The year is 1945. The Allies have turned the tide in World War II, and baseball is making a comeback in North Carolina after a couple of idle seasons.
Welcome to my latest OOTP dynasty story:
Baseball’s Rebirth in the Old North State.
This is a project I have been dreaming about for a long time.
I’ll be using fictional players but tying them to historical teams and leagues from North Carolina's actual baseball past.
I started something similar once before, many versions of OOTP ago. I called that dynasty “
Baseball in the Tar Heel State: A Fictional Experience” and launched play with six teams in the 1913 season. I posted about eight or nine seasons worth of results before the inevitable computer crash killed the game file. (Alas, it was fun while it lasted).
I picked
1945 as my starting point for this story because of how much – and how quickly – baseball expanded in North Carolina as the war drew to a close. Teams and leagues sprang up everywhere, from the mountains to piedmont to coast, from the biggest cities to small textile and tobacco-farming towns, and many points in between.
We’ll be doing the same here!
Alas, many of North Carolina’s professional baseball clubs didn’t make it long term – we shall see how they fare in this story – but a strong foundation was built that still exists today in our state’s college programs and minor-league franchises.
My plan for this dynasty is two-fold:
- Create a baseball universe contained entirely in North Carolina and report on all the comings and goings of players, teams and leagues from a big-picture perspective.
- AND – try my hand at managing a club and see what kind of legacy my manager can carve out for himself in this ecosystem.
Feel free to pick a team(s) to follow – or root against! Feel free to second-guess my managing skills. Feel free to steal any good ideas I may have stumbled upon or to borrow any of the logos/graphics (because I probably borrowed many of them myself).
Most of all, thanks for reading along!
(Fade out to Appalachian bluegrass music)...