[BradG223]

Who doesn't love a good comeback story? Here are the teams in ABL history furthest out of a playoff spot at various game intervals, who eventually turned around and made the playoffs. That first row tells us that 10 games into the 2061 season, the Denver Pioneers were 6 games behind a playoff spot. This Denver team is certainly one of the more interesting comeback scenarios, but far and away my favorite belongs to the 2067 Brooklyn Seals.

47 years deep into the league and Brooklyn had nothing to show for it, other than a couple disappointing playoff outings every couple of years. Brooklyn the year prior actually had the fewest runs scored and the most runs allowed in the entire ABL. Dreadful. Who in their right mind would be hopeful for them when they found themselves in 9th place, and 16 GB the wildcard spot more than halfway into the 2067 campaign? Well, it doesn't matter.

Maybe it's because young 2B Brian Weinberg started hitting the ball a little bit better. Maybe it's because rookie manager Danny Olivas lit a fire underneath his squad. Maybe the dice just landed their way. Whatever you attribute it to, the Seals started winning games. Enough games for them to overtake tough teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles, and St Louis Sluggers, and make it into the playoffs.

After this miraculous comeback, Brooklyn still wasn't all that threatening. After all, they still had a negative run differential. The other three playoff teams had differentials ranging from 150-220. High-quality baseball teams. Yet, the Seals did not care. They walked over the Eastern Conference Championship 4-1 over Boston. Then, they walked over the Western Conference Champs, the Phoenix Flames, 5-2.

This takes the cake for the biggest roller coaster ride in ABL history. It's hard to put together a coherent narrative for why everything started going Brooklyn’s way. It didn't take long for a return to normalcy for Brooklyn. Just two years later, 2069, they posted a win-loss record of 43-99.