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Your longest-running save

I typically don't get super deep into my saves, either because I get discouraged and start over, or because the new game comes out and I don't carryover my save.

In terms of seasons, what is your longest-running save? And what are some of the coolest things you've seen when you go deep into the future?

Started in 1871 with 19 and migrated to 20 and I am in 1938. :laugh:

My longest-running save is the only one of any meaningful length. In the 57th season, playing out every game and religiously writing about it in my dynasty thread. Started the save on May 20, 2012, and will continue it until either I die or the save dies. I'll never put another charming league like that together anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westheim (Post 4551271)

Curious Westheim, how old are you?

Quote:

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy (Post 4551274)

Curious Westheim, how old are you?

33, but before my first coffee I usually feel like 77 at the very least. :p

(with nervously shaking paw reaches for the cup)

Quote:

Originally Posted by OrbisEuler (Post 4551272)

any cool stories?

There were highs, there were lows. There is this lefty, taken in the second-to-last round in ’95 that required a neat write-up some 25 years later.

There was also this game that I played four and a half years ago and will never get out of my head.

We had four championships (indicated in the signature, too, the bold years) and have been an above-.500 team all-time, but there have been some dire straits (the Juan Diaz came occurred squat in the middle of a 10-year run of posting losing seasons). We also have our fair share of Hall of Famers, which is probably due to OOTP players lacking the “I just want outta here” sentiment that real-life, say, Miami Marlins personnel has, so if you really want to, you can hold on to them forever and make them yours in the Hall.

Most of the time however I am rambling down rough play-by-play account of a week’s worth of games while spicing it up with a mostly inept cast of supporting characters and my inherent madness. Like the final section of this entry after a recent 0-6 week:

Quote:

Complaints and stuff

(sits at his desk with a metal sweeping bucket over his head and speaks with a cracked, metallic sounding voice) I am wearing this so nobody can see that I cried. I think it works very well.

Kevin Harenberg was Hitter of the Month in the Federal League, batting .360 with 2 HR and 20 RBI, which is nothing that concerns the Raccoons directly except for nostalgic reasons, but I felt the pressing urge to report something, anything positive.

The team as a whole is terrible. They suck. There is also no hope. They will always suck. We will never have a winning team again. Heck, we will never score FIRST in any ****ing game again. The streak is up to *13* games in which the other team got on the board first, going back to the second game of the double-header in Indy two Sundays back. I think this colossal level of misery is best fixed by sending the entire roster to some remote and icy gulag in the frozen wastelands. Too bad that thanks to global warming there aren’t many frozen wastelands anymore.

Maud! … Maud! – Can we trade the entire roster to Vancouver? – No? – Aw.

(with a clonking sound, rests bucket-covered head on the desk)

Fun Fact: Tim Stalker is the only batter in ABL history to hit for multiple cycles without leaving the field as winner even once.

It is TRUE. It is a very Raccoons story. We obviously lost the 11-inning gut-wrencher on Friday, and we also lost his first career cycle on May 10, 2029, a 9-8 defeat against the Gold Sox in Portland. Stalker batted leadoff that day with Ramos routinely on the DL at that point and went 4-for-6 with 4 RBI in an ultimately futile rally after Dan Delgadillo had been whomped for six runs early on.

That’s boilerplate madness. But I can go off the rails entirely, too.

Quote:

I took another curious look at the note with the address, then looked at the building again. This was it. This was the address that Maud had given me. A fantastically fancy, relatively new apartment building on the west side of Portland in an otherwise sparsely built up hillside area. I also let my trusty stuffed toy raccoon Honeypaws take a look at the note, then shrugged and went inside. There was a guy behind a white marble counter eyeing me briefly before typing something into his computer. In at least three corners there were tiny red lights blinking in dark corners – security cameras for sure. I had to take the left-hand elevator, Maud had stressed, so I went to that one and pressed the button with the upwards pointing arrow – the only one available – then waited.

After the Raccoons had suffered the mother of all sweeps in Boston (30-2 in terms of runs in case you partially or wholly erased the ghastly memory with self-medication of your choice), the team had gone north of the border to play the abominatious Elks. Of course, I was still not allowed back into Canada, stemming from an incident in the 80s when I had ripped an Elks cap from a kid’s head in a waterfront park in Vancouver and had stomped on it. The hat, not the kid. Still, the Canadians were kinda weird with being cruel to children. The authorities, not the team. Although, that too. Anyway, several illegal border transgressions for important business since then aside, I had not accompanied the team to Vancouver in decades, and usually watched in horror from my couch at home.

But not this time. I just couldn’t be alone. Unfortunately, few of the people I considered friends or something like that were available to watch the game with. Steve from Accounting had gone fishing, which I didn’t remember him ever mentioning to enjoy. Maud had left town to visit her mother, which I found weird since I’d swear she had been to her funeral at least twice in the past. I was also fairly sure that both our lazy janitor Slappy and glue-sniffing mascot boy Chad actually lived in Raccoons Ballpark, so there was no visiting them. The Druid and our scout, that guy with his name, were obviously in Canada with the team. That only left – oh, the elevator finally arrived, it was all fancy white inside – one person. There was also only one button inside the elevator. Nowhere but “^” from here, apparently. I pushed that, held on to Honeypaws with my left hand and to a small bag with a change of clothes and various pills – whatever I had been able to find and what would mix well with booze – in my right hand.

Man, this elevator was moving upwards *forever*.

When it finally arrived at “^”, the doors opened with a gentle whirr and allowed the occupant to step out into a very short sort of hallway that was dimly lit. There was but one door on the other end with a lit buzzer next to it. Honeypaws pressed that with his front paw. Within seconds, the door was opened by a young man that was about 6’4’’ and … well, we were both sort of surprised apparently. He by the sudden, unannounced appearance of an old man in a well-worn jacket, and I was sort of taken by his flowing blond locks that fell to the shoulders and were the only hair on an otherwise clean-shaven body. He only wore a black thong that seemed unnecessarily tight at first glance, and a white bowtie around his neck.

I’m… I’m sorry. I am looking for Senor Carmona. Is he home? – Mr. Westfield, it is.

The hunk turned around and said to somebody inside that Mr. Westfield was here, which immediately caused some thing or other to collapse with great noise, and after a second of silence I could hear Cristiano’s voice, but couldn’t understand what he was saying, but the towering hulk soon stepped out of the door and lowered his head slightly to allow me inside.

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...postcount=2951

There’s a few people that seem entertained by this and occasionally voice approval in my dynasty thread (and, rarely, concern :p), and there is the additional boon that I am convinced that writing up the Critters greatly cuts down on therapy bills for me. Otherwise I’d probably need an emotional support animal.

A raccoon of course.

(whispers) I will name him Daniel.

I wonder whether it’s easier to dye or to shave the #15 into his back fur, though.

My league started with season 2016 and now is about to start 2212. So if my math is good (please check me on this) we will be starting season 196.

I have been the GM for 3 different organizations through the years. I changed teams when a new owner pissed me off with lower budgets or interfering with personnel moves.

Have won 63 championships and been in the finals 107 times although the past 12 seasons have not been so good.

about 25 seasons. What does it for me is looking back on all the trades I made and how they panned out

I have never gone real deep in saves either. I generally play 3 different ways. I play historical, current MLB, and random debut. Like the OP, every year I always start fresh with my current MLB. As a result, the farthest I have had a save go was 3 years. With Random debut I had one that went 4 years, and in historical I did have one that I started in 1901 and played until the end of 1909. Generally with Random debut and historical I always get away from it, and then lose intererst when I come back. I might come up with a new OOTP project that draws my interest, and then when I come back to it, I have no interest in my old league.

I envy those who can keep their league going far into the future. Every time I start a league I have an intention to keep it going far into the future, but it never seems to work out that way. I have been trying to keep my leagues going since OOTP 3, but it just never seems that I can get a league to go more than a few seasons for me.

I have two long running league, one at 74 seasons one at 98 both have spanned many versions of OOTP. I’ll post a couple of good/sad stories when I get home later this week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westheim (Post 4551292)

33, but before my first coffee I usually feel like 77 at the very least. :p

(with nervously shaking paw reaches for the cup)

There were highs, there were lows. There is this lefty, taken in the second-to-last round in ’95 that required a neat write-up some 25 years later.

There was also this game that I played four and a half years ago and will never get out of my head.

We had four championships (indicated in the signature, too, the bold years) and have been an above-.500 team all-time, but there have been some dire straits (the Juan Diaz came occurred squat in the middle of a 10-year run of posting losing seasons). We also have our fair share of Hall of Famers, which is probably due to OOTP players lacking the “I just want outta here” sentiment that real-life, say, Miami Marlins personnel has, so if you really want to, you can hold on to them forever and make them yours in the Hall.

Most of the time however I am rambling down rough play-by-play account of a week’s worth of games while spicing it up with a mostly inept cast of supporting characters and my inherent madness. Like the final section of this entry after a recent 0-6 week:

That’s boilerplate madness. But I can go off the rails entirely, too.

There’s a few people that seem entertained by this and occasionally voice approval in my dynasty thread (and, rarely, concern :p), and there is the additional boon that I am convinced that writing up the Critters greatly cuts down on therapy bills for me. Otherwise I’d probably need an emotional support animal.

A raccoon of course.

(whispers) I will name him Daniel.

I wonder whether it’s easier to dye or to shave the #15 into his back fur, though.

Geeez you could call your experience a lifetime work of baseball simulation. Really fascinating just to know you are out there breathing life into a fictional universe of baseball.

I am more tortoise than hare in this regard.
(Okay, off subject but kind of funny story. My college nickname was Murray the Passionate Jewish Turtle. My name isn't Murray nor am I in fact Jewish, but I suppose I am passionate while also having a slow persistence and some physical resemblance to a turtle. And an interest in Judaism.)

My primary fictional league, the W.P. Kinsella league (WPK) started with the 1965 season (which I started sometime late 2017/early 2018) and is now at the end of July 1974. But like Westheim said, I will "continue it until either I die or the save dies."

So I haven't gone deep into the future (really, still in our past, though it's a fictional past) but what I am enjoying at this stage of the league is how well OOTP mirrors real-life baseball. And by that I mean that the range of player career outcomes is so realistic. I have seen players who quietly put up fine season after fine season as they put together near HOF careers, other players who shine brightly early on only to fade in their late-20's, superstars who play at a high level well into their mid-to-late 30's and are sure HOF'ers (I am fortunate to have 2 of these type guys on my team), veteran starting pitchers who roller-coaster from rough season to great season to mediocre season, etc. I have seen very talented young players forced out of the game early due to serious injury or life choices. I've seen later round draft picks develop into stars and first rounder can't-miss prospects miss. I've had a player on my team go from a good little back-up outfielder for several years to suddenly winning a batting title at age 30. I've seen the dominant closer of his generation, who is also one of the most hated players in the game and a serious clubhouse distraction, help teams to championships but always wear out his welcome soon.

The further I go in my WPK universe, the more I fall in love with it. And the more I play OOTP, the more I love it. Such a great and addictive game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffw3000 (Post 4551343)

I envy those who can keep their league going far into the future. Every time I start a league I have an intention to keep it going far into the future, but it never seems to work out that way. I have been trying to keep my leagues going since OOTP 3, but it just never seems that I can get a league to go more than a few seasons for me.

Every time: "Okay, this will be the one. I won't cheat. I won't get discouraged. I will bring the White Sox to new heights and see 2100."

Never happens. And honestly, I need to do more to learn how to properly build a dynasty. The few times I have really good seasons, it's so much fun. I'm entering my fourth year of this current save on 20. The Sox have gone from 66 wins to 94 last season, and the Wild Card at home, which we lost 1-0 to the Royals. Absolutely gutted. The Sox, the Royals, and the Indians all made the playoffs. It was a fun summer.

pretty sure i've cleared 150 in '18. i played it for 2 years, so that helps.

i don't play out games. once i get to a happy equillibrium of talent acquisition and departures, it's not much work, either. in years i don't have to do much i can finish in 20-30 minutes or so with good health.

static ltm until i borked myself the last ~10-20 years... soured me on that league.

I started my current league in 1992 and am now up to 2077... so, 85 years. I used a setup that StealOfHome posted, which I love, and edited the Stats settings to mirror the ***. Not sure if I would count the full 85 - when I started I just simulated it a season at a time - just powered through it. More recently I took over the day to day operations of a club (first Phoenix, now I’m in LA) and that’s when it really grabbed ahold of me. I’m in pretty deep now - well versed on most of the players of substance and am having a blast writing it up series by series. It’s not without its problems - I used real life teams from other sports leagues to populate my MLB league (I go through periods where I plan to rebrand every team only to stop short because I just want to keep playing), my Bush League has some silly team concepts, and some of the “colleges” I’ve added were only funny to me for a couple of seasons - though I will always love the MIT Equations.

When you keep a league going and run it a series at a time while taking the time to look around and smell the roses - this game really starts to shine. An incredible mixture of realism, creative possibilities, and customization that creates a world where the possibilities are endless.

It’s great fun. I’m with Westheim & BirdWatcher on the point that I’ll be playing this league forever - at this point I know it better than I know the actual MLB.

My current fictional league is also my longest --I'm in my 14th season, played over a period of 14 months. What keeps it fresh for me is taking over poor teams and trying (as GM and manager) to build them into contenders. Once I've done that for one team I switch over to another. That also helps with immersion as I get to know players in both of my 12-team leagues. I also play out all of my team's games.

Longest running as far as seasons is my ABF league which was started on OOTP 16 or 17 which started in 1876 simmed until 2000, took over a team and now stuck in 2001.
My EBL vs MLB was originally started on OOTP 11, redone on 13 and converted all the way to 20. Total seasons is 33.

Here is one from a long time ago. This is 2037. I'm in 2104 currently

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=149740

For ootp20 i started a league in 1871 and have just completed 2014.
I am using real rosters and transactions as much as possible.
Ive seen some great teams overachieve and underachieve. Same with players.

I tend to go pretty deep into only a few leagues, because in most cases I prefer to play out the games, because I get invested in my rosters and want the best outcomes possible for the players on them, as well as the team itself. I measure performance against myself, as opposed to vs history or realism on a team level. I do like to compare player performance to historical output in my historical leagues, though.

My longest-running league was one I started in OOTP 12, in fact the intent to do this league is why I bought OOTP to begin with. I started with the 1974 Red Sox, and I have played out every game through 1989 to date. My enthusiasm for the league ebbs and flows a bit, I haven't played this one any since OOTP 18, but it's still my longest-running one.

The premise of the league itself was based on an online discussion of using one's historical knowledge to improve a team in history, so within a few specific parameters that I have limited myself to, things are skewed enough in my favor that there aren't really any interesting stories to share in terms of my team's exploits. The more interesting element has been how excellent some random (relative to history) divisional rival has managed to build a sub-dynasty (my nemesis, but rarely good enough to outplay my team), like the Detroit Tigers managed to do from the late 70s through the early 1980s. Mike Schmidt at 3B with Trammel and Whitaker makes for quite the excellent IF.