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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.

When the Boat Shoes lost the pennant to the Sacramento Boot Lickers in Season 2, and watched their rivals foist the championship trophy in Sacramento before it could be brought to San Francisco, deepened the focus and determination of the relentless Boat Shoes.