My OOTP Story

Bobfather · 11-16-2025, 02:11 PM

I don't know if I should be writing this. I don't think anyone will care, nor should they. But just in case I am wrong, here goes.
First off, I started playing OOTP in 2019. I was extremely depressed at the time, and was even hospitalized a couple of times. I am a Red Sox fan, and they had just won the World Series. So taking over the team was a no-brainer. I should mention that I was switching over from SOM. So I did my best to replicate my SOM roster. Acquiring players like Trout, Tatis, prime Kershaw, and others. There were very few Red Sox players. I was trying to build a super team. Then I discovered I could edit players to be as good as I want.I would also force trades for not just players but the complete first round of the draft. Because of the aforementioned depression, every loss was devastating to me. I played about 40 seasons with this team. Winning every World Series. A few seasons ago, I started to try making the league more competitive, but nothing worked. I would only take half measures. Mostly due to head canon. How can this perennial .350 hitter start hitting .250? I rely on head canon a lot. So I decided to start a send league. But I was still falling back on some bad habits. One of my favorites being creating fictional players, all of them rated legends, then signing the best of them. Creating another team unrecognizable from real life.
I tried again with a Live Start from this November. I have only made a couple of changes. I set rosters to 27/45 because that is what I am used to. Due to rumours this off-season, I upped the Red Sox (my team) budget. I have put together a good roster, but by gutting my prospect pool for the most part. I have not fudged any transactions or edited any player, if even to have them add a position. I have had to claim players off waivers, sign free agents (I am in June Sign then release players, then sign them again. I've never had those types of microtransactions in the past. My one weakness, if you want to call it that, is trading mostly, but also any transactions. I can't figure out what I like better, playing ga.
mes or making transactions. But now every transaction is on the up and up. My team is 36-19. It would have taken 4 to 5 seasons to get to 19 losses with the super team. But I am having more fun than I have had in years playing OOTP. I will be making some tweaks after the season, no more inter-league games. I want more games in my division and league.
Lose the extra-inning rules. And change the dates of the trading deadline and draft. I like having them during the All-Star break. After the All-Star teams are announced, I cancel the game, let the whole league have 4 days off, and not worry about injuries. If you have read this far, what is wrong with you? But seriously, thank you, Bob

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot · 11-16-2025, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobfather

I don't know if I should be writing this. I don't think anyone will care, nor should they. But just in case I am wrong, here goes.
First off, I started playing OOTP in 2019. I was extremely depressed at the time, and was even hospitalized a couple of times. I am a Red Sox fan, and they had just won the World Series. So taking over the team was a no-brainer. I should mention that I was switching over from SOM. So I did my best to replicate my SOM roster. Acquiring players like Trout, Tatis, prime Kershaw, and others. There were very few Red Sox players. I was trying to build a super team. Then I discovered I could edit players to be as good as I want.I would also force trades for not just players but the complete first round of the draft. Because of the aforementioned depression, every loss was devastating to me. I played about 40 seasons with this team. Winning every World Series. A few seasons ago, I started to try making the league more competitive, but nothing worked. I would only take half measures. Mostly due to head canon. How can this perennial .350 hitter start hitting .250? I rely on head canon a lot. So I decided to start a send league. But I was still falling back on some bad habits. One of my favorites being creating fictional players, all of them rated legends, then signing the best of them. Creating another team unrecognizable from real life.
I tried again with a Live Start from this November. I have only made a couple of changes. I set rosters to 27/45 because that is what I am used to. Due to rumours this off-season, I upped the Red Sox (my team) budget. I have put together a good roster, but by gutting my prospect pool for the most part. I have not fudged any transactions or edited any player, if even to have them add a position. I have had to claim players off waivers, sign free agents (I am in June Sign then release players, then sign them again. I've never had those types of microtransactions in the past. My one weakness, if you want to call it that, is trading mostly, but also any transactions. I can't figure out what I like better, playing ga.
mes or making transactions. But now every transaction is on the up and up. My team is 36-19. It would have taken 4 to 5 seasons to get to 19 losses with the super team. But I am having more fun than I have had in years playing OOTP. I will be making some tweaks after the season, no more inter-league games. I want more games in my division and league.
Lose the extra-inning rules. And change the dates of the trading deadline and draft. I like having them during the All-Star break. After the All-Star teams are announced, I cancel the game, let the whole league have 4 days off, and not worry about injuries. If you have read this far, what is wrong with you? But seriously, thank you, Bob

Hey Bobfather, thanks for sharing - this resonates for me. I had a bad exeprience with anxiety and then depression as a result for a period of time.
I found OOTP to be the only thing that I could do for entertainment that didn't just stress me out. It was the thing i turned to for some structure and relief. I am very thankful I had OOTP to help anchor me.

Pelican · 11-21-2025, 10:53 AM

Thank you so much for sharing your story. Each of us arrived here on a different path. I found OOTP during the pandemic, when I was newly-retired and isolated. I had finally made the switch to Apple, and was looking for a baseball sim that would be compatible with my Mac Mini. [I had played the APBA computer game, and before that cards and dice, and before that SOM.]

Initially I was overwhelmed with the depth and complexity of the game. Somehow I stumbled upon these message boards, getting both support directly from the developers, and lots of advice and guidance from all of you on how to take things slowly. I was eager to explore the minor leagues and draft and historical seasons. But first, I had to understand the financial side - contracts, free agency, arbitration, budgets, attendance. I wasn't afraid to ask lots of questions. Once I realized I could save, backup, and then start over, I wasn't afraid to make mistakes.

I started with the familiar, taking my beloved Phillies and making (and unmaking) the deals they should (and should not) have made. I am by no means a Rob Thomson fan, so it was a treat to manage the team my way, my lineups, my rotation, and using the bullpen properly.

For contemporary sims, it was pure joy to be able to disable gimmicks like ghost runners and the silly three-batter minimum for RP. Like all of us, I evolved settings for ratings, development/aging, and finances that made sense to me, and have stuck with them, so my baseline parameters are familiar.

Since I enjoy the game play as much as the GM side of things, my sims roll out very slowly. Not pitch by pitch, but inning by inning. I just don't seem to be able to sim through a season, try as I might. I also am obsessed with Spring Training. Most years I get down to Florida for games IRL, and there is nothing quite like it for a baseball fan. I totally enjoy the challenge of figuring out a roster in March. And I love the option of expanded rosters (for me, 25 to 28 for the month of April).

On the one hand, I stay close to the original season players, no fictional, few if any adjustments through the Editor [basically by house rule, when I think the ratings are off], starting with IRL rosters. On the other hand, I play with annual recalc off and full development on, and high TCR, so results will diverge from IRL (which means my knowledge of subsequent season results will be less and less of an advantage). I move Tampa/St. Pete to Montreal, the Pirates to New Orleans, the Angels to Honolulu.

My favorite "rabbit hole" feature is expansion. OOTP really shines here. Adding two or four teams, setting up the expansion draft (with limited protection of players by established teams), really shakes things up. And there can be a "proof of concept" here, in that expansion teams with [1] sufficient budgets for free agents; [2] drafting and farm systems in advance of their first season; and [3] limits on protection of players by established teams can be competitive. Another "what if".

Directly contrary to Bobfather (and one wonders what this says about my psychology), I enjoy taking truly bad teams, and trying to make them better. For example, the 2025 Rockies. Another "proof of concept" exercise. I give poor teams with low budgets and miserly player payroll more money from a new owner. How much and how fast would Colorado improve, spending money like Atlanta or the Phillies (if not quite Mets or Dodgers level)? Spend on free agents, or invest in the farm system? It's a challenge, and there is only one way to go. Perhaps most fun have been the 1911 Browns and the 1899 Spiders. Different rules back then - and no free agents.

Finally, the best of all "proof of concept" exercises is eliminating the color bar before 1947. Yes, there will always be issue of "equivalency" for black players, how would they have performed in MLB, even though there were plenty of barnstorming games post-season with MLB players, in the 1920's and 1930's, with full stats for comparison. But integrated teams in those decades can be true powerhouses, and you get a glimpse of what we lost, tragic as that was, and is.

Oh, and recently I realized that I could go back to 1965, my very first season, as a kid, with cards and dice. Amazing how much I remembered about that year. Replaying the season, with the benefit of foresight (thinking of the dreadful Phillies moves in '65 and '66), and comparing to the results I can recall from sixty (gulp!) years back.

What this proves is the flexibility of OOTP. So many options. Play it your way!

11-16-2025, 02:11 PM	#1
Bobfather All Star Starter Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: Boston Ma. Posts: 1,708	My OOTP Story I don't know if I should be writing this. I don't think anyone will care, nor should they. But just in case I am wrong, here goes. First off, I started playing OOTP in 2019. I was extremely depressed at the time, and was even hospitalized a couple of times. I am a Red Sox fan, and they had just won the World Series. So taking over the team was a no-brainer. I should mention that I was switching over from SOM. So I did my best to replicate my SOM roster. Acquiring players like Trout, Tatis, prime Kershaw, and others. There were very few Red Sox players. I was trying to build a super team. Then I discovered I could edit players to be as good as I want.I would also force trades for not just players but the complete first round of the draft. Because of the aforementioned depression, every loss was devastating to me. I played about 40 seasons with this team. Winning every World Series. A few seasons ago, I started to try making the league more competitive, but nothing worked. I would only take half measures. Mostly due to head canon. How can this perennial .350 hitter start hitting .250? I rely on head canon a lot. So I decided to start a send league. But I was still falling back on some bad habits. One of my favorites being creating fictional players, all of them rated legends, then signing the best of them. Creating another team unrecognizable from real life. I tried again with a Live Start from this November. I have only made a couple of changes. I set rosters to 27/45 because that is what I am used to. Due to rumours this off-season, I upped the Red Sox (my team) budget. I have put together a good roster, but by gutting my prospect pool for the most part. I have not fudged any transactions or edited any player, if even to have them add a position. I have had to claim players off waivers, sign free agents (I am in June Sign then release players, then sign them again. I've never had those types of microtransactions in the past. My one weakness, if you want to call it that, is trading mostly, but also any transactions. I can't figure out what I like better, playing ga. mes or making transactions. But now every transaction is on the up and up. My team is 36-19. It would have taken 4 to 5 seasons to get to 19 losses with the super team. But I am having more fun than I have had in years playing OOTP. I will be making some tweaks after the season, no more inter-league games. I want more games in my division and league. Lose the extra-inning rules. And change the dates of the trading deadline and draft. I like having them during the All-Star break. After the All-Star teams are announced, I cancel the game, let the whole league have 4 days off, and not worry about injuries. If you have read this far, what is wrong with you? But seriously, thank you, Bob __________________ I play out every game—one pitch mode.

11-21-2025, 10:53 AM	#3
Pelican Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Wilmington, Delaware Posts: 3,043	Thank you so much for sharing your story. Each of us arrived here on a different path. I found OOTP during the pandemic, when I was newly-retired and isolated. I had finally made the switch to Apple, and was looking for a baseball sim that would be compatible with my Mac Mini. [I had played the APBA computer game, and before that cards and dice, and before that SOM.] Initially I was overwhelmed with the depth and complexity of the game. Somehow I stumbled upon these message boards, getting both support directly from the developers, and lots of advice and guidance from all of you on how to take things slowly. I was eager to explore the minor leagues and draft and historical seasons. But first, I had to understand the financial side - contracts, free agency, arbitration, budgets, attendance. I wasn't afraid to ask lots of questions. Once I realized I could save, backup, and then start over, I wasn't afraid to make mistakes. I started with the familiar, taking my beloved Phillies and making (and unmaking) the deals they should (and should not) have made. I am by no means a Rob Thomson fan, so it was a treat to manage the team my way, my lineups, my rotation, and using the bullpen properly. For contemporary sims, it was pure joy to be able to disable gimmicks like ghost runners and the silly three-batter minimum for RP. Like all of us, I evolved settings for ratings, development/aging, and finances that made sense to me, and have stuck with them, so my baseline parameters are familiar. Since I enjoy the game play as much as the GM side of things, my sims roll out very slowly. Not pitch by pitch, but inning by inning. I just don't seem to be able to sim through a season, try as I might. I also am obsessed with Spring Training. Most years I get down to Florida for games IRL, and there is nothing quite like it for a baseball fan. I totally enjoy the challenge of figuring out a roster in March. And I love the option of expanded rosters (for me, 25 to 28 for the month of April). On the one hand, I stay close to the original season players, no fictional, few if any adjustments through the Editor [basically by house rule, when I think the ratings are off], starting with IRL rosters. On the other hand, I play with annual recalc off and full development on, and high TCR, so results will diverge from IRL (which means my knowledge of subsequent season results will be less and less of an advantage). I move Tampa/St. Pete to Montreal, the Pirates to New Orleans, the Angels to Honolulu. My favorite "rabbit hole" feature is expansion. OOTP really shines here. Adding two or four teams, setting up the expansion draft (with limited protection of players by established teams), really shakes things up. And there can be a "proof of concept" here, in that expansion teams with [1] sufficient budgets for free agents; [2] drafting and farm systems in advance of their first season; and [3] limits on protection of players by established teams can be competitive. Another "what if". Directly contrary to Bobfather (and one wonders what this says about my psychology), I enjoy taking truly bad teams, and trying to make them better. For example, the 2025 Rockies. Another "proof of concept" exercise. I give poor teams with low budgets and miserly player payroll more money from a new owner. How much and how fast would Colorado improve, spending money like Atlanta or the Phillies (if not quite Mets or Dodgers level)? Spend on free agents, or invest in the farm system? It's a challenge, and there is only one way to go. Perhaps most fun have been the 1911 Browns and the 1899 Spiders. Different rules back then - and no free agents. Finally, the best of all "proof of concept" exercises is eliminating the color bar before 1947. Yes, there will always be issue of "equivalency" for black players, how would they have performed in MLB, even though there were plenty of barnstorming games post-season with MLB players, in the 1920's and 1930's, with full stats for comparison. But integrated teams in those decades can be true powerhouses, and you get a glimpse of what we lost, tragic as that was, and is. Oh, and recently I realized that I could go back to 1965, my very first season, as a kid, with cards and dice. Amazing how much I remembered about that year. Replaying the season, with the benefit of foresight (thinking of the dreadful Phillies moves in '65 and '66), and comparing to the results I can recall from sixty (gulp!) years back. What this proves is the flexibility of OOTP. So many options. Play it your way! __________________ Pelican OOTP 2020-? ”Hard to believe, Harry.” Last edited by Pelican; 11-21-2025 at 01:59 PM.