Major League Baseball (Napoleon's World)

The American League and National League of baseball compete together in a unified league known as the MLB, which has been in existence since the two leagues merged in 1902. Since that year - when the first World Series was held - baseball has been the dominant professional sport in America, and is the most popular sport by far, outrating professional ice hockey and collegiate football and hockey.

American League Eastern Division
Boston Paddies (1936, 1937, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1987, 1994)

New York Americans (1912, 1915, 1918, 1923, 1925, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1949, 1950)

Halifax Whalers (1970, 1997)

Long Island Sounders (1979, 1982, 1998)

American League Central Division
Detroit Tigers (1910, 1929, 1940, 1943, 1951, 1969, 1992)

Minnesota Lakers

Yorktown Indians (1905, 1906, 1909, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1916, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1935, 1963, 1989)

San Antonio Stallions

American League Western Division
Santa Fe Wolves

San Diego Padres (2001, 2002, 2007, 2010)

La Paz Dolphins (1999)

San Francisco Pirates (1988)

American League Southern Division
Miami Suns (1993, 1995, 1996)

Covenant Chargers (1947, 1948, 1952, 1956, 2000 ,2009)

New Orleans Fleurs (1938, 1957, 1958)

Memphis Giants

National League Eastern Division
Brooklyn Dodgers (1975, 1981)

Philadelphia Liberties (1901)

Washington Senators (1934, 1938)

Pittsburgh Boilers (1902, 1903, 1904, 1907, 1908, 1919, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1939)

National League Central Division
Chicago Cubs

St. Louis Cardinals (1983, 1985)

Aurora Condors

Cincinnati Redshirts (1917, 1954, 2008)

National League Western Division
Vancouver Pioneers (1990, 1991, 2006)

Tacoma Rainiers (1986)

Los Angeles Stars

Pacifica Beavers

National League Southern Division
Havana Cubanos (1959, 1961, 1964)

Dallas Rangers (2003)

Tampa Bay Marlins

Atlanta Braves

Mid-Century
The Stunner in San Diego: The 1974 Olympics in San Diego were a moment of national pride; California Governor Robert Redford had designed a brilliant plan for executing the Games, and the failure of the Peking games only four years prior were largely forgotten. The Persian national soccer team had won the gold-medal round against France, and the excitement of international competition was in the air.

However, the baseball tournament was considered, effectively, a closed affair. The Americans, since the sports' introduction in 1954 in Addis, had not lost a single baseball game in the Olympics, having won gold in Addis, Philadelphia, Quebec, St. Petersburg and Peking. The American team had lost to Japan in the 1969 World Baseball Invitational, but retooled in time to whip Ireland to the tune of a 12-4 game in the Peking gold medal round.

The 1974 American national team was thus riding twenty years of total dominance in the sport. At the time, the domination of baseball by America was a source of national pride amid the Cold War dreariness and after the economic hardships of the mid-1960's. The '74 team was considered one of the most talented ever assembled; several members, most notably Willy Hanson, Dick Smuts and Christopher Walken, were of the Boston Paddies, who had won three straight World Series from 1971-73 and were at the time leading the Major Leagues in wins. Dalton Brye, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was considered the best hitter in the county, maybe even the world. George Laks was the best pitcher statistically to ever play the game, at that time.

The Americans breezed through their group into the four-team gold medal playoff, and handled Denmark easily, 6-1, with Brye hitting two home runs, an Olympic record. The 1974 gold medal was all but won, in the minds of the Americans.

On the other side of the Olympics, the Colombian national team, which was fed by talented professionals from Colombia's Elite Leagues, had lost a game to France, only to recuperate and sweep through the rest of their group. The Colombians were led by talented batters Daniel Ojeda and Jose Velasco, and pitcher Esteban Escobario was considered the Colombian equivalent to Dick Smuts - a talented, veteran closer.

In the opening round of the Olympic medal playoffs, Colombia beat China 3-0, with the signature play being a beautiful save by third baseman Pablo de los Santos. Nicolas Cortez scored two of the runs and had five hits to lead the team to a proud victory.

The matchup between the United States and Colombia was actually considered the most even in years - the Colombian Elite Leagues were hailed for their talent, and Cortez and Escobario were both teammates from Barranquilla, which had won titles in 1969 and 1972. Team manager Enrique Maldon drove his players for three days in preparation for the gold-medal game, which was the last event before the closing ceremony.

At Padre Stadium, the Olympic baseball venue, the crowd was overwhelmingly American and hostile to the Colombians. In attendance were not only California Governor Robert Redford but US President Clyde W. Dawley and his family - Dawley's son was a professional baseball player in St. Louis and was intrigued to watch the game.

The Colombians scored two runs in the second inning off of Laks and never relinquished the lead - when the US drew the score to 2-1 in the fourth inning, Colombia responded with a stunning Ojeda home run on empty bases in the sixth to make the score 3-1. Brye made it to third base in the seventh inning and when Walken nailed off a long hit with two outs, the game looked like it would be a tie - however, outfielder Felipe Calderon caught the ball against the stands in a spectacular, historic save to out both players. Colombia would hang on to their 3-1 score to win.

The crowd sat in stunned silence as the small Colombian fanbase roared in joy and the players piled onto each other on the field. The American players walked off the field in total disbelief, still not sure how they had lost to a 3-run underdog. American audiences watching the game live on TV were unsure how to react; they had watched an American elite team lose to a country that, for all political purposes, was a convenient American ally.

The game was highly politicized in Colombia, where celebrations roared in the streets. The cocky, arrogant Americans had lost to the humble Colombian underdogs - not an unrealistic analysis, many American players felt the game was an entitlement. The government of Carlos Triago celebrated it as a victory of nationally significant proportions in Colombian history.

In America, sportscasters nonetheless celebrated the great upset, even with muted disappointment. President Dawley called Triago in Colombia to congratulate him and his country. The "Stunner in San Diego," as it was called on the front cover of Sports Illustrated, became the adopted name for the game. The American baseball team would not win gold again until the 1994 Olympics in Dallas, the most heartbreaking moment in the drought coming off of yet another gold-medal game loss in 1986 to England in Cairo. Colombia would win again in 1990, coached by Cortez.

The Colombian movie Beisbol (1980) is about the game, while America made an American-viewpoint movie about the danger of arrogance in 1984 titled The Stunner, and later an inspirational sports film in 2002 titled 1974, told from the Colombian perspective.

The Stunner in San Diego is considered the #2 greatest sports moment of the century, behind the 1980 "Miracle on the Pitch" English soccer victory over France in the Soccer World Championship.

Post-Paddy Dynasty
1986 and the Memphis Miracle: In the 1986 MLB playoffs, the Memphis Giants had been an unstoppable force of nature. They had ridden a 16-game winning streak entering the playoffs, albeit one where they had dominated notably inferior teams. With the first seed in the playoffs, the South Division champions swept the Boston Paddies 3-0, by a combined score of 22-3. Memphis had long before then been crowned the future World Series champions by most sportswriters - its complete annihilation of mighty Boston only solidified the Giants as a team of destiny. In their next round, the Giants faced off with the always-dangerous Yorktown Indians, who were hungry for an elusive title that had avoided the storied franchise for two decades. The Giants fell behind in Game 1, but rallied back in a furious two-inning comeback to win 6-5. Afterwards, the Giants cruised to wins in the next two games, 5-0 and 4-1, to take the American League Pennant.

The Tacoma Rainiers were a powerful NL team and a playoff regular, largely due to the weakness of their own division. Having lost their sole World Series appearance so far to Boston in 1980, the Rainiers were in no way a highly-respected team or playoff tested, having bowed out in early rounds every year since the 1980 pennant run. The Rainiers opened against top-seeded St. Louis, the defending World Series champions. While getting blown out in Game 1 7-1, the Rainiers won Game 2 in eleven innings to set up a critical Game 3 in which Tacoma throttled Lou Merriwood and the feared Cardinal offense to take control of the series. St. Louis won the next game on a fluke hit in the ninth inning, and in Game 5 Tacoma scored two late runs to win 5-4.

In the National League championship, the Rainiers faced off against the playoff-tested Dallas Rangers, who had been the dominant National League franchise since the late 60's, and had just won the latest series in their storied rivalry with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Tacoma dropped two against Dallas, only to win two narrow victories to go to Game 5. The blowout 9-3 Rainiers victory in Dallas in the fifth game capped what is considered one of the greatest playoff collapses in National League history.

The Rainiers were at this point noticed by a lot of people in the sports world; famed sportswriter Gerry Ford predicted that the Rainiers would lose to the Giants in seven. "Well, they've got this knack for punching back when the big boys give them one," he said. Still, the Giants sported four members of the US Olympic team that had taken silver in Cairo earlier in the year, and George Gay was statistically the best hitter and third baseman in the league that year. The Rainiers were given no chance.

In Game One in Memphis, the Rainiers pulled out the "Memphis Miracle"; tied 2-2 in the eighth inning, they tore off a grand slam with two outs to win the game 6-2. Two days later, the Rainiers beat Memphis 3-1 in a game not nearly as close as the score. Three days later, in Tacoma, the Giants took an early 3-0 lead, only to see it squandered by a terrible close by Harry Woodlock which gave the Rainiers four runs in three innings to win. Down 3-0, many sports pundits began to question Memphis's ability to come back from these depths, and they were right; Tacoma celebrated its first and to date only World Series pennant by knocking off the unbeatable Giants 4-2 in front of a record home crowd at Heuer Field.

"David beats Goliath in the year of the little guy," Ford would write later as one of professional sports' greatest upsets was finalized. Memphis would never contend for a pennant again; in fact, it has not qualified for the playoffs since 1997 and has not had a winning season since 2004.