New Fictional History

[Jon Finnecy]

Hey Guys.

I'm running a fictional players only (all computer-driven) from 1902 thru 2000, to create a complete history, record book, etc. prior to going to an online league format.

Each season, I'm saving a full html report, a backup copy of the league, and compiling some interesting stats as well as a quick summary of anything exciting that happened during the year.

If you guys are interested, I'll post this stuff to a website and/or give some updates here.

Let me know.

Some tidbits:

I just finished the 1906 season, and had a pitcher (Wilton Wiggin) throw two no-hitters. The great part is, he already had a no-hitter two years before, and he's the *only* pitcher to have thrown one at all. (So he's up 3-0 over everyone else in baseball.)

In 1905 we had 3 players who had a shot at the first .400 on the final day. Two guys choked and the third ended up at .406 (down from .415 4 days earlier).

In 1906 Eric Smathers (who set the hitting streak record at 37 the year before) started the season with a 45 game hit streak, went 2 for 12 the next 4 games (0-fer in 3 games), then cranked out another 25 game hit streak, thus getting a hit in 71 of his first 74 games.

The New York Giants won the first 4 Championships (1902-1905), the Tigers beating the Cubs in the 5th.

[Jon Finnecy]

Nearly forgot. The very first season, an Indians' player hit 46 triples (more than double what anyone else has gotten in the entire 6-year history of the league) to set an "unbreakable" record.

His 43 doubles, 46 triples and 12 homers gave him the still unbroken slugging record of .586, and the first AL MVP award, while hitting only .282.

[seadog852]

I'll ask again, cause you never answered the last time.

This the same jon from wlob and kibble?

[kingfc22]

What are the era settings that you are using?

[Jon Finnecy]

Yeppers... how's it going Seadog?

I was wondering just the other day if I'd ever run into you guys again. LOL.

[Jon Finnecy]

For era settings, I came across this page and it has worked out *very* nicely so far in the early going. I will eventually get around to posting a website and I already have a complete discussion on era settings, etc. on the intro page.

Here's the quote from that page:

Era Settings
The original era was set to deadball, and advanced through the matching years. For the league totals settings, a very special thanks goes out to "Jermanfu", whose brilliant page on era settings saved me hours of work. If you want to see exactly what settings were used, check out his page. I found my results so far are very much in line with what he reported.

[Jon Finnecy]

OK, not that I've seen much interest yet, but here are the "tidbits" from the first few years:

1902
Clifton Rhodes nearly doubles the runner up in the triples category, 46 to 26, setting an "unbreakable" record.

Clifton, with the help of his triples plus a majors-leading 43 doubles, also sets a high standard with a .582 slugging average,
.083 points ahead of Red Sox' runner-up Bowman, and wins the first AL MVP for the Cleveland Indians, who finish in 6th place, 13 games behind the A's.

1903
The Giants beat the Senators 6-3 in game 7 to win their second straight World Championship.

1904
Forrest Kepler of the Giants wins his second Pitcher of the Year award while leading his team to their third straight World Championship.

The other owners are outraged at the disparity between the Giants and the rest of the league, and rumblings begin about a system to encourage player movement between teams. Several teams, especially the Yankees, threaten to walk and form their own league.

1905
On the final day of the season, 3 players have a shot at being the first .400 hitters in LoA history:
Tiger Thomas Douglas, is hitting .401 going into the last day. He goes 0 for 3, with 2 strikeouts to finish at .399, 1 hit short of .400.
The Cubs' Michael Gerling goes 1 for 5 on the second to last day, to drop his average to .399. He needs to go 1 for 1 to get back to .400. He ends up going 2 for 6, finishes at .398, and then, in an odd dispute, loses his batting title, despite having 500 plate appearances in a 154 game season. (**BUG**)
Perennial Batting Champ Daniel Bowman, 36 years old, hit .400 in 4 of the 6 months of the season, but hit a lackluster .336 in September, just narrowly staying above .400. He hits 2 for 16 in the last 4 games to drop his average from .415 to .406, but hangs on to become the league's first .400 hitter.

Eric Smathers hits in a record 37 straight games from May 7th to June 18th. He finishes the year with a .384 average, .002 lower than his previous year. He shatters the old record of 26 games, set by Thomas Douglas the year before.

The Giants win their fourth straight Championship by defeating the Philadelphia A's in 7 games. So far, the American League has sent the A's and the Senators to the Series twice, while the Giants have gone all 4 years, and won every time.

Forrest Kepler wins his second consecutive, and third overall, Pitcher of the Year award. His career 1.43 ERA is tops by a large margin over the runner-up, Mark Johnson's 2.16, and the rumblings intensify over the "unbeatable" Giants.

1906
For the first time, the Giants miss the World Series, as they finish the season in 3rd place behind the Cubs and the Dodgers.

It takes 7 games, but the Tigers prevail over the Cubbies in the battle between 2 first-timers.

Eddie Montemayor helps the Cubs win the division by becoming the first NL player ever to slug over .470, and he does so in high fashion, hitting .342 with 37 doubles, 21 triples and 13 homers, for an NL-record .568 slugging average. 31-year-old Eddie comes out of nowhere with this performance, a career .278 hitter in four previous seasons with the Cubs.

Several players reach big career milestones, Daniel Bowman and Eric Smathers becoming the first players to collect 1000 hits; Kenton Fenimore piles up 1175 strikeouts, and is the only pitcher to have more than 1000. Smathers helps his cause by leading the majors in hits for the 3rd straight season.

Smathers starts off the season by hitting in a record-shattering 45 straight games. He then goes 2 for 12 over the next 4 games (0-fer in 3 of them), before cranking out another 25-game hitting streak. Despite hitting in 71 of the first 74 games, he manages to lower his career batting average from .375 to .374.

To put Smathers hits in perspecitve, no one in the National League has ever collected 210 hits in a season, while Smathers has done it 4 seasons in a row.

Wilton Wiggin, the only player in history with a no-hitter (8/1904) throws two no-hitters, one on April 5th against the Braves, and one on August 4th against the Phillies. The score is now Wiggin 3, everyone else 0.

1907
Eric Smathers beats Daniel Bowman's batting average record, .4057508 to .4057143. He also leads the league in hits for the fourth year in a row, but fails to beat his own hit streak record for the first time in 3 years.

Forrest Kepler goes 43-9 with a 1.10 ERA, setting new marks for both (and 11 more wins than the previous record), as he wins 43 of the Giants' 101 wins and propels them back to the World Series. He also throws two no-hitters, one which misses being the first ever perfect game on an error by the catcher.

For the first time ever, the Giants lose in the World Series. The Indians beat the 4-time champs 4 games to 2 to capture Cleveland's first ever title. The Giants are still the only NL team to win a title.

Despite beating him for the Batting Title, Daniel Bowman wins his 4th AL MVP over Eric Smathers. Browns fans can't believe it, but Red Sox faithful point to their 3rd place finish vs. the Browns' 7th place finish.

[Jon Finnecy]

OK, not that I've seen much interest yet, but here are the "tidbits" from the first few years:

1902
Clifton Rhodes nearly doubles the runner up in the triples category, 46 to 26, setting an "unbreakable" record.

Clifton, with the help of his triples plus a majors-leading 43 doubles, also sets a high standard with a .582 slugging average,
.083 points ahead of Red Sox' runner-up Bowman, and wins the first AL MVP for the Cleveland Indians, who finish in 6th place, 13 games behind the A's.

1903
The Giants beat the Senators 6-3 in game 7 to win their second straight World Championship.

1904
Forrest Kepler of the Giants wins his second Pitcher of the Year award while leading his team to their third straight World Championship.

The other owners are outraged at the disparity between the Giants and the rest of the league, and rumblings begin about a system to encourage player movement between teams. Several teams, especially the Yankees, threaten to walk and form their own league.

1905
On the final day of the season, 3 players have a shot at being the first .400 hitters in LoA history:
Tiger Thomas Douglas, is hitting .401 going into the last day. He goes 0 for 3, with 2 strikeouts to finish at .399, 1 hit short of .400.
The Cubs' Michael Gerling goes 1 for 5 on the second to last day, to drop his average to .399. He needs to go 1 for 1 to get back to .400. He ends up going 2 for 6, finishes at .398, and then, in an odd dispute, loses his batting title, despite having 500 plate appearances in a 154 game season. (**BUG**)
Perennial Batting Champ Daniel Bowman, 36 years old, hit .400 in 4 of the 6 months of the season, but hit a lackluster .336 in September, just narrowly staying above .400. He hits 2 for 16 in the last 4 games to drop his average from .415 to .406, but hangs on to become the league's first .400 hitter.

Eric Smathers hits in a record 37 straight games from May 7th to June 18th. He finishes the year with a .384 average, .002 lower than his previous year. He shatters the old record of 26 games, set by Thomas Douglas the year before.

The Giants win their fourth straight Championship by defeating the Philadelphia A's in 7 games. So far, the American League has sent the A's and the Senators to the Series twice, while the Giants have gone all 4 years, and won every time.

Forrest Kepler wins his second consecutive, and third overall, Pitcher of the Year award. His career 1.43 ERA is tops by a large margin over the runner-up, Mark Johnson's 2.16, and the rumblings intensify over the "unbeatable" Giants.

1906
For the first time, the Giants miss the World Series, as they finish the season in 3rd place behind the Cubs and the Dodgers.

It takes 7 games, but the Tigers prevail over the Cubbies in the battle between 2 first-timers.

Eddie Montemayor helps the Cubs win the division by becoming the first NL player ever to slug over .470, and he does so in high fashion, hitting .342 with 37 doubles, 21 triples and 13 homers, for an NL-record .568 slugging average. 31-year-old Eddie comes out of nowhere with this performance, a career .278 hitter in four previous seasons with the Cubs.

Several players reach big career milestones, Daniel Bowman and Eric Smathers becoming the first players to collect 1000 hits; Kenton Fenimore piles up 1175 strikeouts, and is the only pitcher to have more than 1000. Smathers helps his cause by leading the majors in hits for the 3rd straight season.

Smathers starts off the season by hitting in a record-shattering 45 straight games. He then goes 2 for 12 over the next 4 games (0-fer in 3 of them), before cranking out another 25-game hitting streak. Despite hitting in 71 of the first 74 games, he manages to lower his career batting average from .375 to .374.

To put Smathers hits in perspecitve, no one in the National League has ever collected 210 hits in a season, while Smathers has done it 4 seasons in a row.

Wilton Wiggin, the only player in history with a no-hitter (8/1904) throws two no-hitters, one on April 5th against the Braves, and one on August 4th against the Phillies. The score is now Wiggin 3, everyone else 0.

1907
Eric Smathers beats Daniel Bowman's batting average record, .4057508 to .4057143. He also leads the league in hits for the fourth year in a row, but fails to beat his own hit streak record for the first time in 3 years.

Forrest Kepler goes 43-9 with a 1.10 ERA, setting new marks for both (and 11 more wins than the previous record), as he wins 43 of the Giants' 101 wins and propels them back to the World Series. He also throws two no-hitters, one which misses being the first ever perfect game on an error by the catcher.

For the first time ever, the Giants lose in the World Series. The Indians beat the 4-time champs 4 games to 2 to capture Cleveland's first ever title. The Giants are still the only NL team to win a title.

Despite beating him for the Batting Title, Daniel Bowman wins his 4th AL MVP over Eric Smathers. Browns fans can't believe it, but Red Sox faithful point to their 3rd place finish vs. the Browns' 7th place finish.

[Jon Finnecy]

Here's a nice season:

Joseph Montgomery hits .425 for the Detroit Tigers. He's 1 point short of the real record of .426 by Nap Lajoie, but he slams out 274 hits in 644 at bats, shattering the real record of 257 hits by George Sisler. It also shatters the League of Ages' record of 254 by Eric Smathers. WOWIE.

[Dargone]

Nice