Oregano County HS Baseball (OOTP + Sim City 4)

[darkcloud4579]

Within rural Charlestown, there have emerged several villages. The most prominent are the twin villages of Deerfield and East Deerfield.

Originally an area covered by farmland, the area is emerging as a hamlet for residential homes in recent years.



The area is served by Deerfield High School


Due south of East Deerfield, is the community of Wardlaw. It's the smallest village within Charlestown and borders two other communities including Lake Almonte.



Just west of Wardlaw, is the Ghostbrook Estates community. Ghostbrook Estates is home to The Ghostbrook School, a prep high school for boys in grades 7-12. Their sister school, which I'll be introducing you to later, is the once all-girls and now coed Robinshire School. The girls at Robinshire, nickname the boys at Ghostbrook, the "Scary Creeps" after one too many 'fresh' boys having their way at socials. Boys will be boys? Beats me...

[darkcloud4579]

If you thought that was rural, you've seen nothing yet. The area beyond Wardlaw, the villages southeastmost in the county are simply called "The Shire". In reality, it's about six villages that total population of about 6,700. Let's get acquainted with this very beautiful setting right in Oregano County.





Here is Robinshire. I mentioned it earlier as the home to The Robinshire School, a former all-girls and now coed prep school.





Northeast of Robinshire is the settlement of Antoinette. It is so named because of the very famous Antoinette Brewery which was founded there. While HQ has moved on to Oakley, the original brewery is right there and tours are offered daily.





Just west of Antoinette is the hamlet known as West York.




West of Robinshire is the village of Grossmont.



On the very eastern edge of The Shire and as a result, Oregano County, we have the village known as Scotch Woods.



The northeast corner of The Shire is home to the village of Kjelland (Shell-land)


Just down the road from Kjelland resides the high school for the entire Shire region. It's known as Far Woods High School.

[darkcloud4579]

In 2001, the Lakeside Six conference invited two new schools to join and changed its name to the Lakeside Conference.

Curry State University (North Curry)
University of Saint Catherine (The Shire)

The Conference realigned to two four-team divisions

EASTERN DIVISION
---
Brookmont U.
Curry State
Olde State
State University at Oakley

WESTERN DIVISION
---
Condotti-Vanguard
Charlestown University
University of Saint Catherine
University of St. Teresa

[darkcloud4579]

In 2002, the OCHSBL voted to realign its divisions to align schools by enrollment sizes, to accomodate the addition of two new programs, Deerfield HS and the co-op team of Village and Far Woods HS (Village-Far Woods)

The new alignment for 2002 is as follows:

PSL
----
Group 4
Oakley
North Curry
Brookmont
Charlestown

Group 3
South Charlestown
Curry Central
East Side
West Side

Group 2
Mannes
Oregano County Magnet
Tarrance Cawley
Sandy Lakes

Group 1
West Forest
Deerfield
Village-Far Woods
East Lake

LPS
---
Group A
Brookmont Academy
Oakley Catholic
Oakley Baptist
Charlestown Catholic

Group B
Academy of St. Teresa
Charlestown Prep
Seminary Prep
Condotti Academy

Group C
Virtue HS
Romero-Finniski
Seaside Catholic

Group D
Ghostbrook
Almonte Christian
Robinshire

[darkcloud4579]

In 2001, Oregano County Magnet HS reeled off their best season in school history (23-10) en route to their first ever County Championship, ending their drought as the public school going the longest without a championship. They beat Almonte Christian 3 games to 1.

Congratulations to the Ducks!

On the private school side, Oakley Catholic has never won a title since joining the OSHSBL in 1971. They've made the playoffs 12 times and last won the LPS title in 1977 and despite four straight division titles in recent years, they've still gone without.

Call the conference whatever you want, the State University at Oakley (39-13) have turned it into their own personal playground, after claiming their third straight conference championship in 2001. The school is going to turn itself into a destination school for the legions of high school grads, as it continues to dominate. They faced off against Brookmont University in the Conference Championship, after Brookmont (28-24) swept past heavily favoured Olde State University (41-11) in two straight Conference Semi-Final games.

The championship series went the distance, but in the fifth and decisive game, SUO proved that it could not be stopped and they will again raise the Championship chalice another year.

[darkcloud4579]

March 13, 2002
OAKLEY BUSINESSMAN TO CONSIDER PRO LEAGUE IN THE SHIRE
OAKLEY (AP) -- Prominent business magnate P.D. McKennel has been discussing with associates the possibility of an independent baseball league of professional standard.

The details are still very murky and the league wouldn't get off the ground for a few years. But the Associated Press has been informed that McKennel's desire to start a unique 82-game league that would play its game entirely for communities in The Shire at a new baseball complex just outside the Shire in the area known as the "Southsire".

A huge baseball fan, he has funded many of the programs in Oakley at various times during the years and has always said that he wanted to see an "opportunity for the favorite sons of Oregano County to play baseball well into their prime years," and this league would allow for that.

More information as it becomes available.

[darkcloud4579]

Here is the current map of Oregano County.


I forgot to show you all this last time, but here's a picture of the University of Saint Catherine.


The villages of the Southsire (it's supposed to be Southshire, but the originators spelled it wrong the first time and it's been spelled wrong and pronounced wrong ever since..)

Anyway, Southshire is a community of lakeside villages, each that are unincorporated areas that have place names. If there are youth there, they go to school in The Shire at Far Woods.

Here are some pictures of them:

[johnph77]

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

Okay, let's go back to Curry. Things there are...well..growth is a funny thing how that works.

Curry's population is over 23,000 now and one of the big problems with that is, the fact that the community simply hasn't been able to keep pace with the increased numbers in terms of creating more jobs. So the unemployment rate there is soaring.

Anyway, that's another discussion for another day. You want pictures!

Here's an aerial of North Cury as it is right now:



Well one thing you weren't aware of, was the new state university in North Curry. It was originally just a 2-year college, but a referendum among the locals and some state funding, turned their little 2-year school into Curry State University.



Remember the airport? It's still here and still one of three in the entire county to date. And still the largest...



Curry Central High School, home of the Blue Jays is right here. The joke is that from above, it looks like a prison. Draw your own conclusions about what that says about the neighborhood it serves...but...that's the joke.



Here is North Curry High School, the oldest high school in town. North Curry is weird (for the moment) in that, there are no private schools there, so the students pretty much go to either of the public high schools or they go out of town to high school elsewhere.

Outstanding!

Concern about tall buildings in the flight path of the airport, and complaints about aircraft noise?

[darkcloud4579]

Outstanding!

Concern about tall buildings in the flight path of the airport, and complaints about aircraft nois

Actually, yes. Tons. Stay tuned for more grumbling (or perhaps, more) on that down the road...

[darkcloud4579]

User-generated players

Heading into the 2004 season, here are the players from the user-generated thread:

SP Joey "Ducky" Shoenhofer - 15 yr old (Mannes HS JV)
C Peter Walls - 15 year old (Brookmont Academy JV)
1B Shane Day - 16 year old (East Lake HS Varsity)
SP Danny Hunter - 15 year old (Oakley HS Varsity (played in 2003 for Oakley Catholic HS)
2B Jason King - 14 year old (Brookmont HS JV)

[darkcloud4579]

CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE
In 2002, the Olde State University collegiate baseball squad managed to win the fifth and final game of the Championship series to claim their first title and to end State University at Oakley (SUO)'s reign at 3 straight titles.

In 2003, SUO decided to unleash their fury on the entire collegiate baseball world by not dropping a game in the playoffs -- including a three game sweep in the Championship series -- against Olde State. It was SUO's fourth title in five years.

If they're not a juggernaut program, one doesn't exist.

[Dagrims]

This is a fantastic idea and you're doing a wonderful job with it so far. I enjoyed catching up with it all in one reading, and will definitely continue following along. I still need to pick a team to root for.

[darkcloud4579]

HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The first year of baseball in the Village-Far Woods area and expanded playoffs wasn't enough to daunt the Group 1 champions from the co-op program at Village HS and Far Woods HS.

After a 25-7 regular season en route to the Group 1 title, they entered the playoffs and soared all the way to the County Championship against an experienced Brookmont Academy squad that had won two of the previous three county titles.

Didn't matter

The VFW Warriors claimed the first county championship for The Shire in its first year of eligibility in 2002.

In 2003, North Curry HS clinched a tie of the Group 4 title with Charlestown, but there wasn't a tie when it came to the road to claiming their first county title since 1970. The Canucks last saw the playoffs in 1981 and being coached by Keith Foster who played outfield on the 1971 county championship team, the 2003 Canucks swept Condotti Academy in four straight games to claim their title.

"It was a lot sweeter winning it with these guys, knowing how much harder it is to win a title now than it was when I was wearing the Blue and White," said Foster.

It was the third straight year that a public school claimed the Oregano County title and seventh time in ten years that a public school won the championship. Public Schools lead the county championship series 18-14 since 1971 when they joined the OCHSBL.

[darkcloud4579]

In 2004, Oregano County Magnet HS established itself as a force to be reckoned with in county baseball, claiming their 2nd title in three years, after grinding out the title in a seven-game battle with Oakley Baptist who were seeking their first county title since 1986.

USER RESULTS (2004)

J. Shoenhofer, Starting Pitcher, Mannes HS (Varsity) 4-0 in 7 starts, 30 strikeouts, 4 BB, 2.74 ERA
Peter Walls, Catcher, Brookmont Academy (Varsity), .356 BA, 3 HR, 22 RBI in 27 games (118 ABs)
Shane Day, Third Baseman, East Lake HS (Varsity), .351 BA, 8 HR, 22 RBI in 32 games (134 ABs)
Danny Hunter, Starting Pitcher, Oakley HS (Varsity), 1-3 in 7 starts, 3.96 ERA, 47 K, 16 BB
Jason King, Second Baseman, Brookmont HS (JV), .311 BA, 0 HR, 13 RBI in 26 games (106 ABs) (Hit .207 in JV in 111 ABs last year)

[darkcloud4579]

In 2004, Oregano County Magnet HS established itself as a force to be reckoned with in county baseball, claiming their 2nd title in three years, after grinding out the title in a seven-game battle with Oakley Baptist who were seeking their first county title since 1986.

Meanwhile, in the college ranks Curry State University (30-22) took SU-Oakley to the full five-game tilt in their Conference Championship matchup, leading to the upstart CSU squad taking the conference title. Despite that, SU-Oakley (27-25) has proven themselves to be 'the' team to beat, despite coming third in the eastern division this past season.

Olde State (40-12) flamed out again in the post-season, repeating the same fate as the school's last 40-win squad in 2001, that failed to bring home the county title.

In six straight years of conference baseball at the county level, no private university or college has claimed the crown.

Maybe they need to recruit better?

[LFC1892]

..great work man.

[darkcloud4579]

PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL COMING TO OREGANO COUNTY

Oregano County will welcome several new teams to a new town ball league in the county starting next season.

The Oregano County Townball Association will take an older spin on baseball, by naming the league Townball and carrying rosters that are largely confined to smaller rosters emphasizing more players, rather than sitting.

[darkcloud4579]

The West End had fallen deep into a messy situation and as a result, the city decided to begin a massive redevelopment campaign that included the building of a brand new arena and football stadium; the latter part of a new mixed-use residential development in that area.

Here are a few pictures:

Omnivore Stadium as part of a mixed-use commercial/residential development. The building in the southeast corner there is a Panda Express restaurant.




More of the West Side redevelopment project here. That's the Oakley Arena right there. They have a minor league basketball team and minor league hockey team playing in the arena.




A new Outback steakhouse, a movie theater and a Red Lobster all opened in the new West Side development by the arena.

[darkcloud4579]

WHERE IS OREGANO COUNTY?

I've had the hardest time with this, since the map I used was fictional..I had issues with figuring out exactly where Oregano County would be. Originally, I imagined it as a place somewhere in the south, with a distinctly northeast flavour.


But that stopped being practical for me as time went on, mostly because of the sports connections and the fact that I just didn't really this as a southern city or area at all.

But then it made sense.

It's in a state that's not a state, but probably would have been had not history done what it usually does.

The State of Jefferson is largely comprised of counties in southern Oregon and Northern California

Jefferson is a mostly rural area of Southern Oregon and Northern California in the United States. Several times during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries there have been attempts to establish the area as a separate state. This region on the Pacific Coast is the most famous of several that have sought to adopt the name of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States; the name was proposed in the 19th century for Jefferson Territory, as well as in 1915 in a bill in the Texas legislature for a proposed state that would be created from the Texas Panhandle region.

It's gives us the coastal area we need and the storyline for a metropolis that's born out of an area that was once very rural. It works for me, so that's where Oregano County is now going to be located. How big it is, is anyone's guess still...but for all intent and purposes, Oregano County is basically in Southern Oregon I surmise.

[darkcloud4579]

I'm about to conduct another census of the region to determine how large the metropolitan area really is. We haven't decided whether all of Oregano County will be part of it or not, but...I'll go ahead and assess the numbers and then come back and let you know what the story is.