One could say Burlington Vintage Baseball actually is the culmination of two separate leagues meshed together to create what we call ‘Quality Baseball for those 30 and over’…  To go back in the history books, one would see that both the Lakeshore League and the Hardboys League played a prominent role in the creation of the BVB in 2000…  The Lakeshore league was co founded in 1984 by present BVB President Jim Hambrook and Dave Weber…  The league was originally known as the Young Men’s Division of B.O.M.B.A (Burlington Optimist Minor Baseball Association) but changed over to it’s current name in 1986…  The Harbors League was in existence in the early 1990’s but formerly disbanded after the 1999 season when the league had dropped down to 3 teams…  This is the point in time when Jim Hambrook, then a member of the ’99 Hardboys league champion Black Sox, took over from former Hardboys president Tony Hall and folded the league, thus promptly forming BVB…

The BVB followed the Vintage Baseball Federation rules and policies except for one and that was that the league lowered its age limit from 35 to 30, thus paving the way for former teams and players from the Lakeshore League to have a place to play once they got just a little long in the tooth and didn’t want to compete with the younger members of Lakeshore… 

Throughout the years, BVB traditionally played on Friday and Sunday evenings, but with expansion and the creation of the two division system it was imperative for the BVB to add a 3 evening to its regular season schedule, thus Tuesday evening has been added.  BVB games are played at 3 different light park facilities within the City of Burlington.  Tuesday games are played at Millcroft, while the Friday and Sunday games are primarily played at Ireland ‘C’ and, what is undoubtedly the premier park in Burlington, Nelson.  The occasional Friday games are played at Millcroft ‘B’.  BVB game times are 6:00pm and 8:30pm throughout the summer. 

In 2000, the inaugural season, the BVB started out with 8 teams…  The league had a good balance of old members and new…  The former Hardboys league was represented by the Hobos (formerly the Black Sox), Cubs, Blue Jays and Rockies while 3 teams, Steelers, Cardinals, and Astros jumped from the Lakeshore league to join up with the BVB…  An 8th team was added when the expansion Phillies was formed prior to the beginning of the season…  The 8-team league competed for Vintage Cup that was sponsored by Mainway Sports…  The 2000 Season championship went to the Hobos after they went on to win the round robin championship…  The Consolation championship, which was sponsored by the Chaps Restaurant and Bar, went to the Phillies…

2001 presented new challenges for the young league when the number of teams was reduced by 1…  Gone were the Astros, Cardinals and Steelers whom actually were gobbled up by the newly formed Yankees while a team from Stoney Creek (Thunderbirds) joined the fold…  The season was highly competitive…  The top four teams were separated by 3 games thus creating close playoff matchups…  In the Mainway Cup Round robin, the Yankees and Thunderbirds came out on top with 4 and 1 records and faced each other in a best of 3 final…  With each team winning one game it all came down to a one game final for the Championship…  The Yankees pulled out a stunning 9 to 7 comeback victory to claim the Vintage Cup…  In the Chaps Cup round robin, defending champion, the Phillies made it to finals to face the Cubs by defeating the Blue Jays in their final game…   Once in the finals, as in the Mainway Cup the teams split games 1 and 2…  Game 3 was a close affair until the later innings when the Phillies exploded for 5 unanswered runs to take the game 8 – 3 and thus winning the Chaps Cup in back to back seasons…

There was change once again for the BVB in 2002…  The league grew by one with the addition of the expansion X-Men and the creation of two four team divisions that competed in a cross over style…  The league created the Vintage Division which the teams competed for the Mainway Cup and the Legend Division whose teams played for the Mainway Cup…  The Vintage Division consisted of the defending champs, the Yankees, Thunderbirds, Hobos and the newly formed X-Men…  The Legend Division included 2001 champs, the Phillies whom were vying for the 3-peat, the Cubs, Rockies and Blue Jays…  The season of crossover play was quite successful with the second half of the crossover proving more competitive than the first…  The 2001 season started out with a kick off banquet, which saw many team participate in games and fun at Mainway Sports…  The season saw the Hobos and the Blue Jays win they’re respective regular season division titles…  An All-Star game was held in mid July and the response was tremendous…  Most of the 8 teams were represented at the All Star events and game…  The came was very competitive and was won by the narrowest of margins by the All-Stars from the Legends Division…  The Legends topped the Vintage Division 4 – 3 in a game that was played in less that 2 hours…   In the Playoffs the Vintage Cup Championship, teams were represented by the daunted Hobos and the expansion X-Men…  The X-Men took game 1 by a single run but couldn’t keep up the magic and the over-powering Hobos took the next 3 games to win the Vintage Cup 3 games to 1…  The Mainway Cup Championship was no stranger to the Phillies whom were making their 3rd straight appearance in the finals and the 2002 division winning Blue Jays…  3rd time was not lucky for the Phillies as they were swept 3 straight by the Blue Jays to capture their first BVB championship…

Once the season was completed, the Blue Jays and Hobos played one final game, dubbed the Challenge Cup…  The Hobos ultimately won the game…  The BVB sent two travel team to the Vintage Baseball Nationals which were played in the Collingwood / Stayner area…  The teams made up of 35+ and 44+ players and competed for the first time under the BVB Banner…

The 2003 Season saw the crossover eliminated and birth of two separate divisions…  In the Vintage division the 2002 defending champ Hobos competed against the Thunderbirds, Yankees and the expansion Red Sox…  The 2002 Legend division Blue Jays were challenged by the X-Men, Cubs, Pirates (formerly Rockies) and the Storm (formerly the Phillies)…  Each division was competitive in it own right and the games were all intense and fun…  The Thunderbirds ended the regular season on top in the Vintage division, while the Pirates won the Legend division regular season title…  The 2003 playoffs started off with a one game playoff in the Legend division between the 4th place X-Men and 5th place Blue Jays with the X-Men squeaking out a 1 run victory to advance to the semi finals…  With the semi finals set, the Pirates took on the X-Men, while the Cubs went up against the Storm…  Both series were well played with the Pirates and Cubs advancing to the finals…  The Cubs broke out on top with 2 quick victories, but the Pirates were not done as they pulled out victories in games 3 and 4 to force a 5th a deciding game…  In the end the Cubs team was just too powerful and took game 5 to win the Legend Championship…  In the Vintage division, the Thunderbirds took on the Yankees, while the Hobos played the Red Sox…  Both first round series ended in sweeps by the Thunderbirds and Red Sox…  The first 2 games were dominated by the Thunderbirds but the next 2 games were won by the Red Sox thus forcing a 5th and deciding game…  The game was a tale of games with the Red Sox dominating the 1st 3 innings and the Thunderbirds dominating the next 4 innings…  In the end the Red Sox couldn’t hold the lead and succumbed to the T-Birds…  It was the 1st BVB championship for the 3 year Thunderbirds…  The Season officially ended with the league wrap up party and as the winter began, the BVB was looking forward to a new season in 2004.

2004 brought another variation to the league schedule as the teams played with a weighted schedule, where the top tier teams played each other more than the lower tier teams...  This type of scheduling didn't help bridge the gap between the Vintage and Legends division teams thus at the mid-point of the season the league reworked the schedule and the two divisions only competed against teams in their own division for the remainder of the season...  In the Legends division the Pirates outlasted the X-Men to claim 1st place in the regular season, while the Indians brought up the rear for a 2nd straight season.  In the Playoffs the Pirates dispatched of the Indians in 3 straight while the Cubs upset the X-Men 3 games 1 setting up a rematch of the 2003 Finals...  The Cubs jumped out to a 1 game lead in the Championship, but the Pirates blasted their way back and defeated the Cubs 3 straight to claim their 1st Legends Championship...  In the Vintage division, it was the same match-ups from 2003 where the Thunderbirds faced the Yankees and just like in 2003 the Thunderbirds defeated the Yanks 3 games straight...  In the other semi-final, the Hobos beat the Red Sox 3 games to 1 to set up a fierce Vintage Championship battle, unfortunately for the Hobos, the Thunderbirds were on their game and swept away the Hobos in 3 straight to claim the 2nd consecutive Vintage Championship...

TO BE CONTINUED