[Tiger Fan]

13- From the OPTIONS tab make sure the historical year is set to 1901, and the following choices are enabled:
automatically adjust league strategy when advancing to next season
import adjusted financial settings after each year
Automatically adjust league totals modifiers after each season for accuracy
Automatically import historical player-creation modifiers

The last one I just check in case somehow fictional players sneak into my league. For some reason I did find a couple each year seemed to show up.

From the other side of this screen you can set your playoff settings how you want them and also your schedule and spring training options. I tend to leave all mine on default except I name the league playoff sereis as the Western Series or something similar.(IMAGE 12)

14- From the PLAYERS tab be sure to change the settings for free agents to zero or you will get a number of fictional free agents appearing every year. (IMAGE 13)

15- from the STATS & AI settings you should not have to do anything. It should already be set with 1901 modifiers.

16 - Now it's time to add our real major league players and teams to the game. Go to GLOBAL SETTINGS and click add New League to the Game. From the League creation wizard chose CREATE HISTORICAL LEAGUE.

17- As you see in image 14 I am selecting to add the 1901 major league and import complete history up to 1901 which will give me the history for players like Cy Young who also played prior to 1901. Very important is make sure Import Real Minor Leagues (1915+) is checked. This is where the extra players to fill up your Western League roster will come from.

18- Click on next step and let the game load the major league and minor league database and import players. It will now bring you to step 3 out of 5 on the Historical League creation wizard. I usually leave everything as it defaults but it's your game so you decide if you want player development to progress differently. I also leave Step 4 at it's default for the scouting accuracy and player ratings scale but you can change things if you like. Click Finish to let the game complete the process of adding the 1901 major leagues to your universe.

19- You should now have the major leagues as well as your WBL. Don't do anything yet. Before you start I would suggest going to the WBL and Reports and Info and VIEW ALL WBL players. Sometimes, but not always the game seems to refill the WBL with fictional players. If that happens you can very quickly check to make sure no real free agents have been signed.

Easiest way to do this is select view batting stats 1, set the scope to All Levels, set the split to career. Odds are there will be a number of players with stats. These are real players so do not delete them. Choose FILTER and specify the condition to be Batting PA is below 1 (see IMAGE 15) AGAIN make sure the scope is set to all levels and the split to career before setting the filter. Now you will see a list of players who have never played a game anywhere. You might lose a rare real player but by selecting all and mass deleting them you will have rid your game of fictional players. Another alternative would be to one by one go through all of the players and anyone who did not have any real life stats would be fictional so you can delete them manually.


You are ready to start your game. By opening day your WBL teams will have around 20 players each on their roster (IMAGE 16) and the free agent pool should be down to 20 or 30 players instead of the 300 or so when you don't have any minor leagues in the game. Also, the fictional league will not have a color barrier so Negro League stars of the early days will have a place to play instead of sitting around in the free agent pool until the Negro National League joins.

If you wish to add more teams to your Western League you can do so by expanding as the free agent pool grows each year. I do a spot check every January 1st to see if there are fictional players in my league as for some reason a couple seem to show up every so often. If you are not as anal about it as I am you might not even care.

I start folding my fictional teams in the 1920's as the real Pacific Coast League, Negro National League and others begin to join the game.