[jasg224]

The year is 1884, and a protest amongst English baseball clubs just broke out. More than 30 clubs all over England want professionalism to be legalised within the game they had been playing for over 20 years now. For two years in a row, shamateur teams had won the national cup, and the opinions were split. On one side, the traditional high class "public school" clubs want to keep it a purely amateur "Gentleman's Game". On the other side, Factory and other "working class" club owners saw potential to make the game much bigger than it currently is and, in order to do so, they figure they must pay the best players to focus only on baseball. After 18 months and many clubs threatening to withdraw and form their own professional association, the Baseball Association finally gives in and in 1885, professional clubs are legally allowed to compete in the national cup.


At this point, clubs arranged their own games amongst each other, as well as participating in the national cup and other regional tournaments. It was then that William McGregor came up with the idea of a formal league with a set schedule. Following a meeting with the owners of the 12 clubs invited, the Baseball League was born and set to begin in April of 1888.


The 12 founder clubs were: Stoke Potters, Everton Toffees (Liverpool), Burnley Clarets, Notts County Magpies (Nottingham), West Bromwich Throstles, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa Lions (Birmingham), Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, Wolverhampton Wolves, Accrington Club and Derby Rams.


The new league format will see the clubs play two three-game series against each other, once away and once at home, for a total of 66 games. Tied games are allowed after 9 innings. The club with the best record at the end of the season will be crowned Champions.


And so, for the first time in history, a professional baseball league is set to begin play. Do these pioneers know how far the game will go?

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If you couldn't tell by now, this save will mirror the history of world football (soccer), but through OOTP Baseball. All competitions, clubs being founded and folded, etc. will mirror real life. Players, relegations, owners, coaches and all results will be entirely fictional. I will decide which leagues and competitions to add (or not) based on importance for the game and quality, in order to avoid bloating my OOTP database. Ultimately though, I hope I can end up with a pretty large universe with a rich history.


In the next update, we'll go over the results of the 1888 British Home Championship, played by all (at the time) 4 countries in the British Isles. Then we'll go over the 1888 Baseball League season. I still haven't decided on what format to give the updates, so bear with me as I experiment until I find a format I like for this.


Thanks for reading!