[gordyhulten]

THE SETUP

The Republican League is a recreation of the solo fictional league that I used in my original dynasty from OOTP6, which died due to inattention caused by a severe lack of fun with OOTP2006. The universe is loosely based on the assumption that baseball in the United States never really took off West of the Rockies, and that regionalism divides America both north and south (as a legacy of the Civil War) and east and west (as a legacy of the settlement of the frontier). Another legacy of the Civil War is a heightened sense of loyalty to a person’s state, instead of to a city or region.

The universe structure reflects those factors, with two twelve-team leagues split into two divisions each.

In the west, in an area still growing, with smaller, more newly arrived populations, is the Frontier League (FL):

Prairie Division
Colorado Chiefs (Denver, CO)
Illinois Hitmen (Chicago, IL)
Iowa Legends (Des Moines, IA)
Minnesota Muskies (Minneapolis, MN)
Nebraska Kernels (Omaha, NE)
Ohio Dynamo (Cleveland, OH)

Rivers Division
Alabama Vipers (Birmingham, AL)
Louisiana Skeeters (New Orleans, LA)
Mississippi Wizards (Jackson, MS)
Missouri Explorers (St. Louis, MO)
Oklahoma Wranglers (Oklahoma City, OK)
Texas Drillers (Houston, TX)

The largest cities in this fictional American West are Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, Cleveland and Houston.


On the east coast, in the area dominated by larger cities, significant commerce and greater wealth, lies the Metropolitan League:

Union Division
Connecticut Atlantics (Hartford, CT)
Maine Loggers (Portland, ME)
Massachusetts Emeralds (Boston, MA)
New Jersey Curve (Newark, NJ)
New York Knights (New York, NY)
Pennsylvania Freedom (Philadelphia, PA)

States Division
Florida Oranges (Miami, FL)
Georgia Rebels (Atlanta, GA)
Kentucky Stallions (Louisville, KY)
North Carolina Aeros (Charlotte, NC)
Tennessee Nuts (Nashville, TN)
Washington Generals (Washington, DC)

The Metropolitan League’s largest cities are New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Miami and Atlanta, with New York dwarfing all the other markets, and having enough “leftover” population to support a second team in nearby New Jersey.



In the Republican League, home runs and strikeouts are more rare, speed is more important, and pitchers have a bit more endurance than we are used to. This is achieved by modifying SkyDog’s Fictional League settings.

Financially, revenues and salaries are a little lower than modern Major League Baseball. In the Republican League, a player earning $8 million per year will likely be the highest-paid in baseball. The major league minimum salary is just a bit more than $120,000 per year. And there is a clear delineation between small markets and large markets, and between loyal fans and disloyal fans: (Team followed by Fan Loyalty / Market Size / Media Contract in millions)

Frontier League – Prairie Division
Colorado Chiefs (Fan Loyalty: 3 / Market Size: 9 / Media Contract: $10.5 million annually)
Illinois Hitmen (7 / 18 / 21.5)
Iowa Legends (3 / 2 / 3.5)
Minnesota Muskies (4 / 10 / 12.0)
Nebraska Kernels (7 / 3 / 6.5)
Ohio Dynamo (6 / 9 / 12.0)

Frontier League – Rivers Division
Alabama Vipers (3 / 4 / 5.5)
Louisiana Skeeters (8 / 5 / 9.0)
Mississippi Wizards (8 / 2 / 6.0)
Missouri Explorers (5 / 9 / 11.5)
Oklahoma Wranglers (4 / 4 / 6.0)
Texas Drillers (2 / 13 / 14.0)

Metropolitan League – Union Division
Connecticut Atlantics (5 / 5 / 7.5)
Maine Loggers (7 / 2 / 5.5)
Massachusetts Emeralds (10 / 12 / 17.0)
New Jersey Curve (4 / 12 / 14.0)
New York Knights (2 / 20 / 30.0)
Pennsylvania Freedom (2 / 14 / 15.0)

Metropolitan League – States Division
Florida Oranges (5 / 13 / 15.5)
Georgia Rebels (8 / 12 / 16.0)
Kentucky Stallions (2 / 5 / 6.0)
North Carolina Aeros (6 / 6 / 9.0)
Tennessee Nuts (6 / 5 / 8.0)
Washington Generals (1 / 13 / 13.5)

The market differences are accentuated by a $50 million cash cap (to allow for significant dynasties and to allow large-market franchises to rebuild quickly), no compensatory draft picks, salary cap or revenue sharing, and by media contracts which are fixed for 200 years.

Unique ballparks, with a difference in factors and capacities, also accentuate market and franchise differences:

Frontier League – Prairie Division
Colorado Chiefs - Memorial Field: (Capacity: 33700 / Park Factor AVG: 1.161 / Park Factor HR: 1.275)
Illinois Hitmen Frank Lloyd Wright Field: (48722 / 0.974 / 0.923)
Iowa Legends Des Moines Park: (25373 / 0.924 / 0.867)
Minnesota Muskies Teflon Field: (37110 / 1.025 / 1.085)
Nebraska Kernels Nebraska Stadium: (30500 / 1.034 / 0.994)
Ohio Dynamo Goodyear Stadium: (40200 / 1.007 / 0.993)

Frontier League – Rivers Division
Alabama Vipers Birmingham Park: (31000 / 1.002 / 0.991)
Louisiana Skeeters Entergy Field: (33200 / 0.950 / 0.963)
Mississippi Wizards JEB Stuart Grounds: (28400 / 1.003 / 0.993)
Missouri Explorers Lewis & Clark Yards: (31000 / 0.930 / 0.980)
Oklahoma Wranglers Oklahoma Federal Stadium: (30800 / 0.965 / 1.005)
Texas Drillers Texas State Fairgrounds: (46300 / 1.002 / 1.012)

Metropolitan League – Union Division
Connecticut Atlantics Constitution Park: (31000 / 1.065 / 1.025)
Maine Loggers Portland Century Park: (28000 / 0.919 / 0.888)
Massachusetts Emeralds UTC Ballpark: (40500 / 1.026 / 0.973)
New Jersey Curve The Fabulous Avalon: (41000 / 0.985 / 1.028)
New York Knights New York Stadium: (53600 / 1.019 / 1.062)
Pennsylvania Freedom Liberty Field: (48000 / 1.039 / 1.069)

Metropolitan League – States Division
Florida Oranges Kraft Park: (42600 / 1.032 / 1.072)
Georgia Rebels Lexus Park: (41800 / 0.968 / 1.019)
Kentucky Stallions Humana Park: (30600 / 1.019 / 0.981)
North Carolina Aeros Capitol Field: (31000 / 1.031 / 0.979)
Tennessee Nuts Volunteer State Grounds: (30890 / 0.925 / 0.976)
Washington Generals Armed Forces Stadium: (43000 / 0.993 / 0.904)

The Republican League is a universe of “haves” and “have nots.” The New York Knights are financial juggernauts, with a huge market, 50 percent more media revenue than anyone else in the ML, and the largest ballpark. The Iowa Legends, with a tiny market, almost no media revenue and a stadium which holds less than half of New York’s, is structurally disadvantaged.

The differences, and the degree to which the Republican League emphasizes them, makes National Championships by the “haves” very common, and by the “have nots” all the more remarkable.

Other league/universe setup notes:

• Each team has five levels of minors (AAA, AA, A, Short Season A, and Rookie League)
• The major-league schedule is 162 games, unbalanced (18 games versus each in-division team). Interleague play is the devil, and is not used. Wild Card playoff berths are the devil, and are not used.
• The DH is the devil, so major league teams do not use it
  Scouting and coaches are enabled. Ratings scales are 1-5 for actual ratings, and 1-10 for potential and coach/scout ratings.
• Trading settings are Low / Hard / Favor Prospects.
  Ballparks are by Teflon Skies, who is greatly missed. Team logos and jerseys are accumulated from a variety of sources, but [http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/members/silvam14.html]silvam14[/url] was a great help in creating, compiling and customizing them. The ballparks, logos and uniforms combine with FaceGen to create such a wonderful sense of immersion that, to me, the RL feels real.

To generate some history and context, I’ve simmed 100 seasons (1901-2000), periodically resetting market sizes and cash when they’ve gotten out of hand. You can view that history here.

Of course, the Republican League record books reflect some of the league settings I’ve described above. The single-season record for Home Runs is just 57, with just 13 instances of a player hitting 50 or more HRs in a season. The career HR record is just 570. The career Stolen Base record, though, is 1690, reflecting the importance of speed.


I’ll be joining the Republican League on October 18, 2000, the day that the Nebraska Kernels won their record fifth consecutive National Championship by sweeping the ML Champion Pennsylvania Freedom. My intention (and challenge!) is to take over as General Manager of either one of the last-place franchises (Iowa Legends, Alabama Vipers, Massachusetts Emeralds or North Carolina Aeros) or any other interesting job which opens organically, and attempt to rebuild that franchise, hopefully leading it to a National Championship of my own.

If you have thoughts about which job I should take, or about the Republican League in general, please let me know.

More in a bit.