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The Boat Shoes didn't just appear in the Hellmouth Cup; they kicked down the door. In their very first season, they blazed through the Hot League as the #1 seed, establishing a reputation for unnerving precision. They ground out a win in a grueling 3-2 Division Series victory over their Cali Crown rivals, the Sacramento Boot Lickers , before clinching the pennant by dispatching the Detroit Grape Chews in another nail-biting 3-2 series. (This series, incidentally, became the centerpiece of many theories about a curse affecting the Chews and keeping them from ever winning a pennant).

The Boat Shoes were the talk of Golly - the upstarts from the Fog City. But the Hellmouth Cup is a cruel crucible. In the final series, they fell to the interstate rival Long Beach Flightless Birds 2-4, a devastating loss that battered their fragile egos but showed them that immortality could be achieved. The seeds of a dynasty were planted, and watered with a bitter stew of defeat at the doorstep of success.