Baseball Association
 

Alternate Universe


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The year is 1946 - Baseball struggles to find its footing after the war. With some of it's most well known names (as well of many of it's lesser known names) enlisting to serve the country and the cries from the country to serve, and conserve - MLB had a hard time attracting fans.

It continued to operate but as the draws become smaller and smaller several of the major league cities could not continue to field a team and they would just fold. Major League baseball went through contraction as attendance dropped and owners could no longer afford to pay salaries. The players that remained continued to hold out for a couple of seasons in hopes that as the war ended players and attendance would return.

The 1946 season had only 8 of the 16 teams being able to field a team (Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cards, Brooklyn Dodgers, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians) - The other 8 teams either went bankrupt or merged with the other clubs in the same city (White Sox, Browns, Athletics, Braves). This contraction found several baseball players without a job as the bankrupt teams just released their players to find other work, or the teams that merged raided only the top quality players and let the rest go.

This set the stage for further problems as the few remaining fans become upset about letting some of their favorites go for the guy who used to play across town. As the 1946 season got under way - Players found themselves playing in front of increasingly smaller attendance and making less pay (The owners were becoming more cash strapped) and having to buy out star players contracts put a further strain on the budget.

The 1946 season ended with 3 more of the remaining 8 teams going under. The 1947 season was cancelled and MLB was effectively killed off.

Meanwhile in the warm climate of the Caribbean, Baseball was growing. Part of this growth was attributed to the influx of major league players that had been put out of a job and wanted to continue to play the game. Baseball in the Caribbean had been in exsitence in some form since the late 1930's - Though it was always considered a lesser league than MLB. In 1946 with the influx of former players from the USA and the Negro League players that played in the area the talent was considerable. In 1947 the Caribbean Baseball Union was formed - It consisted of 8 teams in 2 divisions.

In 1950 a group of wealthy investors led by names like Getty, Rockefeller, DuPont and Hughes decided that they would try to fund the creation of a new baseball league - But with some changes to the base game rules, the biggest of these came with the influence of soccer - as many of these investors had spent much time in Europe they had a fondness for the the more exciting nature of soccer - and as they were all wealthy they also liked the idea of adding to their wealth at the cost of another owner. And though baseball afforded this in some sense through the growth and falling of attendance (driven by performance on the field) they more appreciated the concept of promotion and relegation that was prevalent among the European sport

They formed the American Circuit

The American Circuit was made up of 8 teams. These teams were to be located in cities that did not have any MLB presence previously, They felt that these cities would better support a team without as they had been left out of the MLB previously.

The AC cities for the inaugural season were as follows

They also wanted to support a more international draw that would insure that growth could continue.

The American Circuit made a deal with the Caribbean Baseball Union to form one league that would encompass the Western Hemisphere (as travel to Europe was still costly and time consuming). The league they formed was the Baseball Association.

This is their story

This will be a historical league (in that it will be using real MLB players in the league) - It will be fictional in the respect these are not MLB cities in the 1950's -

It is not a replay league - player results may or may not be the same as real life stats - DO NOT EXPECT IT

The league will be broken into 3 tiers (1,2,3) 6 teams per tier. It will be 84 games per season. The Bottom 2 teams will be relegated to the lower tier, the top 2 promoted to the upper tier.

There will be no regular free agency - all players will be under contract to the signing team (just like prior to free agency) the only way to get better is by trading, drafting or signing an unsigned player (there will be a pool of them that will grow as the seasons progress) and yes though the draft was not in place in the 50's - it will be here

There will be no DH - all players hit and play -
I will work through finances to assure teams have money to sign players but there will be no 50 million dollar signings

That is the outline of the rules - I am putting the league site up right now and post it when it is up.....



A final note - These teams and this concept is the work of a lot of other people who have been OOTP contributors in the past.

Kevin Harper, Mark Cooley and John Comey - all of whom I thank for the graphics, the friendships and the inspiration for this league

American Circuit teams announced
 

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Caribbean Union Teams Announced
 

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I still have the unis for Caribbean clubs on a thumb drive if you don't have them.

Thank You Mark - I have those - Best

i want in the league

Been looking for a league for some time now and was watching your post where you were gauging interest - I have interest in joining! What will be the primary form of communication for the league? Slack, Discord, forums etc.

I will be using Stats + with Slack and a forum

Sounds good, how should interested parties apply to join?

Give me a couple days to get the league up and together... I will than ask for applications..

promotion/demotion league?

Yes it is

Baseball Association Final Cities and Teams announced
 

Putting together the website - hoping to get completed today

http://tonyarmer.net/Baseball-Association/teampages/

Rules going up next

Rules up
 

The outline rules are up - Please review and let me know about any adds / or changes you might like to see

http://tonyarmer.net/Baseball-Associ.../league-rules/

Heh I had created a forum account earlier but I think you wiped it out :-P

I like the idea of Reserve Squads if it's not too much work for you, would be nice to see them developing.

So teams will be drafted automatically for the inaugural season? Are tiers already determined as well?

Yes I wiped it out had no idea it was anybody as the site was not ready and sorry my bad

As far as draft yes just for the first year...drafting is the slowest part of the offseason and I’d rather not say ready go... ok wait and this way the teams will all be somewhat balanced to start

For reserves... not sure how much work it would be, I don’t imagine much but I will look at it closely

And yes the tiers have been set - I will post those shortly

Tiers Selected
 

At a gathering of ownership this morning the Baseball Association selected it's inagural tiers - Teams will be fighting for promotion and trying to avoid relegation - The teams were selected by a random number in caps

One cap had the Tier, The other the team - Good luck in 1950 teams



Tier 1 Teams:

Unidad Federales
Deportivo Panama City
AC Bayamon
Atlanta CBC
Harbor Athletic Club
Gateway AC

Tier 2 Teams:

Camaguey 1528
Club Caracas
Kingston Caneros
Center City BC
La Nouvelle-Orleans United BC
The Highlands

Tier 3 Teams:

La Habana BC
Mexico City BC
San Juan 1509
Santa Clara BC
Magnolia City Athletic
Los Antville Club

Was in Mark Cooley’s league and love the idea of promo/relegation leagues. Would love a spot.

I was in Marks league as well and would love to be in.

Few more clarifications...

No coaching or scouting, stats only no stars, No Free agency or Rule V