(OOTP 26) Daniel's Saline USBL Quickstart + More!

[willboat75]

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.

[mr-cpu-geek]

Awesome work! downloading now. Can't wait to try it out tonight!

[LouisC]

thanks for sharing this! Really appreciate the time and effort you put into it. It looks awesome, and I’m excited to dive in and give it a try. Great work!

[zonefat]

New to USBL, where can I learn more about it?

[willboat75]

Originally Posted by zonefat

New to USBL, where can I learn more about it?

https://boards.sportslogos.net/topic...2424/#comments

[luckymann]

This looks amazing, I'm going to see if I can get the Liberty into their maiden playoff tilt.

Never used a QS before and just have one fairly straightforward question with it.

Are there planned league expansion moves hardwired into it for future years and, if so, are there any settings I should absolutely not mess with?

Thanks again

G

[willboat75]

Originally Posted by luckymann

This looks amazing, I'm going to see if I can get the Liberty into their maiden playoff tilt.

Never used a QS before and just have one fairly straightforward question with it.

Are there planned league expansion moves hardwired into it for future years and, if so, are there any settings I should absolutely not mess with?

Thanks again

G

Once you load into the world, nothing is set in stone. Use the spreadsheet in the Google Drive file if you want to manually make the changes that I envision post-2025.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by willboat75

Once you load into the world, nothing is set in stone. Use the spreadsheet in the Google Drive file if you want to manually make the changes that I envision post-2025.

OK great, appreciate the reply.

G

[luckymann]

Bud, I have decided to incorporate a lot of this fantastic setup into a broader fictional universe I am setting up, which will feature the USBL as the major league equivalent.

Thought I might slowly work my way through and update the unis. Did you want me to notify you when I do each? I'll be posting them to my existing uniform thread.

I plan to run the Blue Herons and have started with them - home, away and a "City Connect" version. The unis can be found in this post and the two after it on that thread.

[luckymann]

Philly Liberty home and away done.

[luckymann]

Boston Masons home and away done.

[luckymann]

NM Suns home, away and Sun(s)day Special done.

[luckymann]

Iowa Dusters home and away done.

G

[bradleycchurch]

Originally Posted by luckymann

Iowa Dusters home and away done.

G

Thanks for doing these! Enjoying them!

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by bradleycchurch

Thanks for doing these! Enjoying them!

No problems bud, I'm enjoying working through them.

Seattle Captains home and away are up.

[darkcloud4579]

Rad, glad this is back.

[luckymann]

California Grizzlies home and away are up.

[luckymann]

San Francisco Fire home and away updated.

[luckymann]

Chicago Wind Sox home and away up.

[luckymann]

Arizona Sidewinders home and away up.