[jotro]

Just in case anyone was interested, I've simmed from the 1965 season through the 1972 season all in one shot. I had the league evolution options turned on. I will allow league commissioner Colm Shanahan to explain what happened:

St. John's, New Hibernia
9/28/1972

The New Hibernian Baseball League is my baby. I mean, I have children, but this league has become my heart and soul. When I first approached a few of my business colleagues in 1961 with the idea of starting a professional baseball league, nobody thought it could succeed. When I stated that the players would represent the best talent the Kingdom had to offer, they laughed. Everyone said we'd need to import American stars in order to garner any interest. But after several meetings, and several more promises and guarantees, I managed to secure some initial investments and managed to acquire royal backing from King Cormac's personal estate. When we brought national hero Finn Garrity on board, everything just started to fall into place.

Over the next 3 years, we worked tirelessly to get the league running. We'd need to hire lawyers, file permits, incorporate, obtain insurance, build ballparks that could seat crowds upwards of 30,000 people, and most importantly, scout, sign, and pay players. We had a target date of St. Patrick's Day 1965 for the new league's kickoff. Although we hit some major bumps along the way, we were able to meet this deadline with stunning success.

Midway through our first season, I came down with a serious illness. This illness would require me to take a leave of absence from league affairs at the conclusion of the inaugural season in order to receive treatment. Although I am now fully recovered, it took 6 long years to for me to regain the strength I'd need to return to the game that I love.

While I was ill, the league was left to the Board of Directors. Collectively, they would serve as 'acting commissioner by commitee'. Little to my knowledge, they planned to make full use of this new power. The league by-laws allowed for expansion, provided the prospective market fit the required size and had the financial backing to carry a team through any initial duldrums. In 1968, the Board awarded two expansion franchises -the Grand Falls-Windsor Firestorm, and St. John's Joyriders - the capital's second team. The braintrust also began to allow foreign players into the fold, which violates the original concept of the league, not to mention the 'anti-mercenary' league policy we'd established back in 1961.

The board initially hesitated to cede my directorship back to me when I was able to resume my duties this past August. Everyone was making money, and they had plans in the works to expand the league into Canada and the US State of Maine. The Crown is majority partner in the league, and so I sought an audience with King Cormac, the one person who could reacquire my job for me. I pleaded my case about the direction of my precious league, and thankfully, His Grace sided with me, and now I am back in the driver's seat. Unfortunately, most of the board had to be let go.

My first action would be to deal with the expansion issue. Any plans for American or Canadian expansion were to cease, although I would allow the Joyriders and Firestorm to remain active, but they would have to change their names. The Firestorm are now the Orangemen, a nod to the large Ulster Scots population in the GF/W region. The Joyriders were rechristened the Arsenal, in honor of the old fort which once guarded the city on the very grounds the ballfield was constructed on. The fort's one remaining defensive wall makes up part of the right field bleachers of the ballpark.

I then reverted league policy back to its original form, meaning all foreign players would now find their contracts void. Although they should never have been allowed to play in our league, their acheivements will be honored in our league's history books as long as we exist.