[jaysdailydose]

Alright, now that we have some backstory laid down in place for you, I'd like to step "out of character" for a moment and explain this dynasty report for you. I'd also like to point out that I'm not trying to imply anything about the great game of baseball, the MLB, the MLBPA and any players past or present. I just wanted to have a plausible backstory as to why we're going with a new fictional league.

United States Baseball

· League starts in 2015.

· No player on any MLB or MiLB roster, nor owners, coaches, personnel, or scouts will ever be accepted into the USB. This will be roleplayed as "refusal of MLBPA to accept advanced testing, including biological passports" to play in the new league.

· I will NOT be running MLB side-by-side. I'll break it into story form, but you will NEVER see MLB players in this wholly fictional universe.

· 48 ML teams, one for every state in the continental United States. They will be split into two leagues, the Eastern States League, and the Western States League.

· Alaska and Hawaii will not be given ML franchises, but rather will each have a 10-team "college" feeder setup as two "Advanced Baseball Academies" for those that are looking to pursue baseball as a career and don't wish to attend college. These will be known as the Alaskan Baseball Academy (ABA) and Hawaiian Baseball Academy (HBA) respectively. These two "college" feeders have their player creation modifiers set slightly higher than the NCAA feeders, so there will presumably be a few extra high-level prospects coming from the academies.

· This league has four levels of affiliated minor leagues, with each USB franchise having their four teams all hail from cities within the state of the major league franchise.

· 100 team NCAA feeder league, complete with logos, ballcaps and uniforms for all squads. An actual reason to follow a feeder league, as we will also be crowning a College World Series champ every season.

· 40 team High School feeder.

· No DH *EVER*. 2011 settings (but I put HR totals to .900) and custom financials based on Orcin's in the most part. Very High Detail set on ALL leagues including the NCAA and HS... There will be nearly 8 years of data on some players when they hit the Amateur Draft. Trading is set to Average frequency, Hard Difficulty, Favor Prospects. Ratings by AI evaluation at 30-40-20-10. Aging/Dev set at .250/1.000/.375/.900.

ALL of these leagues have FULL graphics including logos, caps, and uniforms, except for the High School feeder. ALL NCAA teams have their logos, and uniforms and caps done as well. (Thanks to eriqjaffe for the NCAA work, and to Silvam14, Illeracula, and ANYONE involved in the "States Project" and the "Cities" Project. All of these folks have been invaluable in the creation of this league, and I can't thank any of you enough for what you have done for this community to make this game more customizable and enjoyable for everyone involved.

· I will be taking over the Michigan franchise, known as the Michigan Motors. The only "real" human that I am associating with this league will be Mark Cuban, who I will edit in as the owner of the Texas Lone Stars.

I've long wanted to do a league of this size, but never had the time to customize everything to my liking in previous years. With all the great graphics available, and my medical situation -- I was able to finally construct a fictional league that I wanted to put my name on and write about. I couldn't be more excited.

Last, but not least, I have some members here at OOTP that I wish to thank before embarking on this journey. Orcin and Gehrig38, you two have long been the reasons behind me wanting to do a fictional universe, and I hope that I can make this report something you would be proud to call your own if it were. I'd also like to thank NYY#23 and VanillaGorilla. Your projects both showed me there are so many ways to play this game, and I wouldn't be to this point without the both of you as well.

The next post will be the introduction of the Motors GM -- but if any of you have questions about the league, please post them. I am not "reserving" any posts in this thread, and can't wait to bring you the USB!