[Tiger Fan]

As many of you know I have done a number of historical replays with OOTP and thoroughly enjoyed watching my new history of baseball unfold each time. In the past few months I have also enjoyed a solo football league I started with Total Pro Football from .400software. I have also been spending a little time replaying some hockey seasons using the online software at WhatIf Sports. All of that got me thinking.

I am a huge fan of hockey, baseball and football and in particular the history of each of these great sports. OOTP does a fantastic job of solving my historical baseball craving. Replaying baseball careers from the greats of the past allows me to learn so much more about the game and the men who played it. Anyone who has followed my HOB replays knows the name Cliff Markle as well as they would Christy Mathewson. Playing OOTP has not only given me many, many hours of enjoyment but it has also greatly enriched my knowledge of baseball history. I would love to see hockey and football games that would allow me to do the exact same thing. In fact, my dream game would allow me to do a historical replay of all the major North American sports at one time. Of course, that is just a dream right now.......so I have decided to do the next best thing. Using whatever games are at my disposal for each of the major sports I am going to recreate my own sporting history and document it here.

I know this is a baseball game dynasty thread but I am hoping there will be interest in what I am going to begin doing.

My starting date will be July of 1946 and my posts will be the weekly issues of a newspaper dedicated entirely to sports, and baseball in particular. Thus TSN - Tiger's Sporting News is born.

Like the real Sporting News I will be the 'Bible of Baseball' with OOTP's baseball sim being my number one focus. However, I will also spend a fair chunk of the "paper" following developments in NFL, NCAA and CFL football, NHL hockey and the new pro basketball league called the BAA.. I have also found games that will allow me to incorporate golf and the Indy 500 into my articles.

Every article will be rooted in real life fact but the results of all events will be ones simmed out by me on various games.

Here are the games I will be using:

Major League Baseball of course using my existing HOB league with OOTP

NFL Using Total Pro Football from 400 software. I had to make some big concessions here but I simply enjoy the game too much to leave it out. I am adding the hall of famers from the era but the replay will have 32 teams rather than the real-life totals. It will also be dominated by fictional players but a number of real life players will be thrown in. I want the baseball and football games to act as the flagship sports and they will get the most press.

NHL :I thought about a board game called Quick Play Hockey but I think Whatif Sports will suit my needs better. Hockey is my favourite sport and will receive plenty of attention in the articles.

NBA or more precisely the BAA as it was called in it's first season which was 1946-47. I will be using an excel based game I found that was created by Jim Barnes. It provides decently accurate team scores with a formula to include individual points as well. Pro basketball was in its infancy at this time and will receive just a small amount of press from me.

CFL and NCAA Football Using an excel program called Quick Play College football I have found rating charts that will allow me to play out the real CFL and NCAA skeds but only team scores no individual stats will be generated. I will augment my reporting on this by including coverage on the college pool from TPF to bring more life and personality to the college game.

I am taking a lot of creative license in all aspects of my football replay since their is nothing akin to the Lahman database that can be used with a football game...at least nothing I have discovered.

GOLF -Another quick play game, Quick Play Golf will generate results for the 4 majors. I am in the processing of finishing my own rating chart for players of this era. I will only report on the majors and when I have the information they will take place at the proper venues and on the proper dates. I cannot vouch for the complete accuracy but I think it will be a fair representation for a minor sport that will receive occassional press in TSN.

INDY 500 Will make its debut in May 1947 with results from a little game called Replay Auto Racing by Thomas Mink. It has ratings for every Indy 500 so it will be the basis of my auto racing coverage.

If I can find a game that will simulate it I would like to add college basketball and horse racing's triple crown to the slate but so far no luck. Since I have virtually no interest in horse racing it would have to be a freeware game or something very inexpensive. As for the basketball, I considered Tournament Dreams but I am really looking for something less detailed but more historically accurate for the era.


A new issue will be released once a week and I will advance my play in all sports that much each week. The reports will obviously go very slow but my goal is to cature the flavour and the feeling of the sports world in a far simplier time rather than just quick sim a whole lot of seasons. I see the main focus for the summer issues being baseball with football coming to prominence after the World Series. Once January rolls around my focus will be on the NHL until the new baseball season takes over. All of the other sports are really just running in the background will brief tidbits being added as filler to kind of round out the totatlity of my universe.

I choose 1946 because it is the beginning of my favourite era for baseball, hockey is just entering its peak with the so-called Original 6, football is a few years away from great popularity but it is growing quick and pro basketball has its beginning. Also it is a much simplier time, well before free agency (although I will have to contend with that in TPF) and so many great stars were just reaching their peak or beginning their careers - Musial, Williams, Dimaggio, Feller, Howe, Richard, Otto Graham etc.

Hopefully I do not drift too far from this board's purpose and you find something of interest in this sports flashback.

PREMIER ISSUE COMING SOON
Here is a sneak peak of what will be in the July 3, 1946 premier issue:

Our cover story tries to answer a question that will surely open a can of worms. 3 men in the history of baseball have hit more than 600 homers. But which one is the greatest slugger of all time?

Washington and Pittsburgh lead the way as we close in on baseball's allstar break. A recap on the first 3 months of the season and a look at what's ahead.

From the world of football we look at what kind of an impact the graduation of 4 first round NFL draft picks, including number 1 overall Lou Groza, will have on the Ohio State Buckeyes chances this season. Also a quick peak at who the NFL regards as the top college seniors? You can bet RB Glen Davis of Army and Northwestern signal caller Otto Graham will make the list.

We also get you prepared for this year's second major, the British Open which returns to St. Andrews after a 6 year layoff due to the War. Also news of a new pro basketball league being formed and a rookie right winger the Detroit Red Wings have high hopes for.


The first issue will be released in the next couple of days. Feedback, as always is welcome.