Questions for those who use the historical structure for 19th century baseball

[Eckstein 4 Prez]

It seems like most people who start from the beginning use the simplified structure the game defaults to. (Not judging; the real structure is such a mess.) But I'm getting close to the start of the AA and I've been following the real structure so far.

I figure there have to be some others who follow the real thing, and here are my questions for any of those folks:

- I remember about 10-15 years ago, you couldn't delete the AA subleague after it folded or it would make a mess of your structure. Is that still true?
- So what do you do after the AA goes away?
- And how do you handle the UA (or the PL)?

For the most part, the historical imports and league settings are good enough to make moving through the years go pretty quickly. (It's only taken me a few weeks to get all the way through the 1870s, and I play a day at a time.) I know how to fix the things that don't work right (e.g., not enough errors in the 1870s). But I don't know what I should be doing structurally, or how to set up the schedule for the NL/AA so I don't have to do anything manually.

[Garlon]

I created a mod for a custom 19th century beginning in 1871. It does use AL and NL but I also had custom interleague schedules made for it too. No teams fold along the way and team names transition with respect to the franchise. I have logos, uniforms, and stadiums for it too. The teams also realign at the beginning of the 1901 season. We used this 19th century structure for the InteGreated NeL mod we posted for OOTP25. We are working on a new update for OOTP26.

1871: Dodgers/Giants/Braves/Cubs

1876: Pirates/Phillies/Cardinals/Reds

1882: Athletics/Guardians/Tigers/Yankees

1892: Twins/Orioles/White Sox/Red Sox


You can see a league I made using this mod on statsplus.

https://atl-01.statsplus.net/ootphis...100_index.html

[BaseballMan]

19th Century OOTP Play – Progress and Tips

Playing 19th-century baseball in OOTP has come a long way. One major improvement that could still help is including the actual starting pitchers for the AA (American Association), UA (Union Association), and PL (Players’ League) in the historical lineups. When using the game's fictional setup, it substitutes a different pitcher if the listed one isn’t on the team, which slows things down for users relying on historical accuracy. Having accurate historical starters would speed up gameplay significantly.

To be honest, the fictional setup might not even be necessary anymore. If you configure your league to reflect how it actually operated, you’ll generally get authentic results. While exhibition games or fictional schedules may require more manual oversight, users should be able to choose fictional expansion options if they want. Personally, I usually only need to manually assign starters in the AA, UA, and PL. The database handles team folding well on its own.

During the initial season when the game generates teams, all clubs fold except Boston, and it switches to the edited teams file. Unfortunately, this affects award eligibility as only Boston players qualify for awards at the end of 1871, which is a bit of a mess.

For my setup, I designate the AL as the American Association. This leaves record gaps from 1871–1881 and 1892–1901, which is what you’ll see later when reviewing American League history. You could try deleting league records, but that risks erasing data you want to keep.

In 1871, historical transactions and lineups don’t really work (not that there were many to begin with), but by Opening Day 1872, things start functioning. I still verify things with Retrosheet. Generally, the AI picks the correct NL starters if you're using actual "as-played" schedules. But for the AA, UA, and PL, you’ll need to manually set starters due to the starting pitchers are not in the historical lineups for those leagues.

The NA isn’t too difficult—there weren’t that many pitchers per team. Occasionally, I have to temporarily assign a player as a starting pitcher for a game (e.g., Tip O’Neill for St. Louis in 1884) and then revert his position afterward. It’s rare, but it happens. There are also occasional issues where historical transactions trade a player before his final start for a team, though these are being fixed quickly when reported to OOTP.

As for transactions, the game mostly gets them right—even with the UA. There was one case where a mismatch between a team abbreviation and the team ID in the transaction file caused issues. I’ve found that by making sure all team ids match the historical transaction team ids on January 1st avoids this problem. I’ve only had to do this once.

When adding the UA, I create it as a separate league. Beforehand, I update the teams file with the necessary UA teams, which will import after the 1883 season. On January 1, 1884, I create a fictional league with one division and two placeholder teams. I configure all the UA rules, delete all players and teams, then move the actual UA teams (initially imported into the AA) over to the UA. This makes transferring teams much simpler. Like with the AA, I manually assign starting pitchers day-by-day, following a sequence: AA → NL → UA. Some days, only one league has scheduled games.

If you're using postseason play for the AA and NL, be mindful that the UA schedule may not be complete—you’ll need to verify game statuses.

Last time, I deleted the UA after the season, but I save each year, so I can always revisit it. This time I might let it persist to see what happens. My main concern is that the AI, if roster moves are enabled, may try to sign players without a schedule. It might not, but to be safe, I disable AI roster moves at the start of the AA, UA, and PL until their respective Opening Days. The AI otherwise tries to sign players before historical transactions take effect. I think this happens before the historical transactions kick in.
I would advise checking the rosters for opening day every time you start another league. After that i think the ai gets it mostly right.

Overall, while 19th-century gameplay still requires time and effort, it’s vastly improved. The historical database, modded ballparks and jerseys, and AI-enhanced photos really bring the era to life—especially on a 49” ultrawide OLED monitor.