We were in our 3rd season at the helm of the Chicago Architects. While I will discuss in more detail the first 2 seasons later, we had made tremendous strides in our 3rd season. The Architect's (73-49) were in 1st place on August 20th with just 22 games left in the record season. The two time defending USA Division Champions the Toledo (not Mudhens) Neptunes were tied for 2nd place with the Traverse City Bears 6 games behind us. Surely after the hot streak we had been on 64-40 where we had come back from 7 games out of 1st in Mid-May to now would not go to waste. Our owner was in a panic, going from angry to mad on what seemed like a daily basis.
We limped to the finish as Toledo who started the season white hot only to slump mid-year, was back and playing ball at a blistering pace. On September 7th with just a week left in the regular season, not only were we clinging to 1st place, but to just being in the playoffs in general. Surely we would fail again, as the top 2 teams in each division (USA and Canada) would qualify. We led Toledo by 2 games and 3rd place Traverse City by 2.5 games. The biggest advantage we had was Toledo and Travese City would play a 3 game series at the end of the season, so hopefully that would clinch us a spot in the playoffs. The other advantage we had was while playing on the road, we were playing the two worst teams in the division Detroit Thunderbirds and the Milwaukee Eagles. Surely we could hang on.......We went 4-2 in those 6 games, and while the Bears fall off, Toledo went 6-0 that week (11-1 in the month of September) to tie us at the top of the US Division at 83-61. Now both teams would make the playoffs and would face each other in the GLBL Divisional Series, we had to have a 1-game playoff for the division title.
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(Note to OOTP, when you have play off ties for playoff spots, perhaps have an option to not have that 1 extra game when both teams have qualified).
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As silly as it might have been, we won the coin flip to host the regular season division championship game against Toledo. While we really wanted to win the division crown outright, at the end of the day we were in the playoffs and the real series would start 2 days later. Toledo stayed hot and won a slugfest 10-8 to clinch their 3rd straight USA Division Crown. Now we had to win a best of 7-game series against the hottest team in either division.
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The Great Lakes Baseball League is a 12-team curcuit that started in leauge year 2015. The league was centered around the Great Lakes region between the US and Canada. Each country had 6 teams forming the US and Canada Divisions. This was the 40th season of the league. I was the GM of the Chicago Architechs and was in my 3rd season in the hot seat. Below is the opening comments of the historical league starting point
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In the year 2012 the baseball entrepreneurs from the Great Lakes area made the decision to form a 12 team baseball league with the franchises equally divided between the countries of Canada and the United States. All twelve franchises would be located on the waterfronts of their cities. The year 2015 would be the first season of play.
The league idea seemed like a natural in many ways as one of the owners operated a cruise ship line on the Great Lakes, one was a CEO of a firm that specialized in ball park construction, while another individual was a magnate in the recreational travel business. With summer weather abbreviated in the northern section of the hemisphere the decision was made to limit the regular season to 140 games (later expanded to 144) ensuring that the open air ball parks would offer relative comfort to the guests throughout the season.
The minor leagues were established at two levels with 132 game seasons. The lowest level, the Youth League, would function with players 23 years of age or younger. Teams are also allowed to sign International Free Agents as the hope is for the predominately all Canadian and American foundation to ultimately portray a more diverse segment of the population in the leagues. The minor league locations were spread throughout the Great Lakes area without regard to proximity to the home team or to a Great Lake waterfront, yet clearly within a short traveling distance from the coastlines of one of the Great Lakes.
The inaugural draft of players began unfolding in January of 2015 with the Hamilton Mounties owning the first selection.
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