OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Is anyone planning on the structure of their new (fictional) baseball world yet?

RMc · 01-06-2006, 03:42 PM

I've wanted to know what baseball would look like if it had followed the British soccer model, i.e. freakin' teams everywhere.

The Football League in the UK contains 20 teams in its top league (the FA Premier League); 24 in the next-highest league; 24 each in Level 3, 4 and 5; 44 in Level 6; 66 in Level 7; 120 in Level 8; 200 or so in Level 9...and so on, until there are thousands and thousands of soccer teams in a country of 60 million people. All British citizens are required by law to play for at least one soccer team; many play for several at once. (OK, not really, but...)

The USA is four, nearly five times larger than the UK, so I devised what I call The Baseball League:

The top four levels would be all-professional leagues:
*LEVEL 1: MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. 96 teams, 8 leagues of 12 teams each.
*LEVEL 2: AAA, 96 teams.
*LEVEL 3: AA, 96 teams.
*LEVEL 4: A, 96 teams.

The next two levels would be semi-pro:
*LEVEL 5: B, 96 teams.
*LEVEL 6: C, 192 teams (two for each MLB affiliate).

The next three levels would be amateur:
*LEVEL 7: R-league, 288 teams (three for each MLB affiliate).
*LEVEL 8: X-league, 384 teams (four).
*LEVEL 9: Y-league, 768 teams (eight).

A player's career trajectory might go something like this: he starts out as an Y (Youth)-Leaguer at the age of 12, then moves up to the X-League at 16 or so. After high school graduation, he gets shipped to A-ball, then makes his way up the chain to the majors. When his skills start to decline, he might play AAA again or become a playing scout or manager in the B or C leagues, trying to find an undiscovered phenom among the guys who weren't picked to play pro ball. If he's not interested in scouting or coaching, he can play in the R (Recreation) Leagues until well into his forties or even longer.

Not only, but I've actually created this whole mess: assigning teams to over 2,000 North American cities using a list of current pro teams and a census database. Basically, I assigned them by size of city:

MLB: 180,000 people or more
AAA: 107,000 - 218,000
AA: 81,000 - 131,000
A: 67,000 - 99,000

B and C: 45,000 - 81,000

R, X and Y: 20,000 - 50,000

There's some overlap because all cities that currently have real professional teams were included in the system ("the baseball pyramid") as high as they reasonably could expect to be. (I even used a hideously complicated formula to figure it all out...don't ask.)

Good grief.

01-06-2006, 03:42 PM	#15
RMc All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,418	I've wanted to know what baseball would look like if it had followed the British soccer model, i.e. freakin' teams everywhere. The Football League in the UK contains 20 teams in its top league (the FA Premier League); 24 in the next-highest league; 24 each in Level 3, 4 and 5; 44 in Level 6; 66 in Level 7; 120 in Level 8; 200 or so in Level 9...and so on, until there are thousands and thousands of soccer teams in a country of 60 million people. All British citizens are required by law to play for at least one soccer team; many play for several at once. (OK, not really, but...) The USA is four, nearly five times larger than the UK, so I devised what I call The Baseball League: The top four levels would be all-professional leagues: LEVEL 1: MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. 96 teams, 8 leagues of 12 teams each. LEVEL 2: AAA, 96 teams. LEVEL 3: AA, 96 teams. LEVEL 4: A, 96 teams. The next two levels would be semi-pro: LEVEL 5: B, 96 teams. LEVEL 6: C, 192 teams (two for each MLB affiliate). The next three levels would be amateur: LEVEL 7: R-league, 288 teams (three for each MLB affiliate). LEVEL 8: X-league, 384 teams (four). *LEVEL 9: Y-league, 768 teams (eight). A player's career trajectory might go something like this: he starts out as an Y (Youth)-Leaguer at the age of 12, then moves up to the X-League at 16 or so. After high school graduation, he gets shipped to A-ball, then makes his way up the chain to the majors. When his skills start to decline, he might play AAA again or become a playing scout or manager in the B or C leagues, trying to find an undiscovered phenom among the guys who weren't picked to play pro ball. If he's not interested in scouting or coaching, he can play in the R (Recreation) Leagues until well into his forties or even longer. Not only, but I've actually created this whole mess: assigning teams to over 2,000 North American cities using a list of current pro teams and a census database. Basically, I assigned them by size of city: MLB: 180,000 people or more AAA: 107,000 - 218,000 AA: 81,000 - 131,000 A: 67,000 - 99,000 B and C: 45,000 - 81,000 R, X and Y: 20,000 - 50,000 There's some overlap because all cities that currently have real professional teams were included in the system ("the baseball pyramid") as high as they reasonably could expect to be. (I even used a hideously complicated formula to figure it all out...don't ask.) Good grief.