OTBL Corporation presents: The Continental League

matskralc! · 07-10-2011, 04:36 PM

From the fine folks providing you with MLB93, the Transcontinental Baseball League, and, of course, the OTBL, comes a new venture in the historical/fictional online league universe that is sure to capture the hearts and minds of millions.

The Continental League was the last credible attempt to start a third major league. After the Dodgers and Giants left New York without a National League team, William Shea went full bore on attempting to create a third league in order to give New York another team. Branch Rickey was brought in to run the whole shebang, and franchises were to be placed in Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, and Toronto. 1961 was to be the league's first season.

However, MLB took the threat rather seriously and reacted by announcing expansion: Minneapolis and Los Angeles in 1961, Houston and New York in 1962. Placing the Mets in New York was enough to effectively kill the Continental League, as Shea's only goal had been met. The league disbanded in August 1960.

In this online league, the Continental League does not give up, but instead finds another New York franchise owner and plows ahead. Major League Baseball is, at least initially, hostile to the league, and the CL is set up as an independent major league. The real Continental League had sought official acceptance as a legitimate major league.

World setup: An eight team major league with franchises in the original Continental League cities: Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, and Toronto. The CL managed to commandeer a number of minor leagues under its umbrella: the American Association (AAA), South Atlantic League (AA), Western Carolina League (A) (the real Continental League attempted to form a working agreement with this league, which was unaffiliated at the time, but was blocked by MLB), California League (S-A), and Pioneer League (R). Most of the other minor leagues exist and are affiliated to MLB. I was initially going to use actual minor league affiliations, but things were so haphazard back then that I doubt the AI could handle having two AAA teams and four A teams. The expansion Senators didn't even have a team in a league affiliated above D (obviously, I had to jam the old school AAA/AA/A/B/C/D alignment system into the modern system).

The CL is financially comfortable but does not have the resources that MLB does, so player salaries are higher in MLB. The reserve clause is in effect for both leagues, but players may move between leagues when released from contracts.

Both leagues will evolve over time. MLB will roughly follow real history, but events in the CL may have an effect. MLB's expansion plans may change (if such-and-such team is successful, for example, MLB may not feel that it can expand into that city). The CL will also evolve, but more on that later. The CL will be initially populated with fictional players and amateurs will be fictional. The quality of those players are also generally less than in MLB. Historical players will initially go to MLB, but a random number of players will hold out from MLB at certain times and seek bigger contracts from the CL. At least until general free agency occurs in MLB, then players will move a lot more freely between the two leagues.

I will not own a team in this league, playing instead the role of commish/player's union head/God/Flying Spaghetti Monster/article writer. There are a lot of things I'd like to do with the league that I just don't think I can do if I'm also a team owner (lots of things I'll need an editor for or to make decisions about). If MLB is going to come to the CL to propose something, it's going to be odd if I'm also voting on whether or not the league wants to do it. Many of the major changes in the league will be voted on by the league's general managers, such as expansion plans or collective bargaining issues. In fact, ownership will largely be responsible for proposing the changes (I generally hold absolute veto, but sure hope to not have to use it!). It is for this reason that active ownership (i.e. on the fora) will be something of a requirement.

The nitty-gritty of the initial setup: scouting and coaches are off. Suspensions off, injuries low, all ratings 2-8 (the presence of ratings and the scale used are up for discussion). Historical players are not recalculated but are left to the development engine. The CL was "created" in 1946 and simmed forward to 01/31/1961 in order to get rid of the initial player population (because they're always really weird, lots of undeveloped 28-year-olds and superduperstar 21-year-olds). Absolutely everything in the history was erased and a 1961 MLB historical league was added on. There was initially not going to be an amateur draft to start, however OOTP's solution for fictional leagues without a draft is somewhat inelegant, so I've decided to go with one.

For service time, I got somewhat creative. In order to lure "established" ballplayers (they're all still fictional, just run with the story), the CL offered to credit service time (towards, I don't know, a player's pension, I guess) based on a player's age as of 01/31/1961. All players 21 or older were credited with at least 1 year pro service, with an additional year for each one over 21. Teams still have 3 options years to use: beginning at age 25, one was deducted from what would be otherwise available. Also beginning at age 25, players were given 40-man roster service time in one year increments, and starting ate age 28 were given major league service time in one year increments. Service time for players on MLB teams wasn't touched.

The trade deadline is 06/15 (as it was for a very long time), Waviers/DFA will be set for 14 days. The financial system is active with the reserve clause and contracts are not guaranteed unless the team itself chooses to guarantee them. There is no All-Star game or playoff system, since it is a single 8-team league. Offense/defense will follow historical settings.

I had initially anticipated sims being twice a week at 7 days per sim, but the season will progress too slowly. 14 day sims do not work well in leagues with secondary rosters and waivers, as the waiver/DFA periods need to be a month long. So there will be three sims per week of 7 days per sim (during the season. Offseason sims will likely be longer).

tl;dr: Eight owners are needed to claim any one of the CL franchises and give it a nickname, logo, cap, jersey, ballpark (name, dimensions [capacity required to be at least 35,000], park factors) (the cities and your affiliates are already decided). Market sizes are about what you'd expect, but teams that have an MLB franchise in the same city have slightly lower fan loyalty and fan interest.

Six teams are already spoken for: Atlanta and Buffalo are still available. The MLB teams will NOT be human-playable. While I generally leave this open to anybody, I reserve the right to say "no" dependent on your reputation as a responsible (or irresponsible, I suppose) owner.

The league reports can be viewed here. New York and Toronto are the only teams to have named themselves, thus far. The league forum will be located under the OTBL umbrella, specifically here (awaiting a rename!!). You can PM here or there to notify me of your interest.

matskralc! · 07-10-2011, 06:35 PM

Buffalo has been claimed.

Matty86 · 07-10-2011, 07:45 PM

I'm interested in Atlanta if they're still open... but I am curious and don't take this as an insult... are you new to the community? I see that this was your first post and have seen many leagues started and quickly die out when they are run by people brand new to the OOTP community

matskralc! · 07-10-2011, 11:13 PM

Nope, far from new.

I used to post under "matskralc" (without the exclamation point...a couple thousand posts there, I'd reckon), but that password and email address are long gone and I haven't posted on this board in years, though I've lurked. I've been playing the game since OOTP4 (when you could get it in stores as "Season Ticket Baseball") and commished the OTBL for a while, once. I've been a member of the OTBL since its 2nd or 3rd season (though I'm not sure what season we're on now. Got to be at least 15 by now? In the true wheels-off tradition of the OTBL, we lost our history at some point :\), and I'm also an original member of MLB93 and an original member of the TCBA who left and then came back again a few seasons ago.

At any rate, Atlanta is still open, so we're glad to have you aboard. Just head over to the OTBL forum and register. The "World Cup" forum is where this league's action will take place (I was originally going to start a World Cup type of league, but aborted it due to my continued dissatisfaction with OOTP's handling of international baseball...the subforum will get renamed by the board admin...eventually

). Whenever you've got a team nickname, logo, jersey, cap and ballpark infos, post them up!

Anybody else who remains interested, don't hesitate to follow the league. There will almost certainly be expansion at some point.

Matty86 · 07-11-2011, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matskralc!

Nope, far from new.

I used to post under "matskralc" (without the exclamation point...a couple thousand posts there, I'd reckon), but that password and email address are long gone and I haven't posted on this board in years, though I've lurked. I've been playing the game since OOTP4 (when you could get it in stores as "Season Ticket Baseball") and commished the OTBL for a while, once. I've been a member of the OTBL since its 2nd or 3rd season (though I'm not sure what season we're on now. Got to be at least 15 by now? In the true wheels-off tradition of the OTBL, we lost our history at some point :\), and I'm also an original member of MLB93 and an original member of the TCBA who left and then came back again a few seasons ago.

At any rate, Atlanta is still open, so we're glad to have you aboard. Just head over to the OTBL forum and register. The "World Cup" forum is where this league's action will take place (I was originally going to start a World Cup type of league, but aborted it due to my continued dissatisfaction with OOTP's handling of international baseball...the subforum will get renamed by the board admin...eventually

). Whenever you've got a team nickname, logo, jersey, cap and ballpark infos, post them up!

Anybody else who remains interested, don't hesitate to follow the league. There will almost certainly be expansion at some point.

Ah okay, I did think that the name looked familiar, and being around for so long I'm sure you can understand my hesitation!

I'll head over there and join up now!

AtlCoach · 07-16-2011, 03:35 PM

Would LOVE the opportunity to participate! The CL has always been interesting to me!

matskralc! · 08-22-2011, 06:25 PM

Unfortunately, we are in need of an owner for the Atlanta franchise. Please check out the forum and let me know if you are interested. We have finished spring training and are 5 games into the CL regular season. This, by the way, is an OOTP12 league.

matskralc! · 10-10-2011, 01:33 PM

It's now July 27th, 1961 in the Continental League. Some highlights to this point of the season:

-A number of MLB players held out of spring training seeking better contracts. The two biggest names were Maury Wills and Juan Marichal. Wills returned to the Dodgers for more money, while Marichal jumped to the Toronto Canadians of the Continental League. Earl Francis of the Pittsburgh Pirates also joined him, jumping to the Dallas Outlaws. The Canadians made Marichal the Continental League's highest paid player with a $150,000 contract. Marichal is 8-8 with a 2.68 ERA.

-The San Francisco Giants sued the Continental League, Toronto Canadians, and Marichal in an attempt to enforce their contract with Marichal. After winning a preliminary injuction banning Marichal from playing pending the lawsuit's outcome (which resulted in Marichal being able to pitch in home games in Toronto, Canada, where the court's order could not be enforced), the Giants lost their lawsuit. The Giants intend to appeal.

-For a time, Willie McCovey was tearing the cover off the ball and was a sure threat to obliterate Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a single season. Through 58 games, McCovey slugged an amazing 31 home runs. Unfortunately, he badly fractured a finger on June 14, and will likely miss around three months. Despite not playing for a month and a half, he is still third in MLB in home runs. Roger Maris leads with 33, and Leon Wagner is second with 32.

In case you are interested, the Buffalo franchise is seeking an owner. Please check out the forum and let me know if you would like to take the reins!

andrew_body · 10-11-2011, 02:39 PM

i'm interested. please email me at abody@muskingum.edu

matskralc! · 11-08-2011, 05:31 PM

The Continental League is seeking ownership for the Buffalo and Toronto franchises.

-The Buffalo Bolts, despite being AI run for nearly the entire season, finished .500 and featured a strong offense. The pitching staff was their downfall, however, allowing the second most runs in the league.

-The Toronto Canadians stole Juan Marichal from the San Francisco Giants and featured the opposite problem: a solid pitching staff and no offense to speak of.

-Our season has concluded with the Minnesota Dragons winning the inaugural championship. We are currently holding our winter meetings to determine what, if any, changes should be made to aid the long-term viability of the league. Take a look through our first season, and let me know if this type of league (historical/fictional mix with a slight emphasis on developing a world) is up your alley.

07-10-2011, 04:36 PM	#1
matskralc! Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 20	OTBL Corporation presents: The Continental League From the fine folks providing you with MLB93, the Transcontinental Baseball League, and, of course, the OTBL, comes a new venture in the historical/fictional online league universe that is sure to capture the hearts and minds of millions. The Continental League was the last credible attempt to start a third major league. After the Dodgers and Giants left New York without a National League team, William Shea went full bore on attempting to create a third league in order to give New York another team. Branch Rickey was brought in to run the whole shebang, and franchises were to be placed in Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, and Toronto. 1961 was to be the league's first season. However, MLB took the threat rather seriously and reacted by announcing expansion: Minneapolis and Los Angeles in 1961, Houston and New York in 1962. Placing the Mets in New York was enough to effectively kill the Continental League, as Shea's only goal had been met. The league disbanded in August 1960. In this online league, the Continental League does not give up, but instead finds another New York franchise owner and plows ahead. Major League Baseball is, at least initially, hostile to the league, and the CL is set up as an independent major league. The real Continental League had sought official acceptance as a legitimate major league. World setup: An eight team major league with franchises in the original Continental League cities: Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, and Toronto. The CL managed to commandeer a number of minor leagues under its umbrella: the American Association (AAA), South Atlantic League (AA), Western Carolina League (A) (the real Continental League attempted to form a working agreement with this league, which was unaffiliated at the time, but was blocked by MLB), California League (S-A), and Pioneer League (R). Most of the other minor leagues exist and are affiliated to MLB. I was initially going to use actual minor league affiliations, but things were so haphazard back then that I doubt the AI could handle having two AAA teams and four A teams. The expansion Senators didn't even have a team in a league affiliated above D (obviously, I had to jam the old school AAA/AA/A/B/C/D alignment system into the modern system). The CL is financially comfortable but does not have the resources that MLB does, so player salaries are higher in MLB. The reserve clause is in effect for both leagues, but players may move between leagues when released from contracts. Both leagues will evolve over time. MLB will roughly follow real history, but events in the CL may have an effect. MLB's expansion plans may change (if such-and-such team is successful, for example, MLB may not feel that it can expand into that city). The CL will also evolve, but more on that later. The CL will be initially populated with fictional players and amateurs will be fictional. The quality of those players are also generally less than in MLB. Historical players will initially go to MLB, but a random number of players will hold out from MLB at certain times and seek bigger contracts from the CL. At least until general free agency occurs in MLB, then players will move a lot more freely between the two leagues. I will not own a team in this league, playing instead the role of commish/player's union head/God/Flying Spaghetti Monster/article writer. There are a lot of things I'd like to do with the league that I just don't think I can do if I'm also a team owner (lots of things I'll need an editor for or to make decisions about). If MLB is going to come to the CL to propose something, it's going to be odd if I'm also voting on whether or not the league wants to do it. Many of the major changes in the league will be voted on by the league's general managers, such as expansion plans or collective bargaining issues. In fact, ownership will largely be responsible for proposing the changes (I generally hold absolute veto, but sure hope to not have to use it!). It is for this reason that active ownership (i.e. on the fora) will be something of a requirement. The nitty-gritty of the initial setup: scouting and coaches are off. Suspensions off, injuries low, all ratings 2-8 (the presence of ratings and the scale used are up for discussion). Historical players are not recalculated but are left to the development engine. The CL was "created" in 1946 and simmed forward to 01/31/1961 in order to get rid of the initial player population (because they're always really weird, lots of undeveloped 28-year-olds and superduperstar 21-year-olds). Absolutely everything in the history was erased and a 1961 MLB historical league was added on. There was initially not going to be an amateur draft to start, however OOTP's solution for fictional leagues without a draft is somewhat inelegant, so I've decided to go with one. For service time, I got somewhat creative. In order to lure "established" ballplayers (they're all still fictional, just run with the story), the CL offered to credit service time (towards, I don't know, a player's pension, I guess) based on a player's age as of 01/31/1961. All players 21 or older were credited with at least 1 year pro service, with an additional year for each one over 21. Teams still have 3 options years to use: beginning at age 25, one was deducted from what would be otherwise available. Also beginning at age 25, players were given 40-man roster service time in one year increments, and starting ate age 28 were given major league service time in one year increments. Service time for players on MLB teams wasn't touched. The trade deadline is 06/15 (as it was for a very long time), Waviers/DFA will be set for 14 days. The financial system is active with the reserve clause and contracts are not guaranteed unless the team itself chooses to guarantee them. There is no All-Star game or playoff system, since it is a single 8-team league. Offense/defense will follow historical settings. I had initially anticipated sims being twice a week at 7 days per sim, but the season will progress too slowly. 14 day sims do not work well in leagues with secondary rosters and waivers, as the waiver/DFA periods need to be a month long. So there will be three sims per week of 7 days per sim (during the season. Offseason sims will likely be longer). tl;dr: Eight owners are needed to claim any one of the CL franchises and give it a nickname, logo, cap, jersey, ballpark (name, dimensions [capacity required to be at least 35,000], park factors) (the cities and your affiliates are already decided). Market sizes are about what you'd expect, but teams that have an MLB franchise in the same city have slightly lower fan loyalty and fan interest. Six teams are already spoken for: Atlanta and Buffalo are still available. The MLB teams will NOT be human-playable. While I generally leave this open to anybody, I reserve the right to say "no" dependent on your reputation as a responsible (or irresponsible, I suppose) owner. The league reports can be viewed here. New York and Toronto are the only teams to have named themselves, thus far. The league forum will be located under the OTBL umbrella, specifically here (awaiting a rename!!). You can PM here or there to notify me of your interest.

07-16-2011, 03:35 PM	#6
AtlCoach Minors (Double A) Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 194	Cl Would LOVE the opportunity to participate! The CL has always been interesting to me!

10-10-2011, 01:33 PM	#8
matskralc! Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 20	It's now July 27th, 1961 in the Continental League. Some highlights to this point of the season: -A number of MLB players held out of spring training seeking better contracts. The two biggest names were Maury Wills and Juan Marichal. Wills returned to the Dodgers for more money, while Marichal jumped to the Toronto Canadians of the Continental League. Earl Francis of the Pittsburgh Pirates also joined him, jumping to the Dallas Outlaws. The Canadians made Marichal the Continental League's highest paid player with a $150,000 contract. Marichal is 8-8 with a 2.68 ERA. -The San Francisco Giants sued the Continental League, Toronto Canadians, and Marichal in an attempt to enforce their contract with Marichal. After winning a preliminary injuction banning Marichal from playing pending the lawsuit's outcome (which resulted in Marichal being able to pitch in home games in Toronto, Canada, where the court's order could not be enforced), the Giants lost their lawsuit. The Giants intend to appeal. -For a time, Willie McCovey was tearing the cover off the ball and was a sure threat to obliterate Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a single season. Through 58 games, McCovey slugged an amazing 31 home runs. Unfortunately, he badly fractured a finger on June 14, and will likely miss around three months. Despite not playing for a month and a half, he is still third in MLB in home runs. Roger Maris leads with 33, and Leon Wagner is second with 32. In case you are interested, the Buffalo franchise is seeking an owner. Please check out the forum and let me know if you would like to take the reins! Last edited by matskralc!; 10-10-2011 at 01:35 PM.

07-10-2011, 06:35 PM	#2
matskralc! Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 20	Buffalo has been claimed.

07-10-2011, 07:45 PM	#3
Matty86 Major Leagues Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 401	I'm interested in Atlanta if they're still open... but I am curious and don't take this as an insult... are you new to the community? I see that this was your first post and have seen many leagues started and quickly die out when they are run by people brand new to the OOTP community

07-10-2011, 11:13 PM	#4
matskralc! Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 20	Nope, far from new. I used to post under "matskralc" (without the exclamation point...a couple thousand posts there, I'd reckon), but that password and email address are long gone and I haven't posted on this board in years, though I've lurked. I've been playing the game since OOTP4 (when you could get it in stores as "Season Ticket Baseball") and commished the OTBL for a while, once. I've been a member of the OTBL since its 2nd or 3rd season (though I'm not sure what season we're on now. Got to be at least 15 by now? In the true wheels-off tradition of the OTBL, we lost our history at some point :\), and I'm also an original member of MLB93 and an original member of the TCBA who left and then came back again a few seasons ago. At any rate, Atlanta is still open, so we're glad to have you aboard. Just head over to the OTBL forum and register. The "World Cup" forum is where this league's action will take place (I was originally going to start a World Cup type of league, but aborted it due to my continued dissatisfaction with OOTP's handling of international baseball...the subforum will get renamed by the board admin...eventually ). Whenever you've got a team nickname, logo, jersey, cap and ballpark infos, post them up! Anybody else who remains interested, don't hesitate to follow the league. There will almost certainly be expansion at some point.

08-22-2011, 06:25 PM	#7
matskralc! Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 20	Unfortunately, we are in need of an owner for the Atlanta franchise. Please check out the forum and let me know if you are interested. We have finished spring training and are 5 games into the CL regular season. This, by the way, is an OOTP12 league.

10-11-2011, 02:39 PM	#9
andrew_body Bat Boy Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 8	i'm interested. please email me at abody@muskingum.edu

11-08-2011, 05:31 PM	#10
matskralc! Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 20	The Continental League is seeking ownership for the Buffalo and Toronto franchises. -The Buffalo Bolts, despite being AI run for nearly the entire season, finished .500 and featured a strong offense. The pitching staff was their downfall, however, allowing the second most runs in the league. -The Toronto Canadians stole Juan Marichal from the San Francisco Giants and featured the opposite problem: a solid pitching staff and no offense to speak of. -Our season has concluded with the Minnesota Dragons winning the inaugural championship. We are currently holding our winter meetings to determine what, if any, changes should be made to aid the long-term viability of the league. Take a look through our first season, and let me know if this type of league (historical/fictional mix with a slight emphasis on developing a world) is up your alley.