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PW MAX · 01-19-2013, 08:01 AM

It's me again, Margaret.

A warning, up front. This one didn't seem to flow quite as easily as some I've thrown up here before, I kinda had to force it through a little in parts. So, there's that.

To make up for that, I've tried to make this post a little prettier than my usual posts. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

My apologies in advance for what's likely to be yet another 47 ft. long post.

With all that in mind, here goes nothing...

First thing up tonight, I'll introduce a couple of my other teams I don't think I've mentioned yet.

First up, is the Hartford Lions... a team always stuck in the much larger shadow of New England's other team, the Boston Minutemen, (you may have heard of them). Much like the next team I'm planning to mention, the Lions were inspired into existence by a logo I saw elsewhere. Here's that logo, posted from my own photobucket:

Like the Hawks, the Lions have always been blessed with a nice wealth of... well, money, but, thanks to their much different set of business practices, they're generally regarded a little differently than the so-called 'Emperors of Baseball'. The Hawks are either loved or hated, period - some even like to call them "the best team money can buy". It's not that there's anything wrong with that method, it's just never been the Lions' way. The Lions have invested a lot in having one of the best farm systems around, for example. They've also put a lot of time and effort into building one of the coolest stadiums on the market, which is why folks generally don't mind that they called it 'Millionaire's Park'.

Owners of this team have made just about everything about them very fan-friendly, you kinda have to do that when you're living in the shadow of not just one giant, but two...

One thing they've never had a shortage of is popular players. Guys like Frankie "Twinkle Toes" Fitzell, Slick Willie McMillan, and star pitcher Billy "Baby Doll" Ballou have never had trouble relating to their public.

Fun point of fact: anytime the Championship Series comes down to the Hartford Lions and the Cincinnati Tigers, it's a cause for much celebration, and folks like to have a lot of fun with it.

It's called the 'Championship Series Safari', and it's always a golden time.

The other team is called the New York Rangers, and yeah... I know there's an NHL team by that name, so my creativity took a little something of a hit here, but once I saw a certain logo and had the name pop into my head for a team, it just felt so perfect to me that I couldn't let it go.

I did make a (weak) effort... I guess I figured, I already have the Minnesota North Stars, so what the hey, how's it going?

Here's the logo that brought this batch of Rangers to New York... Queens, to be precise...

Isn't that neat? I liked it anyways. Once again, I put it up in my own photobucket. Didn't want to hotlink or anything, (though I'm not 100% sure what that actually is).

Assuming I haven't accidentally hot-linked already, these particular Rangers play their games at War Memorial Stadium, (still do), and have something of a blue collar vibe working for them. A lot of hit-and-run, a lot of base-stealing, just a lot of hard-work, smash mouth baseball is what they bring to the table, and there is a natural rivalry that likes to rear its ugly head with the New York Hawks.

The Milwaukee Bisons were meant to be pretty temporary... I had always planned for them to be the Bisons for so many years, and then switch over to some other name further on up the road. But they messed around and became one of my favorites. Who knew?

I keep hoping for them to make it to the Championship Series, but it very rarely seems to happen.

They were inspired by the 1953 (?) movie The Kid From Left Field, which I like. I don't think the movie ever specified where its Bisons were based, but i thought Milwaukee seemed like a good idea for mine, so I ran with it.

The Bisons famously had this owner, Broderick "Broad Street" Moody, who was always coming up with all kinds of ideas to drum up interest and increase attendance - some brilliant, some wild and wacky. Those ideas had varying degrees of success, but would almost always make things interesting.

On to other things...

As a point of reference, here's a look at the Retro CBC in total:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
American Conference
- Division I

New York Hawks
D.C. Capitals
Minnesota North Stars
Philadelphia Athletics

- Division II

Milwaukee Bisons
Detroit Devils
Boston Minutemen
Cincinnati Tigers

National Conference
- Division I

New York Rangers
Brooklyn Kings
Pittsburgh RiverCats
Lexington Pioneers

- Division II

Chicago Bruins
St. Louis Steamers
Cleveland Foresters
Hartford Lions

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Outlaws and various other teams come along further on up the road.

The listings, by division are pretty much random. Lately, just to keep things fresh and interesting, I like the switch the teams around a little before each season. Everyone stays in the same conference, of course, but I like to look at the rankings. The best team, stats wise, goes into Division I for the next season. The second best team gets the first slot in Division II. And so on, and so forth. I drop this practice eventually, for narrative purposes, but I think it keeps things fresh and interesting in its era.

For more information on how the league generally runs, you could take a glance at this thread from way back:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...-baseball.html

I like the results I've gotten with the setting prodgers shared over there, so I usually just go ahead and run with those, except I use a 154 game schedule, where he says 155. 154 just felt more natural to me.

In other news...

There's a few team names in there I'm not 100% sold on just yet. I've been looking for a perfect name for my Philadelphia franchise for quite a while now. Historically in this universe, they've been known as the 'All-American BBC', the 'American BBC'. the 'Philadelphia Americans', and the Philadelphia Red Legs before settling on their current name. All that's in the past though. I considered calling them the 'Sportsmen', but I thought it might be too similar to the Boston Minutemen, and wanted a little more difference there. Plus, as my ballpark in Philadelphia is called 'Sportsman's Field', I thought it might be a little too on the nose. I've tentatively named them the Athletics because I like the name, and I like the idea of using them as a tribute to the original real world baseball club, and also because I very much love a certain logo and uniform set that's come out of this thread earlier on.

If anyone has a better name for them, I'm open to suggestions, but for now, I like Athletics.

As for the St. Louis Steamers... well, I just completely drew a blank on St. Louis, and couldn't seem to come up with anything I really liked a lot. I thought about calling them the 'St. Louis Blues', but I figured, I've borrowed enough from the NHL as it is, so I just moved on from that one. Saw a logo and (I think) uniforms too in here that I liked, and so I tentatively plugged the Steamers into that spot. It is a good, solid name after all, so I just ran with it.

Brooklyn, though, they started out as the Grey Stockings way back when, and eventually become the Grey Sox, and then the Silver Sox over the passage of time. Lately, I've been toying with the idea of re-dubbing them either the Kings or the Saints, as I like both, but I may just stick with Silver Sox. Not sure yet. For now, I'm liking Kings, but it hasn't stuck rock solid just yet.

I like the Cleveland Foresters a lot. They start out as the Browns, an obvious NFL reference I know, but I liked it, and they eventually, sometime in the future, move out west and end up as the Portland Timberjacks..

Shown here with the future Carolina Flyers....

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...na-flyers.html

Incidentally, all the names I use in these little write-ups come from OOTP itself usually. I like to take note of names the game generates that sound interesting, and then I might embellish them with a nickname or something.

That's about it for now, I think.

01-19-2013, 08:01 AM	#1046
PW MAX Major Leagues Join Date: May 2007 Location: Mockingbird Heights Posts: 301	It's me again, Margaret. A warning, up front. This one didn't seem to flow quite as easily as some I've thrown up here before, I kinda had to force it through a little in parts. So, there's that. To make up for that, I've tried to make this post a little prettier than my usual posts. Seemed like a good idea at the time. My apologies in advance for what's likely to be yet another 47 ft. long post. With all that in mind, here goes nothing... First thing up tonight, I'll introduce a couple of my other teams I don't think I've mentioned yet. First up, is the Hartford Lions... a team always stuck in the much larger shadow of New England's other team, the Boston Minutemen, (you may have heard of them). Much like the next team I'm planning to mention, the Lions were inspired into existence by a logo I saw elsewhere. Here's that logo, posted from my own photobucket: Like the Hawks, the Lions have always been blessed with a nice wealth of... well, money, but, thanks to their much different set of business practices, they're generally regarded a little differently than the so-called 'Emperors of Baseball'. The Hawks are either loved or hated, period - some even like to call them "the best team money can buy". It's not that there's anything wrong with that method, it's just never been the Lions' way. The Lions have invested a lot in having one of the best farm systems around, for example. They've also put a lot of time and effort into building one of the coolest stadiums on the market, which is why folks generally don't mind that they called it 'Millionaire's Park'. Owners of this team have made just about everything about them very fan-friendly, you kinda have to do that when you're living in the shadow of not just one giant, but two... One thing they've never had a shortage of is popular players. Guys like Frankie "Twinkle Toes" Fitzell, Slick Willie McMillan, and star pitcher Billy "Baby Doll" Ballou have never had trouble relating to their public. Fun point of fact: anytime the Championship Series comes down to the Hartford Lions and the Cincinnati Tigers, it's a cause for much celebration, and folks like to have a lot of fun with it. It's called the 'Championship Series Safari', and it's always a golden time. The other team is called the New York Rangers, and yeah... I know there's an NHL team by that name, so my creativity took a little something of a hit here, but once I saw a certain logo and had the name pop into my head for a team, it just felt so perfect to me that I couldn't let it go. I did make a (weak) effort... I guess I figured, I already have the Minnesota North Stars, so what the hey, how's it going? Here's the logo that brought this batch of Rangers to New York... Queens, to be precise... Isn't that neat? I liked it anyways. Once again, I put it up in my own photobucket. Didn't want to hotlink or anything, (though I'm not 100% sure what that actually is). Assuming I haven't accidentally hot-linked already, these particular Rangers play their games at War Memorial Stadium, (still do), and have something of a blue collar vibe working for them. A lot of hit-and-run, a lot of base-stealing, just a lot of hard-work, smash mouth baseball is what they bring to the table, and there is a natural rivalry that likes to rear its ugly head with the New York Hawks. The Milwaukee Bisons were meant to be pretty temporary... I had always planned for them to be the Bisons for so many years, and then switch over to some other name further on up the road. But they messed around and became one of my favorites. Who knew? I keep hoping for them to make it to the Championship Series, but it very rarely seems to happen. They were inspired by the 1953 (?) movie The Kid From Left Field, which I like. I don't think the movie ever specified where its Bisons were based, but i thought Milwaukee seemed like a good idea for mine, so I ran with it. The Bisons famously had this owner, Broderick "Broad Street" Moody, who was always coming up with all kinds of ideas to drum up interest and increase attendance - some brilliant, some wild and wacky. Those ideas had varying degrees of success, but would almost always make things interesting. On to other things... As a point of reference, here's a look at the Retro CBC in total: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American Conference - Division I New York Hawks D.C. Capitals Minnesota North Stars Philadelphia Athletics - Division II Milwaukee Bisons Detroit Devils Boston Minutemen Cincinnati Tigers National Conference - Division I New York Rangers Brooklyn Kings Pittsburgh RiverCats Lexington Pioneers - Division II Chicago Bruins St. Louis Steamers Cleveland Foresters Hartford Lions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Outlaws and various other teams come along further on up the road. The listings, by division are pretty much random. Lately, just to keep things fresh and interesting, I like the switch the teams around a little before each season. Everyone stays in the same conference, of course, but I like to look at the rankings. The best team, stats wise, goes into Division I for the next season. The second best team gets the first slot in Division II. And so on, and so forth. I drop this practice eventually, for narrative purposes, but I think it keeps things fresh and interesting in its era. For more information on how the league generally runs, you could take a glance at this thread from way back: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...-baseball.html I like the results I've gotten with the setting prodgers shared over there, so I usually just go ahead and run with those, except I use a 154 game schedule, where he says 155. 154 just felt more natural to me. In other news... There's a few team names in there I'm not 100% sold on just yet. I've been looking for a perfect name for my Philadelphia franchise for quite a while now. Historically in this universe, they've been known as the 'All-American BBC', the 'American BBC'. the 'Philadelphia Americans', and the Philadelphia Red Legs before settling on their current name. All that's in the past though. I considered calling them the 'Sportsmen', but I thought it might be too similar to the Boston Minutemen, and wanted a little more difference there. Plus, as my ballpark in Philadelphia is called 'Sportsman's Field', I thought it might be a little too on the nose. I've tentatively named them the Athletics because I like the name, and I like the idea of using them as a tribute to the original real world baseball club, and also because I very much love a certain logo and uniform set that's come out of this thread earlier on. If anyone has a better name for them, I'm open to suggestions, but for now, I like Athletics. As for the St. Louis Steamers... well, I just completely drew a blank on St. Louis, and couldn't seem to come up with anything I really liked a lot. I thought about calling them the 'St. Louis Blues', but I figured, I've borrowed enough from the NHL as it is, so I just moved on from that one. Saw a logo and (I think) uniforms too in here that I liked, and so I tentatively plugged the Steamers into that spot. It is a good, solid name after all, so I just ran with it. Brooklyn, though, they started out as the Grey Stockings way back when, and eventually become the Grey Sox, and then the Silver Sox over the passage of time. Lately, I've been toying with the idea of re-dubbing them either the Kings or the Saints, as I like both, but I may just stick with Silver Sox. Not sure yet. For now, I'm liking Kings, but it hasn't stuck rock solid just yet. I like the Cleveland Foresters a lot. They start out as the Browns, an obvious NFL reference I know, but I liked it, and they eventually, sometime in the future, move out west and end up as the Portland Timberjacks.. Shown here with the future Carolina Flyers.... http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...na-flyers.html Incidentally, all the names I use in these little write-ups come from OOTP itself usually. I like to take note of names the game generates that sound interesting, and then I might embellish them with a nickname or something. That's about it for now, I think. __________________ My beloved, Scooby Doo-looking German Shepherd, Rocky Thanksgiving Day, 1998 - October 28, 2011 Last edited by PW MAX; 01-19-2013 at 08:48 AM.