some (stupid?) questions about a 1871 start

[Pronkytonk]

Hi all,

I read a lot about the historical leagues and dynasties build and enjoyed every bit of it. Thanx a lot for the great work !

Now after having gotten my feet wet with some historical leagues starting in the early 1900s or later, I would like to try a simulation from the very start of professional baseball in a league format, i.e. 1871. There are many threads here dealing with such experiments, but there are still some questions left to get this project going so I would appreciate some help from the experts around this board.

What I plan to do is :

- set up a semi-fictional league with 6 teams which will expand later on. The Teams are real teams, but I would like to keep all the franchises going until the present day to avoid the in and out of teams during the early years. The original franchises may change their nicknames to make them suitable for the era, but there will be no folding or relocation in my league.
- use the real players in an inaugural draft and use the amateur draft

I know already how to change the league modificators as described in some thread here so I should get quite realistic results and think I can also deal with the financials. Free agency will be set to 1 year for the beginning, arbitration will be off and injuries/fatigue is set to very low because of the small rosters over the first years.


Some questions remaining to get started :

- Seems to me OOTP8 does not directly support historical leagues starting before 1901. The programs says you have to enter a year between 1901 and 2006, so how can I change this (maybe a stupid question, but I know there is a way to do it and don't like to try for hours to find it)
- Which database should I use ? Is it possible to go with Lahman or should I choose another one (which one ?)
- I remember to have read that recalc cannot be used when starting before 1901. Is that true ? If it is, is there a way to use recalc after reaching 1901 ? I do not care too much about the ratings modifications, but I would like to keep the position assignments close to reality (e.g. Babe Ruth going from pitcher to outfielder etc.)
- Does the program (I use OOTP8) auto-schedule correctly if there is no historical schedule used ? I plan to go with a 45 game schedule for the first year(s), will it be ok if I enter the number of games and "balanced schedule" and not much more ?
- is there anything else I should consider to avoid problems with my league ?

I hope anyone around can help me with this, thanx a lot in advance. Maybe the answers could be found searching the forum, but I did not manage to (and was a bit confused because much of what I read was concercing OOTP6.5 and I am not sure if it is the same for OOTP8).