Fictional Baseball Universes - Page 2

struggles_mightily · 05-29-2009, 06:24 PM

I'm going to be setting up a United Kingdom Baseball League. Small-time operation beginning in 2009. 8 teams divided into two divisions (North and South). Thirty-six game schedule played over the weekends of June, July and August. Twenty-man rosters with a limit of five foreign players.

It will operate in the context of a full MLB (and maybe *** and KBO, haven't decided yet) universe, so hopefully some minor leaguers will make their way over to the UK. (That's why I'm using the foreign player limits -- don't want things to get excessive in that regard. Which I think they might if left unaddressed, due to some AI issues).

I'm hoping to expand very gradually. I'll have an unaffiliated six-team Minor League (Scottish Baseball League) after a few years. I have, like, a whole progression mapped out for about half a century's worth of play. The SBL starts to lose popularity and money once the UKBL introduces a second Scottish team. The Scottish league then relocates franchises to smaller towns (Ayr, Cumbernauld) in a bid to stay alive, but ultimately capitulates and becomes the first affiliated minor league. Eventually, when it reaches 16 teams, the parent league will take a break from self-expansion and open a Development League in smaller ciites and towns.

Eventually, I'm hoping to build up a competition for Universities which will act as a partial feeder for the UKBL.

There will also be a second unaffiliated minor -- the Baseball League of Ulster. It will expand to eight teams after starting off at six. And then either be forced-out and merge in the same way as the SBL, or grow to become an All-Ireland League and remain viable itself. Haven't decided yet.

Fictional play hasn't interested me much at any time I've been into OOTP (since version 4), but the ability to insert a fictional league into a real world context is a big bonus for me. And just little things like FaceGen also add to the experience. Setting up a British league is also of way more interest to me than just adding another American minor, too. I'm also hoping to start a Dynasty thread for the league. Writing about it should encourage me to get familiar with teams and players quickly.

Really eager to start this, now. If I had 9, I would probably do so and convert. But I still play 8. And... reserve roster limits. Yum.

EDIT: I was just about to change "I'm hoping to expand very gradually" to "I'm hoping the league will expand very gradually." But I like it the way it is. I'm kind of a skinny guy; I am hoping to expand very gradually.

klkitchens · 05-29-2009, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcpcarmona

thanks for your thoughts, I plan on moving the players from those folded adjunct leagues into the main league where they can be signed by those teams. As far as making sense, I am sorry it doesn't jive with you but that is what I plan on doing...who knows it make evolve into something totally different...it is going to be a journey that I am going to enjoy as I go.

dcc

Cool! No offense meant at all!

struggles_mightily · 05-29-2009, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GamingVoice

I guess what I mean, is that since you're going fictional from the start, that trying to tie your fictional world into the structure and history of the real world doesn't make sense. Like a time travel movie. What if a league is "scheduled" to fold, but in your fictional setting is doing very well, with great players, etc.?

Does this work well in OOTP?

I love to play 'semi-historically' -- that is, with fictional teams, league structures and alignments but with real players and leagues. What I'd like to do is exactly what you suggest -- let the Players' League or the PCL continue if it looks to be going well, and only fold/merge those leagues if they seem to be struggling.

I've never managed to keep a sim going long enough to get to nitty gritty questions like that. But would it work even if I had? Does OOTP understand stuff like league popularity and financial position, even indirectly? Could you look at the information available and make the judgment that "hmmm... the Union Association is doing really bad business... it needs to be wound up"?

If you've tried this, I'd love to hear about your experiences.

tex191 · 05-29-2009, 09:11 PM

My goal is still to set up a funtional World baseball leauge some time. Never have gotten the kinks worked out.

tombair · 05-29-2009, 09:31 PM

I'm going to continue my Keystone Baseball League - 12 teams in 2 divisions. I set it up for my dad who was new to OOTP. Then I found I preferred it to my global league with teams in 100 countries, MLB, full minors, indy teams,...which I had dreamed of setting up for years. With 10,000+ players, that was too much for me to keep track of. A smaller league is actually more enjoyable to me. More intimate, I suppose you could call it.

BigRed75 · 05-29-2009, 11:04 PM

My next fictional universe will be a self-contained majors and minors system based entirely in North Carolina. There will be one eight-team major league with teams in the eight big cities, as well as AAA, AA, two A leagues, and one rookie ball league. I'm using North Carolina for two reasons: I grew up there, and more cities have had a minor league team in NC than any other state bar Texas. There's a rich tradition of minor league baseball there.

The minor leagues will be centered geographically and spread out so that most corners of the state are covered (Western Carolina League, Eastern Carolina League, etc.). In all, 48 teams, and each major league team gets five minor league affiliates (so very similar to the existing MLB/MiLB structure, except no short-season A level).

Right now, I've been working on one or two team logos, caps and jerseys each night while waiting for OOTP X. I'll also need to work on financials, because I don't want million-dollar salaries in a league where the stadiums don't hold more than 10,000, obviously.

The minor leagues will have a split-season (except for the Rookie-level ECL) with the two winners facing off in the playoffs. I haven't yet decided how I'll handle the majors - maybe a split season, maybe the top two teams, or maybe I'll use the old-fashioned Shaughnessy playoffs, where the top four team make it.

As a side note, does anyone know how OOTP handles it when the same team wins both halves of a split-season?

If all goes according to plan (and time), I'm going to try and report on this in a dynasty thread. I enjoy reading them and feel like I should contribute my own and not be a leech.

Aurelio · 05-29-2009, 11:40 PM

I have never played OOTP, but I have played some of the competitors. I am probably looking forward to X as much as you long timers have. I have played Inside the park and the Boxing game (Love it!).

My Association will be fictional. 2 eight team leagues. No DH. No interleague play. No wildcards.

One league will be based on Robert Coover's book "The Universal Baseball Association, Inc." with the Bridegrooms, Pioneers, Beaneaters, Excelsiors, Keystones, Pastime Club, Haymakers, and Knickerbockers. He didn't provide cities for his teams so I will add those as needed. The other league will have the four houses of Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. I haven't decided yet how I will get the final four teams. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I have had many fictional league in many sports (even the excitng made up game of "diceball") I usually have a St. Louis Gateways, Albequerque Turkeys, Seattle Reign so I might go with those.

I have never expanded a league after I started it, but this Association will expand to 10 and possibly 12 teams in each league; eventually.

I plan to let the computer play a few years, maybe up to 10 or so, before I take over a team.

scuffleball · 05-29-2009, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kemp

I like to go totally fictional - fictional cities, players, leagues, etc. I also create very small leagues and expand slowly maxing out at 5 teams per league (two leagues). I find it easier to get to "know" the players.

Oh and one feature that I LOVE is the ability in OOTP to define max roster size. I go with 3 man rotations (short schedule) and 22 man rosters and it really changes the game. You lose a lot of misc relief pitchers who tend to clog things up and there are more "regulars".

This is kind of what I'm going to do as well. Been working on the map of my fictional country for quite a while. It can be found here.

The nation has a population of just over 7.5 million, so the league won't be anything like MLB. The nation is located about 150 miles southwest of Ireland and is called Clairone. The island is about 15,796 sq. miles (about 1/2 the size of Ireland).

The Clairone National Baseball League (CNBL) starts in 1948, just after WWII. Baseball was first introduced by Yankees stationed on the island during WWI and started to take off after WWII, when GIs were again roaming about the island

Baseball is basically the #3 sport in Clairone behind Association Football and Rugby Union.

It starts out as a six team league. I will be expanding it as I go along. Will not go higher than 20 teams at any one time (two 10-team 'Groups' - North and South). Will be using financials as well. By the present day, the top players will be able to earn around $125,000-$150,000 a season. Minimum salary will hover around $10,000 - $12,000 -- so the league is mostly semi-professional.

Attendances will average around 5,000 or so for most teams. Sponsorship plays a bigger role in the CNBL, as it can't rely on gate revenue or any substantial media revenue streams (there is some, but not millions of dollars) for large amounts of money. I will simulate that aspect of the CNBL by providing each team in the league with cash infusions at the end of each season. I am also toying with actually writing up a little script in PHP to assign sponsorships to teams (based on my list of Clairone businesses I have) and track the money amounts from that.

There is going to be a County League System (known as the CLS), which will act as a feeder system for the CNBL. The CLS is a series of club leagues where players are drafted and move to other towns/cities to play (like major junior level hockey in Canada and the US).

I have over 550 cities/towns ready to load into the OOTP database (the one's seen on the map).

Okay, that went on a little longer than I figured it would.

Take care!

rjv3 · 05-30-2009, 12:19 AM

scuffelball,

The map looks great! What kind of program did you use to design it? I've done mine on paper but would very much like to make a digital version. The "scan it into an image" just doesn't quite cut it for me.

scuffleball · 05-30-2009, 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjv3

scuffelball,

The map looks great! What kind of program did you use to design it? I've done mine on paper but would very much like to make a digital version. The "scan it into an image" just doesn't quite cut it for me.

Thanks for the kind words

I am using Paint Shop Pro 7. GIMP is a great graphics program, which has all the features PSP7 does. And the best part is GIMP is free.

I am in the process of learning GIMP right now and it is a very robust piece of software.

Take care.

dcpcarmona · 05-30-2009, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GamingVoice

Cool! No offense meant at all!

no worries...that's why I posted it...I welcome the feedback...makes one think!

dcc

toxicavenger74 · 05-30-2009, 01:39 AM

I always like to justify why my fictional league starts and I always have to have a realistic league ramp up or expansion. I'll have one league of 12 teams with 6 per division and expand every now and then. The setting will be in the US initially and the goal will be to expand to have a team in each state. Additionally, the league will go international and have teams around the world.

dsprag · 05-30-2009, 02:03 AM

While I am new to OOTP and have no real experience in creating fictional leagues, I will be setting one up as one of my first projects once I get X. My plan is to have it based in ancient Rome, for no other reason than that I'm a Latin nerd, with two leagues of 14 teams each with two divisions of 7. The first (the Societas Basipilae Italica) will be based in the Italian peninsula and Sicily with northern and southern divisions; the second (Societas Basipilae Provincialis) will be based in the provinces with the divisions being roughly east-west. I have team names and cities figured for those two, but have yet to plot the minor league system. The other thing will be to add in the relevant names and cities, but that should make for an interesting project.

KGrob · 05-30-2009, 02:31 AM

I play 40 teams. Two sub leagues, 20 teams in each. Four divisions each (north, south, east, west), five teams in each division.

The four division leaders and four wildcard teams from each sub league advance to the playoffs. All playoffs are 7-game series.

KGrob · 05-30-2009, 02:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsprag

While I am new to OOTP and have no real experience in creating fictional leagues, I will be setting one up as one of my first projects once I get X. My plan is to have it based in ancient Rome, for no other reason than that I'm a Latin nerd, with two leagues of 14 teams each with two divisions of 7. The first (the Societas Basipilae Italica) will be based in the Italian peninsula and Sicily with northern and southern divisions; the second (Societas Basipilae Provincialis) will be based in the provinces with the divisions being roughly east-west. I have team names and cities figured for those two, but have yet to plot the minor league system. The other thing will be to add in the relevant names and cities, but that should make for an interesting project.

Very interesting. I'd have to give you the "prize" so far for innovation. Very nice.

SSG Troyer · 05-30-2009, 02:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsprag

While I am new to OOTP and have no real experience in creating fictional leagues, I will be setting one up as one of my first projects once I get X. My plan is to have it based in ancient Rome, for no other reason than that I'm a Latin nerd, with two leagues of 14 teams each with two divisions of 7. The first (the Societas Basipilae Italica) will be based in the Italian peninsula and Sicily with northern and southern divisions; the second (Societas Basipilae Provincialis) will be based in the provinces with the divisions being roughly east-west. I have team names and cities figured for those two, but have yet to plot the minor league system. The other thing will be to add in the relevant names and cities, but that should make for an interesting project.

That sounds cool, but you're going to have have to be careful to avoid having players like George Sun Li from Venzuela playing for Brundisium.

bailey · 05-30-2009, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aurelio

...
One league will be based on Robert Coover's book "The Universal Baseball Association, Inc." with the Bridegrooms, Pioneers, Beaneaters, Excelsiors, Keystones, Pastime Club, Haymakers, and Knickerbockers. He didn't provide cities for his teams so I will add those as needed. The other league will have the four houses of Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. I haven't decided yet how I will get the final four teams. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

...

I had the same idea the cities of Coover's book are:
Brooklyn Bridegrooms,
Boston Beaneaters,
Brooklyn Excelsiors,
Philadelphia Keystones,
Baltimore Pastime Club,
Troy, Haymakers,
New York Knickerbockers
??, Pioneers, (only 1 I couldn't find)

SSG Troyer · 05-30-2009, 02:59 AM

I will set up the FBL again, for the sixth year running. 2 leagues of 3 divisions, 6 teams each with full set of minors. Each team is based in a different lower-48 state, with it's affiliated minors in the same state. No R/L ML cities allowed. We have the Eastern Confrence with Atlantic, Southern, and Great Lakes divisions, and the Western Confrence with the Great Plains, Mountain, and Pacific divisions. 162 game schedule is custom made, with 12 inter-divisional games, 8 intra-divisional games, and 6 inter-league games. No DH anywhere, and no domes (even in Couer d'Alene, Bemidji, Escanaba, and Bangor).

mm7607 · 05-30-2009, 03:01 AM

2 leagues with 16 teams to start. Expanding to 32 eventually. Probably will have a collage league to feed the players. I might have a couple Indy leagues with one solely based in Russia. Logos and unies are ready. Just waiting on the game.

Fenway · 05-30-2009, 12:41 PM

I'm thinking of setting up two leagues with 6-8 teams each, one league based on Star Trek, one based on Star Wars. In the Trek league, I'll have the Enterprisers, Defiants, Warbirds, Romulans, Voyagers, Borgs, and maybe a couple others. The Warbirds will be in the city of Klingon, the Enterprisers in the city of San Francisco, etc. I've never created a fictional league before, so I don't know if I can make individual players like Jimmy Kirk and Monty Scott. In the Wars league, I'll have the Death Stars, the Sith, the Jedi, the Rebels, and so on. Tatooine might be one "city", Coruscant another, and so forth. Again, I don't know if I can make individual players; can I?

05-29-2009, 06:24 PM	#21
struggles_mightily Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 292	I'm going to be setting up a United Kingdom Baseball League. Small-time operation beginning in 2009. 8 teams divided into two divisions (North and South). Thirty-six game schedule played over the weekends of June, July and August. Twenty-man rosters with a limit of five foreign players. It will operate in the context of a full MLB (and maybe *** and KBO, haven't decided yet) universe, so hopefully some minor leaguers will make their way over to the UK. (That's why I'm using the foreign player limits -- don't want things to get excessive in that regard. Which I think they might if left unaddressed, due to some AI issues). I'm hoping to expand very gradually. I'll have an unaffiliated six-team Minor League (Scottish Baseball League) after a few years. I have, like, a whole progression mapped out for about half a century's worth of play. The SBL starts to lose popularity and money once the UKBL introduces a second Scottish team. The Scottish league then relocates franchises to smaller towns (Ayr, Cumbernauld) in a bid to stay alive, but ultimately capitulates and becomes the first affiliated minor league. Eventually, when it reaches 16 teams, the parent league will take a break from self-expansion and open a Development League in smaller ciites and towns. Eventually, I'm hoping to build up a competition for Universities which will act as a partial feeder for the UKBL. There will also be a second unaffiliated minor -- the Baseball League of Ulster. It will expand to eight teams after starting off at six. And then either be forced-out and merge in the same way as the SBL, or grow to become an All-Ireland League and remain viable itself. Haven't decided yet. Fictional play hasn't interested me much at any time I've been into OOTP (since version 4), but the ability to insert a fictional league into a real world context is a big bonus for me. And just little things like FaceGen also add to the experience. Setting up a British league is also of way more interest to me than just adding another American minor, too. I'm also hoping to start a Dynasty thread for the league. Writing about it should encourage me to get familiar with teams and players quickly. Really eager to start this, now. If I had 9, I would probably do so and convert. But I still play 8. And... reserve roster limits. Yum. EDIT: I was just about to change "I'm hoping to expand very gradually" to "I'm hoping the league will expand very gradually." But I like it the way it is. I'm kind of a skinny guy; I am hoping to expand very gradually. Last edited by struggles_mightily; 05-29-2009 at 06:32 PM.

05-29-2009, 09:31 PM	#25
tombair Major Leagues Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: La Plata, MD Posts: 493	I'm going to continue my Keystone Baseball League - 12 teams in 2 divisions. I set it up for my dad who was new to OOTP. Then I found I preferred it to my global league with teams in 100 countries, MLB, full minors, indy teams,...which I had dreamed of setting up for years. With 10,000+ players, that was too much for me to keep track of. A smaller league is actually more enjoyable to me. More intimate, I suppose you could call it. __________________ I don't care how long you've been around, you'll never see it all. Bob Lemon

05-29-2009, 11:04 PM	#26
BigRed75 Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 2,430	My next fictional universe will be a self-contained majors and minors system based entirely in North Carolina. There will be one eight-team major league with teams in the eight big cities, as well as AAA, AA, two A leagues, and one rookie ball league. I'm using North Carolina for two reasons: I grew up there, and more cities have had a minor league team in NC than any other state bar Texas. There's a rich tradition of minor league baseball there. The minor leagues will be centered geographically and spread out so that most corners of the state are covered (Western Carolina League, Eastern Carolina League, etc.). In all, 48 teams, and each major league team gets five minor league affiliates (so very similar to the existing MLB/MiLB structure, except no short-season A level). Right now, I've been working on one or two team logos, caps and jerseys each night while waiting for OOTP X. I'll also need to work on financials, because I don't want million-dollar salaries in a league where the stadiums don't hold more than 10,000, obviously. The minor leagues will have a split-season (except for the Rookie-level ECL) with the two winners facing off in the playoffs. I haven't yet decided how I'll handle the majors - maybe a split season, maybe the top two teams, or maybe I'll use the old-fashioned Shaughnessy playoffs, where the top four team make it. As a side note, does anyone know how OOTP handles it when the same team wins both halves of a split-season? If all goes according to plan (and time), I'm going to try and report on this in a dynasty thread. I enjoy reading them and feel like I should contribute my own and not be a leech. __________________ Mainline team SPTT team Was not a Snag fan...until I saw the fallout once he was gone and realized what a good job he was actually doing. - Ty Cobb

05-30-2009, 02:59 AM	#38
SSG Troyer All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Somewhere to the left of 2nd base Posts: 1,598	I will set up the FBL again, for the sixth year running. 2 leagues of 3 divisions, 6 teams each with full set of minors. Each team is based in a different lower-48 state, with it's affiliated minors in the same state. No R/L ML cities allowed. We have the Eastern Confrence with Atlantic, Southern, and Great Lakes divisions, and the Western Confrence with the Great Plains, Mountain, and Pacific divisions. 162 game schedule is custom made, with 12 inter-divisional games, 8 intra-divisional games, and 6 inter-league games. No DH anywhere, and no domes (even in Couer d'Alene, Bemidji, Escanaba, and Bangor). __________________ MWT Did Tennesee Delaware Mississppi's New Jersey? Idaho ... Alaska!

05-29-2009, 09:11 PM	#24
tex191 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 21	My goal is still to set up a funtional World baseball leauge some time. Never have gotten the kinks worked out.

05-29-2009, 11:40 PM	#27
Aurelio Bat Boy Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 14	I have never played OOTP, but I have played some of the competitors. I am probably looking forward to X as much as you long timers have. I have played Inside the park and the Boxing game (Love it!). My Association will be fictional. 2 eight team leagues. No DH. No interleague play. No wildcards. One league will be based on Robert Coover's book "The Universal Baseball Association, Inc." with the Bridegrooms, Pioneers, Beaneaters, Excelsiors, Keystones, Pastime Club, Haymakers, and Knickerbockers. He didn't provide cities for his teams so I will add those as needed. The other league will have the four houses of Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. I haven't decided yet how I will get the final four teams. Any suggestions would be appreciated! I have had many fictional league in many sports (even the excitng made up game of "diceball") I usually have a St. Louis Gateways, Albequerque Turkeys, Seattle Reign so I might go with those. I have never expanded a league after I started it, but this Association will expand to 10 and possibly 12 teams in each league; eventually. I plan to let the computer play a few years, maybe up to 10 or so, before I take over a team.

05-30-2009, 12:19 AM	#29
rjv3 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 45	scuffelball, The map looks great! What kind of program did you use to design it? I've done mine on paper but would very much like to make a digital version. The "scan it into an image" just doesn't quite cut it for me.

05-30-2009, 01:39 AM	#32
toxicavenger74 All Star Reserve Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: St. Louis Posts: 553	I always like to justify why my fictional league starts and I always have to have a realistic league ramp up or expansion. I'll have one league of 12 teams with 6 per division and expand every now and then. The setting will be in the US initially and the goal will be to expand to have a team in each state. Additionally, the league will go international and have teams around the world.

05-30-2009, 02:03 AM	#33
dsprag Bat Boy Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 15	While I am new to OOTP and have no real experience in creating fictional leagues, I will be setting one up as one of my first projects once I get X. My plan is to have it based in ancient Rome, for no other reason than that I'm a Latin nerd, with two leagues of 14 teams each with two divisions of 7. The first (the Societas Basipilae Italica) will be based in the Italian peninsula and Sicily with northern and southern divisions; the second (Societas Basipilae Provincialis) will be based in the provinces with the divisions being roughly east-west. I have team names and cities figured for those two, but have yet to plot the minor league system. The other thing will be to add in the relevant names and cities, but that should make for an interesting project.

05-30-2009, 02:31 AM	#34
KGrob Minors (Double A) Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 155	I play 40 teams. Two sub leagues, 20 teams in each. Four divisions each (north, south, east, west), five teams in each division. The four division leaders and four wildcard teams from each sub league advance to the playoffs. All playoffs are 7-game series.

05-30-2009, 03:01 AM	#39
mm7607 All Star Reserve Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Originally from Fla, now in Ky Posts: 710	2 leagues with 16 teams to start. Expanding to 32 eventually. Probably will have a collage league to feed the players. I might have a couple Indy leagues with one solely based in Russia. Logos and unies are ready. Just waiting on the game.

05-30-2009, 12:41 PM	#40
Fenway Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Back Bay in Boston Posts: 295	I'm thinking of setting up two leagues with 6-8 teams each, one league based on Star Trek, one based on Star Wars. In the Trek league, I'll have the Enterprisers, Defiants, Warbirds, Romulans, Voyagers, Borgs, and maybe a couple others. The Warbirds will be in the city of Klingon, the Enterprisers in the city of San Francisco, etc. I've never created a fictional league before, so I don't know if I can make individual players like Jimmy Kirk and Monty Scott. In the Wars league, I'll have the Death Stars, the Sith, the Jedi, the Rebels, and so on. Tatooine might be one "city", Coruscant another, and so forth. Again, I don't know if I can make individual players; can I?