Best ways to "review" fictional league history (to get to learn the teams/players)

[I_Got_Wood_34]

New fictional leaguer here. Had a question to ask the OOTP community:

Basically, I started a new fictional league and simulated 5 years ahead w/o participating. Now I'm trying to go into my league history and learn about the last 5 years of my league.

What are some pages/tabs/stats you look at that really help you get an idea of what the last 5 years of your league were like?

Things like:

• Best young players
• Worst teams
• Best teams
• superstars in their prime
• Good rivalries
• Future hall famers
• etc etc etc

Any suggestions?

[The Wolf]

I just go History > Index and read the subpages.

[Orcin]

Start playing. Whenever a player (yours or opponent) does something notable, check his history. Each time you play a new team, look at their history.

[Walsh06]

I dont know the best way but I do enjoy it. Im in the year 2014 now (started 2000) in mine and I spent 2 hours yesterday just reading random history. From seeing what teams did well and when, what happened to rookie of the year winners (very interesting), how superstars progressed their ratings over the years. There was so much and I barely scratched the surface. It was really enjoyable to read up on this world that I had created.

[I_Got_Wood_34]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Start playing. Whenever a player (yours or opponent) does something notable, check his history. Each time you play a new team, look at their history.

What do you mean "notable"? Like if a player hits 2 HRs in a single game, just read his history?

Also, more generally speaking, I know this may seem like a dumb question given the "history" subpage in the game, but I'm looking for specific examples of what you look at that really tells the history of your league. There are LOTS of links within the history of the league.

Is there a season summary page somewhere that kind of reviews each season all in the same place?

[david limbaugh]

I look at the standings/pennant race the last week or so of each season, and look at logs and box scores of contending teams, who had the clutch hit or gave up the big inning.... that with award winners and league leaders. I actually keep a spiral notebook with a page for each year's standings, award winners, leaders and post-season results so I can thumb through it and look for repeated names/teams....

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by david limbaugh

I look at the standings/pennant race the last week or so of each season, and look at logs and box scores of contending teams, who had the clutch hit or gave up the big inning.... that with award winners and league leaders. I actually keep a spiral notebook with a page for each year's standings, award winners, leaders and post-season results so I can thumb through it and look for repeated names/teams....

Paper records?

[stannis]

Originally Posted by I_Got_Wood_34

New fictional leaguer here. Had a question to ask the OOTP community:

Basically, I started a new fictional league and simulated 5 years ahead w/o participating. Now I'm trying to go into my league history and learn about the last 5 years of my league.

What are some pages/tabs/stats you look at that really help you get an idea of what the last 5 years of your league were like?

Things like:

• Best young players
• Worst teams
• Best teams
• superstars in their prime
• Good rivalries
• Future hall famers
• etc etc etc

Any suggestions?

Some specific saved reports that might be of interest, depending on how in depth you want to look and which reports you are saving:

• Best young players - Look up the yearly Top Prospects list and see how they fared. Look at each year's Draft Log, and see how each team's #1 pick fared. Look at Minor League award winners to see whether their AA MVP was a sign of things to come, or merely as high as they ever got.
• Best/worst teams - Aside from looking through the records and playoff results, you could choose reports such as "Team vs Team Standings", "Team Power Rankings", "Positional Strength by Team".
• Superstars in their prime - Look through the News articles for any big contracts; look up "Extremely Popular" players under Player Search; use the Milestone Watch to see who is coming up on the more significant milestones. Someone approaching 500 HR may be getting towards the end of their career, but someone approaching 200, if still relatively young, could have a very productive career ahead of them.
• Good rivalries - Use the "Team vs Team Standings" to see how teams have fared. If you are saving Box Scores/Game Logs you could also see whether any teams have had regular playoff encounters, or very close encounters (such as 7 game playoff series going all the way). One fun thing could be to look through the major trades and see whether any "Curse of the Bambino" trades have been conducted.
• Future Hall of Famers - I recommend the Milestone Watch for this, as well as keeping track of players with high counting stats through the All-Time Leaderboard. You could also look up franchise record holders, positional record holders, or players who have set records such as Hitting Streaks, No-Hitters/Perfect Games, or Single-Game Records.
• Other stuff - I like keeping track of minutiae when I do fictional leagues. It's not for everyone, but one time I logged all the bans handed out for brawls, and managed to find two players who were ejected twice for brawling with each other in fairly close succession: it made for a fun moment to see that these two people obviously hated each other! However that more roleplay-ish aspect may not appeal as much as the stats element.

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

Paper records?

LOL! I just turned 53... I started playing Strato-0-Matic baseball and PayDirt football and SOM basketball when I was growing up. Went through a lot of spiral notebooks or loose leaf paper and 3-ring binders...

When my historical league (right now I am in 1901) gets to around 1970 I will take over my team and start managing. When I manage I keep a scorebook of every game and an updated roster/depth chart... Love paper records....

[hfield007]

Originally Posted by david limbaugh

I look at the standings/pennant race the last week or so of each season, and look at logs and box scores of contending teams, who had the clutch hit or gave up the big inning.... that with award winners and league leaders. I actually keep a spiral notebook with a page for each year's standings, award winners, leaders and post-season results so I can thumb through it and look for repeated names/teams....

I'm with this guy. No better way to get intimate with your league than to keep tabs on things yourself and get involved in record keeping.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by hfield007

I'm with this guy. No better way to get intimate with your league than to keep tabs on things yourself and get involved in record keeping.

I agree. There's no better way to get acquainted with your team and league than writing about it.

It's like a dynasty report, except you don't publish it.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by david limbaugh

When my historical league (right now I am in 1901) gets to around 1970 I will take over my team and start managing. When I manage I keep a scorebook of every game and an updated roster/depth chart... Love paper records....

When I'm playing out games I sometimes keep a paper version of my pitching role screen, so i actually follow it lol