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sporr · 07-16-2003, 10:39 AM

As posted by AL Commish Shannon Dugan (IamIowa) on the Maelstrom message boards:

First of all, Shane and I have know each other since 1993 when we met each other working at Wal-Mart. That's where we found we had the same interest in baseball.

Shane was always an avid sports game player. He was always looking for the perfect game. The High Heat series seemed to be just that, but he kept looking for something better. In doing this, he would buy nearly every baseball game that he would come across. He read about this new baseball simulation that was supposed to be much more accurate than High Heat since it was text. In addition, it sported an actual career mode where players aged, developed, and retired. He ordered the game which happened to be the very 1st OOTP. It came on CD (which he still has) and filled the baseball career simulation void. The amount of stats that it tracked satisfied his stat-nerd side.

We decided to compete with one another in our own little league and needed a game to use. He proposed using OOTP, but the fact that it had no graphics totally turned me off of it and we used High Heat instead. Meanwhile, in order to satisfy Shanes desire to compete in a great career baseball league with 25-30 other owners, he decided to join an online league. He only turned to this after some failed play-by-email role-playing games didn't pan out. Luckily, the original XBL was just getting started. He submitted his "application" to be part of the league and chose his team (the White Sox). Little did he know at the time that he was involved in what would become (at the time) one of the most well-known OOTP online leagues ever. He also realized how cutting-edge the XBL was in terms of offering extra features. It was there that some Maelstrom ideas originated -- Owner chosen All-Stars, Futures Games, live events, killer web-site, etc.

At this point we had played about 2 seasons in High Heat. I couldn't understand how anyone could enjoy playing a text based game and finally gave up and started following his White sox team in the XBL to find out. To my suprise I kept going back and checking his team out, following their stats and everything. I was finally convinced and put my name on the waiting list for the XBL which ended up folding as I was to be the new Pirate owner. This left a void that needed filled for both of us. Why be in a league when we could run one of our own. Instead of just playing with the two of us, Shane suggested how cool it would be if we ran a league like we did with High Heat, but involved other people to run the other teams. That's when our Strat-O-Matic discussions took off and we decided to follow through with the idea.

A couple years ago Shane introduced me to a game that he played with his dad and uncles when he was younger, it was Strat-O-Matic Baseball. We played a couple seasons of that with his dad, cousin, and her boyfriend. Strat then came out with their Hall-of-Fame cards. We decided to draft a couple of teams each and play with current players. We allowed ourselves to draft 4 Hall-of-Famers for each team. I had hitters like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Foxx and Joe Morgan and pitchers Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, and Tom Seaver. He had Ted Williams, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Reggie Jackson, and others that I forget now.

This is where things came together. The XBL was over and our Strat league with HOF's was going. We sat there playing one night discussing OOTP and possible leagues to play in and what not. That's when I thought how cool it would be if there was an Ootp league that would allow Hall-of-Famers like our strat league. Shane only knew of the historical leagues but none that really combined historical and present day. Kinda jokingly I suggested that we make our own league, but since neither one of us knew anything about programming, making a website was out of the question. Thankfully, Shane had a job that allowed him 8 hours of free time each day. hehe. He researched possibilities for programs to use to develop a website. Once he was convinced he could make a site we talked and decided "What the hell" lets do it.

Shane looked at various leagues to get ideas for ours, focusing mostly on the XBL which he was most familiar with. He had been a long-time follower of the OOTP messageboard, so that was the logical first place to post for recruits.

As for the name BASEBALL MAELSTROM. We had a few other names that we didn't really like and we wanted something memorable. Thinking of how the historical players would come into the league and a little help from our D&D background I came up with the word maelstrom. I imagined the players walking through a cloudy timewarp to todays time. We then quickly finalized the name.

Lust for the game of baseball drove us to make this league. What drives us now is lust for the game and wanting to have The best league on the internet. No, we arent egomaniacs but we really want to be.

07-16-2003, 10:39 AM	#1
sporr Global Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Muscatine, IA Posts: 8,277	How Baseball Maelstrom came to be... As posted by AL Commish Shannon Dugan (IamIowa) on the Maelstrom message boards: First of all, Shane and I have know each other since 1993 when we met each other working at Wal-Mart. That's where we found we had the same interest in baseball. Shane was always an avid sports game player. He was always looking for the perfect game. The High Heat series seemed to be just that, but he kept looking for something better. In doing this, he would buy nearly every baseball game that he would come across. He read about this new baseball simulation that was supposed to be much more accurate than High Heat since it was text. In addition, it sported an actual career mode where players aged, developed, and retired. He ordered the game which happened to be the very 1st OOTP. It came on CD (which he still has) and filled the baseball career simulation void. The amount of stats that it tracked satisfied his stat-nerd side. We decided to compete with one another in our own little league and needed a game to use. He proposed using OOTP, but the fact that it had no graphics totally turned me off of it and we used High Heat instead. Meanwhile, in order to satisfy Shanes desire to compete in a great career baseball league with 25-30 other owners, he decided to join an online league. He only turned to this after some failed play-by-email role-playing games didn't pan out. Luckily, the original XBL was just getting started. He submitted his "application" to be part of the league and chose his team (the White Sox). Little did he know at the time that he was involved in what would become (at the time) one of the most well-known OOTP online leagues ever. He also realized how cutting-edge the XBL was in terms of offering extra features. It was there that some Maelstrom ideas originated -- Owner chosen All-Stars, Futures Games, live events, killer web-site, etc. At this point we had played about 2 seasons in High Heat. I couldn't understand how anyone could enjoy playing a text based game and finally gave up and started following his White sox team in the XBL to find out. To my suprise I kept going back and checking his team out, following their stats and everything. I was finally convinced and put my name on the waiting list for the XBL which ended up folding as I was to be the new Pirate owner. This left a void that needed filled for both of us. Why be in a league when we could run one of our own. Instead of just playing with the two of us, Shane suggested how cool it would be if we ran a league like we did with High Heat, but involved other people to run the other teams. That's when our Strat-O-Matic discussions took off and we decided to follow through with the idea. A couple years ago Shane introduced me to a game that he played with his dad and uncles when he was younger, it was Strat-O-Matic Baseball. We played a couple seasons of that with his dad, cousin, and her boyfriend. Strat then came out with their Hall-of-Fame cards. We decided to draft a couple of teams each and play with current players. We allowed ourselves to draft 4 Hall-of-Famers for each team. I had hitters like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Foxx and Joe Morgan and pitchers Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, and Tom Seaver. He had Ted Williams, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Reggie Jackson, and others that I forget now. This is where things came together. The XBL was over and our Strat league with HOF's was going. We sat there playing one night discussing OOTP and possible leagues to play in and what not. That's when I thought how cool it would be if there was an Ootp league that would allow Hall-of-Famers like our strat league. Shane only knew of the historical leagues but none that really combined historical and present day. Kinda jokingly I suggested that we make our own league, but since neither one of us knew anything about programming, making a website was out of the question. Thankfully, Shane had a job that allowed him 8 hours of free time each day. hehe. He researched possibilities for programs to use to develop a website. Once he was convinced he could make a site we talked and decided "What the hell" lets do it. Shane looked at various leagues to get ideas for ours, focusing mostly on the XBL which he was most familiar with. He had been a long-time follower of the OOTP messageboard, so that was the logical first place to post for recruits. As for the name BASEBALL MAELSTROM. We had a few other names that we didn't really like and we wanted something memorable. Thinking of how the historical players would come into the league and a little help from our D&D background I came up with the word maelstrom. I imagined the players walking through a cloudy timewarp to todays time. We then quickly finalized the name. Lust for the game of baseball drove us to make this league. What drives us now is lust for the game and wanting to have The best league on the internet. No, we arent egomaniacs but we really want to be.