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The use of three-year cycles allows for an easy periodization of the Federation’s history, and cycle numbers will be used throughout to reference those periods, beginning with Cycle 1, encompassing the 2007, 2008, and 2009 seasons, and Cycle 2, encompassing the 2010, 2011, and 2012 seasons.

The start of play in 2007 brought excitement and uncertainty in equal measure as, in 48 cities across four countries, the teams of the NABF prepared to inaugurate the new era.

Media coverage was instantly instructive. Though more coverage went to the large-market teams of Division 1, the compartmentalized nature of the league meant that deeper analysis and attention was given to smaller market clubs as well, especially those seen as contenders to move up. Despite this, the biggest small-market story of Cycle 1 was somewhat overlooked at the start: the Salt Lake Gulls would become the biggest success story of the early years, collecting the highest Cycle 1 point total of any team across all four Divisions by taking the D4 West crown and the D4 Championship in each of the Federation’s first three seasons. After promotion to Division 3, the Gulls continued to succeed, winning the D3 Western Conference in two of the three seasons to earn yet another move up. The Nashville Sounds, who came from D4 East to Division 3 after a monster 2009, similarly had success, winning a D3 East title in 2011.

Other promoted teams faced steeper climbs. The Detroit Stars and Portland Beavers, each promoted from their respective D3 Conferences after Cycle 1, faltered amidst stiffer D2 competition, with early last-place finishes. Still, both avoided immediate relegation back to D3, proving the possible sustainability of the model. The same can’t be said for teams that were promoted into Division 1: the Vancouver Mounties - winners of the first two D2 Championships with the best overall Cycle 1 win total - sandwiched an abysmal 2011 with mediocre 2010 and 2012 finishes, while the Havana Sugar Kings set the stage for the rest of their next 25 years by arriving in Division 1 and promptly failing to break the 60 win mark two seasons running before finding themselves back in D2.
Division 1 itself is one of the best examples of another trend of those early years: Western dominance. Indeed, during Cycle 1, 10 of the 12 Championship Series were won by Western teams, with only the 2008 D3 East’s Detroit Stars and 2011 D2 West’s San Diego Padres breaking through. On the Federation’s biggest stage, three different matchups - the Fort Worth Cats and New York Giants in 2007, the El Paso Sun Kings and Brooklyn Dodgers in 2008, and the Los Angeles Angels and Brooklyn Dodgers in 2009 - were each won by the Western entrant. This also set up a recurring theme that endured over Division 1’s first two decades: the persistent shared dominance of the Cats, Angels, and Sun Kings, who between them won every single D1 West title until 2024 (often dividing each cycle evenly between them with a title apiece).

For the most part, these wins were the result of powerful dynasties that arose among the western conferences of Divisions 1, 2, and 4. Division 4’s Salt Lake Gulls were chief among them, but the list also included the back-to-back D2 Champion Mounties; Division 4’s best Cycle 2 team the Austin Pioneers; the Angels, who won five straight D1 West titles and three championships between 2009 and 2013, and the incredible St. Paul Saints, who took over as D2 Champions from the Mounties in 2009 and won the next three years straight, becoming the Federation’s first 4peater. The Eastern conferences lacked such consistent winners, though that would change dramatically in subsequent cycles.

Some of the success of the Federation can be attributed, as well, to early stars, many of whom were already well established by the time of the NABF’s inaugural season. These included the great 2B Jim Maxey, who led the Havana Sugar Kings to a promotion following Cycle 1, setting a D2 record .349 average that stands today; RF Carlos Jara of the Salt Lake Gulls, who won the D4 MVP in 2007 and put up a cumulative 42.2 WAR and 264 homers over the first six seasons as he led his Gulls to two straight promotions at the ends of Cycles 1 and 2; the Toronto Maple Leafs center fielder Omar Arteaga, whose 2007 remains the highest WAR season in D1 history at 11, with a Division best 43 homers to go along with a .332/.429/.654 line; Dennis Sokol of the Los Angeles Angels, whose .486 OBP in 2010 is the record not only in Division 1 but in the entire Federation, and who stole over 700 bases in a career cut short by injury; and perhaps the greatest bat in Federation history, the great Max Hinkle who debuted with the New York Giants just before the merger, as a 21 year old phenom, and batted .320/.403/.537 with 23 homers and a 4.4 WAR, the beginning of a long and storied career with some of the greatest teams assembled by the NABF.

Among pitchers, few stood taller than David Miramontes, who split his career between the D1 Philadelphia Athletics and the D2 Atlanta Crackers, winning the first of his four Pitcher of the Year awards with Philadelphia in 2010 and his last in 2021 with the Crackers, at age 40. Antonio Venegas dominated Division 4 hitters during the early years with the Baltimore Terrapins, then the St. Paul Saints between Division 1 and Division 2, and though he missed out on the Terrapins’ incredible rise to Division 1 between Cycles 5 and 8, he remains the Division 4 WAR leader overall. Malcolm Bush of the Indianapolis Clowns had a relatively short period of dominance, but holds both the D3 single season WAR record for a pitcher with 9.7 and the Federation's career WAR record. Bush, a strikeout artist, is the Federation’s all-time leader in strikeouts (over 3400) and in the Federations top 40 in career K/9 (10.0).

One of the major fears of fans and commentators alike as the Federation began play was the possibility of the game's biggest stars flocking to Division 1 payouts, but early evidence at least demonstrated surprising and welcome parity among stars: players like Bush, Venegas, Jara, and others to remain as draws for D2, D3, and even D4 crowds. Many credit this to increased interest and competitiveness, and the numbers back that up. In the thirty years since the Federation’s inception, only a handful of teams have never left their original division, and in almost every case attendance, revenue, and market size has increased over the years.

So the early years of the Federation set much of the tone for the next decades: competitive balance that made both great ascents and rapid slides possible; and the development of incredible players, who were able to draw fans to ballparks at all levels, and who remain among the greatest to have ever played the game.

NEXT: Greatest Seasons, 2007-2012