American Circuit—New all-fictional league with historic elements

[Furious]

The short version: In 1946 a new 8-team league is formed as a companion/challenger to an established 12-team league that has existed since 1876.

We are looking for 8 GMs for the new league, and once we’ve filled those vacancies, we’ll open up the 12-team established league for human managers as well. It is our hope to find 20 GMs, or something close to it (the co-commissioners will run the vacant teams until they are filled).

Worse case scenario, we’ll have one 8-team league with human managers and one 12-team league run by the A.I.

This is a fictional league—fictional teams, fictional players. It will be loosely be based on MLB history, but in some ways will be very different.

Website is under construction, but the relevant league details are here: http://www.american-circuit.net/index.html

PM me if you’re interested.

We already have GMs for SEA, NY, TOR, and NO.

[Furious]

SF is now taken. We still need LA and CHI plus one more from the list.

[Furious]

[Furious]

Montreal has been taken. We now just need GMs for L.A. and CHI.

[Cooleyvol]

This is going to be lots of fun with a good management team and a great group of owners! Get your team before they're gone! Al has thought this league out for years and asked if I'd be interested in helping out. Very well thought out and planned. Not a flash in the pan.

[Furious]

LA has been claimed.

[Furious]

Looking for at least one more GM. Chicago is still open.

[Cooleyvol]

I know there's more than 9 historical fans out there! Did we mention the 'name a player' option whereas you name a rookie and watch him play out his career in the league.

Well run? You bet. We both have years of experience running leagues.
Well thought out? No doubt! Al's been cooking this up for a few years!

Upstart league full! Established league beginning to fill up!

Come on and be a part of creating a fictional interpretation of baseball's birth and growth in this league!

[Cooleyvol]

Another one gone (NBL Chicago)! Get your club before this fills up!

[Furious]

We've started simming the "pre-history" of our league, so to give you a taste of what we're doing, I'll start posting each season's recap here.

Starting with the beginning of time...

1876—The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (it would not receive its less cumbersome moniker for another four years) opened with clubs in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. The 8-team league was not organized into divisions, but with four clubs on the Eastern seaboard and the others all west of Lake Erie, there was already a geographic divide that affected scheduling and road trips. Not that the schedule was particularly hectic; no teams played games on consecutive days, spreading out 70 games over 23 weeks. As the sport’s popularity continued to grow, the players’ workload would too, but that was all in the future.

The Chicago entry took the league’s first pennant relatively easily, finishing 47-23, seven games better than second-place Philadelphia. Dubbed the “Haymakers” by a local newspaperman, Chicago was led by center fielder Tim Mary, who led the league in hitting (.355), runs scored (86), and stolen bases (65), and pitcher George Stonge, who paced the circuit in ERA (1.87), victories (46), and strikeouts (80), becoming the first Triple Crown winner in history.

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_0_1876.html

[Furious]

1877—The baseball of the pre-League era was marked by instability, as teams often sprang up and shortly thereafter disappeared, leaving only the clubs that were both well-run and a draw at the gate. The fact that the 1876 NLPBBC season began and finished with the same eight ballclubs was considered a monumental achievement at the time, and when those same eight were still on hand for Opening Day in 1877, it appeared the young League stood on firmer ground than even its most optimistic organizers had envisioned.

Unfortunately, the stability proved illusory; early in the 1877 season it became apparent that some clubs were having difficulty meeting their payrolls, as the reality of baseball as a business hit hard, especially in Hartford, Louisville, and St. Louis. Although the latter two clubs managed to keep a competitive team on the field (Louisville, in particular, wound up in a tie for second place) they would join the woeful Hartfords in declaring bankruptcy after the season. It would be an oft-repeated pattern throughout the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.

On the field, Chicago repeated as champions, again outdistancing their nearest competition, New York and Louisville, by seven games. Verne Mackensie of Philadelphia won the batting title with a .335 average, and Ellis Culpepper of Boston took the ERA crown with a 1.92 mark, although some felt Culpepper’s 103.1 IP was an insufficient qualifier. Among the pitchers who logged the bulk of their team’s innings, it was once again Chicago’s George Stonge who posted the best mark, at 2.26, while also again pacing the loop in victories (47) and strikeouts (155).

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_0_1877.html

[Furious]

1878—Seeking to retain an eight-team setup, the NLPBBC awarded new franchises to Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Providence. The league retained its 70-game schedule, but this still being something of an experimental era, reduced the amount of time in which to finish it. The season began on May Day and ended in mid-September; this was an attempt to ensure that most games would be played in optimum weather. The tighter window had an even more dramatic effect on the rosters: with games on two or even three consecutive days, it was no longer possible for a team to use just a single starting pitcher, as had been the case in previous years. A team’s second pitcher would start maybe a quarter of the team’s games, and a third pitcher might also start a few. This, of course, was a trend that would continue and intensify in coming years.

The upstart clubs were no match for their established competition, but the season featured a thrilling four-team pennant race between New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. With five games left to play for all four teams, Chicago led New York by a game, Cincinnati by two, and Philadelphia by three. The Excelsiors and Keystones weren’t eliminated until the second-to-last-game of the season, and the Knickerbockers and Haymakers went into their final games tied for first. The Knicks knocked off Indianapolis 11-5 while the Haymakers were stunned by Providence 4-3, and Chicago’s two-year hold on the pennant was broken.

New York’s Frank O’Brien won the batting crown with a .366 clip, and teammate Tom Sanders paced the circuit both in ERA (1.88) and victories (35).

The Milwaukee Grays’ eighth-place 25-45 season, although not significantly worse than Indianapolis’ or Providence’s, would be their last. The club officially folded a day after their final game.

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_0_1878.html

[Furious]

1879—The departing Milwaukee franchise was replaced by one in Buffalo, a much more central location that made for a more convenient destination for most road teams. The league increased the schedule for the first time, to 84 games, but only added one extra week; the three-game series over three days became the norm, but for now teams still relied heavily on their number one man; every team had a pitcher who started between 54 and 56 games.

The pennant race was another thriller. Philadelphia looked like they had it in the bag, with a six-game lead over Chicago and a seven-game lead over Cincinnati with 15 to play, but both the Haymakers and Excelsiors went on a tear. By Sept. 8, just two weeks later, the Keystones’ lead was down to one game over Chicago and two games over Cincinnati; the Haymakers pulled even on Sept. 12. Philadelphia and Chicago were still tied going into the first game of their season-ending series on Sept. 18; The ‘Stones took that contest, 10-3, to take a one-game lead with two to play, but the Haymakers won the final two, 6-3 and 7-6, the final game featuring a thrilling eighth inning that saw the ‘Stones plate two in the top of the inning to break a 3-3 tie before the Haymkers countered with four in the bottom of the frame. Chicago won the pennant by a game over Philadelphia, while Cincinnati finished two back.

Jimmy Yates of the Haymakers won the batting title at .331 while George Stonge won his second ERA crown with a miserly 1.67 mark. Harry Allison of Boston threw the league’s first no-hitter on June 28.

Buffalo survived their first season in the league and even finished ahead of Boston and Providence in the standings, but Indianapolis was not so fortunate. The team, known as the Independents, improved by eight games over their 1878 showing but struggled at the gate, and the owners threw in the towel shortly after the conclusion of the season.

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_0_1879.html

[Furious]

1880—The League, now calling itself the National Base Ball League (“baseball” wouldn’t be standardized as one word until later), awarded Cleveland a franchise, which became known as the Blues.

Another great pennant race thrilled the fans of Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, and Philadelphia; the ’Cels and ’Stones stayed in contention until the final week, and for the second year in a row, the Haymakers found themselves tied with a team from the East on the eve of the first game of their final three-game series. This time the Knicks, who won 12 of their last 14 games, quelled the suspense by taking the first two games of the series to clinch the flag with a game to spare.

The Knicks’ Marty Paine won the batting title, hitting .340, while teammate Tom Sanders led the loop in ERA (1.53) and victories (36). The second no-hitter—and first perfect game—in league history was thrown by Cincinnati’s John Smith on August 8 vs. Buffalo.

It was an exciting season, and attendance was generally good, but it was not to be a smooth transition into 1881. Among League President Hubert Williams’ strictest edicts was the prohibition of alcohol sales at league games; when the Excelsiors were revealed to have allowed beer to be sold at Seven Hills Park, Williams removed them from the league, a maneuver that would have consequences far beyond the city of Cincinnati.

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_0_1880.html

[Furious]

1881—A Detroit franchise, at first known as the Maroons, was approved as a replacement for Cincinnati.

This year there was little drama in the pennant chase, as Chicago rebounded from their heartbreaking second place finish the previous season to take the title by a comfortable six games. The most interesting development was the sudden emergence of Buffalo as a contender; in just their third season in the league, the Colts finished 20 games above .500 and in second place.

Chicago’s Jim Newton hit .336 to edge Detroit’s John Wyatt for the batting championship; Wyatt hit .335. Eli Taylor of Buffalo topped the leagues’ hurlers in ERA with a 1.73 mark, while the Haymakers’ George Stonge notched 36 victories to best Taylor by a single win; as Taylor also led the league in strikeouts with 236, Stonge’s last win of the year—which came on the final day of the season—denied Taylor the Triple Crown.

League President Williams, having affirmed his authority the previous season by ousting Cincinnati, drummed both Philadelphia and Cleveland from the loop after the conclusion of the 1881 campaign. The Keystones were accused of throwing games, although no individual players were singled out, and the Blues were deemed guilty of the infraction that doomed their Ohio brethren: selling alcohol at games. The loss of two of its larger cities put the league in a poor position to face the challenge that would arrive in 1882.

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_0_1881.html

[Furious]

1882—Hubert Williams had exercised his absolute authority as NBBL President to expel three franchises in two years. Neither the owners of these clubs nor the cities their teams had represented were content to go quietly, and during the off-season a new league was quickly formed, with every intention to compete with the National on equal terms, or as equal as the upstarts could muster. The American Base Ball Association, with franchises in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, set May 1, 1882 as Opening Day, and its fledgling clubs quickly began to sign whatever talent they could. For the most part they filled their rosters with minor league players, amateurs, and NBBL castoffs, but all six teams were indeed stocked and ready to play on May Day. They would play an 80-game schedule in contrast to the NBBL’s 84, with far fewer restrictions: alcohol sales were permitted, as well as games on Sundays, at least in the cities where they were not prohibited by law. Not all ABBA clubs took advantage of the lax rules immediately, but Louisville and St. Louis scheduled Sunday games from the beginning.

If Williams would have been appalled by the rival circuit’s boldness, he didn’t live long enough to witness it in action, dying unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 49 just a few weeks prior to both leagues’ 1882 openers. Prior to that he had authorized NBBL franchises for Syracuse and Worcester to maintain the 8-team setup his league had used since its inception.

Neither league had a particularly exciting pennant race. In the NBBL, Chicago stayed within five games of New York for most of the summer but the Knicks never lost the lead, winning the flag by three games with a 58-26 record; Cincinnati dominated the ABBA, going 57-23 and besting Baltimore by eight games and St. Louis by nine. The divide between the haves and the have-nots was significant; the NBBL’s new entries, Worcester and Syracuse, finished 35 and 36 games out of first place, respectively, while the bottom two teams in the ABBA, Louisville and Pittsburgh, also finished 30 or more games out.

Batting averages were way down in the NBBL, as evidenced by Chicago’s Hugh Woods, whose .309 clip was good enough to earn him the batting championship. Eli Taylor of Buffalo won the ERA crown with a 1.57 mark, while New York’s Tom Sanders earned the most victories with 35. In the ABBA, Cincinnati’s Frank Fry hit .338 to win the batting title as teammate Hiram Ballard won the pitching Triple Crown with a 1.31 ERA, 41 wins, and 209 strikeouts.

Syracuse’s .262 winning percentage was the worst in either league, and the Nationals, as they were known for their brief existence, called it a day after their inaugural season.

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_0_1882.html

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_1_1882.html

[Furious]

1883—The NBBL awarded a franchise to Troy to replace the departed Syracuse, while the ABBA expanded to eight teams by adding New York and Columbus. Both leagues increased their schedules to 98 games; with teams playing four or five games a week, every team in the league used at least three starting pitchers. Although differences of opinion arose as whether it was better to spread the work around or to load it mostly on the shoulders of the top man or top two men, all agreed that a third starter was now a necessity.

The owners of the ABBA’s New York Gothams spared no expense and put together a team capable of dominating the young league; only defending champions Cincinnati were able to stay with them, ultimately losing the chase by five games. In the Senior Circuit, a thrilling three-team race raged through the summer, with Buffalo, Chicago, and New York trading the top spot on a game-by-game basis at times. The Knicks faded just enough for Chicago to be in a position to dispatch them by winning the first game of their season-ending four-game set, but New York avenged their elimination by beating the Haymakers twice over the next three games, forcing them into a tie with Buffalo at the conclusion of the 98th game. The first playoff game in NBBL history pitted two of the best pitchers of the 19th Century, Buffalo’s Eli Taylor against Chicago’s George Stonge. Taylor had the better of it, taking a 5-2 lead into the late innings, but the Haymakers rallied for two in the eighth and one in the ninth to tie. In the bottom of the tenth Colts’ catcher Bob Weaver hit a two-run homer off Chicago’s Jeff Calvert to give Buffalo their first league title.

Boston’s Frank Stevens won the NBBL batting title with a .330 average, while Philadelphia’s Tom Guthrie hit .342 to take the ABBA crown. Providence’s Andy Morrow posted a 1.78 ERA, the best in the NBBL, while Harry Jones of Philadelphia outdistanced all ABBA hurlers with a 1.74 mark. George Stonge of Chicago’s 29 victories were tops in the NBBL, while Cincinnati’s Hiram Ballard won 27 to lead the Junior Circuit. Verne Mackensie of St. Louis became the first player to hit for the cycle on May 15. The Gothams’ Uriah Schmitt became the first player to steal over a hundred bases in a season, pilfering 102.

For the first time since 1877, every franchise survived the off-season, but one changed their address; after battling the Knickerbockers for fans in Manhattan for a year, the ABBA champion Gothams headed across the East River for Brooklyn.

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_0_1883.html

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_1_1883.html

[Furious]

1884—Both leagues adopted a 112-game schedule. In general teams still played five games a week, but now the season stretched into early October. The practice of scheduling doubleheaders on Memorial Day and Independence Day was well-established by now; aside from those, doubleheaders were only played to make up rainouts. Sunday ball was still forbidden in the NBBL but half the ABBA clubs scheduled home games on Sundays.

For the second straight year the NBBL flag came down to a playoff, this time between perennial rivals New York and Chicago. This year’s game was a rout, with the Knicks triumphing 12-2 to win their fourth league pennant. The ABBA chase was also a nail-biter, with Cincinnati edging Brooklyn by a game and not clinching until the final game of the regular season. In spite of the exciting finishes, there was some concern over the relatively small percentage of teams that had actually been in contention for any length of time. In the NBBL, only Buffalo, who finished 5½ games out, stayed competitive into September; the rest of the league finished under .500 and at least 18½ games off the pace. In the ABBA, third-place St. Louis finished 13 games behind Cincinnati.

Although his Worcester Rubies finished in last place, some 40½ games behind New York, second baseman Alphonse Graff won the NBBL batting title with a .325 mark. In the ABBA Pittsburgh’s John Grace hit .353 to earn the crown. Chicago’s Abe Lowe was credited with the Senior Circuit’s ERA title, although he only worked 116.2 innings in posting his 1.77 mark, while New York’s Bill Bates, who finished at 1.80, threw 410. No one bested Bates in victories, but he did have to share the league lead with Buffalo’s Eli Taylor, who also won 32. Cincinnati’s Hiram Ballard was the top winner in the ABBA with 34 triumphs, while Brooklyn’s Erwin Morse paced that circuit in ERA at 1.65.

The upstart ABBA has taken root in some of the country’s larger cities, while the elder NBBL still had teams in smaller towns such as Troy and Worcester. When the owners of the ABBA’s Philadelphia franchise, which had failed to emerge as a powerhouse and had suffered diminishing attendance as a result, threw in the towel, the Senior Circuit pounced. The Worcester franchise was disbanded and the quickly replaced by a new NBBL Philadelphia entry, known initially as the Franklins. The ABBA would also see its Columbus franchise fold. Replacements would spring up in Toledo and Indianapolis.

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_0_1884.html

http://www.american-circuit.net/repo...00_1_1884.html

[Cooleyvol]

New York Knickerbockers of the NBL have found their owner! Only 8 left. Al will take the last available club.

[Cooleyvol]

Boston's Terriers now have an owner!