Orcin's Brave New World

[blazertaz13]

This is such a big loss to the baseball community. I wonder what happened. Was foul play involved.

My week has now been blown all to hell.

[Sal, The Barber]

Sal has no comment at this time.

[illeracula]

... and the Cardinals were playing so well, he made all the right moves, the title was his this season... what happened? What will we do now? Hopefully the Cardinals will put patch on their jersey and go out and win the Series for him.

Sad sad news...

[DonBraswell]

OK, so now what. I am going to miss reading these adventures of Orcin's baseball life.

[Spud Eating Buccos]

What....the...hell....

This can't be real. What am I supposed to do every morning at work now? I think I need to go home now...

[antidan444]

Assuming this is the end of the story, a huge THANK YOU for one of the best reads I've ever enjoyed. I started about two months ago with the original thread.

[Jake129]

The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Otto Orcin

Otto, you will never be on TV for this thread, You will never be famous for this thread, you'll never be rich from this thread, but to all us loyal readers, you are much more. You are a living... errr.... (Dead?) legend that we will forever miss. You were there (almost) every day for all of us. Most of us never met you and never will, but that doesn't mean that you didn't affect our lives. The OOTP Otto Orcin lived a short life that ended abruptly at the age of 47, but it was still an amazing life. It was filled with championships and pennants, and wins. Despite the short life, I know I and many of your other readers would trade it for their life in an instance. That is the beauty of video games. That is the beauty of the internet. Thank you so much for writing this lovely story for 2 and a half years now. I know i have only been here for a year and a half, but you still were as big a part of my life as if i had known you forever. I hope you have a terrific life and I wish you the best of luck with your future endeavors. Thank you Otto!

[NYY #23]

Wait, what?

I have to say I didn't see that coming. Is someone watching too much Game of Thrones?

[AstaSyneri]

WUT? BUT!

Errr... This cannot be. What a cruel twist of fate. I wanted to know how Mr. Orcin would turn things around - or rather steer the Cardinals to a championship.

:{

[Orcin]

Postscript

I wrote the ending to this dynasty quite a while ago. It was always intended to be a three-part story. The only question was when, not how, it would conclude.

Otto Orcin was a workaholic. He was obsessed with his work and completely lacked life balance. You might have noticed that there was never a mention of his family beyond the first page of part one. That’s because he did not have a family. There were lots of opportunities for him, but he never invested the time. It was a void in his life that was never filled by accomplishments. Sal was his only real friend. And, bless his heart, Sal only served to assist Otto with his vices. Otto Orcin was a lonely man.

Otto made a tragic mistake when he left Louisville. He was offered a chance to settle down in his dream job as the highest-paid GM in his league. He had built up a lot of political capital. He could have added staff to do a lot of the work. He obviously should have scaled back his hours and improved his lifestyle. The biggest missed opportunity of all was his failure to cultivate a relationship with his perfect life partner – Jennifer.

Instead, Otto chose to chase a career. He pushed Gordon Cooper into a corner with his demand for an ownership stake, knowing that it would be rejected. He went to the “big city” with a compulsion to play on the biggest stage. He did not know anyone there and thus was without his support group (such as it was) for the first time. The only thing Otto knew how to do was work harder. The stress built, and he relieved the stress with bad habits. It was a downward spiral that could only end badly.

I tried to provide insight into Otto’s flawed personality throughout the story, but it was hard to fully develop the character. After all, this was a baseball dynasty on a baseball forum, so most of the story better be about baseball. But, it was also my novel. So, for my sake, it needed a plot and an ending. You might think I could have written a better one, but not all stories end happily. Darryl Kile and Ken Caminiti come to mind.

The lessons to be learned from Otto’s story are simple. Take care of yourself – before it is too late. Cherish the people around you, and try to make their lives better. Learn to relax and smell the coffee more often than you drink it. Find something that makes you happy, and do it as often as you can. (OOTPB is a good choice!) And above all, invest heavily in “swing-and-miss” pitchers. You can never have too many of those.

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement over the past two-plus years. I will take some time off from dynasty writing now, because I have a lot of things going on in my life at the moment. These are very good things, so don’t worry that I am spiraling down like Otto. I also have other projects in mind with OOTPB 15, which I just bought, so I won’t be a lurker forever. Until then, I will have a bit more time to read and comment on some of the great work on this forum. I am looking forward to that.

Thanks for reading.

[illeracula]

Oricin-

Thanks for the 3 great stories and the surprise, yet sad, ending to the final chapter. Otto will be missed, but his legend will live on.

Great job and congrats and 3 solid dynasty's. I look forward to reading about your next adventure. And I will be sure to try to make the trip to Louisville for Otto Orcin night.

I will miss the morning readings, but I guess that means I will get some more work done.

illeracula

[Klew1986]

What a great run with these dynasties. Looking forward to your next journey within the OOTP world.

[Galeg]

I've checked this thread religiously every weekday at 9am for a long, long time. Thanks for all the good times and the work you put into the series. Hopefully, you'll make another one day.

[Westheim]

I'm still a bit numb. I would just like to do one last thing here...

Thank you. Thank you for the ride. I've been reading players' reports on all kinds of games from baseball to auto racing to strategy games and beyond over the last decade on the internet.

This was the best ride I've ever been on.

Thank you. Thank you.

Now I will quickly move on from Mr. Orcin's open grave before I throw myself into the abyss here... (wipes away a tiny tear)

[gwalk]

Thanks for the ride Orcin.

i've taken a ton of your ideas and formed my own universe that i spend way too much time on. All the settings and stuff have been influenced by you! I also horde swing and miss pitchers like they're going out of style.

Thanks for all your insight and helpful information

best of luck in real life and future OOTP forays.

[Stromson]

Wow! I was an avid reader of Orcin's Story, but missed out on Orcin Returns and A Brave New World (I've started reading them now though). While I'm not caught up by any stretch, thank you for sharing your novel with us! I can't wait to see what you dream up in the future (and most importantly, I'm really happy to hear your personal life is going well).

[Super Utility Guy]

I did not know Otto Orcin well, but oddly enough I consider him to be a friend. Then again, anyone who ever had the good fortune of crossing paths with Otto would most likely tell you that they considered him to be a friend. He was, and I still find it hard to refer to him in the past tense, WAS an inspiration and a mentor to many people all over the world.

He inspired me to follow in his footsteps as a GM and it was during a period in my life when baseball began to cease being fun for me like it had been during my youth. Like many, my interest in the game began to wane during the last decade in which an increasing number of players tested positive for PEDs, some questionable rule changes were implemented and the televised games, once fun and enjoyable to watch, were no longer watchable with an increased emphasis on loud noises and special effects. Call me crazy, but I believe that the game was much bigger and meant more to people when there was less emphasis placed on the modern "bells and whistles" of technological advancement and more on the GAME itself.

It would have been easy and understandable for someone like myself to become a cynic during this time period, but there was one constant that helped bring me back to the game that I love and, to paraphrase James Earl Jones from Field Of Dreams "to remind us of all that was once good and it could be again". I can't speak for anyone other than myself, but I would like to believe that Otto Orcin did this for me as well as many, many others.

Otto's passion, love and excitement for baseball was evident in everything that he said and did, from the conversations we had to the writings he posted on the Internet. He is simply one of the greatest writers that I have ever had the privilege to read as well as one of the greatest General Managers the game has ever seen. There are only a few people in the game of baseball whom you could say could take over any ball club and make it successful. Otto Orcin was one of those people. Whether it was a low-budget Houston Astros team with more "Not-Ready-For-Primetime-Players" than Saturday Night Live ever had or the big-budget St. Louis Cardinals team with seemingly potential All-Stars at every position, Otto could lead any franchise to success. And if there's any legacy that Otto Orcin has left behind, it is that he left every team that he was a part of in better shape than it was before he arrived.

I will miss Otto Orcin as we all will. I personally will miss his wisdom, his insight, his sense of humor, his guidance, but more importantly, his friendship. We've all heard the expression "diamond in the rough". Otto was a "rough in the diamond", just a hard-nosed, gritty, lunch-pal, hard hat kind of guy that would rather get dirty than to play dirty. He left us far too soon, but in terms of life it wasn't the quantity of years, but the QUALITY of years in which he lived while here on this Earth. I am honored and humbled to have known Otto and, to his family and friends, my family and I offer to you our prayers and condolences and we will never forget you or Otto. May God bless you all. Thank you.

[Orcin]

It seems a little silly (creepy?) to thank my own eulogy. So I will just offer one big THANKS for all of the kind words since my untimely demise. And, I apologize to those that feel a big void in their mornings.

[DonBraswell]

How about Jennifer becomes the new St Louis GM?

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by DonBraswell

How about Jennifer becomes the new St Louis GM?

It's over, Don. Let it go.