[Nukester]

Exactly. OOTP does not try to be a "replay" league like the others, where you might want to play out the 1987 season over and over. It is a career simulation, where players age and have career arcs. More of a "what if" type of game. With the introduction of the recal feature, where the game will give players new ratings each year based on a 1, 3, or 5 year average of the players last couple of years and next couple of years, it keeps historicals from getting alot of no name players in the record books, and you will generally see the same players from real life in the recordbooks, but not nessecarilly with the same stats. You could always turn off the recalc feature and have players use the default game career arcs, which will make things even more random.

You can also have new amateur players enter the game each year, either going to the same team they played on in real life, or hold an amatuer draft, and watch players go to different teams. In my last simulation, Babe Ruth ended up getting drafted by the Cincinnati Reds, and had his career HR numbers suffer because of the big dimensions of Crosley Field.