yes indeed Jon . these 2 teams along with another three or so teams have been at this winning thing for quite some time . the championship history anyone?
1990 a team led by Dom Bevevino which would eventually be called the Troy Yankees beat a team called the Greco construction which would become the Greco Braves. there were only 4 teams in the league that year.
1991 A team called the Detroit Tigers beat Greco, Marv Sontz managed this team , there were eight teams in the league including Belmonts Cafe which became the Marlins and Avis which became the Cubs.
1992 Saw our league switch into high gear has power house teams began to battle. that year the White Sox ,aka BBL Construction, beat the Troy Yankees in our first best of three series. We had ten team that year which included the Adirondack Beverage team better known ahs the A's.
1993 was the first repeat year and the White Sox again beat the yanks with Tom Maney managing the winners . Randy Craft, Bob June, Mal Hinman, Tim Maney and Marc Platel were on that team.
1994 saw the White Sox going for a threepeat but being denied by the resurgence of the Greco Braves. Scott Card , Mike Girard and Jim Ansel led this team.
1995 Was the year Dom Bevevno fianlly got back on top after winning the first year. he had a tight team of former Troy residents led by Tony Pilatach, Anthony
Dinova, George Rafferty, and Tony Ferraro.
1996 brought us Rene Laroux and his Reds Hobbs gang fortified with now defunct Yankees players just romping thru the league. They beat a surprisinglly gritty Adirondack team. Rene had a team of power lefties. ADK has they were called then had the late Dave Doak, Geoff Hotaling, and was manged by Steve Paniccia.
1997 The Reds hung in there in beat the Indians , a squad that Todd Baldwin had formed in 91, but had been taken up by Tony Torres . It was anchored by Jack Coleman an orignal member of that team. We had 16 teams and three divisions.
1998 Avis had been burbling under the radar for sometime morphing from that to Carpet Master to Orchards Tavern, but now they were ready to explode. The Maneys had joined up and brought a winning tradition to this squad and thats all Manager Rich Garbarino needed to get this team in high gear. they have never looked back. this year they buried the ADK A's in the first series to be held at Doubleday field. Larry Lawson pitched and pitched against Dave Doak until it was all over.
1999 now a new young team had learned the ropes after only 2 years in the league and they being guided by thier old HS coach, The Stillwater Tigers came out swinging, The Travis Brother, The Dunn brothers, and Bob Davis were here to stay.
2000 ever hear of the Belmonts Cafe , remember 1991, well Ralph Caputo and I stayed around long enough to see our squad grow into finalist. Rich Danson, Dimitri Yavis , John Kalinski, Don Dunham, TJ Scosone and Herb Friedman led this team but it wasn't enough has we got shelled by the Cubs in the final, them getting their second crown with Jim Ansel now on the squad and Jim Mcquade now running things.
2001 Cubs got that revenge on the Tiger this year with Ted Martin and Jon Martin and Jim Ansel leading the most solid pitching staff seen by our league to date. these guys could hit too. the Maney's brought up youngster Shawn to join them this year.
2002 A revamped Orioles team led by new Manager Dick Stark sailed thru things and won the title , MVP Ralph Caputo did it all hitting , pitching and playing Short. Mr. Walters arrived on the scene to join Mr. Bink and Mr. John Pologa and provide most of their wins. They beat the A's in hard fought games.
2003 Saw the Tigers resurge to survive a tough semi against the Cubs and face a surprising but never say die Marlins team led by Joe Fitzgerald. that series went to the final out of the final game. Tigers won by a run there but had also beat the Marlins in Cooperstown behind the first No hit finals games by Jimmy Degregory.
2004 whose it gonna be? all the remaining teams have the credentials as you can see. and good luck to all the teams & players, lets get out to see these games!
Cubs have that experience going for them and are looking for a record fourth championship. The Orioles had the best record this year and are hungry after falling just short the last year. A's may be the underdog but they function best from that position.