Competing Leagues v. East/West set up

[toxicavenger74]

I have always set up my fictional OOTP leagues to be an Eastern League and a Western League in place of National and American. My reasoning is that if two leagues were to be setup today in a fictional country it would be aligned geographically much like the NBA.

However, here I am 8 years into my OOTP playing career and I am having an OOTP crisis because I feel like this is to vanilla and does not allow each league to have its own identity. If you look at MLB and even the NFL which have each league/conference spread throughout the country, they both have their own identity. Obviously, this is from historical mergers of competing leagues. But each league has a California footprint and a New York footprint along with Florida, Missouri, Texas. Each league has personality that I have found that a East/West set up never has

Lastly, one last layer that a complete East/West set up will never have is the opportunity for two teams from the same market competing for the championship such as the Subway Series or the I-70 series.

Anyway, after years of thinking that a complete geographic set up was the best set up I have come to a different conclusion and feel that competing leagues adds layers of complexity and identity that I love about baseball and will change the way I play OOTP.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Do you set up your OOTP leagues as Eastern League v. Western League or allow each league to have a complete national footprint?

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

I like to use the National/American model for reasons similar to what you stated, especially the idea of regional rivalries between teams that don't play against each other very often. And, to a minor extent, it makes the real-time sim screen more visually interesting (I hate having to wait for all of the west coast games on one side of the screen).

I use the DH in one sub-league as in real life, too.

[Tyke]

I tend to have an East / West split, but then have the top 2 teams in each league qualify for the play-offs: East 1 v West 2, East 2 v West 1. Then you sometimes get teams from the same league in the finals.

[The Game]

Originally Posted by toxicavenger74

I have always set up my fictional OOTP leagues to be an Eastern League and a Western League in place of National and American. My reasoning is that if two leagues were to be setup today in a fictional country it would be aligned geographically much like the NBA.

However, here I am 8 years into my OOTP playing career and I am having an OOTP crisis because I feel like this is to vanilla and does not allow each league to have its own identity. If you look at MLB and even the NFL which have each league/conference spread throughout the country, they both have their own identity. Obviously, this is from historical mergers of competing leagues. But each league has a California footprint and a New York footprint along with Florida, Missouri, Texas. Each league has personality that I have found that a East/West set up never has

Lastly, one last layer that a complete East/West set up will never have is the opportunity for two teams from the same market competing for the championship such as the Subway Series or the I-70 series.

Anyway, after years of thinking that a complete geographic set up was the best set up I have come to a different conclusion and feel that competing leagues adds layers of complexity and identity that I love about baseball and will change the way I play OOTP.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Do you set up your OOTP leagues as Eastern League v. Western League or allow each league to have a complete national footprint?

For my ABF league it is North vs South. It originally was supposed to be a Civil War type of theme but I abandoned that early on. While LA, Houston, Atlanta, Las Vegas & Dallas are all in the south the North clearly has the larger cities of Chicago, NY & Philadelphia.
Eventually I will creat the American League which will have a team in NY, CHI, PHI & HOU along with 12 other cities the ABF is not in like STL, SEA, WAS & MIA. My plan is the AL with merge with the ABF and the original ABF with become the National League and the AL will stay as the American League. This will put 14 teams in each league meaning 2 ABF teams will go to the AL (expansion may change this)

[DreamTeams]

You make some interesting points here, toxicavenger74. Never quite thought about it the way you explain it with each league having it's own identity. I've always gone with the East v West geography, but that is mostly because I've always preferred having one team per city so geography makes more since in that scenario. I've always been drawn towards the more simple as opposed to the more complex. Anyway, in the past I've tried adding a little more distinction between each league, in a geographic set-up, through the style of play. For example, the East could be the big hitters and strong armed pitchers league, while the west features more small ball and speed tactics along with finesse pitching or other combinations. Stuff like that can also give a league distinction as it did between the AL/NL before the DH was installed.

[bailey]

I am not really sentimental for league identity so if I wanted to start a league with 30 teams, here is how I would play it:

Atlantic Div.
New York
New York
Boston
Toronto
Montreal (formerly Oakland)

East Div.
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Detroit
Cleveland
Cincinnati

South Div.
Washington
Baltimore
Atlanta
Tampa Bay
Miami

North Div.
Chicago
Chicago
Minnesota
Milwaukee
St. Louis

West Div.
Colorado
Arizona
Texas
Houston
Kansas City

Pacific Div.
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
San Diego

[The Game]

Originally Posted by bailey

I am not really sentimental for league identity so if I wanted to start a league with 30 teams, here is how I would play it:

Atlantic Div.
New York
New York
Boston
Toronto
Montreal (formerly Oakland)

East Div.
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Detroit
Cleveland
Cincinnati

South Div.
Washington
Baltimore
Atlanta
Tampa Bay
Miami

North Div.
Chicago
Chicago
Minnesota
Milwaukee
St. Louis

West Div.
Colorado
Arizona
Texas
Houston
Kansas City

Pacific Div.
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
San Diego

I despise when people do this type of setup with states (excluding CA) and cities having more then 1 team.

[cavebutter]

My current favorite setup is having a Northern League and Southern League, each with East and West divisions. I have been expanding by 2 teams every 5 years and am now up to 28 teams total.

I've never really thought of a league identity, though, and it's interesting. My biggest problem up until now is finding good cities for the West. Not enough cities in the Northwest and feels like it's only TX and CA in the Southwest. Once I expand to 30, I think I'm going to do a big realignment and move to a more American/National setup so that I can have a little more leeway in choosing expansion cities.

[The Game]

Originally Posted by cavebutter

My current favorite setup is having a Northern League and Southern League, each with East and West divisions. I have been expanding by 2 teams every 5 years and am now up to 28 teams total.

I've never really thought of a league identity, though, and it's interesting. My biggest problem up until now is finding good cities for the West. Not enough cities in the Northwest and feels like it's only TX and CA in the Southwest. Once I expand to 30, I think I'm going to do a big realignment and move to a more American/National setup so that I can have a little more leeway in choosing expansion cities.

Do you have Seattle, Portland, OKC, Vegas, Phoenix, New Orleans, Denver & Salt Lake?

[cavebutter]

Originally Posted by The Game

Do you have Seattle, Portland, OKC, Vegas, Phoenix, New Orleans, Denver & Salt Lake?

Have Portland, Seattle, Vegas, Phoenix, NO, and Denver. NO is in my Eastern Division.

SLC and OKC are good ones.