Image from @backwards_river on X
Ever wondered what baseball would look like if it was played in Antarctica? No? Well, I did recently and now I've gotten around to making this a reality in OOTP25.
I've set up a 20 team professional league across several Antarctic bases, starting in 1961, the year the Antarctic Treaty came into force.
The players will come from nations that have bases mostly, but also other nations that have signed the Treaty, which I have separated into 3 tiers:
Excellent: The original signees of the Treaty, they have the biggest bases and so they have teams in the league
Good: Nations that have Antarctic or Subantarctic bases, but don't have teams in the league
Average: Nations that have signed the Treaty but don't have any bases
Considering the percentage of nationalities represented in the bases (with the pie chart I found on wikipedia), the USA has the most players, followed by Argentina, Chile, Russia, France, and others. They'll be able to play for any team regardless of the base being Argentinian, Norwegian, Chilean or whatever.
Attendances will be low, with an average of 50 scientists and other support staff attending each game. This is why each base receives $450k a year to invest into their baseball team. There is a minimum salary of $10k a year.
The league is split into 4, 5-team divisions. Each team will play 138 games: 12 against each of their division rivals and 6 against every other team. Games are played exclusively in the Antarctic summer: November to February. All 4 division winners will go into the semifinals to fight for a spot in the Antarctic Series!
In the following posts I'll do team profiles division by division after the 1961 Inaugural Draft. Thanks for reading!