[firstbigweekend]

With the increased realism of OOTP and a web site of my own finally to tinker with, I decided it was time to try a historical league. Deciding to go back to the beginning of sorts, my league will start with the 1901 season and continued into the current day and beyond.

I will begin as the general manager of the Cleveland franchise, attempting to turn the team into a powerhouse as fairly and quickly as possible (no cheating of the computer-managed teams, I promise). Under another name, I will write a monthly press release about the team that will also include notes about the rest of the league (such as awards and big trades). I will also write other releases (such as a preseason/free-agency note) as needed. The releases will be posted here, and the link to the league homepage can be found in my sig.

For this league, I'm using the Ankit database as well as the Ankit stadiums and Tiger Fan's face packs. For the stadiums, I put each 1901 team in its correct park, or at least as close to it as possible. I'm also using the official Baseball Maelstrom logos, which are set to whatever team ends up being correct (i.e. the 1901 Baltimore team has the Yankees logo).

I will be expanding and moving teams in a historically correct manner, and each new team will receive the proper logo and stadium (or, again, as close as possible). Expansion teams will be put at the top of the amateur draft, but there will be no filling of their minor league rosters (unless I find a quick and easy way of doing it). This is to make life on an expansion team more difficult, which I believe it should be (especially since they'll be getting MLB-ready players in each draft.

Other settings for the league will include:

• All financials (salaries, 40-man roster, Rule 5 Draft, etc.) will be on.
• Injuries will be off for the first few years, though I will be filling the minors with fictional players at first.
• The amateur draft will be at the beginning of the season to allow players to enter in their real rookie years.
• A players value will be 40%/30%/20%/10% (Ratings/current year/previous year/two years ago).
• Trade AI will be set to "Neutral," and both trading difficulty and frequency will be set to "Normal."
• All league records and the records of my team will begin with the 1901 season. Rookie records must be by a player with no previous MLB experience, though.
• Era settings will follow the correct years, but the DH will be used in both leagues (for the sake of being even). Rotation sizes may be tweaked a bit as well.
• Seasons will be 162 games long, just as they are currently.
• Individual awards will have a generic name for the first 30 years of the league, after which time they will be named after the best appropriate player (i.e. "Most Outstanding Rookie" will become "Joe Schmo Award" after the 1930 season, with Joe Schmo being the best rookie between 1901 and 1930).
• There will be no salary cap to begin with and the money cap will be set at $20 million, but both may be changed in an attempt to make the game more even.

As you can see, this isn't set up to be historically accurate, but more of an alternate universe where Babe Ruth may end up the career leader in homers or he may suffer a career-ending injury in the 1916 season and never make another leader board. Speaking of Ruth, I plan on letting him enter the league however the database includes him, and then importing "George Ruth" as a hitter in 1918 or 1919.

Any comments or suggestions from you all, now or in the future, are certainly appreciated.