[PFellah]

In the summer of 1981, Major League Baseball suffered through a mid-season players' strike, until a federal judge issued a back-to-work order* to finish the season, with negotiations to resume during the winter. The 1981 season later played to completion in a split-season format, both parties said the right things about getting back to the table and hammering out a deal, but then, in the following off-season, the wheels came off.

[*=Ed: needed a weak storytelling rationale to have complete 1981 stats in the books instead of partial.]

First, the negotiations broke down between MLB and the players' union. Perhaps that was to be expected given the history of acrimony between the parties. But what came next was definitely not expected. A group of businessmen announced they would start a new baseball league for the 1982 season -- the New Federal League. Further, they were able to offer a controversial take on player contracts -- ultimately upheld in court -- that allowed current MLB players to play in the new league on a contingent basis -- i.e. if MLB resumed play, the new league would be out of luck. Essentially, the new league was betting everything on one roll of the dice -- could they get up and running and capture the American baseball fan's attention before MLB got their feet back under them?

The new league announced an initial roster of 20 teams, focusing on markets with no existing team (Washington, Denver, Miami), or major league cities with publicly-owned stadiums. This left some holes in their reach in cities with privately owned facilities, as Los Angeles and New York were only represented by a single team, and cities such as Chicago, St. Louis, and Boston were not represented at all. Anonymous sources within the league dropped some tantalizing hints about long-term expansion and stadium-building plans to recapture these lost markets if the league got off the ground.

An expansion draft was scheduled for early in 1982, with games set to begin in April.

....

This will be my first crack at an OOTP dynasty (I've written some Madden football dynasties on other boards, but I'm new to OOTP). I've been impressed with the storytelling aspects of the game and some of the great franchise writers going strong on these boards, so I wanted to jump in and try my hand at it. I'm sure I'm going to screw some things up as I go, but "perfect is the enemy of good" -- I could spend months tweaking settings, or I could start playing and live with the carnage. If it totally goes off the rails, I'll just take what worked, trim out what didn't and start 2.0.

I went with the 1981 players' strike as a jump-off point because it was the formative era for me as a baseball fan. I certainly went to games as a kid even before that, but the early 80s was when I started getting deeper into the game, and baseball-related gaming, such as Statis-Pro Baseball and the first computer sims like MicroLeague. That said, I also wanted a fictional component as well, so I decided to do a redraft league instead of a totally fictional entity. That said, a few of the team names (Oklahoma Pioneers, Texas Mustangs, just to pick two) come from a fictional league a friend and I played in MicroLeague Baseball back in... 5th or 6th grade, maybe?

I mostly accepted the default rules. (EDIT - 5/4) I originally thought about using the DH in both leagues to let older veterans hang on for a few years, but decided against it after thinking it over. So no DH after all. I think I tweaked the settings to generate a few more international free agents, but other than that, not much to report on that front.

I do intend to do some expansion, but I do want to build some story around it rather than just throwing teams in there willy-nilly. I'll pick a team to control (leaning toward Pittsburgh, since it's my hometown) and let the dynasty center around that team, but will cover league events from time to time as well.

One thing I will try to avoid is the omniscience of knowing who players are in advance. If, say, my scouts tell me Greg Maddux is a one-star prospect, I'll try not to take him just because he's Greg Maddux, but if his supporting numbers make him the best player available, I'll grab him. I'll do what I can to make authentic decisions in that regard. I do have system-driven aging turned on, so prospects may take different paths in this version of the world.

Any comments, suggestions, and tips on making this a better read are always welcome. Note that text in red is either for emphasis, or for breaking the fourth wall during a write-up and talking about under-the-hood game mechanics during an otherwise "in-character" post.