Barnstorming Teams

[toddgregory]

Just a thought for the future. Would it be possible to set up a team that has no hometown (barnstorming team)? When selecting a team's location, there would be an option for none. Scheduled games would simply default to the other teams home field.

To expand this, wouldn't it be possible to create a team independent of any league affiliation and then allow them to play road games against teams in any of the leagues?

In fact, you could create an entire league of barnstormers. When creating the game schedule, you would be asked, "where will this game/series be played?" and attendance and revenue could be generated based upon stadium size and the baseball interest level of that part of your Ootp universe.

This would replicate the barnstorming concept that many people seem interested in.

[Curtis]

I'm thinking this might be a little complicated for the poor, undergunned schedulemaker to handle, but if you're willing to put in the effort you could simulate the first part of that yourself.

If you have a team with no home stadium, edit their park name to 'No Stadium', 'No Field', or something similar. Edit all of the dimensions and park effects to zero (more for artistic than useful purposes). Go to the schedule and change all home games to away games against the same team (or an exhibition against a team outside the league). Under 2007 you'll make some money from visitor's share of the gate. You might also have a media contract and merchandising (think Harlem Globetrotters).

I can't think of an easy way to have a leagueless team play a meaningful schedule, but that doesn't mean that such a way doesn't exist.

Le Grande Orange will inform you that there were one or two ninteenth century teams that played all or most of a season on the road in a regular league schedule. Not because their park burned down (which happened periodically), but because their home attendence was so low that they made enough money as a visiting team to compensate for their increased travel expenses.

[Kelric]

My first post in a long time here. So long, in fact, that I'm not even in the league mentioned in my signature anymore. Ah well.

I can't help you at all in actually setting this up, but just wanted to mention that in OOTP'06 I set up a 'barnstormer' league with 8 teams that played 210 games against each other with a small roster, few power hitters or relievers and lots of CGs. I cheated a bit and had them play long series against each other rather than 1 or 2 game series, figuring it would be cheaper to rent motel rooms for longer stays in each town than to be constantly moving.

It ended up being a pretty fun league to follow, especially when some older veterans from superior leagues couldn't get contracts anywhere else and wound up in it. Some played well for a few more seasons, others couldn't even cut it with the barnstormers. It was a little odd seeing several guys around the 4,000 hit barrier but with almost 50 more games a season it made sense.

Looking back, if I do make a similar league in OOTP'07 I will probably have at least 210 games again (maybe even approaching 300) but go with many, many more teams so they would play a more realistic 1 or 2 game series with each team before moving on even though they may play that team several times a year.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Curtis

Le Grande Orange will inform you that there were one or two ninteenth century teams that played all or most of a season on the road in a regular league schedule. Not because their park burned down (which happened periodically), but because their home attendence was so low that they made enough more money as a visiting team to compensate for their increased travel expenses.

Cleveland in 1898 and 1899, and to a lesser degree Louisville in 1899, both in the NL.

You can find a number of examples from recent independent league schedules were one of a league's clubs was operated as a road team. This happened for several years in the Atlantic League, to name the most notable example.