As you are likely aware if you are a regular follower of This Week in Figment Baseball and the Figment Sporting Universe we are an online league that sims daily Monday-thru-Friday but there was no update yesterday. That is with very good reason.
Our commissioner took a 1-day pause to allow extra time for him to complete some exiting new additions to the world of Figment Sports. There have been for quite some time multiple sports taking place in our world (pro and college football, college basketball and boxing) but up to this point those have all been solo projects interacting with the baseball world and not true online leagues. The eventual goal is to have each of the four major North American team sports represented in a Figment online league.
Football remains a challenge due to the lack of a suitable sim engine to realistically represent the style of play in this era and allow online GM play so it will likely remain a 'background' league for at least another decade. However, hockey is arriving this week and pro basketball will not be far behind.
The
North American Hockey Confederation or NAHC has existed as a background sport in the Figment Universe since 1910 and early next week as we sit in November of 1946 the NAHC will become an online league using FHM9.
It will feature 7 franchises: Boston Bees, Brooklyn Eagles, Chicago Packers, Detroit Motors, Montreal Valiants, New York Shamrocks and Toronto Dukes. Each will be run by a General Manager from our baseball league.
In addition, plans are for a professional basketball league to follow closely behind. It will use an oldie-but-goodie sim engine call FastBreak Pro Basketball 3 which is available from Grey Dog Software. The league is debuting as a major pro loop for the 1946-47 and will also be an online GM league either in its initial season or shortly thereafter.
The basketball loop will be known as the Federal Basketball League and draw players from the background college league that has been running since 1909. It will be primarily a regional league best for the most part in the midwest to start but if it has success, it will be certain to expand into New York and other eastern cities like Boston. For the 1946-47 season the teams are: Baltimore Barons, Buffalo Brawlers, Chicago Panthers, Cincinnati Cyclones, Cleveland Crushers, Detroit Mustangs, Philadelphia Phantoms and Toronto Titans.
ARE THERE OPENINGS AND HOW DO I JOIN
The 7 team FHM9 hockey league is full at its start but expansion to at least 8 teams will likely not be too far down the road so feel free to either send a private message to myself or our commissioner
Legendsport if you want on the waiting list.
Team management has not yet been finalized for the basketball clubs but there may be some openings at the start so let the commissioner know if you might be interested in joining.
And of course, if you are interested in the baseball league, we do have an opening or two in the rebel Great Western League which is a great way to dip your feet in the stats-only waters of the Figment baseball universe.
As some background for those who might have missed it in our newspaper that is updated in this thread every day we have a sim, the GWL is a rebel league formed a year ago after owners of independent teams in Dallas and Houston were unsuccessful in convincing FABL to expand. They teamed up with several owners from what was the AAA level Great Western League and declared themselves a major league over the objections of the eastern clubs.
Due to the influx of players returning from the war the timing was perfect for the new loop to land sufficient talent and it enjoyed a successful debut season. One day it is likely at least some of the GWL teams will end up joining the FABL group as expansion clubs but that story has yet to be written and depends in a large amount on how the western teams fare over the coming years. GWL GMs also get first consideration when an opening occurs with one of the teams in FABL or the other sports.
So it is a great opportunity to get in on what is quite possibly the only multi-sport fictional online league that will eventually include all 4 major team sports with GMs running teams in as few as just one sport to as many as all four.
Anyway, that is why there was no update yesterday. And with the new sports coming in the days ahead TWIFB will likely have even more detailed coverage in each issue.