against Dullsville. Just like that, Wally and Rick became the 3rd and 4th members of the exclusive 500-homerun club in a span of 15 days.


Though homeruns may have ruled 1980, one pitcher was refining and honing his craft in a bid to become one of the all-time greats. Keith "Livewire" Boyce had left Winterhaven as a free agent after winning three consecutive Colonial League Stormy Boyd's with the Warriors in 1974-75-76, so he could chase a division title with the Arcopolis Rockets. In a vintage 1980 campaign, the 30 year-old southpaw led the CL with 20 wins and 338 strikeouts, while posting a 2.50 ERA.


Boyce and the Rockets got more than they bargained for in the CL East Division, having to beat the Bayouville Barons in an epic one-game playoff to decide the pennant. Trailing the Barons 3-2 going into the top of the 8th inning, Rodney Raymond blasted a go-ahead 2-run homer to help lift Arcopolis to a division-deciding 5-3 win on the final day of the regular season.


But in the CL West, Tropico was fast becoming a powerhouse team. Powered by '79 Triple Crown winner Ernie Fallon's .312, 29 HR, 89 RBI follow-up campaign, the newly-named Firebirds held off rival Dixie to win the division crown with a stellar 102-win regular season. The Firebirds had indeed risen from the ashes in hurricane-battered Tropico, besting the Rockets in the CLCS, 4 games to 1.


But there would be no championship celebration this time for the tiny island-nation, losing in the Sim Series to the Railers, 4-1, for Rocklyn's first title since 1964.

[Hendu Style]

Expansion afforded one of the Pioneer League's premiere hitters to make a run at history in 1981. With Durango and Emerald Bay joining the fold, Northgate Knights slugger Whiskey Flowers was licking his chops at the chance to break one of baseball's most hallowed records.


Flowers had long been a gap hitter in his SBL career, but in 1980 he found his power stroke and clubbed a career-high 37 homeruns at the age of 26. One year later, everything came together. He started the season by hitting .468 with 10 homeruns in the month of April. He never cooled off. On August 16th, with still more than 40 games to go in the regular season, Flowers belted homeruns 51 and 52 of 1981... breaking former Knight great Sam Crowley's single season record that had stood since 1934.


Flowers went on to win the Triple Crown, the first in the PL since Anthony Hendershot in 1970, with a .383 average, 65 homeruns, and 154 RBI (second-most in SBL history). Of his record 65 homers, 16 came against the SBL's two expansion squads. His last homerun of the season came at Rocklyn in a 4-0 win, helping set up a one-game playoff against the Railers to decide the East Division crown, which the Knights won two days later.


Flowers, though, would have to settle for the homerun record and the Triple Crown, as Northgate was dismissed from the SBL postseason in a 4-game sweep by the Seaside Pirates, who would go on to also sweep the Dixie Dukes in the Sim Series, for the first championship in the franchise's 76-year history.

[Hendu Style]

After obliterating the SBL's longstanding homerun record in 1981, many wondered what Whiskey Flowers would do for an encore. The Northgate Knights outfielder wasted little time answering that question.


Flowers hit a torrid .405 with 6 homeruns in the month of April and never let up. Though the homeruns were nowhere near record pace this time around, his batting average was. By the end of July, Flowers' season batting average was up to .414. The question wasn't if Flowers would hit .400, but rather how much above .400 he would bat. The 28 year-old hit an absolutely ludicrous .495 with 13 homers in 27 August games, boosting his average up to .434 by September 3rd. Suddenly, Jim Lintz's record .424 average, set in 1881, was in serious jeopardy.


"I've never seen anyone hit that well during the course of a season," said Fort Dodge Federals rightfielder Wally Johnston, then 40 and wrapping up a future Hall of Fame career. "I had heard stories about Sam Crowley, but with all due respect, I can't imagine he dialed it in like that for an entire season."


Flowers eventually wilted, relatively speaking, when he hit .351 during the final month of the season. His season-ending batting average of .417 was the second-best in SBL history. Johnston's words rang true. Flowers had put together back-to-back seasons that not even the great Sam "The Man" Crowley could match. Whiskey Flowers had managed to break Crowley's franchise records for batting average (.409), homeruns (50), and RBI (147) during the 1981 and 1982 seasons. And he was only 28.


Flowers capped off his legendary 1982 run with a first-ever Sim Series ring, Northgate's first championship since the Crowley-led Knights won the title in 1939. Flowers wasn't just a great player... he played for a great team.

[Hendu Style]

Whiskey Flowers' run at another Triple Crown came up just short in 1983, but not for a lack of effort. The 29 year-old leftfielder hit a Pioneer League-leading .372 at the plate and drove in league-best 149 runs. Amazingly, though, his 53 homeruns that season did not lead the PL. That distinction belonged to a former Triple Crown winner himself, Ernie Fallon.


The former Tropico superstar found the thin air in Rocklyn to his liking, evidenced by a banner first season with the Railers at the plate. Fallon finished the regular season with a healthy .314 average and 123 RBI, to go with his career-best 59 homeruns. Fallon wasn't the only free agent slugger to come to Rocklyn prior to the 1983 season, as he was joined by former Dixie Dukes All-Star outfielder Come Lacour, who also delivered to the tune of a .333 batting average, 40 homers, and 106 RBI.


No team, though, could touch the Maxis City Heroes that season. Maxis City won a franchise-record 111 games that season (its first 100-win campaign since 1949) to hold off rival Sim City (100-62) in the Colonial League East Division. Led by sweet-swinging outfielder Doyle Rigby (.360, 35 HR, 112 RBI) and pitchers Kit Rhodes (25-6, 2.22 ERA, 290 K) and Brian Burkes (23-5, 3.02 ERA, 207 K), the Heroes stormed past Bayouville in the CLCS, 4-1, and disposed of Granite Falls in the Sim Series, 4-2. In doing so, Maxis City claimed its record 24th championship in franchise history, but its first in 20 seasons.


While homeruns continued to fly out of ballparks at record rates, pitchers did their best to keep the ball inside the yard. Hank Wilkinson, one of the lone bright spots on an otherwise dismal Emerald Bay ballclub, struck out 346 hitters in just his second full season in the big leagues, while walking 123. Wilkinson etched his name into the history books forever when he struck out 19 Railers in a 7-4 loss on September 9th, 1983. The previous SBL record of 18 had been set in 1907 by Sim City's Jeremy Westerfield, and was subsequently equaled on three other occasions, but no pitcher had ever struck out 19 until Wilkinson. Fittingly enough, Wilkinson's feat came in an error-plagued loss, Emerald Bay's 100th of the season. The Tritons finished the year with 110 losses against just 52 victories, easily their worst season in franchise history.

[slomo76]

Wilkinson with 178 pitches talk about rubber arm! 19 k's in 7.1 innings as well...

[shipfb21]

Im a big fan of all ur dynasties, moneyball 2, n sam kinsella story, n this one of course. U have created a fictional universe n brought it to life. I find myself at work thinking of what it would b like 2 play with sam crowley, buck kinsella, n all of the other players n teams u have brought 2 life. Great job, keep it up. I know how much time n effort u must put in.

[shipfb21]

Also can u give some career numbers, awards, n personal thoughts about some of the players mentioned through out the games history. There are some players u write about, than it seems the fade into oblivion, as there is no further mentioning of them. A player that comes 2 mind is the pitcher from the late 30s early 40s, I 4get his name, but he was dominant, then there was no mention of him.

[Hendu Style]

Originally Posted by shipfb21

Also can u give some career numbers, awards, n personal thoughts about some of the players mentioned through out the games history. There are some players u write about, than it seems the fade into oblivion, as there is no further mentioning of them. A player that comes 2 mind is the pitcher from the late 30s early 40s, I 4get his name, but he was dominant, then there was no mention of him.

First off, thanks for the very kind words. It's humbling to hear them.

The story is kind of taking an interesting subplot right now with Sam Kinsella, but there are plans in the works to get all of that info you're talking about out there. I missed my opportunity to do a "SBL at 100" piece, but when the calendar nears 2000, I plan to put out an All Century Team. Maybe even list candidates and have you, the reader, decide? There may also come a time where I create a Quick Start for this league so anyone can download it and play along. I've actually never tried that, but there will come a time where I can see that being fun. Thanks for following! It's still fun writing this, so I don't see this going away anytime soon.

[Hendu Style]

From the league's inception (1885) until 1977, only one player -- Sam Crowley in 1935 -- had hit 50 homeruns in a single season. But when Leo Estrada tied Crowley's mark in 1978, he started a homerun revolution. Ernie Fallon had hit 59 homers in 1983. And in 1984, Whiskey Flowers reached the 50 mark for a third time in his career.


He already held the record for homeruns in a season with 65. He had already hit .418, the second-best mark in SBL history. So when Flowers led the Pioneer League in batting average (.374), homeruns (54), and RBI (155) in 1984, it almost seemed pedestrian.


Almost.


Before SimNation's very eyes, Flowers was obliterating records and keeping pace to destroy all of Crowley's career marks. He hadn't even turned 31 by the end of the '84 season, and he had put together a Hall of Fame resume:


.375 lifetime average (best in SBL history)
339 homeruns
2223 hits
1193 runs
1117 RBI
393 stolen bases
8 All-Star appearances
2 Tiberium Glove awards in LF
and soon-to-be 6 MVP awards


Though Flowers was the best in the game, his team was not. The Northgate Knights finished a respectable yet unimpressive 87-75, wasting yet another banner season by their peaking slugger. Yes, the Knights had won the Sim Series in 1982, but there was a feeling that the team should be accomplishing much more with the imposing Flowers in the middle of the order. The same was said of the great Crowley, whose Northgate teams won the Series just once, in 1939.


But there was little doubt who the best team was in 1984. That distinction belonged to the Maxis City Heroes, who roared past the Granite Falls T'jacks to win their 25th championship that season. It was their second straight title, the first SBL team to repeat as Sim Series champions since the rival Freeport Patriots in 1966-67. It seemed that Flowers wasn't the only one who was blooming in the 1980's.