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Big Six · 07-17-2017, 10:59 PM

Once upon a time, I wrote a story about a fictional league in Pennsylvania called the Keystone League. I think I started it in 2005, and it had a nice run of a dozen seasons or so, over the course of about three years in real time. It remains my favorite fictional OOTP league of all time.

This afternoon, I was sitting with my laptop, reading some of the dynasty stories here, when my 13-year-old son came in the room. He sat down beside me and we read a couple of threads together.

"Have you ever thought about writing another story here?" he asked me. "You haven't done that in a while."

He's right. It has been a while. He was probably a year or so old when the original Keystone League began. One of his sisters was born while I was writing about it, and she's about to start the fifth grade. The other wasn't alive yet, and she's seven now.

"Would you read it if I did?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I would," he replied. "Definitely. So would [sister] and [sister]."

I smiled. "Better yet, would you help me set it up?"

"Let's do it," he said.

So, tonight the 2017 edition of the Keystone League was born.

It's an eight-team league, beginning in 1901. We're using league settings from 1985. I like the way the game was played then.

Keystone League clubs have affiliates in two lower leagues, the Commonwealth League and the Quaker State League.

I'm making use of uniforms and logos created by knuckler and TXRanger. Their work is well-known on this forum, and with good reason. The immersion value they create is off the scale.

Some of the team names were inspired by cephasjames' logo collection, and I used justafan's nifty program to create logos and ballcaps for these teams.

To give the league a more realistic feel, I installed Questdog's 1900-1950 name set. So, instead of Dylans and Tylers and Brandons, our league has a few fellows named Cy, Oscar, and Rube.

I also found a way around the annoyance that had made posting on the forum here less fun than it used to be. A certain image hosting site I used to use was driving me crazy. I'm not messing with it anymore; now, when I want to use an image, I'll simply attach it at the bottom of my post. I have a feeling that simple change will bring back a lot of the fun of writing for the forum here.

So, with no further ado, let's get started. I hope it will be a fun ride for all of us. And, this time, I have three young fans to keep me motivated!

P.S. Their mom thinks this is all pretty cool. She was a big Pat O'Farrell fan, back in the day.

07-17-2017, 10:59 PM	#1
Big Six Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Virginia Posts: 3,145	The Keystone League Returns Once upon a time, I wrote a story about a fictional league in Pennsylvania called the Keystone League. I think I started it in 2005, and it had a nice run of a dozen seasons or so, over the course of about three years in real time. It remains my favorite fictional OOTP league of all time. This afternoon, I was sitting with my laptop, reading some of the dynasty stories here, when my 13-year-old son came in the room. He sat down beside me and we read a couple of threads together. "Have you ever thought about writing another story here?" he asked me. "You haven't done that in a while." He's right. It has been a while. He was probably a year or so old when the original Keystone League began. One of his sisters was born while I was writing about it, and she's about to start the fifth grade. The other wasn't alive yet, and she's seven now. "Would you read it if I did?" I asked him. "Yeah, I would," he replied. "Definitely. So would [sister] and [sister]." I smiled. "Better yet, would you help me set it up?" "Let's do it," he said. So, tonight the 2017 edition of the Keystone League was born. It's an eight-team league, beginning in 1901. We're using league settings from 1985. I like the way the game was played then. Keystone League clubs have affiliates in two lower leagues, the Commonwealth League and the Quaker State League. I'm making use of uniforms and logos created by knuckler and TXRanger. Their work is well-known on this forum, and with good reason. The immersion value they create is off the scale. Some of the team names were inspired by cephasjames' logo collection, and I used justafan's nifty program to create logos and ballcaps for these teams. To give the league a more realistic feel, I installed Questdog's 1900-1950 name set. So, instead of Dylans and Tylers and Brandons, our league has a few fellows named Cy, Oscar, and Rube. I also found a way around the annoyance that had made posting on the forum here less fun than it used to be. A certain image hosting site I used to use was driving me crazy. I'm not messing with it anymore; now, when I want to use an image, I'll simply attach it at the bottom of my post. I have a feeling that simple change will bring back a lot of the fun of writing for the forum here. So, with no further ado, let's get started. I hope it will be a fun ride for all of us. And, this time, I have three young fans to keep me motivated! P.S. Their mom thinks this is all pretty cool. She was a big Pat O'Farrell fan, back in the day. Attached Images __________________ My dynasties: The Base Ball Life of Patrick O'Farrell: 2014 inductee, OOTP Dynasty Hall of Fame Kenilworth: A Town and its Team: fun with a fictional league Last edited by Big Six; 07-17-2017 at 11:07 PM.