Top 75 FOOL Teams of All-Time (1961-2034)

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

2. 1971 VALDOSTA PEANUTS (108-46)
This team simply did more with nothing than any other ballclub in league history.

Their 561.7 BVORP was over 100 points higher than any other team on this list (Not surprisingly, the '72 Valdosta squad) and was full of guys who not only had career years, but were contributors of the first order:

C Dan Long (.333/152 hits in 457 ABs)
1B Ben Gibbs (.311/15 HR/66 RBI in 405 ABs)
2B Juan Reyes (.296/87 RBI/179 hits)
3B Rick Inman (.343/21 HR/121 RBI)
SS Yoshi Abe (.304/65 RBI in 457 ABs)
LF Lawrence Wyatt (.283/22 HR/94 RBI)
CF Edgardo Reyes (.324/20 triples/ 73 RBI/36 SBs)
RF Roberto Pagan (16 HR/89 RBI/189 hits)

SP Joel Garner (20-1, 2.92 ERA, 193 K)
SP Charles Wilson (19-8, 2.66 ERA, 229 K)
SP Carlos Gonzales (19-4, 236 K, 2.58 ERA)
SP Whit O'Neal (19-7, 222 K, 3.17 ERA)
SP Hiro Nakamura (12-9, 161 k, 5.19 ERA)
CL Alberto Barbosa (5-6, 44 SV, 3.19 ERA, 87 K, 14 BB)

The Peanuts outscored the #2 team in the CL by 149 runs and gave up almost 100 fewer runs than that same team.

In the FOOL Classic that year, they met up with Colorado for an eight-game tilt that was won in Game 8 with Whit O'Neal striking out 10 batters in seven innings of work to clinch the team's second straight title.

They played to their ultimate potential and as such, will be remembered fondly as the best human run team in the history of fake baseball. This team here established the legacy from which future Peanuts teams had to live up to.

A funny thing about that team.. I tried out Nakamura just to see how he could do.. and he bombed big time. I think he ended up with a VORP somewhere around -40. Talk about a blemish that was easily noticeable

[TeachEnEspanol]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

7. 2032 BALTIMORE CHARM (97-65)

Any team that boasts two 20+ game winners is going to be a special club, but mix them in with three guys who belt 40+ home runs and well, you get epic.

Cong Che (.309/45 HR/117 RBI), Sergio Lujan (.296/43 HR/127 RBI) and Ben Keyte (.303/40/103 RBI) were part of the engine that steamed the Charm past the rest of the Continental League that season.

Edmonton barely got past Apex that season and ran out of gas, as they lost in five games to the Charm. In the Classic, Baltimore faced off against its rival from a different era in FOOL It'd been 36 years since the two cities had faced off against each other in a FOOL Classic, but fans on both sides knew the stakes and the history and little love was lost.

This time, Baltimore prevailed in a tight nine game series that Baltimore won in a pitchers duel in Game 9 2-0.

There goes Lujan now...

Don't worry Alan. Apparently Muns and I have the same taste in men too.

Also, I was sad to see Muns leave Hartford, but I can't think of a better team name for him to have switched to. (Does that excuse my previous smack talk?)

[muns]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I am a very patient person and it takes alot to get me going. But he really tried sometimes to push my buttons Even after I bent over backwards and basically gave him a player without complaining about it due to an issue with draft pick trading.

At least thanks to that I got to have fun with the "Red Headed Stepchild" for a good decade afterwards

It takes a lot to push your buttons so thats saying a whole lot there

[muns]

Originally Posted by TeachEnEspanol

There goes Lujan now...

Don't worry Alan. Apparently Muns and I have the same taste in men too.

Also, I was sad to see Muns leave Hartford, but I can't think of a better team name for him to have switched to. (Does that excuse my previous smack talk?)

ok lets set the record straight here girlfriend.

I have no taste in men, fake baseball or otherwise.

The biggest man crush I might have is on my dog Baer, and he is family lol

I do however like the charm, and as much as i liked the gothams, Charm City was just too much to pass up on nickname wise

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Alan T

A funny thing about that team.. I tried out Nakamura just to see how he could do.. and he bombed big time. I think he ended up with a VORP somewhere around -40. Talk about a blemish that was easily noticeable

Yeah, he did stick out like a huge sore thumb on that team.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

2. 1971 VALDOSTA PEANUTS (108-46)
This team simply did more with nothing than any other ballclub in league history.

Their 561.7 BVORP was over 100 points higher than any other team on this list (Not surprisingly, the '72 Valdosta squad) and was full of guys who not only had career years, but were contributors of the first order:

C Dan Long (.333/152 hits in 457 ABs)
1B Ben Gibbs (.311/15 HR/66 RBI in 405 ABs)
2B Juan Reyes (.296/87 RBI/179 hits)
3B Rick Inman (.343/21 HR/121 RBI)
SS Yoshi Abe (.304/65 RBI in 457 ABs)
LF Lawrence Wyatt (.283/22 HR/94 RBI)
CF Edgardo Reyes (.324/20 triples/ 73 RBI/36 SBs)
RF Roberto Pagan (16 HR/89 RBI/189 hits)

SP Joel Garner (20-1, 2.92 ERA, 193 K)
SP Charles Wilson (19-8, 2.66 ERA, 229 K)
SP Carlos Gonzales (19-4, 236 K, 2.58 ERA)
SP Whit O'Neal (19-7, 222 K, 3.17 ERA)
SP Hiro Nakamura (12-9, 161 k, 5.19 ERA)
CL Alberto Barbosa (5-6, 44 SV, 3.19 ERA, 87 K, 14 BB)

The Peanuts outscored the #2 team in the CL by 149 runs and gave up almost 100 fewer runs than that same team.

In the FOOL Classic that year, they met up with Colorado for an eight-game tilt that was won in Game 8 with Whit O'Neal striking out 10 batters in seven innings of work to clinch the team's second straight title.

They played to their ultimate potential and as such, will be remembered fondly as the best human run team in the history of fake baseball. This team here established the legacy from which future Peanuts teams had to live up to.

Really looking forward to the number 1 team now because I thought he had it here.

[Young Drachma]

1. 1996 ST. LOUIS TERRIERS (119-35)

Say what now? The only reason this team even ended up on my radar in doing this experiment, is because the first thing I did was look at records of teams, because I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any teams that had huge records that just happened not to make the Classic.

It'd be hard to ignore a team with the best winning percentage in the history of the league, but statistically there isn't a team that really comes close to this one on both sides of the ball.

For those that weren't around, 1989-2000 were auto-sim years. Yeah, think of it as FOOL's version of a strike year. Or a Black Sox scandal. Or steroid era. All rolled into one. The idea was to retire a generation of older players whose stats defied reality a bit and got us to a place where our players are where they are now, the sort of league where once-in-a-generation players come sometimes, not all in the same generation to play against each other.

The Terriers second reign took place during this dark period and while the team isn't familiar, the players on it are guys who had key spots on other championship clubs and are enshrined in the very city where this club had its second act.

The Terriers scored 1208 runs and allowed only 681. That was over 200 more runs than the Rancheros who were the only other team in all of FOOL that season with over 1000 runs scored. They scored 7 runs a game, hit .320 as a team (league average was .295) and an OPS of .948 (league average was .853)

Among the Hall of Famers on this roster included Felipe Aguilera (.336/39 HR/154 RBI), Jose Negrete, Tomas Santos (.383/16 HR/ 100 RBI), David Lee (19-5, 233 K, 3.90 ERA) a 23-year old Andres Aguilar (21-2, 3.23 ERA), Ed Burke (16-7, 3.71) at age 37, and even a declining 38-year old Jesse McGorry (12-3 6.26 ERA in 17 starts) were all part of this ballclub.

That might explain the dominance.

After knocking off Colorado in a tight seven game series, they faced off against the Valdosta Peanuts who they beat in eight games to claim the '96 FOOL Classic title. The two teams would meet again in two more FOOL Classics in '98 and '99 with each winning one, as well.

[Young Drachma]

Some thoughts:

1. I'm glad this is over. It took forever.
2. I felt a bit weird once I had Excel sort the teams and an AI led team came out #1. But in a way, I felt like it was a good way to do it, because the whole exercise was about FOOL history and well, that team is part of history and with so many guys on the team who made the Hall, it was like a bridge between the eras when you have Jesse McGorry who dominated the 80s on a team with Felipe Aguilera who went on to dominate the 2000s.

3. It was pretty awesome that so many of the teams that I think a lot of old timers would've eyeballed at the top (Valdosta, Hartford, etc.) made it there. I was particularly happy to see Boston in the Top 10, given how long it took that team to breakthrough, it's good to know that they were truly one of the all-time greats.

4. Because I'm not the BCS, I have no problem releasing my formula. (BVORP + PVORP)+ (Pennants*200) + (Classics+1000) + (W%*100) = Greatness Index

It was crude, but this was just a weekend project and even with that it turned into something pretty crazy. But boy was it fun.

Doing the formula was the only way I'd be sure not to exclude teams I just didn't know as well, so it was nice to spend some time getting to learn the history of the league to date, since a lot of the names had only been familiar to me in passing.

So there you go. A slice of FOOL history is done. Congrats to everyone who's ever played a season here, because well...there'd be no greatest without any of you!

[Alan T]

Thanks for doing this DC. This was a very fun stroll down memory lane

I can't imagine how much time and effort went into this. great job!

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Thanks for doing this DC. This was a very fun stroll down memory lane

I can't imagine how much time and effort went into this. great job!

Thanks, Alan. Thanks for producing so many of the memories and for your efforts at archiving the league history. It simply wouldn't have been possible to do this had you not invested the time to put all of that stuff out there.

If nothing else, this little exercise should hopefully spit shine and polish the sparkling exhibit of the Valdosta Peanuts at the Hall of Fame site, because more people ought to know their story.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Thanks, Alan. Thanks for producing so many of the memories and for your efforts at archiving the league history. It simply wouldn't have been possible to do this had you not invested the time to put all of that stuff out there.

If nothing else, this little exercise should hopefully spit shine and polish the sparkling exhibit of the Valdosta Peanuts at the Hall of Fame site, because more people ought to know their story.

Wow, amazing accomplishment and list, DC. This was just a great read. Thanks so much for doing this.

I am not surprised to see the 1971-72 Valdosta teams in the top 5, but what it does really bring home to me is, just how great could my stretch have been during that time, had it not been for Alan. I mean, Valdosta's hands down the best dynasty in the early history (and maybe ever in FOOL), but I am to this day (a whole year later) still very proud that I took the Rancheros to three straight Classics, losing to those top 5 Valdosta teams the first two years and then finally breaking through with the title in 1973. Did Alan's dominance cost me some very high rankings? I wonder if you did your formula for the 1971 and 1972 Colorado Rancheros, but had them winning the Classic in their respective years, where would they have ranked?

Actually, I would love to know where those two teams ended up (the '73 team, of course, is on this list), and I would also love to know where my 2020 Hammersmith Hooligans wound up (105-57). I was massively disappointed when that team didn't win it all.

Thanks again, DC, what an amazing read.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Did Alan's dominance cost me some very high rankings? I wonder if you did your formula for the 1971 and 1972 Colorado Rancheros, but had them winning the Classic in their respective years, where would they have ranked?

Actually, I would love to know where those two teams ended up (the '73 team, of course, is on this list), and I would also love to know where my 2020 Hammersmith Hooligans wound up (105-57). I was massively disappointed when that team didn't win it all.

Thanks again, DC, what an amazing read.

1. I'm sure the formula doesn't serve teams like yours well and it also injures teams that had to play in the non-playoff era. It's astounding so many of them overcame that and managed to rank where they did.

2. That Hammersmith team would've been among the many I suspect that would've supplanted San Diego for 75th. I was trying to be inclusive by including them, because there were so many repeats of franchises and I wanted to spread it out a bit where I could, but that being said, Hammersmith probably would've been a pretty good substitute given their gaudy record and overall underperformance. Same for Chico (since the team that just won a title hadn't done so when I was making this list.)

I took a look at those Rancheros teams from '68, '71 and '72 and among them only '68 would've made the list at #74, the others would not have.

I misread your question. My bad. '71 would've been tied for 53rd all-time with Montreal had they won the Classic that year and '72 Colorado would've bumped '66 Colorado for 35th all-time had the won the Classic that year. 2020 Hammersmith would've tied Chicago for 30th all-time had they won it all that season.

[ekcut]

Here is a list of all other online leagues that
a) have enough history to compile a Top 75 greatest teams list, and
b) Have the kick ass participants willing and able to do it.










That is all!