Last night, I was reading an excellent book by David Kaiser,
The Epic Season: The 1948 American League Pennant Race. Kaiser mentioned that before the 1948 season, the Pacific Coast League asked MLB to be recognized as a third major league. As we all know, the PCL was turned down. I remembered having read that before, but it got me thinking...
Kaiser argued persuasively that "the structure of baseball would obviously be far different--and quite possibly more exciting than it is today." He mentioned that had the PCL been given major league status, the National League would almost certainly never left New York. After all, the booming cities of the West Coast would already have major league baseball.
This morning, I booted up OOTP (still OOTP8 in my case) and started putting a new league together. At first, I wanted to try to graft an additional eight-team PCL onto an existing 1948 MLB universe, but that wasn't possible. So, I did the next best thing.
I created a brand new baseball world: one subleague, three divisions, eight teams each. It's not a perfect setup, because I wasn't sure how an All-Star game would work, and I have to use a wild card in the playoffs, which I'm not crazy about. Each division champion, plus the runner-up, will advance to the playoffs.
I played Great Baseball Deity and shifted some franchises to new cities. Metropolitan New York kept all three of its teams, and Chicago kept both the Cubs and White Sox. Boston, Philadelphia, and St. Louis each lost the franchise that actually relocated in real life.
The league is, therefore, structured like this:
American Division
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Athletics
New York Yankees
Washington Senators
National Division
Brooklyn Dodgers
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Braves
New York Giants
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
Pacific Coast Division
Hollywood Stars
Los Angeles Angels
Oakland Oaks
Portland Beavers
Sacramento Solons
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Seals
Seattle Rainiers
I created an affiliated minor league, which is set up as described below. Each minor league club's parent organization is listed in parentheses. In many cases, the minor league teams are matched with a real-live parent club. The PCL teams, being independent, naturally did not have affiliates.
I changed a minor league nickname or two, but in each case I picked one that was actually associated with the city at some point in time.
International Division
Buffalo Bisons (Tigers)
Jersey City Giants (Giants)
Montreal Royals (Dodgers)
Newark Bears (Yankees)
Richmond Virginians (Orioles)
Rochester Red Wings (Cardinals)
Syracuse Chiefs (Reds)
Toronto Maple Leafs (Phillies)
Southern Division
Atlanta Crackers (Braves)
Birmingham Barons (Red Sox)
Chattanooga Lookouts (Senators)
Little Rock Travelers (Athletics)
Memphis Chickasaws/Chicks (White Sox)
Mobile Sea Gulls (Indians)
Nashville Volunteers/Vols (Cubs)
New Orleans Pelicans (Pirates)
American Division
Columbus Clippers (Rainiers)
Dallas Eagles (Seals)
Houston Buffaloes (Angels)
Indianapolis Indians (Padres)
Louisville Colonels (Oaks)
Minneapolis Millers (Beavers)
St. Paul Saints (Stars)
Toledo Mud Hens (Solons)
I'm beginning this league in 1920. In the very beginning, all of the players will be fictional. Each year, I'll import real rookies for my draft pool, but naturally they won't be assigned to their actual teams. Therefore, over time, the rosters should fill up with actual major leaguers.
Other "rules" are as follows:
- Financials, coaching, and scouting are all off.
- The rookie draft will last five rounds.
- Minor league rosters are set at 35 players. If the minor leagues start running low, I'll simply generate some more fictional guys. This isn't a straight historical simulation, after all.
- The Great Baseball Deity reserves the right to add Negro League, Japanese, and real PCL stars whenever I want to. The Deity also reserves the right to add members of the O'Farrell family.
- Development/aging speeds set to default.
- Trading is set to "very low."
- Injuries are set to "low."
- Fatigue is set to "normal."
I'll be moving quickly and covering the league in broad strokes, at least in the beginning. I might write a newspaper article or an interview from time to time, because I think they're fun to write. I'm not sure where this will go, to be honest.
As more of the players become familiar, I'll probably slow the pace down a little bit, and if any of you ever become particularly interested in how a particular player is doing, please post and let me know, and I'll fill you in. I enjoy it when "fans" of my dynasties post, so don't ever feel like you're intruding.
I'm really excited about this baseball world. I hope it's a lot of fun for me to play and write about, and for all of us here to follow.