The Big Four

[NYY #23]

I'll be the first to admit that I spend too much time tweaking things, and I think that this is attempt number eight at this league. It all started about one year ago reading a blog about what would baseball be like at 16 games per year. Thus began my Any Given Sunday journey from 1871-1874 before I decided to start fresh.

That league evolved from once a week to a promotion/relegation league and took a life of its own, but on a whim I opened up the old Any Given Sunday league file, and it was like visiting old friends. The end result is I've got two league files going, with one in 1884 and one in 1886. What I really want to do is simplify things, but in the process of creating these leagues I've gotten attached to players like Aaron Jackson, Milt Foss, and Cameron Cotter from one league, and Ken Kaufman, Mark Giles, and Dallas Echevarria in another league.

Which I still find a little bit odd, because I've never played with fictional players before this. I guess I really can't say that anymore. But with two dynasty reports so close together in time, and another league I'm playing in 1881 I need to do something, and that is 'The Big Four'.

The Big Four will combine four separate leagues into one universe. Each of those leagues will be influenced by one of today's professional sports leagues. The history of each of these leagues began in 1871 and will remain.

I've gone through about 40 years of testing, and I'm pretty comfortable that this will work out how I want, and hopefully each league will have a separate feel, from the high scoring NBA, to the pitching dominant NHL , to the every game counts NFL. Plus the pared down NABA, still featuring promotion and relegation.

Up next a little bit about each of the leagues histories before jumping to the current day, which in this case is January 1885…

[NYY #23]

Up first is the NFL, or the National Fastball League in my universe. The NFL is a continuation of my Any Given Sunday universe, which started here - http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...en-sunday.html and ended here - http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...continues.html

Games will be played once a week, and we'll pick things up in January with the 1885 playoffs and crown the 16th champion of the league. There are a couple of notable changes going forward -

1) The season will now begin in September
2) Free agency has been enabled after five seasons
3) Finances have been synched with the other leagues

In copying over the league I made a mistake and did it a year early and didn't notice until the end, so the teams magically played 16 seasons over 15 years, so essentially we began one year sooner (1870) and everything shifts one year. It shouldn't have an impact, but I wanted to point out that time shift.

If you've been following along you know the history, but if you haven't the Saints have been the dominating team during the early history. They've won more championships (4) than any other team in the league and the just completed season is only the second time in history that they've failed to make the playoffs.



40 year old Aaron Jackson isn't quite as dominating as he once was though, going 8-8 with a 3.56 ERA. His 127 career wins are more than any other pitcher in the history of the league and the Saints are going to need to replace him sooner rather than later to continue their dominance.

The Packers and Broncos are tied for second with two Championships, with the Ravens, Jaguars, Chiefs, Titans, Jets, 49'ers, and Cowboys each having one Championship.

[rjl518]

another league my friend? well..only you have the power to do eight leagues...im barely doing three...lol

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by rjl518

another league my friend? well..only you have the power to do eight leagues...im barely doing three...lol

Well, that's part of my problem. I guess I'll find out if putting all of the individual leagues into one larger league helps or not.

[NYY #23]

On a recent game day the Orlando Magic defeated the Detroit Pistons 15-9, the 76'ers beat the Nuggets 13-10, and the Lakers beat the Knicks 8-6. Such as life in the NBA where the Cleveland Cavaliers lead the Eastern Conference with 9.3 runs per game, Avery Wallace is leading the league with a .535 batting average, and Linford Velez is one of the most dominating pitchers the league has seen with 5 Outstanding Pitcher Awards on his trophy, and is leading the league with a 4.86 ERA.

When Alfonso Toro hit a record 77 home runs last year in 82 games nobody in the NBA blinked, because offense is king, and it's brutal for pitchers.



You can ask Danny Whiteside what life is like in the NBA for a pitcher after he left the NHL following a 23-12 season with a 2.24 ERA to cash in with the Charlotte Bobcats. After going 17-10 with a 6.86 ERA Woodside found life much tougher as a Bobcat than a Florida Panther. But the importance of good pitching shouldn't be underestimated in the NBA, despite how ugly the stats look.

The teams will be playing 82 games per year with the season beginning in October. The top eight teams will be making the playoffs in each conference. Like the NFL free agency will occur after five years in the league, and in this universe players have the ability to jump from league to league when their contract is up.

The Celtics, Bucks, Lakers, and Trail Blazers have each won two championships, with the Pacers, Wizards, Magic, Warriors, Pelicans, and Kings each winning one championship. While there has been a few instances of single season domination (the Celtics going 63-19 in one of their championship seasons), but there hasn't been a dominant team throughout the league's history, at least currently.

[NYY #23]

Pitching dominates the NHL as the league is modeled after the year of the pitcher, 1968.



Tom Moore provides a good example of what dominating pitching looks like as a three time Pitcher of the Year and career wins leader in the NHL -



Pitchers winning 20 games per season is a fairly common occurrence. Don Wilkins entered the NHL a little late in life as a 30 year old, but won 20 games his first season, and he'd do that five more times in his career winning 180 career games in the NHL before playing his final two seasons in the NBA and retiring. Wilkins won four Pitcher of the Year Awards for the Tampa Bay Lightning, pitched a perfect game, and won two championships with Tampa Bay. The Lightning's 14 playoff appearances and 3 Championships is tops of all NHL teams.

No other team has won more than one championship, with the Bruins, Ducks, Canadiens, Coyotes, Flyers, Blackhawks, Avalanche, Wild, Kings, Oilers, and Canucks each winning one championship.

Like the NBA 16 of the 30 teams will qualify for a postseason berth.

[NYY #23]

Last but not least is the North American Baseball Association, which is a continuation of this league http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...on-league.html

This doesn't fit into the Big Four as well as the other leagues, but NABA will be my Major League Baseball replacement, with promotion and relegation. I have made some changes, paring the league down to three levels with 22 teams each. Gone is the east/west split that I just made because worrying about realistic travel isn't my top concern anymore. Teams will play against each of the 21 other teams in the league two four game series.

The bottom three teams in the league will be subject to a promotion/relegation playoff, with the top four teams qualifying for the NABA Championship. The team with the best record in League A will win the Turner Cup with the history now looking like this:

Turner Cup Champions

1870 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1871 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1872 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1873 - Washington Senators
1874 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1875 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1876 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1877 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1878 - Virginia Beach Colonials
1879 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1880 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1881 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1882 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1883 - St Louis Terriers
1884 - New Orleans Crescents

While both 1883 and 1884 were played with different divisions I awarded the Turner Cup to the team with the best record these two years.

I do realize I never finished posting the NABA Championship, but 1884 turned out like this -

Round 1:
Cleveland Lakers defeated the New York Americans 2 games to 0
Brooklyn Atlantics defeated the Jersey City Giants 2 games to 0
Dallas Tycoons defeated the New Orleans Crescents 2 games to 0
St Louis Terriers defeated the Portland Beavers 2 games to 0

Round 2:
Brooklyn Atlantics defeated the Cleveland Lakers 2 games to 1
St Louis Terriers defeated the Dallas Tycoons 2 games to 1

Round 3:
Brooklyn Atlantics defeated the St. Louis Terriers 3 games to 0

That's now 6 NABA Championships for the Brooklyn Atlantics -

1870 - Milwaukee Bisons
1871 - Washington Senators
1872 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1873 - St Louis Terriers
1874 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1875 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1876 - Cleveland Lakers
1877 - Cleveland Lakers
1878 - Virginia Beach Colonials
1879 - Durham Eagles
1880 - Richmond Generals
1881 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1882 - Brooklyn Atlantics
1883 - Cleveland Lakers
1884 - Brooklyn Atlantics

[NYY #23]

In order to accommodate the Los Angeles Clippers from the NBA the Clippers will now be known as the Los Angeles White Sox. League A will feature the top 22 teams from the East and West:

[NYY #23]

Just one change in League B as the Sacramento Bees will now be known as the Sacramento Grizzlies:

[NYY #23]

Then finally League C, which features the top of the remaining teams with two exceptions, the Philadelphia Patriots and the Hartford Gold, who both were featured in the top league previously. Since they weren't too far out I wanted to keep both of those teams in the running.

[NYY #23]

Al Atkinson and the Giants enter the playoffs as the team to beat in the NFC. Atkinson finished the season with an 11-4 season and 3.02 ERA with the Giants scoring 106 runs, the second highest total in the league. The veteran Cap Anson led the team with a .324 batting average.



George Derby turned in the best season of his career going 12-4 with a 2.20 ERA. The 29 year old has now won 94 games in his career for the top seeded Chargers.

AFC Playoffs

Chargers (12-4), Jaguars (10-6) bye

6)Browns (9-7) @ 3)Steelers (10-6)

5)Ravens (9-7) @ 4)Bills (9-7)

NFC Playoffs

Giants (12-4), Bears (11-5) bye

6)Redskins (10-6) @ 3)Falcons (11-5)

5)Vikings (10-6) @ 4)Cardinals (9-7)



While the NFL season is gearing up for the playoffs the NHL is approaching the midpoint of the season. The Calgary Flames have the best record in the NHL with a 26-10 record, with Ken Stephens making a big impact in his first year as a starter. The 23 year old is 13-7 with a 2.04 ERA after pitching 48 innings out of the bullpen last year for the Flames.

24 year old Royce Holtzhouser came into this season with a career batting average under .200 for the Winnipeg Jets, but is in the midst of a breakout season hitting .310 with 8 home runs and 24 RBI.



In the NBA the Trail Blazers are the team to beat with a 23-10 record. Still just 23 years old, Jason Davis is hitting .446 with 30 home runs, following up a season in which he hit .426 with 60 home runs.

[NYY #23]

Sometimes actions have unintended consequences, and that was the case with a rule change that I made in the NABA League. A couple of years back I implemented a posting system that would allow the different leagues within NABA to purchase players.

The intent was to allow teams within NABA to sell off players to other teams in the association to purchase players from other teams in the association. It's been in effect for a couple of years now, and hasn't really been used, until now.

After hitting .378 last season with 18 home runs and 64 RBI the Wichita Wolverines decided to post 24 year old Mark Giles.



Just one day later Giles was purchased by the Portland Trail Blazers.

I struggled with this one and thought about stepping in and reversing this one, because Giles is the Wolverines best player, without Giles the Wolverines will likely come close to the bottom of the league and be subject to relegation, and transferring between leagues wasn't my original intent.

Of course there are a couple of reasons to let things stand. The first is that Giles will become a free agent after this season, the Wolverines aren't exactly flush with cash, and they'll have trouble signing Giles as a free agent.

In the end I decided to let things stand and Giles will head off to Portland and the Blazers high scoring offense, ranked second in the league.

[pauwoo]

This should be interesting!

[NYY #23]

The playoffs begin in Buffalo with an upset as the Ravens defeated the Bills 6-2. Jim Britt picked up the complete game win for the Ravens, holding Buffalo to seven hits as the Ravens took advantage of 4 errors by the Bills.

Ethan Milhorn and Ron Paty led the Ravens with two hits apiece.

[NYY #23]

Trailing 4-3 heading in to the bottom of the seventh the Steelers had a big seven run seventh to put the game out of reach, knocking off their division rivals 10-7.

Chad Arndt and pinch hitter Jason Allen each delivered key RBI singles in the seventh, each driving in two runs for the Steelers with Tom Dolan tripling home a pair of runs. Addison Coxen picked up the win for the Steelers.

Jeff Corn set a playoff record with a pair of triples for the Browns.

[NYY #23]

The Vikings got off to an early lead in the third inning when starting pitcher Nick Hornburg singled in a pair of runs, and then came around to score. Hornburg would then go on to dominate the Cardinals for 8 innings, before a shaky ninth inning where Hornburg would allow 4 runs to score and the Cardinals to move within one run. Hornburg and the Vikings escaped with the 6-5 win though.

[NYY #23]

The final Wild Card game was definitely the wildest. Victor Helmer was making the start for the Redskins after going 6-8 with a 2.21 ERA. He was out of the game before the fourth inning ended, giving up 10 runs (8 earned) in 3 2/3 innings, for an ERA of 19.64. That gave the Falcons a 10-3 lead, but the Falcons couldn't hold the lead with the Redskins tieing the game at 10 with a run in the ninth inning.

The game would go into extra innings, with Jeff Mosley picking up the walk of single in the bottom of the tenth for the Falcons, who won their first playoff game in their history.

Mike Mattimore picked up the win for the Falcons, allowing just 1 run in 3 innings of relief. Geoff Colbert led the Falcons with 3 hits and 3 RBI, with Ken Hicken hitting a home run for the Falcons.

Roger Connor picked up four hits in a losing effort for the Redskins.

The Falcons will be travelling to Chicago next week where they'll take on the Bears, with the Giants hosting the Falcons. In the AFC it is the Ravens at the Chargers and the Steelers taking on the Jaguars in Jacksonville.

[NYY #23]

The Divisional Round opened with a matchup between two of the best pitchers in the AFC, Jim Britt of the Ravens against George Derby of the Chargers. While pitching dominated the first six innings of the game things started getting sloppy in the seventh. Poor fielding led to a combined 12 errors over the final three innings of regulation, and the teams finished 9 innings tied at 6 runs apiece.

It would remain tied until the top of the twelfth when Randy Mobley and Ron Paty each reached on errors, and Mobley would score the winning run on a single by Ethan Milhorn as the Ravens defeated the Chargers 7-6.

Jim Britt would pick up his second win of the postseason for the Ravens, pitching all 12 innings of the game for Baltimore. Ian Kober would take the loss pitching the final two innings after George Derby left the game with a calf injury.

[NYY #23]

Pinch hitter Robby Saye reached on an error to start the ninth inning, and came home to score the winning run on a sacrifice fly as the Steelers knocked off the Jacksonville Jaguars to advance to the AFC Championship Game.

Steelers starting pitcher Dylan Smallwood continued his impressive run after replacing Addison Coxen as the starter with three games left in the season, and winning his final three starts of the season, and with a complete game today Smallwood has now won four straight starts. Smallwood allowed just 5 hits and 1 unearned run. Paul Boston led the Steelers with two hits.

It would be another disappointing end to the season for the Jaguars, who have won the AFC South four straight years, and for the fourth straight year they failed to win a playoff game. This year the Jaguars had to play without starter Dave Cartwright who sat out the game with an elbow injury after going 11-3 with a 2.34 ERA.

[NYY #23]

The Vikings held on to defeat the Giants 6-4 to advance to their third NFC Championship Game in their history, looking to advance to the World Championship Game for the first time ever. Nick Hornburg picked up his second playoff victory of the postseason with a complete game 10 hitter.

While Hornburg didn't have his best effort on the mound, he escaped with the win and led the team with 2 hits, 2 runs scored, and an RBI. Peter Ennis also delivered a big two run triple for the Vikings.

Cap Anson's postseason struggles continue for the Giants. In his career Anson is hitting .271 in the playoffs, while hitting .353 during the regular season.