[Pelican]

Unfortunately [IMHO!] the game by default starts you just before Opening Day. Which is odd, because in setup there is an option to have Spring Training, and a choice between one to five weeks length. But that only comes into play after you play a full season. For those of us who adore Spring Training, that is such a drag.

So, your options are to play or quickly sim through a season (presumably the one before where you want to start), or to forego ST that first year. [In theory, not easy in practice, you could delay the start of your regular season, in order to create a window for ST. That would require messing with a whole series of dates, a new schedule, later playoffs - changes that the devs discourage for newer users. For example, you could move Opening Day back to May 1, which would extend your regular season well into October, and post-season well into November. You'd have to figure out when you wanted the All-Star Game, trade deadline, roster expansion. And you would have to delay the start of the off-season, a key date in OOTP.]

In an ideal world, for me at least, you would begin in the off-season, in November. You could make trades, attend the Winter Meetings, sign free agents, and enjoy five glorious weeks of Spring Training. You could make full use of the new development lab feature to tweak player attributes. With this run-up, you would have a feel for your team and its players and organization, a rotation set up, full minor league assignments, by Opening Day.

In your case, I would suggest swimming through the 1974 Season, and then picking up after the World Series.