[MannyTrillo]

You will enjoy being in an online league a lot more if you actually own the game. If you don't mind paying $20 now for OOTP4 and $30 in April to upgrade to OOTP5, do it. And as Livnlegend said, it's very easy to get into a league once you decide you want to. The easiest way is to just look for openings posted on this forum. The downside to this is that you often don't know what you're getting into, and a lot of leagues do end up folding, which is a drag when you've put time and energy into it.

A better way to find leagues IMO is to shop around- look through the leagues on ootp-leagues.com, and also the ones in peoples' signatures on this forum. Find a bunch that look good, and then email the commissioners and ask to be put on the waiting list. By the time you've learned the ins and outs of OOTP on your own, you'll probably get in somewhere. I can highly recommend both the ABA and HHBC, two fictional leagues that I'm in, linked in my signature. Other fictional leagues I've seen that look good are the NOBL and USBA. Good luck.