Northern Midwest League officially closed

nmleague · 03-10-2005, 10:59 PM

After 3 years, 15 seasons and 10 different teams with Heartland Trophies, the Northern Midwest league has closed. Thanks to all the great owners the league has had, its been great fun!!

For anyone interested the league file, post 1935 playoffs, ready to proceed to the next season, has been uploaded to the league web site at http://www.nmleague.com/baseballmain.htm. If you want to play it as a solo league I have taken off the league password and set all teams to CPU control.

rem · 03-11-2005, 09:04 PM

Three years is a great run! Sorry, it had to come to an end.

canadiancreed · 03-12-2005, 05:43 AM

there is no emoticon that can express my sadness

what happened that woudl close the league?!

f.montoya · 03-12-2005, 07:13 AM

Yeah, What happened?????

Crackerjack · 03-12-2005, 09:29 AM

I think the commish stepped down and no one took over, if Iread another thread correctly.

nmleague · 03-12-2005, 09:57 AM

A combination of things lead to the league closing. First it was nearing the time of year that I would have to pay the domain name fee and commit for another year to the web host, for the three years of the league I have paid these out of pocket. With these approaching I took a hard look at the furture of the league. Sorry to say I was getting a little burned out running the league and started to find that a 4 sim per week schedule was imposing on my real life and restricting my participation in other things. Except for times when I was on vacation I don't think the league has missed a schedule sim in its history and I think that is pretty much a requirement. OOTP has been a great product, but v6 has been a disappointment for me, the main reason I upgraded was the lure of using H2H for certain times in the league, as it turned out H2H didnt materialize and most of the other new features that the league adapted either didn't work or caused problems with the running of the leauge. So that kind of impacted my overall feeling about the game. Its ironic that as the league closes, that all 24 teams have owners. At the end of two seasons this past year it was a struggle to get owners for all teams, in the leagues first two years we never really had to wait to fill an opening. This past fall when the league simmed for several weeks with 4-5 teams under computer control, I started to think seriously about not continueing past this year. Those a basicaly the reasons, no real show stoppers, mainly I have gotten a little burned out, and feel I wont be doing the league justice if I continue running it.

I'm going to take some time off from the game, will continue the NML as a solo league doing fast sims, probably a season per week. Then maybe by the time the next version of OOTP comes out, I will be ready to do another online league. The NML has been a great experience and very enjoyable, but there are things that I have learned that I would do differently. My inspiration for the NML were leagues like the Metro League, a fictional league with alot of character. I think the NML had more character in the beginning, there was definitely more ownership participation, with many owner writing articles for the league web site. As time went on, as the league expanded, and it got harder to fill owner spots, we lost some of that.

But here is my vision for the next league. Fictional, starting around 1890, total of 8-12 teams in two divisions, 100 game season, based on small towns in the midwest, more like a club league. Hopefullly the next version of OOTP will allow the scalling of the financials so that the salaries and cap will be realistic. It will be a fast sim league either simming one month or two weeks per sim, so a season will take about 2 weeks to complete. Hopefullly the playoffs would be head to head games. The goal would be to find a small group of dedicated owners that buy into the the leagues fiction, to write articles and contribute to the leauge regualarly.

Thats long enough, again Im sorry that the NML closesd, I loved the league and had a great time doing it, but all good things come to an end. The league has a great bunch of owners and it would have been great if someone would have stepped in to take over. I have a feeling that the NML will be around for awhile as a solo league.

Crackerjack · 03-13-2005, 10:02 AM

Mr.Opinion · 03-13-2005, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crackerjack

Anyone know the status for H2H?

wait...are you serious?

Mike Ivie · 03-13-2005, 12:44 PM

sorry to hear it. congrats on your good run

kq76 · 03-13-2005, 09:13 PM

Three years, that's pretty good. I had checked this league out a number of times over the years and was even tempted to apply a couple times. I always liked the idea of how it was based in that area of the country with some teams in some big cities and others in some cities that most of us probably rarely, if ever, think about. That map with lines from the locations to the uniforms was great. I'd like to see more regional leagues. Anyways, thanks for bringing the NML to us for so long nmleague and best of luck with your next project!

sporr · 03-13-2005, 09:34 PM

It's always sad to see a long-running league close its doors. Good luck with your future plans.

Dark Horse · 03-13-2005, 10:11 PM

i'm sad to see this league close as well. It was one of the leagues i popped in to see how it was doing. i really like the website setup. And i too was tempted to join. But time wouldn't permit it.

i'll be looking forward to your next creation. Hopefully, v7 will meet your expectations (and everybody else's) and encourage the creation of some new leagues.

03-10-2005, 10:59 PM	#1
nmleague All Star Reserve Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 976	Northern Midwest League officially closed After 3 years, 15 seasons and 10 different teams with Heartland Trophies, the Northern Midwest league has closed. Thanks to all the great owners the league has had, its been great fun!! For anyone interested the league file, post 1935 playoffs, ready to proceed to the next season, has been uploaded to the league web site at http://www.nmleague.com/baseballmain.htm. If you want to play it as a solo league I have taken off the league password and set all teams to CPU control. __________________ Northern Midwest League Commissoner Escanaba Miners - NML Last edited by nmleague; 03-10-2005 at 11:19 PM.

03-11-2005, 09:04 PM	#2
rem Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: College Park, Md. Posts: 5,024	Three years is a great run! Sorry, it had to come to an end. __________________ OTBA: Washington Filibusters CLBR: Minnesota Twins 2005 Winner of LL's Pick the Loser Contest! - 15-0

03-12-2005, 05:43 AM	#3
canadiancreed Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 11,660	there is no emoticon that can express my sadness what happened that woudl close the league?! __________________ PT21 PT22 Last edited by canadiancreed; 03-12-2005 at 12:14 PM.

03-12-2005, 07:13 AM	#4
f.montoya Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 6,077	Yeah, What happened????? __________________ Fidel Montoya Asahi2 Baseball League ex-Commissioner(Historical League Since 2004) Ex-Web Host Current Mod Maker??

03-12-2005, 09:29 AM	#5
Crackerjack Major Leagues Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 362	I think the commish stepped down and no one took over, if Iread another thread correctly. __________________ Cheers Bird WWW.CRACKERJACKBASEBALL.COM

03-12-2005, 09:57 AM	#6
nmleague All Star Reserve Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 976	A combination of things lead to the league closing. First it was nearing the time of year that I would have to pay the domain name fee and commit for another year to the web host, for the three years of the league I have paid these out of pocket. With these approaching I took a hard look at the furture of the league. Sorry to say I was getting a little burned out running the league and started to find that a 4 sim per week schedule was imposing on my real life and restricting my participation in other things. Except for times when I was on vacation I don't think the league has missed a schedule sim in its history and I think that is pretty much a requirement. OOTP has been a great product, but v6 has been a disappointment for me, the main reason I upgraded was the lure of using H2H for certain times in the league, as it turned out H2H didnt materialize and most of the other new features that the league adapted either didn't work or caused problems with the running of the leauge. So that kind of impacted my overall feeling about the game. Its ironic that as the league closes, that all 24 teams have owners. At the end of two seasons this past year it was a struggle to get owners for all teams, in the leagues first two years we never really had to wait to fill an opening. This past fall when the league simmed for several weeks with 4-5 teams under computer control, I started to think seriously about not continueing past this year. Those a basicaly the reasons, no real show stoppers, mainly I have gotten a little burned out, and feel I wont be doing the league justice if I continue running it. I'm going to take some time off from the game, will continue the NML as a solo league doing fast sims, probably a season per week. Then maybe by the time the next version of OOTP comes out, I will be ready to do another online league. The NML has been a great experience and very enjoyable, but there are things that I have learned that I would do differently. My inspiration for the NML were leagues like the Metro League, a fictional league with alot of character. I think the NML had more character in the beginning, there was definitely more ownership participation, with many owner writing articles for the league web site. As time went on, as the league expanded, and it got harder to fill owner spots, we lost some of that. But here is my vision for the next league. Fictional, starting around 1890, total of 8-12 teams in two divisions, 100 game season, based on small towns in the midwest, more like a club league. Hopefullly the next version of OOTP will allow the scalling of the financials so that the salaries and cap will be realistic. It will be a fast sim league either simming one month or two weeks per sim, so a season will take about 2 weeks to complete. Hopefullly the playoffs would be head to head games. The goal would be to find a small group of dedicated owners that buy into the the leagues fiction, to write articles and contribute to the leauge regualarly. Thats long enough, again Im sorry that the NML closesd, I loved the league and had a great time doing it, but all good things come to an end. The league has a great bunch of owners and it would have been great if someone would have stepped in to take over. I have a feeling that the NML will be around for awhile as a solo league. __________________ Northern Midwest League Commissoner Escanaba Miners - NML

03-13-2005, 10:02 AM	#7
Crackerjack Major Leagues Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 362	__________________ Cheers Bird WWW.CRACKERJACKBASEBALL.COM Last edited by Crackerjack; 03-13-2005 at 01:30 PM.

03-13-2005, 12:44 PM	#9
Mike Ivie Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 203	sorry to hear it. congrats on your good run __________________ NBL - San Diego Padres

03-13-2005, 09:13 PM	#10
kq76 Global Moderator Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 12,035	Three years, that's pretty good. I had checked this league out a number of times over the years and was even tempted to apply a couple times. I always liked the idea of how it was based in that area of the country with some teams in some big cities and others in some cities that most of us probably rarely, if ever, think about. That map with lines from the locations to the uniforms was great. I'd like to see more regional leagues. Anyways, thanks for bringing the NML to us for so long nmleague and best of luck with your next project!

03-13-2005, 09:34 PM	#11
sporr Global Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Muscatine, IA Posts: 8,277	It's always sad to see a long-running league close its doors. Good luck with your future plans.

03-13-2005, 10:11 PM	#12
Dark Horse Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2002 Location: Texas! Posts: 2,633	i'm sad to see this league close as well. It was one of the leagues i popped in to see how it was doing. i really like the website setup. And i too was tempted to join. But time wouldn't permit it. i'll be looking forward to your next creation. Hopefully, v7 will meet your expectations (and everybody else's) and encourage the creation of some new leagues. __________________ A Justafan Fan LBA Geo Bahn Rock Hounds fan of the ISLANDIAN PRO ALLIANCE