For 12 years no team has been a better example of success than the Saints, despite how you want to measure it. The Saints have more wins than any other team (137), a higher winning percentage than any other team (.672), more playoff appearances (11), league championship game appearances (5), World Championship Game appearance (4), or World Championships (3) than any other team.
They've won their division 10 of 12 times, and finished no lower than second. Their worst year came in 1876, their only losing season at 7-11.
The Saints performed very well in the two "lost seasons", and captured their third championship in 1881 after an 11-5 season, and a World Championship win over the Denver Broncos. 1882 featured another 11-5 season for the Saints, but 5 errors led to 5 unearned runs and the Saints fell to the 49'ers 7-6 in the opening round of the playoffs.
From the early days of
Mark Batch the Saints have had four primary starting pitchers over the years, with 3 of the 4 occurring in the first four years:
Then came
Aaron Jackson:
Now 37 and still cruising along as one of the top pitchers in the league. His 87 career wins place him third on the all-time list, behind
Dan Anderson (95), and
Milt Foss (93). Based on all three players roles, don't count Jackson out as the first to 100 career wins. He already is the career leader in strikeouts (760), shutouts (11), and WAR (53.9). He's won 17 Player of the Week awards, 7 Pitcher of the Month, 1 Pitcher of the Year, and he's been runner up to Pitcher of the Year four years in a row.
There are warning signs that their dynasty may be crumbling -
Aaron Jackson's age and no obvious replacement, an anemic offense that ranked 14th in the league in runs scored and batting average, and some poor recent drafting, but if I remember correctly I proclaimed the Saints dead once prematurely, and I'm not going to do that again. They've been known to pull a rabbit or two out of their hat.
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A preview of the new look Saints uniform, which was done by eriqjaffe, who also did the college uniforms that I'm using. The Crescents was one of my favorites, and done by txranger, and I'll still be using many of his wonderful retro logo's and uniforms for the development league. This game wouldn't be the same without the great work that they and others do on logos and uniforms, so I did want to give thanks before I got too far along. I also have to say that I think the Crescents definitely earned a place in whatever fictional league I do in the future.