The League of Nations

[No Pepper]

I'm always a fan of your dynasties, your insights to the game, your avatar...keep up the good work, I'll be reading along with everyone else!

[Syd Thrift]

The Leafs have gone into a complete swoon following the Epsom Riot, losing 11 in a row, and are now fighting with Sydney to see who will be the worst team in the new League. On the better side of streakiness, Paris has vaulted into first place with 7 wins in a row in the Western Europe Division. I feel like that division will go to whoever gets hot at the end of the year. A quick look at Paris' home page:



I need to rework these logos and unis but I'll do that as the league progresses. Anyway, this team has some great pitching but the offense is only average so those great pitchers are sitting with records like 7-8. SP Christian Maze was asked about this and responded, "uohoho, what a stupid American question. You know I do not like the losing and the 10 inning games with the no decisions. Why do you even ask? Hon hon hon. You probably think I like to eat the roquefort cheese straight. This is a true thing but it is incredibly stupid and American that you think it."





Here I feel like the big story is Sultans RF Efe Saffet "chasing" .400, and I mean "chasing" because he hasn't played in almost a month. "I have to be honest, my friend, I am not interested in this batting thing. I only want to help my team to win and make the Ottoman Empire great again," he said to a reporter.

[Syd Thrift]

UGH I completely misread the Wikipedia page (which, to be fair, there was a July 1 date in the midst of June dates) and so I'm just going to ignore those events rather than stop this save in its tracks. MOVING ON...

July 2: The Syrian National Congress in Damascus: Arab nationalists announce independence. That's got to be a bump to Iran's POWer! Kind of a big one too if you ask me. LF Faris Hamzah, who is hitting a very empty .240 this year, 1B Suoud bin Omran, who has lots of power but has just 1 dinger to show for it, and C Zubair bin Marzuq, who also has no expressed power so far, all get bumps.

July 2-6: British airship R34 makes the first transatlantic flight by dirigible, and the first westbound flight, from RAF East Fortune, Scotland, to Mineola, New York. A dirigible, really? I realize this is 1919 and any transatlantic flight is big news but sorry London you get the GRIT BUMP for this one. 2B Sam Adamson, who is already the picture of GRIT, gets more GRIT for the GRIT mill.

July 3: Estonian and Latvian Wars of Independence: The pro-German Baltische Landeswehr signs a peace treaty with Estonia and Latvia. The pro-German Prime Minister of Latvia Andrievs Niedra resigns, and Latvian forces take over Riga on July 8. Russia gets a baleful decline in military STF: Luka Mavlutdninov, who I think got an earlier bump, and Fyodor Raskolnikov are affected. For Germany, what they really need is depth at catcher and what do you know, Estonia has a guy for that, Priit Lohmus.

July 4: I considered giving AMERICA a Go Away, Filthy British bump but the American teams are already figuring pretty prominently.

July 5-20: Russian Civil War, Eastern or Siberian Front, Ekaterinburg Operation: The Red Army captures the city of Ekaterinburg in the Ural mountains from the White rule of Admiral Alexander Kolchak. This time, a positive STF showing - civil wars are topsy-turvy affairs. RP Kolya "Proletariat" Shilling and SP Spartak Pobortsev get the bumps.

July 7: The United States Army sends a convoy across the continental U.S., starting in Washington, D.C., to assess the possibility of crossing North America by road. This crossing takes many months to complete, because the building of the U.S. Highway System has not commenced. This is maybe stretching what I'd initially considered but this is totally a VEL spike for all 3 American teams: the Yankees get SP Mike Stroud (as if he needed to be any better) and RP Ben Hank, the Defenders have CL Nick Farmer and RP Manny Scott, and the Stars have Dave Castillo (who was a high-80s junkballer who now hits 90) and aging RP David Gilbert.

July 11: The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands. Wow, way to show off. That's a POW bump: 3B John van der Wiel, who's hitting only .207 with 2 dingers this year, and backup 2B Ruud van Spanje get the improvements.

July 13: Not a Wikipedia item but the All Star Rosters have been announced. Here they are in all their glory:

Old World All-Star Game Selections announced:

SP Giovany Angloma (ROM) - 7-6, 2.48 ERA, 123.1 IP, 1.22 WHIP, 3.5 K/9, 1.5 WAR
SP Silvano Fatorini (ROM) - 9-2, 2.36 ERA, 148.2 IP, 1.05 WHIP, 5.8 K/9, 4.7 WAR
SP Michel Gourdon (BRX) - 11-6, 2.45 ERA, 157.2 IP, 1.17 WHIP, 4.1 K/9, 3.6 WAR
SP Roger Mercier (PAR) - 9-8, 2.86 ERA, 154.0 IP, 1.24 WHIP, 5.8 K/9, 4.5 WAR
SP Iwo Mincewicz (WAR) - 11-5, 2.75 ERA, 154.0 IP, 1.25 WHIP, 4.9 K/9, 2.7 WAR
SP Josef Schoeeser (WIE) - 11-6, 2.36 ERA, 141.1 IP, 1.35 WHIP, 2.7 K/9, 1.6 WAR
SP Yann Visconti (ROM) - 7-9, 2.71 ERA, 143.0 IP, 1.13 WHIP, 6.7 K/9, 4.5 WAR
SP Iosif Yanushkovsky (MOS) - 7-7, 1.93 ERA, 125.2 IP, 1.07 WHIP, 3.2 K/9, 3.0 WAR
CL Daniel Cazares (MAD) - 2-4, 14 SV, 1.86 ERA, 48.1 IP, 1.20 WHIP, 6.9 K/9, 0.8 WAR
CL Colijn Kamp (AMS) - 4-3, 12 SV, 1.36 ERA, 53.0 IP, 1.11 WHIP, 6.5 K/9, 1.6 WAR
CL Vid Krull (BER) - 1-4, 21 SV, 2.01 ERA, 44.2 IP, 1.21 WHIP, 7.7 K/9, 1.9 WAR
CL Gino Roncero (ROM) - 5-1, 19 SV, 0.73 ERA, 49.0 IP, 0.96 WHIP, 5.9 K/9, 1.7 WAR

C Tobias Fisher (BER) - .287/.352/.377, 247 AB, 1 HR, 2 SB, 104 wRC+, 2.2 WAR
C Alberto Saavedra (MAD) - .257/.347/.361, 202 AB, 2 HR, 1 SB, 110 wRC+, 1.7 WAR
C Roland Waldheim (WIE) - .333/.419/.411, 129 AB, 2 HR, 148 wRC+, 1.6 WAR
1B Quentin Cole (MOS) - .321/.364/.490, 349 AB, 6 HR, 5 SB, 154 wRC+, 3.0 WAR
1B Maurice Noordermeer (AMS) - .290/.390/.442, 328 AB, 4 HR, 38 SB, 149 wRC+, 4.7 WAR
1B Stuart van Santen (BRX) - .337/.369/.406, 323 AB, 1 HR, 1 SB, 132 wRC+, 2.6 WAR
2B Bastien Mathieu (PAR) - .371/.450/.495, 299 AB, 1 HR, 1 SB, 179 wRC+, 4.0 WAR
2B Caffar O'Sullivan (LON) - .303/.347/.383, 300 AB, 3 HR, 3 SB, 112 wRC+, 3.0 WAR
3B Wasylo Henryk (WAR) - .282/.348/.378, 323 AB, 2 HR, 1 SB, 115 wRC+, 2.8 WAR
3B Aaron Humphreys (LON) - .359/.401/.505, 329 AB, 3 HR, 33 SB, 162 wRC+, 5.4 WAR
SS Foeke Dane (AMS) - .315/.341/.408, 343 AB, 2 HR, 17 SB, 118 wRC+, 4.0 WAR
SS Flavien Romanelli (ROM) - .326/.382/.556, 288 AB, 2 HR, 23 SB, 175 wRC+, 4.8 WAR
LF Naþit Akbulut (IST) - .316/.362/.480, 244 AB, 5 HR, 2 SB, 143 wRC+, 2.2 WAR
LF Lubomirz Lipski (WAR) - .315/.367/.466, 292 AB, 6 HR, 12 SB, 145 wRC+, 4.2 WAR
LF Lars Rolnik (BER) - .284/.361/.429, 317 AB, 10 HR, 3 SB, 139 wRC+, 2.0 WAR
CF Panas Elistratov (MOS) - .319/.338/.432, 317 AB, 1 HR, 31 SB, 126 wRC+, 2.2 WAR
CF Gregers Glob (COP) - .291/.366/.378, 299 AB, 3 HR, 16 SB, 118 wRC+, 0.4 WAR
CF Antoine Thomas (BRX) - .291/.340/.384, 320 AB, 1 HR, 6 SB, 115 wRC+, 2.8 WAR
CF Casper Zwartjes (AMS) - .339/.384/.430, 351 AB, 2 HR, 54 SB, 142 wRC+, 4.2 WAR
RF Koos Post (BRX) - .352/.406/.414, 324 AB, 3 SB, 148 wRC+, 2.5 WAR
RF Efe Saffet (IST) - .408/.500/.601, 228 AB, 3 HR, 24 SB, 211 wRC+, 3.5 WAR
RF Veit Schutzhauer (WIE) - .340/.374/.436, 335 AB, 2 HR, 6 SB, 141 wRC+, 3.7 WAR

New World All-Star Game Selections announced:

SP Xiao-wei Cao (BEI) - 11-5, 2.53 ERA, 160.0 IP, 1.14 WHIP, 5.1 K/9, 4.8 WAR
SP Drew Cooper (LA) - 9-8, 2.68 ERA, 151.1 IP, 1.16 WHIP, 3.8 K/9, 2.6 WAR
SP Masahito Konishi (TOK) - 8-8, 2.72 ERA, 149.0 IP, 1.15 WHIP, 4.7 K/9, 4.0 WAR
SP Chris McGrattan (NYY) - 8-4, 2.46 ERA, 153.2 IP, 1.17 WHIP, 2.9 K/9, 3.1 WAR
SP Takuya Shimizu (TOK) - 9-7, 2.35 ERA, 157.0 IP, 1.08 WHIP, 2.6 K/9, 3.4 WAR
SP Mike Stroud (NYY) - 7-5, 2.01 ERA, 116.1 IP, 1.13 WHIP, 3.7 K/9, 2.7 WAR
SP Balbinder Tummala (BOM) - 9-8, 2.00 ERA, 157.2 IP, 1.43 WHIP, 2.3 K/9, 1.9 WAR
SP Steve Zoss (NYY) - 9-5, 2.03 ERA, 155.0 IP, 1.08 WHIP, 4.5 K/9, 3.9 WAR
RP Xiao-shuang Zhou (BEI) - 4-3, 2.36 ERA, 91.2 IP, 1.16 WHIP, 1.7 K/9, 0.4 WAR
CL Kalidas Honnenahalli (BOM) - 1-3, 24 SV, 1.70 ERA, 42.1 IP, 1.23 WHIP, 5.3 K/9, 0.7 WAR
CL Korbin Jackson (LA) - 3-2, 18 SV, 2.23 ERA, 32.1 IP, 1.30 WHIP, 11.7 K/9, 1.3 WAR
CL Omar Martinez (MC) - 2-1, 23 SV, 1.73 ERA, 41.2 IP, 1.27 WHIP, 3.5 K/9, 0.8 WAR
CL Hu Wang (BEI) - 4-1, 10 SV, 2.42 ERA, 26.0 IP, 0.92 WHIP, 8.7 K/9, 1.2 WAR

C Nick Arnold (NYY) - .331/.372/.409, 281 AB, 118 wRC+, 1.8 WAR
C Zubair bin Marzuq (TEH) - .320/.379/.356, 278 AB, 120 wRC+, 2.3 WAR
C Zhuo-cheng Jin (BEI) - .297/.339/.392, 283 AB, 3 HR, 114 wRC+, 2.8 WAR
C Melvin Lopez (MC) - .312/.396/.355, 231 AB, 107 wRC+, 2.5 WAR
1B Adam Collins (CHI) - .340/.367/.450, 329 AB, 4 HR, 140 wRC+, 2.3 WAR
1B Albert Cushing Read (NYY) - .313/.388/.518, 195 AB, 9 HR, 8 SB, 161 wRC+, 1.5 WAR
2B Tom Garcia (LA) - .304/.361/.354, 339 AB, 29 SB, 113 wRC+, 4.0 WAR
2B Diviraj Nitya-Sundara (BOM) - .343/.377/.424, 347 AB, 24 SB, 138 wRC+, 2.8 WAR
3B Isaac Bashford (SYD) - .334/.353/.384, 365 AB, 18 SB, 117 wRC+, 3.3 WAR
3B Elimilton Dehaine (RIO) - .342/.375/.429, 322 AB, 1 HR, 3 SB, 138 wRC+, 2.4 WAR
3B John Drake (TOR) - .352/.394/.447, 219 AB, 2 HR, 143 wRC+, 2.3 WAR
SS Majdy Abdul-Wahhab (TEH) - .340/.421/.461, 332 AB, 2 HR, 30 SB, 155 wRC+, 4.6 WAR
SS Hector Canizalez (MC) - .332/.381/.418, 256 AB, 7 SB, 135 wRC+, 2.1 WAR
SS Hugo Castaneda (CHI) - .384/.436/.540, 328 AB, 1 HR, 25 SB, 184 wRC+, 4.3 WAR
SS David Lujano (HAV) - .270/.318/.355, 304 AB, 2 HR, 28 SB, 89 wRC+, 3.0 WAR
LF Ben King (CHI) - .364/.398/.431, 341 AB, 1 HR, 148 wRC+, 2.6 WAR
LF Rintaro Nagase (TOK) - .341/.382/.457, 352 AB, 2 HR, 22 SB, 153 wRC+, 4.2 WAR
LF Autathya Rebani (BOM) - .284/.321/.416, 334 AB, 4 HR, 42 SB, 118 wRC+, 3.2 WAR
CF Jim Reader (TOR) - .296/.325/.471, 291 AB, 2 HR, 19 SB, 132 wRC+, 1.9 WAR
CF Du Tse (BEI) - .275/.374/.421, 280 AB, 3 HR, 22 SB, 133 wRC+, 2.3 WAR
RF Bimbesvara Goli (BOM) - .324/.398/.425, 299 AB, 2 HR, 3 SB, 143 wRC+, 2.5 WAR
RF Ching-wei Jiao (BEI) - .307/.343/.477, 283 AB, 3 HR, 22 SB, 138 wRC+, 2.1 WAR
RF Gaku Ogawa (RIO) - .286/.342/.437, 325 AB, 8 HR, 1 SB, 133 wRC+, 3.0 WAR

July 15: The New World downed the Old World in the first-ever All-Star Game, 6-0. Toronto Maple Leafs CF Jim Reader was named MVP after going 2-2 with a run and an RBI after coming in for starter Du Tse. "I'm really sorry that I had to put on such a display, eh?" said the native of Hamilton, ON, also known as "south Detroit". "I'm just gonna go back to my place and take the boys to Tim Ho's... well, Tim Ho's doesn't exist yet but I think you know what I mean, eh?".

[Syd Thrift]

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by No Pepper

I'm always a fan of your dynasties, your insights to the game, your avatar...keep up the good work, I'll be reading along with everyone else!

Thanks! Fingers crossed, perhaps this one won't sputter off and die after 3 months.

[Syd Thrift]

July 19: The Foreign Ministry of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic is established, by decree of the chancellory for foreign affairs. This is the first Middle Eastern / Turkic democracy, and while the Ottoman Empire is falling apart, its constituent people (I think Azerbaijan was part of the OM? It was definitely sucked into the USSR later; in any case, the ethnic groups are probably more closely related to the people taking over modern-day Turkey) are acquiring more POWer. Superstar RF Efe Saffet, who is hitting .419 now, gets one; LF Napit Akbulut, also an All-Star, receives one as well.

Also on July 19, Copenhagen finally won a game, ending an 18 game losing streak.

July 21: Wingfoot Air Express crash: The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express catches fire over downtown Chicago. Two passengers, one aircrewman and ten people on the ground are killed; however, two people parachute to the ground safely. Starting C Hector Garcia is listed as missing after the crash; he was reportedly out watching it at the time.

July 27: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 begins when a white man throws stones at a group of four black teens on a raft. This was part of the Red Summer in the US, where there were riots and protests across the nation. This is pretty bad for Chicago... 3 Avoid Ks losses: 1B Adam Collins, who was among the best in the league at putting the ball in play before this bout of myopia, his backup at the position Elijah Cooper, and All-Star LF Ben King.

July 28: The International Astronomical Union is founded in Paris, France. Nerd stuff gets you EYE and this is pretty nerdy: backup LF Jean-Louis Bouet and PH/1B Maurice Morice (great name!) get the buff.

July 31: British police strikes in London and Liverpool for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers; over 2,000 strikers are dismissed. This looks like more of a POWer loss for the people. SS Bailey Powell for the second time avoids badness by being a 1/1/1 in Power already, although CF Glen Wilcox has significantly further to fall.

And I'll close this bad boy out with a look at the standings as of the end of the month:



Nobody's super good and only the Danes are truly bad at the baseballs. Incidentally, Warsaw and Istanbul are now neck and neck, the latter led by the .408 average of Efe Saffet. Will the Ottoman Empire have one last piece of glory before fading out of existence? Tune in and find out!

Oh, also, one last last thing: the London Monarchs exercise their Right of Dominion and trade C Tim Warren to the Sydney Outlaws for C Brayden Pugsley. "We had our choice of either of Sydney's catchers", said English GM King George V. "In the end, we chose Mr. Pugsley because of his veteran leadership and, good gracious, the man has the most properly British name I have ever seen!".

[OrangeP47]

Azerbaijan was within the Russian Empire already (indeed, Armenia is between it and Turkey, for the most part... it's complicated) The border between the USSR and Turkey was not appreciably different than the border between the Russian Empire and the Ottomans. If you need any advice on any history hit me up, as I said I've got experience (a degree in it) but I don't want to step on your toes, and I have a feeling this Dynasty kinda flows better as a "close enough" sorta approach so I'm not gonna get all "well actually" on you about any historical misunderstandings or anything... unless you want me too

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by OrangeP47

Azerbaijan was within the Russian Empire already (indeed, Armenia is between it and Turkey, for the most part... it's complicated) The border between the USSR and Turkey was not appreciably different than the border between the Russian Empire and the Ottomans. If you need any advice on any history hit me up, as I said I've got experience (a degree in it) but I don't want to step on your toes, and I have a feeling this Dynasty kinda flows better as a "close enough" sorta approach so I'm not gonna get all "well actually" on you about any historical misunderstandings or anything... unless you want me too

No, that's fine! I have a minor in history myself but I'm always open to feedback. I went with the Ottoman Empire / Turkey getting the boost because I feel like the people of Azerbaijan were/are ethnically more similar to the people in charge of the area around Istanbul at the time than the people in charge of the area around Russia. At that, that's an arbitrary distinction, as I'm likely to give England, for example, "credit" for stuff that happens in Egypt or Iraq.

[OrangeP47]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

No, that's fine! I have a minor in history myself but I'm always open to feedback. I went with the Ottoman Empire / Turkey getting the boost because I feel like the people of Azerbaijan were/are ethnically more similar to the people in charge of the area around Istanbul at the time than the people in charge of the area around Russia. At that, that's an arbitrary distinction, as I'm likely to give England, for example, "credit" for stuff that happens in Egypt or Iraq.

Yeah, it's fair enough. I mean, there's a reason both parties were always fighting over the region so it really could go either way especially when playing fast and loose. As I said, I do think fast and loose is the way to go, because otherwise you'd probably just slow yourself down when these things are just secondary to the story you want to tell

[Syd Thrift]

August 1: Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic collapses. Kun flees to the Soviet Union, who decide to let him try his hand at baseball. Sadly, he's only a relief pitcher in the eyes of the communists, although they do think his writing and foreign diplomacy are enough to close out games.

August 3: The Romanian army liberates Timișoara from Hungarian occupation. I was expecting to add Hungary next season but maybe Romania, too? Anyway this is clearly a loss of military STF to Austria (though not as bad as tomorrow's event): SP Benni Poppmeier, who frankly doesn't have a lot of STF to give in the first place, and SP Petteri Sulkunen take the hit.

August 4: The Romanian army occupies Budapest. I mean, this is as bad as it can get. This time around, SP Josef Schoeeser, who went to the All-Star Game this year, CL Fabian Fuster, and... oh man, Benni Poppmeier for a second time take the hit. I guess the good news for Vienna is that Poppmeier is more of a AAAA starter pressed into the rotation by lots of injuries, so he maybe won't fit into the long-term plans...

August 8: The Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919, signed in Rawalpindi, ends the Third Anglo-Afghan War, with the United Kingdom recognising the right of the Emirate of Afghanistan to manage its own foreign affairs and Afghanistan recognising the Durand Line as the border with British India. It seems perverse to give the English credit for ending a war that they were mainly the aggressors in, but the rules are the rules. Part-time C Jason Findlay, 2B and Monarchs All-Star representative Caffar O'Sullivan, and 2B Ethan Ashworth get boosts to Avoid K(onflict).

August 11: In Germany, the Weimar Constitution is proclaimed to be in effect (ratified). Big, big POW news for Germany, and, dare I say, democracy is something the relatively new nation-state has never done before. So first up, the POW hits: 3B Clovis Rosenthal, a pretty solid starter who somehow missed out on the All-Star Game, his backup 3B Julius Newman, and SS Gero Martin. With the new pitch thing, I don't really know what's OP so I'm going to do one guy and add one new pitch at 50/75. It's 38 year old Achatius Brown, who probably won't get the potential on that pitch, but he adds a straight change to his repertoire should he ever start a game and need a "show me" pitch.

August 13 (not a news item): With so many team's reserve teams decimated by injuries and various events, a call goes around the league to allow recruitment of additional players. Belgium refuses the call. "We are good", their GM is heard to say in a rather piquant manner. It is possible, albeit not probable, that the author is misusing the word "piquant" here.

And a quick look at the standings and leaders:



The Sultans have now surpassed the early-season heroics of the Warsaw Crusaders (yikes!). Efe Saffet has followed up a .425 July with, so far, a .358 August to keep his average right at .400. He also has 83 runs scored in 90 games. "My wish is to hit third or fourth but I will do whatever my friends in the Ottoman Empire tell me to do, even if that means leading off games. You know something, don't even tell the sultan of my preferences.", he told our intrepid reporters.

Western Europe continues to be Parity Division. I've made the "Moscow would be proud" joke already so I'll... nope, I just repeated it. Paris is currently the hot boys, led by a league-best 502 runs scored. 3B Didier Taillandier is the key to their success, hitting .351 with 51 RBIs. "I wish you Americans wouldn't use such superlatives, it is very distracting", he said when asked how the team is getting on.

The New York Yankees have purchased their way to the best record in baseball, which shouldn't take anyone by surprise. Their top guy so far, though, is transatlantic flier Albert Cushing Read, who is one of the few players in the league to get double digit homeruns. "My father always told me that if you want to do something well, you should do it a lot, and I have taken that approach to baseball", he said.

And last but certainly not least, the Beijing Dragons are locked in a tight race with the Rio de Janeiro Carnivale and the Bombay Elephants. Just one game separates all 3 teams and this figures to be a good pennant class well into September. The Dragons are 3rd in the league in runs allowed and their #1 starter Xiao-Wei Cao might be the best pitcher, period. He's 14-7 so far with a 2.96 ERA and has 121 strikeouts. Actually the more I look at it, he's not really in the running. But he's good, okay?

[OrangeP47]

"Sadly, he's only a relief pitcher in the eyes of the communists, although they do think his writing and foreign diplomacy are enough to close out games." is by far the funniest thing I've read all day, though to be fair it's not yet noon, so...

Never change.

[Syd Thrift]

August 16: First Silesian Uprising: Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans. Lars Rolnik (Outspoken personality) loudly declares that he will jump to Poland to support this uprising, and RP Stefan Hahn (Unmotivated) says he has nothing better to do, so why not join Lars?

August 18: Russian Civil War: North Russia intervention – The Bolshevik fleet at Kronstadt, protecting Petrograd on the Baltic Sea, is substantially damaged by British Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats (torpedo boats) and military aircraft in a combined operation. That's a pretty big show of force - STF, if you will, for England and a pretty big setback for the Soviets. SP Luke Buxton, who has been struggling with a 4-9 record this year, and Jude Woodland, who is not a lot better at 6-9, get a couple of much-needed bumps; RP Yura Vishnevsky, that guy with the 278 changeup, and Faddei Molov take the hits.

August 21: Friedrich Ebert becomes the first president in Germany. This is a pretty big first, right? SP Warner Rippner throws a cutter, a curve, and a straight change. Berlin goes the Roger Craig (who?) route and shows him that the true meaning of democracy is the split-fingered fastball (the "expected stats" section, by the way, shows a 0.12 ERA drop from that, so it's not excessive I don't think). RP Christian Kauffman throws a four-seamer, a curve, and technically has a straight change in his repertoire. He'll learn the circle change as well (that by the way has no effect on his projected ERA because as a reliever he won't be asked to throw that pitch; however, this does make him more effective as a starter now, which is important given that Berlin has used him as a spot starter this year).

August 24 - September 12: Russian Civil War: Counteroffensive of Southern Front – The Red Army commanded by Vladimir Yegoryev attacks the White forces of General Anton Denikin but is defeated. Uh oh! That's bad STF for Moscow; they've been getting a bunch of those lately. SP Mayer Yost, the German turncoat, gets another hit. This is what you get for joining the Reds! Yost is 12-8 with his chosen team. Also SP Luka Mavlutdinov, who I know I've also made changes to, gets a hit as well. He was a reliever all year but was recently moved into the rotation it looks like.

August 27: South African Prime Minister Louis Botha dies in office. My first thought here was to have this happen to the Dutch but Botha was literally a war hero of the Boer War so that's out of place. Still, this is ZERO THINGS. REVERSE GRIT BUMP to Britain (which, I'm now adding Gap Power to the items getting the GRIT BUMP now since a. Gap Power is also kind of useless, and b. stretching singles into doubles is exactly what gritty players do). PH/2B Sam Adamson gets the GRIT BUMP whoops that was supposed to be a GRIT MALUS too late the GRIT GODS HAVE SPOKEN THEIR GRITSPEECH

August 29: Russian Civil War: The Red Army captures Pskov from White forces. I'd love to add a Pskovian but Pskov is inside of the modern Russian borders, too, so it's "just" a STF bump. SP Vladik Gaigalis, who is 11-7 on the year with a 2.62 ERA, and RP Kolya "Proletariat" Shilling get the bumps.

August 31: The American Communist Party is established. I feel like Russia's secret power is that whenever an event like this happens, someone defects from that country. In this case, RP Adam Miller, who has the lowest Loyalty on the Chicago Defenders (where else am I going to use Loyalty when players are tied to their club?) jumps. He's promptly sent to the gulags to work on his fastball. At the same time, Chicago gets a bump to the (political) POWer of the left with this: All-Star 1B Adam Collins gets one, as does CF Joe Quinn.

And here's a look at the standings as we approach the first pennant race month in League of Nations history:



Paris rode a 17-10 August to first place in the Western Europe division. Maybe Didier Tailandier was right to divert the attention away from him because their top offensive guy is clearly 2B Bastien Mathieu, who's hitting .376 with 59 RBIs. We tried to approach him for an interview but he watched us walk out of the Tesla Device and seemed morbidly afraid to speak to us.

Warsaw seems to have re-asserted themselves on top of the Eastern Division, thanks in large part to the pitching of Iwo Mincewicz, who is 18-7 on the year and has won his last 5 starts. He reportedly enjoys cooking in his spare time (look, I looked up "Polish hobbies" on Google and that's what I came back with. Sue me).

The Yankees are, well, the Yankees, although several injuries have made them look slightly vulnerable. I mean, not so vulnerable that Mexico City's going to catch up, but, like, approachable vulnerable, like Lauren Graham on Gilmore Girls.

The Carnivale are ever so slightly ahead of the Beijing Dragons in the South America / Asia DIvision. There are a *lot* of people of mixed Japanese-Brazilian heritage here, which I'm around 99% positive is an artifact of World War II, but, um, in this alternate universe both groups like baseball so the exclave started early. Their ace pitcher in fact is one of these folks, Kohei Hasse, a 30 year old who throws mostly junk, and not even that accurately according to his scouting reports, but... he's 13-11 with a 3.36 ERA and that's good enough for a team that is leading the New World in runs scored.

[Sizeman21]

Originally Posted by OrangeP47

"Sadly, he's only a relief pitcher in the eyes of the communists, although they do think his writing and foreign diplomacy are enough to close out games." is by far the funniest thing I've read all day, though to be fair it's not yet noon, so...

Never change.

Agreed with Orange, your humor knows no bounds Syd, thank you for the laughs.

[Syd Thrift]

Thanks for the kind words, folks. I try and keep the actual puns to a bare minimum.

September 1: Russian Civil War, Siberian Front: Admiral Alexander Kolchak launches his final offensive in the Tobolsk operation, defeating the Red Army. This seems bad for Russian military STF (although I'm told they win this eventually, so...). RP Kolya Shilling, who's been affected very strongly by this war, and, wait for it... Luka Mavlutdinov are hit.

September 3: Jan Smuts becomes the second Prime Minister of South Africa. The League taketh away... and the league gritteth. 3B Aaron Humphreys, who made the All-Star Game but was suprisingly lacking in GRIT, gets it.

September 6: The U.S. Army expedition across America, which started July 7, ends in San Francisco. These nationwide events affect all US clubs but I'm going to make the arbitrary decision that since this directly involves California, it's going to affect the LA Stars especially. Anyway, the Yankees get BABIP bumps to SS Scott Carpenter, who has been kind of iffy since coming over from the Defenders (.223/1/41 though TBF he might win a Gold Glove), All-Star C Nick Arnold, and backup OF Dusty Mancuso (oops, only supposed to be two. Damn Yankees). Chicago gets bumps to Jesus "Old Man" River, who does not belong in this league but now belongs slightly more, and backup 1B/PR Elijah Cooper, who also doesn't look like he hits well enough to be here. And the Stars... light-hitting backup C Bob Shames, platoonish 1B Mike Youngsworth, and little used backup OF Mike Ruggiero all get BABIP.

September 10-15: The Florida Keys hurricane kills 600 in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Texas. 6 HUNDRED. Jesus. Anyway, the Defenders cover the Midwest and South so... backup 3B Chris Meehan and 2B Mark Carroll are missing and presumed lost.

September 10: The Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, ending World War I with Austria-Hungary and declaring that the latter's empire is to be dissolved. The Republic of German-Austria becomes the First Austrian Republic but retains less than 40% of the prewar imperial territory. Immediately, 10 members of the Musik are suspended for lack of allegiance. These players will also make up the backbone of the Budapest team that shall enter the league next season. I won't list them all but suffice it to say that Austria's going to be limping for the rest of the month.

September 10: Vienna somehow wins their first game with their tiny roster, 6-5 over the London Monarchs.

September 12: Gabriele D'Annunzio, with his entourage, marches into Fiume and convinces Italian troops to join him. This guy and this whole incident is... weird. Anyway, it looks to me like this is a showing of Italian military STF. SP Constant Costocurta, a junkballer with 4 pitches, is now a junkballer with a slightly better curveball, and SP Yann Visconti made the All-Star Game with these boys so now he's even All-Staller.

September 12: First gold fixing takes place in London. Apparently this is a very big thing in financial circles. I don't really have anything for finance/commerce but it's kind of like population and therefore BAB(y)IP, so... RF Rio Bernerd goes from being a liability to... something less than one, Burman 1B Xuan Wang (I think he was a randomly generated player) gets himself a little boost, and backup OF Kyle Richardson all get bumps.

Vienna lost to Warsaw 15-4. The lack of depth is beginning to sink in... then again, they just won 2 vs the Matadors and are now 3-4 since being forced to play with a skeleton roster.

Standings!



It's shaping up! Also, the Sydney Outlaws have joined the Copenhagen Vikings on the List of Badness.

[Syd Thrift]

September 17: German South West Africa is placed under South African administration. For Germany this is a loss of military STF, although not really that big of one; they'd lose this territory in all but name from 1915 onward. Thus, only Walter Jaeger loses some, although he is in a very precarious Stuff position. For England, they recruit a player from that region (modern day Namibia): Afellan Tarik, whom they are dropping right into their lineup while starting RF Rio Bernerd is out.

The Yankees' magic number is at 3 and the oddsmakers give them a 100% chance of beating the 2nd place Chicago Defenders out.

September 19: The Yankees clinch the North America division, the first of the divisions to be decided. Elsewhere, Paris has opened up a 4 game lead over Amsterdam, Warsaw is holding off Moscow now, 3 games up (Istanbul is 3 1/2 back), and Beijing is 3 1/2 games up on the Carnivale.

September 21: The Steel strike of 1919 begins across the United States. Elsewhere this would be a malus but we aren't elsewhere! The Chicago Defenders, who are chasing .500 now, get POW bumps to 2B Luke Green and backup RF Joey Bensen.

September 27: Russian Civil War: The last British Army troops leave Archangel, and leave the fighting to the Russians. So, I guess this is a way of Avoiding K(onflict)s for the Monarchs, so they'll get a bump there... CF Glen Wilson figures to suck slightly less next season as a result. For Moscow, though, this is kind of big... wow, good old Luka Mavlutdinov gets one of the bumps, and RP Yura Vishnevsky, whose name I'm also pretty sure I've called, gets the other.

Old World West
-----------
Paris 84-69, --
Amsterdam 82-71, 2 GB
Brussels 82-72, 2 1/2

Old World East
-----------
Warsaw 83-70, --
Istanbul, 83-71, 1/2
Moscow, 81-72, 2

New World North
------------
New York 93-61, -- (x)

New World South/Asia
-----------
Beijing 88-65, --
Rio de Janeiro 84-70, 4 1/2

September 30: Elaine massacre: An estimated 100 to 237 Black people and 5 white people were killed[citation needed] in Elaine, Arkansas, by white mobs and vigilante militias assisted by federal troops[36] in "the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history and possibly the bloodiest racial conflict in the history of the United States". I'm having a fun, glib, crass time and then a story like this pops up... so, obviously something happens to Chicago: John Law, a backup 2B, goes missing (Chicago has been dodging some serious bullets with these). At the same time, I can't help but think that New York has to shoulder some blame, especially given that the federal government assisted in this massacre. Albert Cushing Read is tainted by this and loses POW, as does RF George Kuntz.



It's still neck and neck between Paris and the Low Countries. The big ace up Paris' sleeve is the return of SP Daniel Bellot (5-0, 2.43), who has missed most of the season with an elbow injury but is healthy now and their #1 starter. Both Brussels and Amsterdam look to me to be playing way over their heads but 1 game is 1 game and who am I to judge?

Istanbul rode a hot streak to swipe 1st away from Warsaw as we head into October. Efe Saffet is still within shouting distance at .400, I guess (.384, also 111 runs from the leadoff spot in spite of missing 3 weeks from injury) and the Sultans are going to need every last drop of effort from him if they want to succeed. Warsaw is 2nd in the league in both runs scored and allowed and really should be running away with this.

Blah blah the Yankees won, the Yankees won.

Beijing's star pitcher is a 20 game winner, the first in LoN history! Xiao-wei Cao is 20-9 with a 2.86 ERA and a 150/62 K/BB ratio that's really good for the era, trust me. Rio's not quite out of this, although they are easily the most unbalanced team contending for a playoff berth: they're leading the New World in offense but are just 8th in the circuit in D. RF Gaku Ogawa is hitting cleanup for unknown reasons - the .273 average is fine but let's not go crazy here, although he does have 81 RBI to show for it.

[Syd Thrift]

October 1 (NOT HISTORICAL): Beijing closes their magic number to 1 with a 5-1 win over the Bombay Elephants. Tei-huang Zhang improves to 9-12 on the season. Paris also lowers their magic number to 3 with a win, and Warsaw is the furthest away from clinching, although they also closed in and now have 4 as their special number.

October 2: President of the United States Woodrow Wilson suffers a serious stroke, rendering him an invalid for the remainder of his life. In real life, First Lady Edith Wilson basically took over all decision-making in the Presidency for the remainder of his term in office. Since this makes her kind of like the first woman President and I just feel like doing this, that's a first for America! The Yankees' RP Ben "Cushion" Hank develops a circle change; he's never going to use it unless he starts a game. Chicago Defenders' SP Brian Kidder has your classic 4 seamer-slider-change combo, so a curveball is just the trick for him. LA Stars' SP Bill Barry literally just came off the DL, throws some total junk, and now has a curveball too.

Beijing falls to Tehran 6-4 so they fail to clinch. Paris lost to Amsterdam and... well, let me just post the pennant chase screen:



Paris has a practical "gimme" series at last place Copenhagen, although Madrid isn't exactly a world-beater themselves. Meanwhile, Rio needs to draw an inside straight but they do get 56-103 Sydney to... do the poker thing.

October 4: Beijing clinches with a 4-2 win over Tehran; we're going to have a Yankees-Dragons NWCS. Xiao-wei Cao picked up his 21st victory. Meanwhile both the Crusaders and Sultans won, meaning that they are tied at 88-73 heading into the final game of the season. And Paris will advance into the playoffs with a win or losses by both Amsterdam and Brussels.

October 5: Paris made all the crazy mathematical calculations moot by downing Copenhagen 4-2 in their finale; Arnaud Leclerq won that one and improved to 17-9 on the season.

Vienna lost their 10th in a row to finish the season 72-90. Their horrifically cramped roster did them in in the end.

Both Istanbul and Warsaw won, forcing a 1-game playoff between the two teams. The Sultans went into the 8th down 4-1 to the Rome Cardinals but rallied late, thanks to the heroics of 1B Gazi Yilmaz (.280/2/45 on the year) and a 9th inning sac fly by Napik Akbulut (.316/8/83). Warsaw also had to engineer a late comeback after the Moscow Reds pulled ahead 3-2 in the top of the 9th. 1B Ostaz Dudek (.318/10/87) hit a walk-off single to send the Polish fans home happy.

October 6: The Sultans won the coin-flip and play at home. Here's a look at the starting lineups, courtesy of, um, OOTP:



The game at least thinks this one's going to be really close.

[Syd Thrift]

[OrangeP47]

Nice end to the first season. Though it hasn't been in focus until now, nice there was some on-field drama as well. I have a soft spot for the one-game tie breakers whenever they happen.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by OrangeP47

Nice end to the first season. Though it hasn't been in focus until now, nice there was some on-field drama as well. I have a soft spot for the one-game tie breakers whenever they happen.

The fact that it was between the Ottoman Empire and a team called the Crusaders is the yikes-icing on the yikes-cake.

[Syd Thrift]

As I noted before, the Revolutions' secret ace in the hole or whatever the chemin de fer equivalent of that is is SP Daniel Bellot. Bellot is 2-1 since returning from an injury that sidelined him since early May. He did get kind of rocked in his last start so maybe it's for the best that #2 starter Roger Mercier (18-11, 2.93) is slated to take the hill.

They've got a very solid top of the lineup, although they have that issue with their cleanup hitter that AI lineups often have in the deadball era, where they insist on sticking a .220 hitter there because of his awesome, 8 homerun power.



Their opponents, of course, went right down to the wire in their division and so are trotting out a guy who pitched all of 4 innings in the regular season as their starting pitcher. Flawiusz Aniola did, at least, go 15-5 in the Championship League before getting the late-season call-up. He's only in there in the first place, it should be noted, because starters Witold Materna (11-11, 3.94) and Kolby Staniszewski (12-6, 3.46) are on the DL with severe arm injuries.

That said, Warsaw got here with offense first and foremost, so even if their pitching is a bit addled, I think they're going to prevail. Their roster features 2 guys who had double digit homers for the Crusaders as well as a third guy, LF Lars Rolnik, who had 13 of them for Berlin before defecting to Warsaw in protest over the Silesia thing. We asked Rolnik if he was really that distraught over the affair or if he was just looking to play for a winner, and while he did respond, I cannot submit that response to these boards in good conscience.



So, remember when I said that Rio had the most lopsided team of any contender? I lied. Well, I was misled. Whatever you want to call assuming that a 97 win team wasn't top-heavy is. The Yankees have got a dominant pitching staff, with 4 starters clocking in with a sub-3.00 ERA, but a very pedestrian, some might even say bad, offense. Chris McGrattan (19-7, 1.83 ERA) is an extreme control specialist, with less than 100 Ks but a K/BB ratio of better than 2:1 (95-46). I don't *think* he'll win Pitcher of the Year (name TBD) but you never know. David Winstead was an absolute lockdown closer, with a 10-4 record, 23 saves in 59 games, and just 11 earned runs allowed over 75.1 innings. He theoretically could have gopher issues but that won't be so noticeable in 1919.

Offensively, it's Albert Cushing Read, first, second, and just about last. Read clobbered more than a third of the Yankees' homeruns this year despite not joining the team until May 9. He also managed to lead the team in RBIs, which is as much a sign of how hopeless they were without him than anything else. Their next best hitter is utility man Sean Hurd, who is... fine, I guess. He mostly played in left this year but also had innings at 1B, 2B, SS, and CF.



Teh-huai Zheng figures to start the NWCS opener because the AI doesn't believe in resting starters before the playoffs. Xiao-wei Cao is my favorite to win the NW PotY award. After him the rotation is decidedly average but you can get through the playoffs with a setup like that. Cong Chew and Hu Wang traded off at closer and neither were particularly effective.

On offense, this team has a lot more firepower than the Yankees do. LF Dou-gan Shen went 40 for 97 in September and followed that up with a 7-18 October in virtually single-handedly willing the Dragons to the postseason. How he missed the All-Star Game, I will never understand.