Fake Historical league

[Kiko1313]

Fake Historical - Start a historical league in 1901 and then release and kill all players in the league. Fill the league with fictional characters. Turn off historical players import and make sure that you have it import the historical settings and expansion on. Now, you will have a true alternate universe of fictional players that are replaying the actual MLB history, even using their schedules. The players will perform close to how they did in the real leagues. So, in 1968ish, the year of the pitching will take over. In the late 90s, the magic shots will take over.

I'm considering using Comedian2004's idea shown above from his "Ways to Play" article. I've never even done a real historical league. My question is how would you handle the minor leagues. I know most people that do real historical leagues don't want to use minor leagues and just have a reserve roster kind of thing. If I want minor leagues to be similar to the way they are today, would you just add AAA, AA, A (or 2 A's) and a rookie ball (or 2) for each team right from the start? I don't really know the history of minor leagues and how they worked over time and when minor league teams actually became affiliated with major league teams, etc., so I don't know that I'd want to bother with all of that (unless there's a relatively easy way). Seems like it would be easier to just do it the way it is today from the start. Thoughts?

My basic plan is to use the idea above, follow along each year without controlling any team and then in 1969 take control of the Seattle Pilots (Milwaukee Brewers starting in 1970).

Let me know what you think and if anyone has any suggestions about making this run smoothly I'd love to hear them.

Thanks.

[Bishop]

Funny, 'cause I just asked about this kind of thing elsewhere, having missed the post you quoted from.

From my understanding, what you're saying is not a problem at all. Keep "automatically import historical rookies" off, but the other settings on. It'll rename all the teams, Baltimore Orioles->New York Highlanders->New York Yankees (etc), go through the expansion, everything, all with fictional players.

Definately sounds like something I'm looking forward to doing myself

[Comedian2004]

I just created an HTML page that shows you step by step on how to do it, just waiting for approval before I post it.

It went splendid. The numbers were VERY real. When I reached 1969, I took over the Pilots. I picked players from the Unprotected list and built a team that really sucked. They actually had good pitching, which I was looking to get, but a .219 batting average for the season did not work so well. I was able to sign a couple big name free agents.

After a couple months, I resigned and let the computer take over and then went out and made me some money. When I got back, it was 30 years later. Seattle had turned into the Brewers and did have a couple titles.

Another fun thing I did was to get a team that was the best team out there. They had won 3 WS in a row. On opening day, I gave their 5 starting pitchers CEIs. It was fun. I did not feel guilty or anything. Well, the damn AI went and signed the top pitcher in the league who went on to win 29 games and lead them to their 4th WS in a row. Well, that pissed me off. So I look and saw that they had an AWESOME hitting team. 1st in everything. Well, ever wonder what happens if an entire team sufferes a CEI? Well, they quickly move to last place and stay that way for many, many years.

I picture one day someone writing a virus that only effects OOTP leagues and gives every player CEIs.

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by Comedian2004

Another fun thing I did was to get a team that was the best team out there. They had won 3 WS in a row. On opening day, I gave their 5 starting pitchers CEIs. It was fun. I did not feel guilty or anything. Well, the damn AI went and signed the top pitcher in the league who went on to win 29 games and lead them to their 4th WS in a row. Well, that pissed me off. So I look and saw that they had an AWESOME hitting team. 1st in everything. Well, ever wonder what happens if an entire team sufferes a CEI? Well, they quickly move to last place and stay that way for many, many years.

I picture one day someone writing a virus that only effects OOTP leagues and gives every player CEIs.

This reminds me of something I did once. A favorite way to play for me is to sim out a history and then take over a team either after an expansion or after a crisis. One morbid scenario I've played out a few times is one where a team loses all its players in a fiery plane crash except for a few random ones who either weren't on the plane or survived.

One time, the way I did it was I picked out the team with the best record on September 27th - a few days before season's end - and killed them off. I gave the whole league a week off (pre-scheduled, knowing I would do this) as a sort of grieving period. I imagined people debating whether to go on with the season, then deciding the dead guys would have wanted them to.

Having already clinched the title, the team went on to the playoffs and promptly lost with their minor leaguers. The did win one game, which I imagined as a great story, but that was it.

I took over in the offseason, thinking I'd have a terrible team because I wouldn't have any good players (except one surviving pitcher who was very good). I managed to make some really good free agent signings and the team went on to have an even better record the next year and win the World Series.

Would have been quite a story in real life. Can you imagine the high regard people would have for the GM of a team like that in real life?

[Le Grande Orange]

The quick suggestions I would offer would be the following:

1) For most of baseball history, the most common league size and alignment was an 8 team league aligned into a single division. Setting up minor leagues, at least initially, along this structure is a good choice, historically speaking.

2) For most of baseball history, there have been three AAA level leagues (International League, Pacific Coast League, and the American Association, the latter of which was folded after the 1997 season). So aiming for about three leagues per classification level at the higher levels mimic history reasonably well.

Another item for consideration, related to the above, is that the minors originally started up as local or regional independent leagues which later on became integrated into the current major-minor relationship we see at present. As a result, starting the minors with more but smaller leagues fits in closer with how they really developed.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by ctorg

One time, the way I did it was I picked out the team with the best record on September 27th - a few days before season's end - and killed them off. I gave the whole league a week off (pre-scheduled, knowing I would do this) as a sort of grieving period. I imagined people debating whether to go on with the season, then deciding the dead guys would have wanted them to.

MLB actually has rules governing what would happen should a club lose a number of players at once due to an accident. Essentially what happens is a draft, with the other clubs submitting a list of players and the injured club then picks playes from that list to replenish its losses up to five or six below the number it lost. The final five or six replacements come from the affected club's minor league system.

[Comedian2004]

And what is really cool, you can write a news story about it...

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

MLB actually has rules governing what would happen should a club lose a number of players at once due to an accident. Essentially what happens is a draft, with the other clubs submitting a list of players and the injured club then picks playes from that list to replenish its losses up to five or six below the number it lost. The final five or six replacements come from the affected club's minor league system.

Yeah, I know. In fact, I think you're the one who told me about it. But in my world, it's a tough break that has to be dealt with. Makes things more challenging.

[Joe Canadian]

Originally Posted by ctorg

This reminds me of something I did once. A favorite way to play for me is to sim out a history and then take over a team either after an expansion or after a crisis. One morbid scenario I've played out a few times is one where a team loses all its players in a fiery plane crash except for a few random ones who either weren't on the plane or survived.

One time, the way I did it was I picked out the team with the best record on September 27th - a few days before season's end - and killed them off. I gave the whole league a week off (pre-scheduled, knowing I would do this) as a sort of grieving period. I imagined people debating whether to go on with the season, then deciding the dead guys would have wanted them to.

Having already clinched the title, the team went on to the playoffs and promptly lost with their minor leaguers. The did win one game, which I imagined as a great story, but that was it.

I took over in the offseason, thinking I'd have a terrible team because I wouldn't have any good players (except one surviving pitcher who was very good). I managed to make some really good free agent signings and the team went on to have an even better record the next year and win the World Series.

Would have been quite a story in real life. Can you imagine the high regard people would have for the GM of a team like that in real life?

That's a great idea, I think I may use it when I get the hang of historical leagues.

[Comedian2004]

Here ya go... A step by step on how to do it...

http://www.planetootp.com/FakeHistory/Default.htm

[Comedian2004]

Fixed the bad link...

[metsgeek]

Now I'm much more interesting in picking up OOTP2007. This is exactly what I'm doing in my league, PBRL with 6.5.

I really hope someone comes up with a mod that can transfer old Cato data into 2007. If I had any clue at all how to code anything, I'd tackle it myself.

[plannine]

What about if you start a fictional league, then start to use real players/teams?
Does the game bridge the change of player types (Fict to Hist)?

example
1860 - two 4 team leagues (playing 60 games) Mix of Actual/Fictional Teams - No Minors
1880 - two 6 team leagues (playing 100 games) Mix of Actual/Fictional Teams - No Minors
1900 - two 8 team leagues (playing 140 games) Actual Teams??? - Minors (AAA?)
1901 - two 8 team leagues (actual teams) - Minors (AAA?)
with fictional players until 1870 (since that is the earliest any of the databases seem best set up for)

Could minors grow over time, adding AA & A in 1910 or some other year?

[Comedian2004]

There are a couple of minor issues when you mix the historical and majors and use the player modifiers, but that is going to be addressed in a patch. There were more important issues.

But, you can still do it without using the 1-3-5 modifiers.

But also, no historical imports before 1901. There is a whole thread on this topic somewhere.

Originally Posted by plannine

What about if you start a fictional league, then start to use real players/teams?
Does the game bridge the change of player types (Fict to Hist)?

example
1860 - two 4 team leagues (playing 60 games) Mix of Actual/Fictional Teams - No Minors
1880 - two 6 team leagues (playing 100 games) Mix of Actual/Fictional Teams - No Minors
1900 - two 8 team leagues (playing 140 games) Actual Teams??? - Minors (AAA?)
1901 - two 8 team leagues (actual teams) - Minors (AAA?)
with fictional players until 1870 (since that is the earliest any of the databases seem best set up for)

Could minors grow over time, adding AA & A in 1910 or some other year?

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Comedian2004

Here ya go... A step by step on how to do it...

http://www.planetootp.com/FakeHistory/Default.htm

"you now get to become the serial killer you always wanted to be"

ROFL

[Brick]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

2) For most of baseball history, there have been three AAA level leagues (International League, Pacific Coast League, and the American Association, the latter of which was folded after the 1997 season).

The American Association didn't really fold because it couldn't compete. The minor leagues wanted to have a AAA World Series between just two champions rather than three. The teams in the American Association didn't go away. It was more like two mergers. They just split off into the International League and the Pacific Coast League.

[Oly]

I have tried twice to set up a historical league from 1901 using fictional players and setting all the correct historical variables on the League tab except I removed
importing fictional players. I had the automatic league expension with the league expension draft set. I have ran the league up through 1952 thus far and it has never expanded...I still only have 8 teams...for example, the Brooklyn Dodgers are still there. Either the historical league wizard with the expansion option does not work or I am doing something wrong. I also ran the league again from 1901 left the orginal players in the league but set the randomly reassign new names to the players. It still hasn't expanded beyond the 8 teams. What should I do? Thanks

[Grunion]

You should have 16 teams (8 in the AL and 8 in the NL). The AL didn't expand to ten teams until 1961 historically, the NL expanded to 10 teams in 1962.

[elmwood44]

Originally Posted by Comedian2004

Here ya go... A step by step on how to do it...

http://www.planetootp.com/FakeHistory/Default.htm

Comedian

Thanks very much for doing this.

I am having a problem however. I hav been doing everything your instructions state. I get to the step where I am to delete all free agents and I have no button/option to do this. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[rasnell]

Originally Posted by elmwood44

Comedian

Thanks very much for doing this.

I am having a problem however. I hav been doing everything your instructions state. I get to the step where I am to delete all free agents and I have no button/option to do this. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Go to the league list of all free agents (it's the clipboard icon at the bottom of the screen next to the league home page icon). You have an action button that allows you to delete all free agents. I believe this action can only be taken in the off-season or pre-season.