What is the best year to start in for a Historical Sim?
 

I am interested in starting a historical simulation from pre-1900 MLB, what is the best year to start in that doesn't require me to do a lot of hands on work to fix the league. I've seen 1884 bring people trouble and other years as well. please help

I don't have the answers but I'm pretty sure that the people who do will be better able to give you solid intel if you provide a little more detail on the kind of league you want. Stuff such as minors and transactions and league evolution and debut (actual or random). Stuff like that. :thumbup1:

I started in 1871 and went forward. ;)

1871 will work depending on how you play. If you play with amateur draft each you you may have to manually move some players around to make sure each team has enough players. If a team does not have enough players, the game will let you know. Back in those days I think teams had 12 or 13 players. In 1903 in my league the average team had about 22 players. Had to make sure I played with injuries off. Around 1908 my teams had 25 players with 2 or 3 reserves.

I like starting in 1901 so that I know how many years have gone by in the save just by the year.

I am now also completely addicted to random-debut sims. I've been doing a number of them and stopping them to play whenever John Tudor gets introduced as a rookie.

If you want a more fictional what if scenario that is close to historical accuracy the start in the game should work. You may not always have the correct league setup but you will have the players and if you are not going to use real rosters later on then there shouldn't be a problem in that regard.
However you may have to keep an eye on the rosters. With less players there may be a chance that a team hogs some of the starting pitchers.
i have seen injuries forcing a 4 game starter to start 30 games and the outcome was not good for that pitcher.

If you are more strict in your replay and want a more accurate replay with real rosters then i'm sorry to say but there will be some work on your part. It's not as bad as it was years ago but it still takes some time and effort. I think my last replay took 1or 2 months to get from 1871-1900.