Hi, all. It's been a long time since I've posted anything in here. Most of my experience from the earlier
OOTP games, since my computer really couldn't handle the newer ones all that well.
That must have been an antique! OOTP is not a very burdensome program except perhaps in hard drive space needed as your league expands and ages.
Good news, though! My computer bit the dust on me a while back! I guess that really ins't all that good of news, but since I'm going to be buying a new computer anyway, I figured I might as well make
OOTP's minimum requirements a part of my criteria for picking that new computer. I do have a few questions though, and since I can't have the game or even the demo out here in front of me, they're probably the kind of questions an excited teenager might ask when one of his favorite game series is about to drop a new title. My apologies in advance for that.
No apologies necessary; it's good to see enthusiasm for this game. It will be rewarded, I think.
1. Can you close down your main league and start a new one during a game, or at least change the name of your league during the game? Might sound like an odd question, but I have put a lot of thought and energy into my little backstory, (like I said, no computer, gotta occupy my creative energy somehow), and now I'm wondering if I'll be able to simulate my little storyline in the game. My original league shuts down in 1933, in case you were wondering, due to corruption and the Great Depression and all sorts of other stuff, and the new one starts up in 1935 and stays strong).
When you say "during a game," I assume that means "during the simulation of a league, even within one season." Because, you cannot do anything else when playing out an individual ballgame besides finishing it. However, yes, there are ways to shut down one league within a "game" (in this sense, take this to mean "world of baseball simulation") and start up a new one, even with the same players in an inaugural draft for the new league.
2. Can players die during the course of their careers or even at the peak of ther careers? I know it's a morbid question, but I was thinking that a few key tragic figures might make my fictional world all the more realistic.
Macabre! What kind of person are you to wish death upon your players?!?!? Just kidding. 
No, there is no death in OOTPB. Players retire and fade away. The worst tragedy in OOTPB is a career-ending injury which, to me at least, is truly tragic when you are engrossed in a game and it happens to a favorite player or a league superstar.
3. Though my main league is set up in America, can I set up minor leagues in other countries, to sort of "support the growth of the sport" there? And what effect would that "foreigner Percentage" option that you can click before you start a game have on this?
It means you can have one or both situations. You can have foreign leagues that allow nobody other than their own countrymen, but from which the top players can come to your major league as free agents (a bit tricky to set the proper level of baseball quality and salary levels in those leagues to achieve this, however). And/or, you can have your main league produce a certain amount of foreigners in your amateur draft every year. And, if that were not enough, you have a third option which is the one that I use: No foreign leagues, no foreign amateur draftees, but using scouts to discover international talent (so called "hidden players") instead. That's the easy way to get around the tricky free agency method.
Think that's all I have for now. Sorry if these questions have been asked/answered/or discussed before, I have to do all my library work in a fairly short period of time at my local library these days, so I haven't really had time to look like I should. Also sorry if I've been a little too longwinded with my typing here. I know I have a bad habit about doing that I was also in kind of a hurry, the time limits and everything.
No problem whatsoever. I do recommend downloading the demo and manual, the tutorials on the main page, and searching these forums for specific topics.
Might be a while before I'm able to get back here to check on this, but I've been thinking about these questions for a while, and just now got around to posting them.
Post again if you have questions that you can't find answers for, and we'll see if we can answer them.
Many thanks in advance!.
You're welcome.