I see people having a difficult time trying to play a historical league from the 19th century with the real teams and rosters so I thought I would write a guide and maybe it will help someone. Not everything may work for you but I have been able to us this system to sim a 19th century season a lot faster. I will post some images to help as well.
Keep in mind that this is for people who want to replay history close to the way it was in the real leagues. If you are looking for a more what if and random type league then I think the game does a good job of getting you setup.
Anyway this is the way I do it. Not saying it’s the best way but if you have any ideas that could improve it let me know and ill try them out.
Section I. Preparation You will need to download some files from my dropbox. The logos are optional. The logos were not made by me nor the schedules but I like them. Here is the link.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iio7h1ey3...Xdw5djCKa?dl=0
Step 1. Backup your stats and schedules folders from ootp.
Step 2. Download the teams csv file and schedules folder from my dropbox.
Step 3. Replace the teams csv in the stats folder with the downloaded teams csv file.
The teams csv file is important. Without it this won’t work.
Step4. Download the 1871-2016 csv file. I had to break it into two parts but this will help you keep track of the manual transactions you will need to make.
Creation of league:
You can either download the 1871starts league named MLB that I have in my dropbox and skip to section II or follow the steps to create the league. But in either case you will still need to do the previously mentioned 3 steps.
Creating a 19th century league.
Step 1 create a 1871 historical league.
Step 3. Uncheck automatic import of financial settings. Make sure automatically expand league and Hold expansion draft are checked.
The league will not actually have an expansion draft but if you don’t have one scheduled I have found the game will allow expansion teams to sign players before you even have a chance to take control of the teams. I will explain how to get around the expansion draft later.
Step 2 Uncheck automatic import of financial settings. Make sure automatically expand league and Hold expansion draft are checked.
The league will not actually have an expansion draft but if you don’t have one scheduled I have found the game will allow expansion teams to sign players before you even have a chance to take control of the teams. I will explain how to get around the expansion draft later.
Step 3 In League settings under League & Teams settings make sure you do not change the league abbreviations. You can change the NL name to National Association if you want but do not change the abbreviation from NL to NA. Leave it at NL. If you change it to something different it may not work.
Step 4 Make sure you select commish mode and can not be fired are checked for your manager role.
Step 5 Run the Inaugural draft. You can either draft all the players to the teams or just run one round and sign the rest from free agents. I tried to delete teams and free agents and then import historical teams but the game kept crashing when I did it that way
Step 6 Rules
Set active roster size to No Limit.
Uncheck 10/5 rule
Uncheck Enable Amateur draft.
Turn off financials.
Step 7 OPTIONS.
Uncheck hold all star game.
You can have an all star game when the American Association starts in 1882 but I usually just wait till 1903 or 1933.
Next disable playoffs or set up a custom league playoff.
Step 8 HISTORICAL TAB
Check retire players according to history.
Check players miss seasons according to history.
I believe all other settings are optional. They may affect the historical accuracy but not the actual rosters and real expansion.
Step 9 This is CRITICAL. I repeat CRITICAL.
If you don’t perform this step the game will fold the teams and import all teams as expansion teams when going to offseason.
Go into each team’s settings and change both the Historical Franchise ID and the Historical Team ID to match the id for that team in the downloaded teams csv file for 1871 or whichever year you are starting in. You must hit enter after editing the ids or it may not save the change.
You need to do this before starting your first season.
You will also need to do this a few times in future seasons such as when Pittsburgh’s abbreviation changed from PT1 to PIT. If you don’t then Pittsburgh will be an expansion team when the new season starts.
In the following picture you will need to change the circled PT1 to PIT before the 1887 import or like I said Pittsburgh will be an expansion team.
Step 10 Use SET all teams to not allow AI roster changes. This may help prevent players from being signed or released from teams. As an extra precaution I setup historical managers for all teams. If you choose to setup historical managers then under Team Control Settings set lineups, pitching staff and active roster moves, change the setting to computer AI. Critical Point. Do not allow the AI control of transactions, trades.
Step 11. Import the 1871 As played schedule from the schedules folder.
Do not import the mlb 1871 schedule or the actual schedule. It may have more games than what a team actually played. Makes a difference if a team only played 13 games but the actual schedule has them playing 50. I always use as played schedules. Yes some teams may not have much of a chance but that’s the way it was. It should improve as you complete more seasons and teams play more games.
If you feel its unfair that a team played one more game you can always add or delete a game. Though I would recommend waiting till the end of the season and only if you need to. Because keep in mind that the more games you add the more players may play more games than they did in rea life. Even with exact schedules I sometimes see it with a pitcher starting more games due to an injury or due to the rotation for that team.
Section II. Starting the sim
Ok so let’s start the sim.
Before starting I Have to advise you to backup your first year at preseason. You want to make a plan of when to make your backups. I back up every season at preseason, regular season end and year end on dec 31st.
Before we go any farther I must explain the 1871-2016 transaction spreadsheet I made. Keep in mind it is a work in progress. I kept it pretty simple so for the most part you will be able to figure it out.
There are a few other things I added such as opening day which is helpful when importing schedules. I also made notes of when I found the schedule was not matching up. But that was only a few games involving a few teams. I tried to use real dates as much as possible but at times I had to choose a date. Like i said its a work in progress so if you have some ideas to improve it let me hear them. If it can help others then that is what i'm trying to do.
You should be able to switch to the games auto expansion around 1901 or 1903. You may need to switch the downloaded teams file with the game’s original one. After that the 1871-2016 transaction spreadsheet is only useful if you use historical owners and managers.
Step 1 Sim to the first date on the transaction spreadsheet.
Perform the transaction. You can ignore owners and managers if you don’t use them but you should always release players before signing free agents. Also make sure you perform the transactions before playing out the current day’s scheduled games.
Step 2 Releasing players. You can go to each teams roster but I find it easier to do it from the player’s list under TRANSACTIONS when you have a lot of players to release.
Step 3 Signing players
Use your commish manager and act as each team’s manager to sign each team’s players.
Using the transaction spreadsheet you can look at the free agent signings for each team
and then sign them from the free agent or players list tab.
Don’t forget to change the act as team manager of the team you are currently signing players to when you change to another team. You don’t want to go through your season and find you signed players to the wrong teams.
Section III. OFF SEASON
End of regular season.
I make a backup after the last games of the season are played or you can do it at the end of the playoffs but just do it before you start the offseason and import new teams. Better to go back one day if you made a mistake than the whole season.
After season.
If it is an expansion year do not sim any further after proceeding to off season. IF you do the game will sign players for the expansion teams before you can prevent it. You want to first prevent the computer from having control of the team. This is why I use historical managers.
Expansion Year.
Release players. The players should have transaction date listed as that year as OFF SEASON Start.
Easiest way is to go to players list and sort by teams. You can just go down the spreadsheet
You don’t have to do it that way but I just find its less players a team will have to submit for protection in the expansion draft. But in any case the computer should not draft any players in the expansion draft.
If you see any players in the expansion draft pool when you are ready to start the draft then those are players you either forgot to release or protect.
You do not need to worry about rookie players as they should go to the correct teams automatically.
All you need to worry about is signing free agents.
Sim to dec 31st and save league.
Proceed to Jan 1st of next year.
Then sign free agents.
Sim to preseason and import schedules
Check rosters.
I make my preseason backup and then play the next season.
That's all there is to it. May take awhile the first few seasons but after awhile it should go faster. Still you wont be able to zip through seasons like modern leagues but hopefully it will help speed it up a little and help others who are not sure how to start.
I will add anything else i find or can think of here. If anyone else thinks of anything i can add it here as well. If anybody wants to edit this guide to make it better feel free to do so.
I'm not an expert at that sort of thing but just wanna to give back a little for all the help i've received over the years.
Additional notes.
1. You must use a custom playoff if you want a hall of fame vote when only the NL exists. On the other hand i have found that there are very few players who will make it by vote before 1901.
In a test sim only 6 made it. I did not make any changes to the hof settings and maybe electing players to a hall of fame before 1900 is too soon.
2. Make sure to take control of team after a manager is fired even if the team has no more games. In 1891 King Kelly of the Cincinnati Kelly's Killers was released as a player so i fired him as a manager.
Next thing i know Cincinnati signed free agents that did not play for them. So i will replay 1891 and use not allow ai to make roster changes.
Of course you could just leave Kelly as a manager but i don't like doing that as eventually i would wind up with a manager's team going against a team he is playing for.
3. You can switch to automatic historical transactions in 1901. Not sure if its available at the start of 1901 but it is available in the preseason.
So i signed all players up to preseason 1901 and then let the game take over.
4. I don't think you have to use an expansion draft as long as you keep the computer from controlling the expansion teams before you sim past the 1st off season day.
It seems that you will need to select "All teams to not allow AI roster changes before proceeding to off season even if you have a human manager controlling the team's roster.
So its either that or the expansion draft way.
Well it looks like having an expansion draft is the only way to prevent unwanted roster signings after proceeding to off season.