Baseball Heads West: An Alternate History

[Painmantle]

Baseball Heads West: An Alternate History


The Year 1958, the US economy is booming, something that cannot be said about baseball. The defection of Brooklyn and NY Giants to the West Coast had the Big Apple in an uproar. Talks of moving Cleveland ran amuck. But the talks of moving the Senators out of Washington DC had congress calling for congressional hearings. Baseball answered with 48 year baseball guru Casey Stengel as their spokesperson and The Mighty Casey did NOT Strike out on this day. He rambled on enough to get baseball a reprieve from talks of a Monopoly and elimination of the reserve clause, dodging the proverbial “bean Ball” from Congress.


The sudden and immediate resignation of Commissioner Ford Frick (which followed the resignation of AL President, William Harridge) Sent shockwaves through Baseball and rattled the Owners dramatically.

Here is Frick’s announcement from St Andrews Golf Club:

"What I am about to say is not the result of a sudden decision. It has nothing to do with any of the events of recent months. I have been thinking about this matter for some years. I have now come to the considered conclusion that I can no longer defer giving my whole attention to a project which has been occupying me at odd moments for a long time. This project is the writing of a book on the game of curling. As most of you gentlemen of press, radio and television know, I have been playing this grand old Scottish game here at the St. Andrews Club for many, many years. Baseball has always been my first love, true, but curling is a game to which I am also deeply devoted. In this book of mine, I think I may have something to say. Therefore, effective immediately, I am resigning as baseball commissioner to give all my time to the completion of my manuscript. Thank you, one and all.”
"And now, fellows, I think there are some refreshments and light luncheon snacks waiting for us in the club bar."

Baseball owners fearing that not having a commissioner would escalate animosity towards the owners and the game which seemed to be in disarray and cause a total abolishment of the Baseball economic system that had been so profitable for it’s owners for so long. The baseball owners frantically searched and nominated possible replacements for Frick but after several candidates failed to get the required votes. Then one guy made the cut….Fels Napier!


While Napier knew very little about Baseball he knew about business and he wanted to capitalize on the excitement on the West Coast that had developed very quickly with the relocation of two of Baseballs most storied franchises… the Giants and Dodgers.


Napier came up with a very ambitious plan to expand baseball 4 years before the scheduled date in 1962, He didn’t want to wait 4 years or 2 years he wanted expansion NOW! The owners were helpless, Firing Napier would surely raise red flag to congress and America that Baseball is a dying game and they could ill afford for this to happen.


It was Do or Die for Baseball. Failure would mean the collapse of baseball as we knew it, the end of the Monopoly and cost the owners Millions of dollars! They had no choice to go along with this ruthless plan and pretend like they liked it!





Comming soon, The announcment of the Expansion teams for Major League Baseball 1958! To Be Continued.....

[Painmantle]

First a little about this league and it’s history. I changed a few settings but only for the purposes of making player development independent of Historical elements and anything else I thought would make this a better league. Injuries to classic,1-100 ratings, spritz I have set the reserve roster limit to 25 from unlimited right before expansion.Ratings are now base on neutral stats. Probably something else that I forgot.

This league was started in 1871 and simmed until 1957. It has its own History separate from MLB. The ONLY thing I DID during the simming of the 76 seasons was half way through the 1919 season I changed Babe Ruth from a MR to a LF to simulate his actual career position change. I felt like I owed it to this league to give him a shot at the record books.


I will be catching all of you up on the history of this league in the near future before I move onto the expansion of the league. Even before I announce the actual expansion teams.


What the simming a new history accomplished is it eliminated the issue of not really having enough players to fill teams and reserve rosters adequately as there has been a draft every year.

Organizational Rosters range from 56 Players ( White Sox) to 82 Players (Cleveland Indians) Plenty of players to accomplish an expansion draft without too many ill effects on the league.
So expect a History update BEFORE Expansion!

[CatKnight]

An early major expansion similar to 1969. Ambitious! This will be interesting to watch.

[Painmantle]

Team History

Single Season and Career Records

n

[Painmantle]

AL Award Winners

n

[Painmantle]

NL Award Winners

n

[Painmantle]

Batting acomplishments

Pitching Acomplishments

n

[Painmantle]

Hello all,
The expansion committee assigned by Fels Napier has made its recommendation for expansion. There will be no negotiation with the owners as they agreed to give him a blank check to handle baseball and all its issues allowing him unbridled control of the process’ of Marketing, expansion and handling any legal issues as well as dealing with Congress and the officials from New York who have a lot of buddies in DC. One of the expansion teams biggest concerns was getting 2 team out west to enter the American League. The Committees first choice for expansion is:

California City, California is nestled in the heart of the Mojave Desert less than 2 hours from Los Angeles and an hour from Bakersfield. California City is the Brainchild of Nate K Mendelsohn, President of The California City Development Company and Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. Mendelson began buying up desert land in 1956 for pennies on the dollar and had over 82,000 acres at his disposal. His work with the Cotton and alfalfa industries on their irrigation problems has served him well in his Social endeavors and California City is expected to be the next great metropolis in California.

Expansion team #2 is:

The owners and Congress forced an agreement on Fels that in the interest of the integrity of the game that he would not be allowed to put a team in his first choice of Las Vegas. Napier pulled a rabbit out of his hat and stunned the owners with the announcement that the Reno Gamblers would be joining the American League along with California City.

Reno another Desert City is less than 40 minutes from Carson City, Virginia City and Lake Tahoe California. Rumors already run amuck that Napier will be receiving kickbacks from Professor Mendelson and his cohorts who own the Irrigations companies.

Up Next The National League expansion teams!

[Painmantle]

In National league expansion we will be welcoming another River City to baseball. Memphis Tennessee isn’t close to anything but it’s shipping Industries are a major hub between the North and South United States. And Tennessee has been discussing the possibilities of the introduction of Casinos located on Riverboats in an attempt to avoid Laws of other states like Mississippi and Arkansas and even Missouri.
The Newest NL Expansion team is:

The Final expansion team is located at one of the Central Hub of the railroad Industry in Indianapolis Indiana. If a train goes to any major city in the mid-west it most likely ends up traveling through Indianapolis at some point. Indianapolis is also the Home of Western Electrics Headquarters and Research Center. Western electric is responsible for a big part of the technology and research that brought theTransistor to the World changing electronics forever. Along with Western Electric Indianapolis is the home to Eli Lilly Biological Laboratories who’s research center is located 15 miles east in Greenfield Indiana! Please Welcome to Baseball the last team of the 1958 expansion.

I will be running the Archers, Wish me Luck!

[Painmantle]

The Expansion Draft

The Pickings were pretty slim in this draft so it was auto'd

[Painmantle]

The Rookie draft is upon us thankfully

Here is the current news

[Painmantle]

Armature Draft Order

[Painmantle]

Armature Draft Round 1

Ecstatic with Cepeda.
I knew we'd get a great Player selecting in the top four,
but Orlando would have been our first choice!

n

[Painmantle]

Armature Draft Round 2

You'd have thought Memphis would have taken Grant for obvious reasons But another pick I'm pretty happy with!

[Painmantle]

Armature Draft Round 3

Casale has enough stamina and potential to actually make it into our rotation...probably soon from the looks of our team!

[Painmantle]

Armature Draft Round 4

Al will never become his Great Uncle Eddie but probably has some servicable years in him

[Painmantle]

Armature Draft Round 5

22 yr old Hadley could actually force cepeda into LF considering what we have on our roster

[Painmantle]

Interestingly enough our 3rd round pick Jerry Casale was the only guy listed "Very hard" to sign and we met his demands and he signed on the very forst click (one day) LOL

Al Cicotte signed on day 2

[Painmantle]

Mudcat Signs


Jim "Mudcat" Grant signs and immediatly moves into the starting rotation along with Jerry Casale

[Painmantle]

And now Orlando Cepeda wants to be difficult, we tried to get him to sign for 4 years and he only wants 2 so I'll give him some credit for that!