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League History
League of Champions Encyclopedia 2001-2006
Year Champion and Owner A.L. MVP A.L. Cy Young A.L. Fireman N.L. MVP N.L. Cy Young N.L. Fireman
2007 Pittsburgh Stogies, Atticus Ryan Carlos Pena, CHU Roy Halladay, ARL J.J. Putz, CUS Alex Rodriguez, COL Curt Schilling, PGH Rafael Betancourt, PGH
2006 K-Town Shoeless Joes, Joe ClarkAlbert Pujols, ARL Johan Santana, IOW Joe Nathan, MAS Jermaine Dye, KTN Francisco Liriano, PGH B.J. Ryan, GUL
2005 Atlanta Crackers, Scott Lange Michael Young, KZO Aaron Heilman, IOW Mariano Rivera, CRY Todd Helton, ATL Roger Clemens, ATL Billy Wagner, TEX
2004 Arlington Heights Retreads, Todd Slavinsky Barry Bonds, CRY Randy Johnson, CRY   Manny Ramirez, PGH Jason Schmidt, SDG  
2003 Iowa Corn Dogs, Pete Butler Barry Bonds, CRY Tim Hudson, IOW   Mike Lowell, ATL Mark Prior, SDG  
2002 Spanish Harlem Spiggers, Scott Gabel Jim Thome, GRO Tim Hudson, IOW   Barry Bonds, FAR Curt Schilling, FAI  
2001 Arlington Heights Retreads, Todd Slavinsky Sammy Sosa, PHO Mark Buehrle, ARL   Barry Bonds, FAR Kevin Brown, ATL  
2000 Custers Crimson Tide, Dan Bacon Gary Sheffield, JSY Pedro Martinez, SPH/JSY   Carlos Delgado, CUS Jeff D'Amico, DAV/SDG  
1999 Atlanta Crackers, Scott Lange Chipper Jones, BEL Randy Johnson, MON   Larry Walker, DAV Pedro Martinez, NSH  
1998 Bellingham Aqua Sox, Josh Sinnett Albert Belle, TRH Kevin Brown, BEL   Larry Walker, ATL Orlando Hernandez, JSY  
YearHistory
1974Mario Lanza born in Seattle, WA.

Todd Slavinsky born in Chicago, IL.
1981Todd becomes a baseball fan, first attending a game at Old Comiskey Park. His first memory is filling out a fan ballot which helped pick the monstrous uniforms introduced in 1982, along with several savage beatings at the hands of George Brett's Royals.
1986Mario becomes a huge baseball fan. He loves nothing more than watching a Major League baseball game. Since the Seattle Mariners are the closest local team, he settles for being a Mariner fan instead.
1987While reading an issue of BASEBALL WEEKLY, Mario sees an ad for "APBA baseball simulator". It features a card-based dice simulator with realistic results. Mario orders the 1986 player cards and plays a complete season.

Todd starts collecting baseball cards with his allowance from the local Ben Franklin drug store. He immediately gets seven Greg Gagne cards in the first pack.
1988One day, Mario gets the sudden idea to run a league. He will get 25 of his friends, they will all draft teams, and he will simulate a season by rolling dice. The LOC is born. The inaugural season features the 1986 player cards, with each team playing 25 games. All managers were students at Highland Middle School in Bellevue, WA, plus Mario's mother and father. (Note: Major League players John Olerud and Larry Andersen went to Highland). Season ends with Mario's friend Kurt Weidinger as the World Series champion, despite the fact that he ended with a 12-13 record (nearly everyone made the playoffs). Kurt later drops out of school and becomes a drug dealer, starting a string of disgraced League winners. Lance Parrish becomes first League MVP, hitting 12 HRs in 25 games.
1989Mario's league comes back for successful repeat performance using APBA player cards. Draft now runs more smoothly despite slow, tedious process of getting draft picks one by one during lunch at school. Two major problems arose this season:(1) Because each team would play all 25 of their games at once, some teams ended up always going against #1 starters. (2) Mario suffers humiliating defeat in World Series to his mother. Gloria Lanza had a strategy of picking whichever no-namer had the highest batting average, and it paid off.John Grubb, Keith Moreland, Bob Dernier and John Moses led her to the title. Plus, her ace pitcher Jimmy Key threw a no-hitter in the World Series. Incensed, Mario bans his mother from the League of Champions for life.
1990League back for third performance. Final season using APBA player cards. Season still stuck at 25 games because of the amount of time it took to roll the dice for everyone. Mario Lanza finally wins his first (and only) World Series. Since all stats were added up by hand,it was impossible to provide printed stats for everyone, so Mario decides to give up card and dice based games forever. Mario becomes first League winner not to leave in shame.
1991League changes from card based game to a computer simulation, using the popular baseball game MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL. Draft still took forever because Mario insisted on going pick by pick during lunch time at school. Found a few glitches in Micro League results..... for one, strikeouts were terribly overrated. Nolan Ryan easily won Cy Young award and was nearly unhittable all year, while control pitchers like Bob Welch got hammered. Jamey Stark rode Ryan's success to a World Series title, despite not knowing he even had a team in the league. He soon faded into obscurity, never to be heard from again.
1992League claims its first casualty. Mario's high school girlfriend broke up with him because he spent every day working on his league instead of talking with her. But league went off nearly flawlessly, women be damned! MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL gave way to MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL 2, which included a built in stat compiler. Japanese exchange student Tatsuo Ichikawa wins the World Series, leading the Dodgers to the title. Tatsuo leaves the U.S. after this year and is deported to Japan for life. This was Mario's senior year in high school and the League was temporarily retired when he leaves for California for college. No league is run between 1993-1995.
1996League of Champions makes its triumphant return. Working off ISCA (Iowa State Computer Association) Bulletin Board, Mario recruits 26 strangers from around the country to draft teams. It was the first truly national league run with managers Mario didn't know. League was run on (by now) archaic MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL 2, which continued to emphasize strikeouts and power. Pitchers with no strikeouts were simply hammered. League played a full 100 game season, with all results posted online on the ISCA bulletin boards. World Series featured a showdown, brother against brother. Dominic Lanza led his Dartmouth Bears over Mario's Bellevue Archers to win the series. Dominic, naturally, was banished to Hanover, New Hampshire, site of the U.S. Army's Arctic Research Station.
1998After a year of disinterest caused by the baseball strike, the League of Champions is back. This time it is run fully over the internet, with a web page for results and quick feedback. Popular message board added, so that managers could communicate with each other. League also expands to 162 games for first time, with lots of trading. First season using LANCE HAFFNER FULL COUNT BASEBALL, which produces amazingly realistic results compared to Micro League. Josh Sinnett wins a controversial World Series, picking up Mo Vaughn at the trading deadline in a contested trade. Josh already lived in Bellingham, so there was nowhere to banish him to.
1999League returns for its final run of the decade. Most innovative season yet, as league evolves into a rotisserie-style "keeper league", in which players are retained from year to year. Atlanta's evil genius, Scott Lange, wins the World Series after several years of near misses and one failed bus assasination attempt. First year that an actual trophy was awarded to winner, as the LOC finally has a budget to maintain. History is also made as Davenport's Larry Walker becomes first LOC player to win the Triple Crown.
2000By far the best all-around season in LOC history. 2 division races end in a tie, all postgame seasons go seven games, and one division has four teams in the pennant race going into the last 6 games of the season. Dan Bacon's Custers Crimson Tide wins the World Series as the LOC settles into its first "post-keeper" season. League set to expand by four teams in 2001.
2001The League of Champions changes simulators again, moving to the infinitely superior Diamond Mind Baseball. Expansion adds 4 teams, and rosters expand to 30 players (with 15 keepers). This is also the first year with the official LOC domain name, www.locbaseball.com, generously purchased by Atlanta's Scott Lange. Todd Slavinsky's Arlington Heights Retreads dominate the AL East and win the World Series.
2002The League of Champions moves to three divisions per league, with four teams in each. Scott Gabel's Spanish Harlem Spiggers take home the title.
2003Mario hands off the running of the League of Champions to Todd, after a scandal-ridden fourteen year tenure. The league web site moves to unitedleagues.net, co-administered by Todd and Atticus Ryan. Pete Butler's Iowa Corn Dogs sweep their way to their first title.
2004The League moves to a developmental keeper format, realigns back to four six-team divisions and rules get refined. Todd Slavinsky's Arlington Heights Retreads win their second title in a thrilling seven game World Series.
2005Scott Lange's Atlanta Crackers win their second LoC title, sweeping a strong San Diego squad in the NLCS, and beating Pete Butler's Iowa Corn Dogs 4-2 in the World Series.
2006Joe Clark's K-Town Shoeless Joes emerge from a horrible N.L. West division, winning just 88 games and outscoring opponents by just 14 runs on the season. In an enormous upset, the Joes take down the 115 win Pittsburgh Stogies in the NLCS, and dispatch the American League Champion Mass Destruction to take their first League of Champions crown.