From the fine folks providing you with MLB93, the Transcontinental Baseball League, and, of course, the OTBL, comes a new venture in the historical/fictional online league universe that is sure to capture the hearts and minds of millions.
The Continental League was the last credible attempt to start a third major league. After the Dodgers and Giants left New York without a National League team, William Shea went full bore on attempting to create a third league in order to give New York another team. Branch Rickey was brought in to run the whole shebang, and franchises were to be placed in Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, and Toronto. 1961 was to be the league's first season.
However, MLB took the threat rather seriously and reacted by announcing expansion: Minneapolis and Los Angeles in 1961, Houston and New York in 1962. Placing the Mets in New York was enough to effectively kill the Continental League, as Shea's only goal had been met. The league disbanded in August 1960.
In this online league, the Continental League does not give up, but instead finds another New York franchise owner and plows ahead. Major League Baseball is, at least initially, hostile to the league, and the CL is set up as an independent major league. The real Continental League had sought official acceptance as a legitimate major league.
World setup: An eight team major league with franchises in the original Continental League cities: Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, and Toronto. The CL managed to commandeer a number of minor leagues under its umbrella: the American Association (AAA), South Atlantic League (AA), Western Carolina League (A) (the real Continental League attempted to form a working agreement with this league, which was unaffiliated at the time, but was blocked by MLB), California League (S-A), and Pioneer League (R). Most of the other minor leagues exist and are affiliated to MLB. I was initially going to use actual minor league affiliations, but things were so haphazard back then that I doubt the AI could handle having two AAA teams and four A teams. The expansion Senators didn't even have a team in a league affiliated above D (obviously, I had to jam the old school AAA/AA/A/B/C/D alignment system into the modern system).
The CL is financially comfortable but does not have the resources that MLB does, so player salaries are higher in MLB. The reserve clause is in effect for both leagues, but players may move between leagues when released from contracts.
Both leagues will evolve over time. MLB will roughly follow real history, but events in the CL may have an effect. MLB's expansion plans may change (if such-and-such team is successful, for example, MLB may not feel that it can expand into that city). The CL will also evolve, but more on that later. The CL will be initially populated with fictional players and amateurs will be fictional. The quality of those players are also generally less than in MLB. Historical players will initially go to MLB, but a random number of players will hold out from MLB at certain times and seek bigger contracts from the CL. At least until general free agency occurs in MLB, then players will move a lot more freely between the two leagues.
I will not own a team in this league, playing instead the role of commish/player's union head/God/Flying Spaghetti Monster/article writer. There are a lot of things I'd like to do with the league that I just don't think I can do if I'm also a team owner (lots of things I'll need an editor for or to make decisions about). If MLB is going to come to the CL to propose something, it's going to be odd if I'm also voting on whether or not the league wants to do it. Many of the major changes in the league will be voted on by the league's general managers, such as expansion plans or collective bargaining issues. In fact, ownership will largely be responsible for proposing the changes (I generally hold absolute veto, but sure hope to not have to use it!). It is for this reason that active ownership (i.e. on the for
a) will be something of a requirement.
The nitty-gritty of the initial setup: scouting and coaches are off. Suspensions off, injuries low, all ratings 2-8 (the presence of ratings and the scale used are up for discussion). Historical players are not recalculated but are left to the development engine. The CL was "created" in 1946 and simmed forward to 01/31/1961 in order to get rid of the initial player population (because they're always really weird, lots of undeveloped 28-year-olds and superduperstar 21-year-olds). Absolutely everything in the history was erased and a 1961 MLB historical league was added on. There was initially not going to be an amateur draft to start, however OOTP's solution for fictional leagues without a draft is somewhat inelegant, so I've decided to go with one.
For service time, I got somewhat creative. In order to lure "established" ballplayers (they're all still fictional, just run with the story), the CL offered to credit service time (towards, I don't know, a player's pension, I guess) based on a player's age as of 01/31/1961. All players 21 or older were credited with at least 1 year pro service, with an additional year for each one over 21. Teams still have 3 options years to use: beginning at age 25, one was deducted from what would be otherwise available. Also beginning at age 25, players were given 40-man roster service time in one year increments, and starting ate age 28 were given major league service time in one year increments. Service time for players on MLB teams wasn't touched.
The trade deadline is 06/15 (as it was for a very long time), Waviers/DFA will be set for 14 days. The financial system is active with the reserve clause and contracts are not guaranteed unless the team itself chooses to guarantee them. There is no All-Star game or playoff system, since it is a single 8-team league. Offense/defense will follow historical settings.
I had initially anticipated sims being twice a week at 7 days per sim, but the season will progress too slowly. 14 day sims do not work well in leagues with secondary rosters and waivers, as the waiver/DFA periods need to be a month long. So there will be three sims per week of 7 days per sim (during the season. Offseason sims will likely be longer).
tl;dr: Eight owners are needed to claim any one of the CL franchises and give it a nickname, logo, cap, jersey, ballpark (name, dimensions [capacity required to be at least 35,000], park factors) (the cities and your affiliates are already decided). Market sizes are about what you'd expect, but teams that have an MLB franchise in the same city have slightly lower fan loyalty and fan interest.
Six teams are already spoken for: Atlanta and Buffalo are still available. The MLB teams will NOT be human-playable. While I generally leave this open to anybody, I reserve the right to say "no" dependent on your reputation as a responsible (or irresponsible, I suppose) owner.
The league reports can be viewed
here. New York and Toronto are the only teams to have named themselves, thus far. The league forum will be located under the OTBL umbrella, specifically
here (awaiting a rename!!). You can PM here or there to notify me of your interest.