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Hey all...

I've been a long-time on-and-off player of OOTP who exclusively plays fictional leagues as a GM. I usually start leagues right after WWII, but after toying around with some earlier eras and enjoying learning about baseball in its earlier days, I've decided to build a fictional world starting a bit earlier.

Despite being from and still living on the East Coast, I always tend to start my leagues in California, with the intent that it evolves into a major league that spreads east. I've never let a league run long enough to get there, but maybe this time.

I'm also trying to capture some level of the chaotic aspects of early baseball leagues that lasted but a few seasons (sometimes only one) and where teams, and even the leagues themselves could fold mid-season. To make it a little easier, I'm not going all the way back to the mid-19th century, and am limited the number of leagues somewhat.

I've planned the league progression from my start year, 1890, through the mid-1950s. In some cases, I'll force certain teams to do poorly to support the relocation or fold narrative I have for them. Who the best teams will be among the rest will be up to the OOTP engine.

I have six leagues planned before the dominate major league becomes the only league to survive the Great Depression. This league will create its own minor league system after World War II.

Here's the basic setup/preview:

In 1890, four baseball clubs in the San Francisco area band together to form the California League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (or, simply, California League). Two of the clubs fail to complete the season; one is replaced, the other is not. The league finishes with three clubs, one of which does not return for the 1891 season.

Two additional clubs join to bring the league back to four teams for the 1891 season, but one club folds mid-season. It is not replaced, and the remaining three clubs finish the season. The league folds.

That same year, another league starts up. The Pacific League is formed with four teams as well, but suffers similar challenges as the California League, with only two teams surviving beyond the season's end.

The three teams from the now-defunct California League join the Pacific League in 1892, lest it fold as well, and all five clubs manage to play the entire season successfully.

And so it goes on...the Pacific Northwest League, also a four-team league, stars up in 1893, but plays only one season. The California-based Pacific League adds a sixth team in 1893, bumps along, adding and subtracting teams, through its 1896 season, when it stops play. Another California-based league, the Southern California League, starts play in 1894 with four teams in three cities, expands to six teams in 1895, but folds at year end.

Meanwhile, the 2nd incarnation of the Pacific Northwest League starts in 1896, again with four-teams. With the failure of the California League after the 1896 season, it is left as the only league on the West Coast.
The league adds two additional teams for 1897, including one in Canada, and thus renames itself the Pacific International League. No teams, however, are added from California, leaving Californians without a professional baseball league for the 1897 season.

In 1898, that changes, as the California Coastal League forms with eight teams all in cities along the Pacific Coast (or San Francisco Bay), hence the "Coastal" part of the league's name.

These two leagues operate side-by-side, with various adjustments to their memberships, for two seasons, until a new California League joins them in 1900. This league, like most before it, starts with four teams, two of them in the same market as the Costal League. The aggressive, upstart California League adds two additional teams in 1901 and manages to survive in competition with the Coastal League. Meanwhile, the Pacific International League, well outside the drama of its southern siblings, continues to chug along.

Unfortunately for Californians, the upstart California League was a disruptor -- not stable enough to surviving on its own, but just strong enough to ruin it for everyone. When one of the four Coastal League teams defects to the California League in 1902, it causes the Coastal League to fold, but bad management, improper financial support, and shady operating practices cause the California League to not survive beyond the 1902 season either. And once again, the Pacific International League (which renamed itself the Pacific League after the failure of the sole Canadian team) stands alone as the only professional league that operates in 1903.

The following year, another attempt is made to create a California League. This time, the league is better structured and funded. As no other league operates in California, the four teams of this third version of the league are not just able to survive their first season, but create longevity for the league over the coming years.

Stability finally arrives for west coast professional baseball. The California and Pacific Leagues both thrive for the next 25 years, with occasional adjustments to their membership, and some interruption due to World War I. But both survive into the 1920s.

The California League is the stronger and more profitable of the two leagues given its larger market, and opts to invade the Pacific League territory by placing two teams in the largest two cities in the Pacific Northwest. Although the Pacific League protests, ultimately it has no power to stop it, and the two leagues lock in battle for revenue in these markets.

The impact is not good for the Pacific League. Despite being the older of the league, the superior organization and finances of the California League enable its northwestern teams to do well, and the attendance and profits of the same-city Pacific League teams begin to wane. One team folds after the 1923 season, forcing the Pacific League to create a traveling team to keep the league schedule balanced in 1924. It doesn't work, and in 1925 the league operates with only five teams.

But the other team competing directly with the California League doesn't survive either, and like its sibling, goes out of business after then 1925 season. Relegated to all but a minor league, the Pacific League resigns to its fate and continues to operate as a four-team league for the rest of the decade.

And then...economic collapse. The crash of the stock market in 1929 ripples through the leagues, and threatens both of their existences. By the end of the 1932 season, neither league can survive intact. Neither of the two northwestern teams of the California League can afford the regular travel to California, and in an effort to survive, merge after the season. The Pacific League, still reeling from the loss of its largest market fares worse. The west coast's longest running league ceases operations before the 1933 season.

Now the only league standing, the California League tries to solve having an uneven number of teams by granting a third franchise in Los Angeles. But this oversaturates the market and team only plays a single season. Further, with the cost pressures on the remaining northwestern team still too great to bear, it folds as well, reducing the California League to six teams, all in California. Had the California League not invaded the northwest, perhaps professional baseball would have continued there, but alas, it did not. The northwesterners would have to be content with following baseball from afar for the next 13 years.

The end of World War II brought hope and prosperity to America, and to west coast baseball. Still the only league in operation, the California League expanded in 1946, re-entering the largest two markets in the Pacific Northwest, and changing its name to to the West Coast League.

This was not the only significant event for the league that year. To ensure the continuous quality of play, the league created its own minor league and awarded each of its now eight teams a development team in a smaller market city. The model proved successful, and quality of play, fan interest, and profits increase significantly.

Six years later, a second level was added to the development model, expanding the "minor leagues" to 16 teams total, 8 at the "high" level (officially, Class A) and 8 and the "low" level (officially, Class B).

Team movement and other changes continues to occur, primarily within the development leagues, and the league remained stable. The league expands off the continent when a team relocates to Honolulu in 1954.

In 1956, the league expands significantly by adding four teams (along with eight development teams), starting the year with twelve organizations. Two teams are promoted from their development league status to join the parent league and two additional teams, including one as far east as Dallas, are added. Given the league's expansion beyond the west coast (and Hawaii), the league again changes its name to the Continental Baseball League. Oddly, the fact that the league has a team in Hawaii seems not to factor into the naming consideration, given that Hawaii is neither on the "West Coast" nor on the "Continent" at all.

And that's where my planning stops. Once (or if) I get this league closer to the 50s, I'll begin to think about its future from here. I think 67 years of baseball is enough to plan in advance!!

I'd love to hear any comments you have, and any thoughts or suggestions on how to get OOTP to handle this set-up, particularly in the early days of the league. Obviously, I'll have to do a lot of customization -- schedules, financials, database files, etc.

Tell me what you think!!