[cephasjames]

Suggestion
League Associations

Reason
From previous posts on this subject:

Originally Posted by cephasjames

With the addition of add/delete league/subleague we're quite a leap closer to being able to accurately portray how leagues have existed. But one of my major issues still is how in order to have two 'leagues' (AL & NL) interact with each other they need to 'subleagues' within a 'league.'

But this is not how history has worked. For instance, until 2000 the AL and NL were actually two seperate leagues that just happen to associate themselves with each other. When the Federal League came into existence either the NL or the AL could have disassociated themsleves with the other to associate themsleves with the Federal League. Though this will be possible in 2007 with a bit of work (creating a second subleague for the Fedral League and moving the American League teams to into it, thus leaving the National League all alone) it doesn't really correctly save the American League's history and it just seems like a bit of a pain.

League Associations will allow each and every league to remain as its own entity but still allow it to interact with another league during the regular and post seasons. The AL could switch its association the FL for two years and then move back to being affiliated with the NL with ease.

This could also clear up the craziness of "what do you call a 'league' that has two subleagues that through history were actually 'leagues'?" In the game the association of the AL & NL is called Major League Baseball. Well, the Federal League is also Major. What about the IL & AA. They were associated until the AA folded. What do we call that association when they are associated? The Minor League Association? AAA Association? AAA League? Where does that leave the PCL? And when the AA folded do we then call that 'league' that used to be known as the AAA Association (or whatever) simply just the IL? It's crazy!

I don't know if I explained this very well (and I'm sure others can and will jump in and clarify my mess - as is always the case) but I think having League Associations (horizontal affiliations maybe?) would make running historical and fictional worlds so much better and easier.

Originally Posted by LGO

Guys, I've been on about this already in the beta forums for awhile now. Not in full campaign mode as yet, but more as gentle nudges that perhaps the current path is not the optimal one for recreating certain aspects of baseball history (most notably the major-minor relationship, but also including the MLB major league to major league relationship).

The main question about this sort of suggestion is whether there is something about the way the game is currently designed to handle leagues which prevents it or not. Markus hasn't said that's the case, so I'm presuming associating leagues is at least doable under the current design (though perhaps it may require a lot of work).

At some point I'll pull together a more detailed proposal, backed up by evidence as to why it's an important item to put into the game.

Offhand, as of right now, I can think of three levels of association that would be needed:

Major League Association. This would take two or more major leagues and put them under one umbrella organization, just like how the AL and NL were under the larger MLB grouping. By putting major leagues under the same association, it would allow the following to happen: 1) a post-season championship series between the champions of each individual league; 2)trading and selling players between the leagues; 3) a combined amateur draft; 4) interleague regular season games between the leagues; 5) interleague spring training games between the leagues.

Minor League Association. This would be similar to the Major League Association, but for minor leagues.

Major-Minor League Association. This would mimic the structure which governs the real-world relationship between the major and minor leagues. Putting a group of major and minor leagues together in this association would allow: 1) major league clubs to have working agreements with minor league clubs for player development; 2) major league clubs to outright own minor league clubs; 3) allow a Rule 5 type draft whereby the major league clubs can draft players from minor league clubs, and minor league clubs could draft players from other, lower classification minor league clubs; 4) allow players to be optioned to minor league clubs.

From this thread: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ociations.html

Priority
High