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Originally Posted by txranger
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Whoa, these are nice! Really have the looks I've always imagined for the Sycamores also. Cool stuff.
The Sycamores are kind of the Black Sox of my universe.
According to the backstory of my world, they were an UNBELIEVABLY powerful team way back in the 1910s and 1920s... particularly dominant. Until of course they were startlingly unsuccessful in the Championship Series in 1929... under somewhat dubious circumstances. The Crash of '27... and the Depression that was developing in its wake... made life pretty rough for darn near everyone. Was it really so surprising that the Sycamores might dump the series for a little extra cash? They did have families to take care of after all.
The controversy this stirred up was ENORMOUS. Pretty much ruined the league, this controversy and others that popped up here and there. By the time the CBC took over baseball in 1932, the Lexington Sycamores had been replaced by the Lexington Pioneers, the only holdover from all those powerhouse years was veteran catcher Jimmie "Sycamore" Flynn, who was one of baseball's most respected players, and was considered above reproach even at the height of the controversy.
Flynn, in '32, was a little past his prime, but he was still a heck of a leader, and definitely left a mark on the newly established CBC, and the Pioneers in particular. He'd become a heck of a coach and manager later on. With his extremely impressive showing in the infamous '29 Series, he was never even suspected of any wrongdoing, and was often praised by those in the know as being the living embodiment of 'everything that was right with the game'.
He revealed on his deathbed, (in 1967), that he had indeed taken money from gamblers; but, he figured, with so many others on that team on the take, including pitchers and prominent outfielders, it wouldn't matter so much what he did. So, he said, if he could have both the money AND the homers, then... why not?
Before his death in '67, the CBC commissioner took note of his confession, but granted him a full pardon. His Hall OF Fame career remained intact.
Sorry, didn't mean to create a forty foot long post. Just been a writing mood lately, I guess. All the above information is canon in my head...
It's always a little harder to get OOTP to cooperate though.
