DC Wood Baseball absorbed the six metal bat teams from the original Washington Metro Area NABA, the Arlington Yankees, DC Cardinals, the Alexandria River Dogs (a charter member of the original Washington Metro Area NABA), the Falls Church Senators (now the Arlington/Alexandria Senators), Murphy's Green Sox and Bugsy's Indians (now the Washington Grays) and then, after converting to a wood bat league, became affiliated with the NABA. The Arlington Yankees won the Championship of that initial 2001 season by defeating the DC Cardinals in the Championship series play-offs.
The Arlington Yankees participated in winning another title in the summer of 2001. Combining with players from the Prince William Yankees of the NVA NABA, they won the NABA National Hall Of Fame Wood Bat title during the July 4 Tournament at Cooperstown, New York.
Also in 2001, the DC Wood All Stars (known that year as the Washington DC NABA All Stars) defeated the NVA NABA All Stars in a NABA regional All Star game held at Prince William Stadium.
In the fall of 2001, DC Wood became the first Recreational League in the region to have a separate Fall Ball season in which teams competed for a separate Fall Championship. The original four Fall Ball teams were the DC Cardinals, Falls Church Senators (later the Alexandria Senators), Murphy's Green Sox and the St. Louis Browns (later known as McClary's Highlanders). The St. Louis Browns won the Championship of the initial Fall Ball season by defeating the DC Cardinals in the Championship play-off.
In the spring of 2002, DC Wood expanded to eight teams, the Arlington Yankees, DC Cardinals, Alexandria River Dogs, Falls Church Senators (now the Arlington/Alexandria Senators), Murphy's Green Sox, Bugsy's Indians (now the Washington Grays), Metro Royals and McClary's Highlanders. The Arlington Yankees won the 2002 Summer Championship by again defeating the DC Cardinals in the Championship series play-offs.
In the fall of 2002, the DC Wood Fall League also expanded to eight teams, the DC Cardinals, Falls Church Senators, Murphy's Green Sox, Alexandria River Dogs, Metro Royals, Potomac Panthers, Herndon Dawgs and dcbaseball.org (arguably the strangest named team in baseball history). The Herndon Dawgs won the Fall Championship by defeating dcbaseball.org in the Championship play-offs.
DC Wood expanded again for the 2003 Summer season both by the entry of new teams and by absorbing the remaining teams from the DC area's oldest operating Recreational baseball league, the Washington Area Recreational Baseball League (WARBL). WARBL was the first modern era recreational baseball league, and now their history is part of the NABA-DC Wood tradition.
In Summer 2003, the Arlington Yankees, one of the original 6 teams that started DC Wood in 2001, twice Summer Champion and once National Hall Of Fame Champion, folded. The League was sad to see them go. However the league doubled in size from the original 6 to 12 teams. There were the remaining original five, the DC Cardinals, Alexandria River Dogs, Arlington Senators (formerly the Falls Church Senators, later the Arlington/Alexandria Senators), Murphy's Green Sox, and the Washington Grays (formerly Bugsy's Indians - later, the Front Page Grays, and then the Washington Grays before folding in 2017). Returning from 2002 were the Metro Royals and McClary's Highlanders (formerly the St. Louis Browns). New teams for Summer 2003, were the Falls Church News Hounds, the Heights Cavaliers, The Senators Baseball Club (from the old WARBL), the Alexandria A's (three-time defending WARBL champions) and the Fairfax Indians (later the Falls Church Pirates, now the Falls Church Barons). For Summer 2003, DC Wood organized into two six-Team Divisions, the WARBL Division and the VIRGINIA Division, with separate Division Championships. The Division Champions then played for the overall NABA-DC Wood Championship. There was inter-Division play during the regular season, so that all teams met at least once during the season.
The first ever DC Wood Division Champions were:
VIRGINIA DIVISION - Alexandria A's
WARBL DIVISION - DC Cardinals
The Alexandria A's won the Championship Series and were the 2003 NABA-DC Wood Champions.
During Fall Ball 2003, NABA-DC Wood once again started with 8 teams, the DC Cardinals, Alexandria Riverdogs, Arlington Senators, Murphy's Green Sox, Falls Church Newshounds, and the Herndon Dawgs from the previous fall, and the Alexandria A's and Senators Baseball Club replacing the two teams that did not return from Fall, 2002, the Potomac Panthers and dcbaseball.org.
After a single elimination play-off, the two teams in the Fall Ball Championship game were the 2003 Summer Champion Alexandria A's and the 2002 Fall Ball Champion Herndon Dawgs. In perhaps the most thrilling NABA-DC Wood game so far, both teams, tied at 1-1 after 9 innings, and then battled for 9 more, before the Dawgs pushed a run across in the bottom of the 18th inning to win the 2003 Fall Ball Championship, 2-1.
For the Summer 2004, season, DC Wood had more changes, losing some teams and adding some, but the result was further expansion.
First, some contraction. Unfortunately, the Metro Royals folded. This was a team with a long history in the area, originally starting out as the Athletics of the now defunct Baseball Unlimited League, where they played for 10 years and won 2 Championships before joining DC Wood as an expansion team in Summer, 2002. They will be missed.
McClary's Highlanders, who started out as the St. Louis Browns for the Fall, 2001, season, merged with and been absorbed by the League's oldest continuing team, the Alexandria Riverdogs.
The Fairfax Indians changed manager and location and became the Falls Church Pirates (now the Falls Church Barons).
New teams coming in for Summer, 2004, were the Fairfax Astros (from the Prince William County NABA group, NABA NVA), the D.C. Dukes (from MABL), and two brand new expansion teams, the McLean All Stars and the Tenleytown Braves (later the Tenleytown Brewers, and then the Tenleytown Barbecuers).
This new team arrangement left DC Wood with two seven-Team Divisions, the VIRGINIA and the WARBL Divisions. The Summer, 2004 season saw the emergence of two new teams and continued strength of two old teams. The WARBL Division Height's Cavaliers improved significantly over the last year and ended the regular season in first place and with the top seed in the WARBL play-offs. They continued to do well in the play-offs making it to the Division Final against last year's Division Champion DC Cardinals, who once again advanced to the final from a lower seed. The Cavaliers played tough in two close games, but were swept by the Cardinals in the WARBL Championship Series as the Cardinals repeated as WARBL Champions.
In the VIRGINIA Division, the Alexandria Athletics once again breezed through the regular season, and earned the number 1 seed in the VIRGINIA Division play-offs. This year they had only one regular season loss to blemish their record. A new team to the League, the Fairfax Astros, a former NVA-NABA Champion, emerged from the play-off pack to challenge the Athletics in the VIRGINIA Division Finals, and almost pulled off an upset in the first game before losing 3-2. The A's then advanced to the NABA-DC Wood League Championship Series when the Astros were unable to field a team for the second game of the VIRGINIA Division Finals.
The DC Wood Championship Series saw a match-up between the same two teams as were matched in the 2003 Series, the Alexandria A's and the DC Cardinals. The outcome was the same as the Athletics took the Cardinals in two to retain the League crown.
The 2004 Fall Ball Season was the most successful Fall Ball season to date for our League. There were 10 Fall Ball teams for the first time in League history, as two new teams joined, the Fairfax Blues and the Northern Virginia Red Sox. They joined the Alexandria Athletics, the Arlington Senators, Murphy's Green Sox, the Fairfax Astros, the Falls Church Pirates, the Falls Church Newshounds, the D.C. Dukes and the DC Cardinals.
The Alexandria Athletics won our 2004 Fall Ball Championship, the first DC Wood Fall Championship Series defeating the Northern Virginia Red Sox in two games. This is the first Fall Ball Championship for the A's.
'DC Wood' expanded again in 2005. Every team from Summer 2004, was back except the McLean All Stars, which folded (the Tenleytown Braves were back under a new name, the Tenleytown Brewers). In addition, we gained five new teams. The NV Blues, who joined the League in the Fall of 2004, came back for the Summer 2005, season. The old Metro Royals, who folded up after 2003, reorganized and returned. In addition, there were three brand new expansion clubs, the Bethesda Vipers, the Vienna Southern and the Washington Discounts. This expansion created two nine team Divisions.
After the end of the regular season, the Metro Royals earned the first seed in the WARBL Play-offs and the NV Blues earned the first seed in the VIRGINIA Play-offs by taking the regular season titles in their respective Divisions. However, the Royals lost in the first round of the WARBL Play-offs and the Tenleytown Brewers, who had finished only fifth in the Division regular season, won the WARBL Division Championship. In the VIRGINIA Division Play-offs, the Alexandria A's won a hard fought Play-off final with the NV Blues to take the VIRGINIA Division Championship for the third straight year. In the League Championship series, the Tenleytown Brewers took the first and third games of the Series to defeat the Alexandria A's and win their first ever League Championship!
Nine teams lined up to play Fall Ball in 2005, down one from last year's 10 team line-up. The Falls Church Pirates (now the 'Barons') elected not to play Fall Ball this year, and the Northern Virginia Red Sox did not return. However, a newly organized team, the Northern Virgina Knights came into the League for fall. Up until the last two weeks of the regular season, the fall weather was fantastic and we lost very few games to rain. After two weeks of rain at the end of the season, the weather became beautiful again for the Play-offs. The Alexandria A's returned most of its players from its summer Roster and they went through the Fall Ball season undefeated, both in the regular season and the Play-offs, although the two Championship games with the Fairfax Astros, the Fall Ball Runner-Up team, were both close and hotly contested.
DC Wood expanded again in 2006, going from 18 teams in 2005 to 20 in 2006. Three teams from Summer 2005 folded. Two expansion teams from 2005 did not survive for a second season. The Washington Discounts and the Vienna Southern both folded after only one season. In addition, the Heights Cavaliers, a team started in Summer 2003, folded after three seasons. However, these three were replaced with five new teams, the Northern Virginia Knights, which was started and played in our Fall 2005, season, the D.C. Metro Dragons, an existing team that transferred from MSBL, and three teams newly formed for Summer, 2006, the Madhatters, the D.C. Patriots, and the Washington Wiseguys.
The existing Divisions, VIRGINIA and WARBL were continued, each with 10 teams. In VIRGINIA, the Fairfax Astros stayed hot all summer and won the regular season title and earned the first seed in the play-offs. In WARBL, the D.C. Metro Dragons proved to be very strong, and won the regular season and first seed in that Division.
In the WARBL Division the D.C. Metro Dragons used their first seed to good advantage and won the Division, moving on the the Championship Series. In the VIRGINIA Division, the Fairfax Astros were unable to continue their regular season dominance and the Alexandria A's won the play-offs for their fourth Summer VIRGINIA Division title. In the Championship Series the Alexandria A's, led by the team's founder, Richard Stone, who delivered the game winning hit in the final Championship game, won their third NABA-DC Wood Summer Championship (fifth over-all, including two Fall Championships!).
For Fall, 2006, eight teams started the season, but the Fairfax Astros folded after three games. The remaining seven teams continued for an exiting Fall season in which Murphy's Green Sox and the Northern Virginia Knights both advanced to each's first Championship appearance. The Knights won in a hard fought Championship.
In the Summer, 2007, for the first time our League contracted a little bit, going from 20 to 18 teams after two new teams for 2006, the Madhatters and the Wiseguys both folded after one year. In the both Divisions, the regular season standings were contested right to the end with the Alexandria A's edging out the NV Blues for the first seed in the VIRGINIA Division and the Tenleytown Brewers gaining the first seed in the WARBL Division by one game over the D.C. Metro Dragons. In the VIRGINIA Division play-offs, however, the Fairfax Astros defeated the NV Blues to advance to the Virginia Championship series against the reigning Champion Alexandria A's, but the A's held on to their VIRGINIA Championship in a thrilling series with the Astros. On the WARBL side, the one and two seeds, the Brewers and the Dragons both got into the WARBL finals, with the Dragons beating the Brewers in a thrilling three game series in which the third game went into extra innings. The DC Wood Championship Series for Summer 2007, was then a match-up between the same two teams who had met in the Summer 2006, Series, and the result was also the same with the Alexandria A's winning their 6th DC Wood Championship, by sweeping the Dragons.
Fall Ball, 2007 saw participation by nine teams, the Northern Virginia Knights, NV Blues, Alexandria A's, Arlington/Alexandria Senators, D.C. Bears, DC Cardinals, Murphy's Green Sox, Falls Church Barons, and the Alexandria Attakids. The NV Blues made it to their first Championship Series, but they could not stop the Alexandria A's, who won their 7th DC Wood Championship.
For Summer, 2008, DC Wood divided into upper and lower Divisions, for the first time. This was done to make League wide regular season play more uniformly competitive. There was now an upper and lower (AAA and AA, respectively) Division in both WARBL and VIRGINIA. As a result, we had four Division regular season Champions.
The regular season winners were, WARBL AAA, Tenleytown Brewers, VIRGINIA AAA, Alexandria A's, WARBL AA, DC Bears, and VIRGINIA AA, Falls Church Barons. Congratulations are due these teams, but in a year of upsets, only one of these regular season Champions even made it to their Division Championship Series!
In the AAA Championship, the Championship Series teams were the Northern Virginia Knights and the Java Shack Astros (who actually finished last in their Division for the regular season!). The Astros could not sustain their Cinderella run, however, losing to the Summer 2008, DC Wood AAA Champion Northern Virginia Knights.
The AA Championship Series matched the Falls Church Barons and the Falls Church Newshounds (who ALSO finished last in their Division for the regular season!). The Summer, 2008, DC Wood AA Champion Falls Church Barons swept the best of five Championship Series, but all three victories were close fought one-run decisions!
The new upper and lower Division system was VERY successful. Not only was there much more parity in all regular season contests, but the Play-offs resulted in exiting upsets!
For Fall Ball 2008, there were seven teams, the Northern Virginia Knights, NV Blues, Alexandria A's, Arlington/Alexandria Senators, D.C. Bears, DC Cardinals, and Falls Church Barons. Fall weather was for the most part very good and most teams got all the baseball they wanted. The regular season race for the first Play-Off seed went to the last game of the season. The Alexandria A's went into that last game a half game behind the Northern Virginia Knights, and those two teams were matched in the seasons' final game. The A's won, and gained the first seed for the Play-Offs. The A's beat the DC Cardinals and the Knights beat the Falls Church Barons in the semi-final round, so the Championship Series was a meeting of the 2007 Fall Ball Champions and the 2008 Summer Champions. In an exciting three game series, the A's took the final game for their 8th DC Wood Championship!
In the spring of 2009, the League reorganized a bit, some teams folded and we added some new teams. Probably the biggest change was the move by the Alexandria A's from the VIRGINIA AAA to the WARBL AAA Division. Also, Murphy's Green Sox got a new sponsor, became the Carpool Green Sox, and moved to the VIRGINIA AA Division. The WARBL AAA Division also added two brand new teams, the North Yuma Yankees and the D.C. Diamonds. The VIRGINIA AAA Division added three new teams, the Sneaky Weasels, the TC Twins and the Los Toltecos Navigators. In all there were 19 teams:
WARBL AAA had (in order of seniority), the DC Cardinals, Tenleytown Brewers, Alexandria A's, North Yuma Yankees and DC Diamonds.
WARBL AA had the Washington Grays, D.C. Bears, The Senators Baseball Club, and The Vipers.
VIRGINIA AAA had the Falls Church Barons, NV Blues, TC Twins, Sneaky Weasels and Los Toltecos Navigators.
VIRGINIA AA had the Metro Storm, Alexandria/Arlington Senators, Carpool Green Sox, Falls Church Newshounds and Arlington Redbirds.
The AAA Championship Series was between the Sneaky Weasels and the NV Blues, with the Sneaky Weasels prevailing.
The AA Championship Series was between the Metro Storm and the Carpool Green Sox with the Metro Storm prevailing.
The 2009 Fall Ball Season teams were the DC Cardinals, Alexandria/Arlington Senators, Carpool Green Sox, Falls Church Barons, Alexandria A's and the Los Toltecos Navigators. The Fall Ball Play-offs were rather evenly contested from the first round, but the first and second seeded Alexandria A's and Falls Church Barons managed to make it to the final with the Alexandria A's winning their three game series with a 1-0 win in the rubber match to take the Fall Ball Championship.
Summer 2010 started out with the largest line-up of DC Woods teams ever, with 21 teams, 11 AAA, and 10 AA. However, the NV Blues folded up during the season to reduce the total number of teams to 20.
In the two AAA Divisions were:
WARBL - DC Cardinals, CUA Cardinals (new), North Yuma Yankees, KOA Warriors (new), Alexandria A's
VIRGINIA - Falls Church Barons, Sneaky Weasels, NV Blues, TC Twins, Los Toltecos Navigators, Metro Storm.
In the two AA Divisions were:
WARBL - The Senators Baseball Club, Washington Grays, DC Bears, The Vipers, and Carpool Green Sox
VIRGINIA - Virginia Rebels, Alexandria/Arlington Senators, Falls Church News Hounds, Arlington Redbirds, Falls Church Knights (returning after a stint with the Blue/Gray League).
For the first time ever, DC Wood held TWO mid-season All Star Games, both played on the same night, one for the AAA and one for the AA Divisions, with WARBL winning the AAA All Star Game and VIRGINIA winning the AA All Star Game.
In the AAA Championship Series, the Alexandria A's beat the Sneaky Weasels in a closely fought 5 game series.
The Falls Church News Hounds won the AA Championship with a three game sweep of the Virginia Rebels, but this was also closely fought with the final two games each being one-run affairs.
The 2010 FALL Ball season featured only five teams, the DC Cardinals, Alexandria A's, Falls Church Barons, Carpool Green Sox and the Falls Church Knights. In a rematch of last year's FALL Ball Championship, the Alexandria A's again defeated the Fall Church Barons, this time in an expanded 5 game series (first time for FALL Ball) that went the distance.
In the Spring of 2011, DC Wood ended its association with the NABA organization, and partnered with Ponce-de-Leon Baseball and the Diamond Dream Foundation.
There were eight AAA Division teams and nine AA Division teams for the Spring/Summer season of 2011. In the AAA Division, there were the Sneaky Weasels, the Alexandria As, the DC Cardinals, the Falls Church Barons, the Northern Virginia Knights, the Crystal City Restaurant Navigators, the TC Twins and the North Yuma Yankees.
The Sneaky Weasels won the AAA Division Championship, beating the Alexandria As.
There were nine AA Division teams in 2011, the Carpool Green Sox, Washington Grays, The Senators Baseball Club, Alexandria/Arlington Senators, Falls Church News Hounds, NOVA Blues, The Vipers, D.C. Bears,and the Falls Church Knights.
The Falls Church Newshounds repeated as AA Champions, beating The Vipers, who were in the Championship Series for the first time.
For Fall Ball 2011, six teams signed up - the Alexandria As, the Falls Church BKG, the DMV Dirtballs, the DC Cardinals, the Northern Virginia Knights and The Vipers.
The Alexandria As won the 2011 Fall Ball Championship over the Falls Church BKG.
For Spring/Summer or 2012, DC Wood contracted to six AAA Division team, the DC Cardinals, Northern Virginia Knights, Falls Church Barons, Alexandria A's, the Sneaky Weasels, the Crystal City Restaurant Navigators.
In the AA Division there were also six teams, the Carpool Green Sox, the Washington Grays, the Senators Baseball Club, the Falls Church News Hounds, the NOVA Blues, and The Vipers.
The Falls Church Barons beat the Sneaky Weasels in the AAA Championship Series and the Senators Baseball Club beat the Washington Grays in the AA Championship Series.
Fall Ball 2012, saw five teams compete, the DC Cardinals, the Northern Virginia Knights, the Alexandria A's, The Vipers, and the Falls Church BKG. The Alexandria As beat the Northern Virginia Knights for in the 2012 Fall Ball Championship Series.
For Spring/Summer 2013, the AAA Division expanded to seven teams, the DC Cardinals, the Northern Virginia Knights, the Falls Church Barons, the Alexandria A's, the Sneaky Weasels, the Crystal City Restaurant Navigators, and the Tenleytown Brewers.
The Sneaky Weasels won the Spring/Summer 2013 Championship over the Falls Church Barons in a VERY closely fought Series. Every game the Sneaky Weasels won in this Series was by only one run!
The AA Division also expanded to seven teams, the Carpool Green Sox, the Washington Grays, the Senators Baseball Club, the Falls Church News Hounds, The Vipers, the Derwood Bulls, and Tommy Joe's Silver Bullets.
The Spring/Summer 2013 Champions are the Washington Grays who won an equally exiting Series with the Falls Church Newshounds. The Grays came back to win the five game Series with three straight wins after dropping the first two games of the Series.