OK, I'm very close to being ready to crank this up. Big, big thanks to satchel73, who has come up huge with a wealth of background info for the project. If anyone hasn't already done so, they should definitely check out his blog at
Agate Type. Great, great stuff.
Also I have to give credit to Bobble, Deft and Markmeister for their work on beards and old-timey uniform mods. While facegen isn't necessary for a fictional league, it sure does add a lot of flavor to it and being able to make players look the "right" way is fantastic.
I'm going to start in 1869, since that was the first year of acknowledged professionalism in baseball. There were 12 teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players that year (that's the forerunner of the National Association of PROFESSIONAL Base Ball Players which started in 1871). Among them was the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings (who went 19-0 against NABBP competition). Can they do it with their fictionalized roster? We'll see...
The plan is to replay history, using real leagues and teams but fictional players. The teams will include the majors (of course), the minor leagues, the Negro Leagues, the Cuban league, Japan, Mexico, etc. The first "minor" league (they didn't consider themselves thus) will show up in 1876, the same year the National League makes its debut.
I am going to create a thread to allow readers to create players for this universe, though I will probably progress until 1876 before doing so.
Players will jump leagues, teams will fold, relocate, jump leagues, etc. The 19th Century was a wild & woolly period and I will try to replicate that as best as I can. If things go well, perhaps this can become an online league like Time Warp or PBRL. It's certainly the largest project I've ever attempted.
So, coming soon - the 1869 season...