[Syd Thrift]

I do play out all the games (at least from the 7th inning on) and as a general thing I try to really immerse myself and try to see what it's like to be a manager/GM in a league in the era I happen to be playing in. I end up using fictional players because I don't want to be informed in any way on how a guy's career might go, although I do other little things for immersion's sake like have a team sign a guy I want to be the next DiMaggio and go into the editor to pump him up into that kind of player, or have a team blow itself up to simulate, for example, what Connie Mack did in the 1910s and again in the mid-30s (in my current dynasty this takes the form of using the real-life transaction records to judge how and, generally speaking, for whom each team trades).

Whatever you do, I think writing about your teams provides the most immersion, and making up stuff about them works even better. Be as silly, serious, funny, hardcore, light, or heavy as you feel like being, and don't be afraid to change tone on a whim. It's your fun, after all.