The United States Baseball League is a concept by Daniel Saline, first posted on SportsLogos.net in 2015. The Continental Independent Baseball League was posted on the same website by user: dgnmrwrw in 2012.
Brand identities were translated into OOTP by Golem64, and ballparks were created by eriqjaffe and NielsonCP. Also used in this quickstart is the graphical work of txranger and 20_range.
Please find the available quickstart files (1986, 2005, 2024) and supplemental materials here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...A7?usp=sharing
The 2024 file includes the USBL and its minor leagues with 95 years of history, along with a fall development league, a winter complex league, a collegiate summer league, the addition of the growing, 16-team rival CIBL and its minors, and finally, international leagues in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are included, culminating in a triennial Baseball World Cup. It’s a small, well-rounded universe.
The 1986 and 2005 quickstarts are in the same universe, but lack some expansion teams and newer leagues.
All of the USBL and CIBL teams have branded ballparks, and all include the use of Joelman111’s improved park factor calculator for all included ballparks. The files necessary to interpret these calculations into your own games are in the Drive folder.
The USBL was founded in 1930. I have followed Daniel’s histories for each team more faithfully than the two previous iterations of this project. All of the league's changes are documented in the evolution tab of the league history page, and the master spreadsheet is available in the Drive folder.
USBL Abbreviated History
Original Six 1930-1947
The Kansas City Browns won three of the first four Branson Cups, and the Boston Masons won seven of their league-leading 16 titles in this period. Pittsburgh won four of its seven overall titles here, too, as the league’s historically worst original club. Kansas City first baseman Efrain Salazar hit .392 in 1930, the closest a hitter would come to .400 until the 1990’s.
Expansion Era 1948-1987
John Kooistra won his first Pitcher of the Year Award in 1948, and he would soon become the award’s namesake, winning the award eight more times, consecutively, and rattling off three more before his career was over. His Milwaukee Black Saux won eight Branson Cups from 1949-1962, but mysteriously moved to St. Louis in the middle of the night before the 1963 season, only winning two titles since.
After the Black Saux run of dominance, seven of the league’s 12 teams claimed titles before three new franchises entered the league in 1979. Outfielder Adam Pence, the league’s GOAT until the early 2000’s spent his entire career with the Boston Masons from 1950-1967, amassing 134.7 WAR, but never won a championship.
The Golden Age 1987-2015
The three most prolific sluggers in league history at the time of their retirement started their careers in the 1990s.
Shortstop Vince Janke was the youngest of the trio, spending most of his career with the Lonestars and winning five consecutive MVPs there from 2000-05. He had six 40-homer seasons, three 10+ WAR seasons from 1999-2001, and ended up winning three Branson Cups.
Third baseman Chris Shaw played every year of his career but one with the Nashville Blues, a formidable team for a number of years when Danny Guerrero (464 homers) was in the same lineup at first base. Shaw won three MVPs, winning back-to-back MVP awards in ‘97 and ‘98 with 56HR/128RBI/10.1WAR and 57/133/10.9. He won four Branson Cups as a member of the Blues.
Finally, the greatest player in league history is first baseman Tyler Caldwell. I checked his overall during his prime; every hitting rating was maxed, if not over, and he was 95/80 overall. His New Mexico Suns are the league’s best team to have never won a title, but all you have to do is look at his player page to see he’s the Barry Bonds of this universe.
It was perfect luck for the league’s best ever hitter ever to end up in a ballpark that has higher park factors than Coors Field. His 1999 season is the best of all time (.419/.520/.857 60HR 199RBI), and he is the league’s all-time WAR leader with 149.7.
Modern Times 2016-present
Having not made the playoffs since moving to DC in 2000 and only three times overall in franchise history, the Washington Potomacs have won the last four of the last five titles (2019, 2021-24), a feat matched only by the dynastic Boston Masons of the 1940s. The Seattle Captains broke a 56-year Branson Cup drought in 2018, and interrupted the Pots’ six-peat with another in 2020.
Three Washington hitters slugged 42+ homers, Pablo Gomez, Danny Machuca and Sterling Crockett. Nine of the league’s 24 franchises have yet to hoist the Branson Cup.
Can you stop them? Dig into the quickstart and pick a team!
There should be some photos of league tables attached.