I have been playing in online leagues since OOTP6.5 in the IOSBL as the Springfield Isotopes, and after the IOSBL disbanded, Over The Mound (OTM), as the Omaha Evil. Both were completely fictional universes and while I thoroughly enjoyed running both franchises and I finally got my championship (2038 Omaha Evil), I wanted to get into historical simulations. Enter Joe Cronin (legendsport) and his Sim Sport Leagues, which were in multiple sports (football, pro basketball, college basketball, hockey). I have been a devotee to Joe’s leagues ever since.
But, as much as I have enjoyed the historical leagues and prefer them, I could not pass up the opportunity to participate in this fictional league. The backstory of the 50-year “pre-play era” is so rich, you could spend 24 hours a day reading up on the league and not see everything there is to see.
One day, our fearless Commish proposed the idea of a stats-only fictional universe fitted with teams and logos that reached back into the 1800s. The idea was always to have a significant amount of pre-play to build a history and have us mere mortals pick up the action in the early 1900s. Our Commish started posting logos of teams we have never seen before. I signed on immediately to run the Philadelphia Keystones franchise. It was more than just liking the logo.
For historical baseball leagues, there are certain franchises on my bucket list: the iconic franchises that do not play in the Bronx, basically. But, for fictional universes, I can put my rivalry hat on the shelf and go with cities. Although I would probably never sign up to run the Phillies, the Philadelphia area is where I have a lot of personal ties. So, for this child of New York/New Jersey, you can keep your Gothams and Stars, I’m a Keystone, through and through!
Also, this is my first participation in a no-ratings, stats-only league, so I will be flying blind just as all the other GMs are. No biases, no ratings. Do we trust our scouts or do we trust the numbers?
In other Sim Sport Leagues, I am running the Mets in the current Dugout Wizards Baseball league (currently in 1978), and I have run the 1980s Mets and the 1930s Cardinals in past incarnations of DW. I am also running the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Modern Oldies Baseball league (currently in 1934). I also ran the 19-aught Cubs in the DW-predecessor, The Baseball Chronicle, and the 1993-94 Seattle Mariners in a modern league, A Whole New Ballgame. Come to think of it, “also-ran” would explain most of the outcomes of my teams.
In other sports, there were the mid-’60s Los Angeles Chargers (The Football Chronicle) and the 1966-74 Boston Patriots (The Super Era) in football, the 1982-93 New Jersey Nets and St. John’s in the Hardwood Heroes Basketball League, and the mid-’40s Boston Bruins (AUHL), and 1972-73 New York Islanders (Behind The Bench) in hockey.
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Now, on to this Dynasty Report.
I have tried a Dynasty Report, but I have wanted to do it right or not at all and I never had the time to really give to simulate as deliberately, report as detailed or weave a story as compelling as I wanted. However, this league is compelling, the GMs are competitive, and I will add the Philadelphia Keystones perspective with those already writing Dynasty Reports on this league. Our fearless
Commish (legendsport) is writing about some of the history in the league. He does not have a dog in the fight, as he is Commissioner only and not running a franchise. A few GMs in our league in
Brooklyn (Tiger Fan),
Montreal (mjj55409), and the
New York Gothams (tward13) are also contributing with reports of their own, so I am not going into this alone.
This report will start with some background for the Philadelphia Keystones franchise and a short recap of the “pre-play era” (1876-1925) to bring us to the current time in the game. Once we get to 1926, I plan to prepare an update per month of in-season time and cover major off-season news items as they happen. Of course, if there is a reason to detour into an aside or historical anecdote during the season, I plan to do that as well.