Baseball: The World's Game

[FuzzyRussianHat]

Defending National Association Louisville again was the top seed and bested their 105-win mark from 2035, setting a franchise record at 108-54 atop the Lower Midwest Division. The Lynx led with 863 runs and had a .482 team slugging percentage, the third-best in NA history. They also had the NA’s best run differential by a healthy margin at +261.

The #2 seed was Milwaukee at 98-64 repeating as Upper Midwest Division champs. The Mustangs had to fend off challenges from Chicago and Grand Rapids, who both secured wild cards at 92-70. The Cubs ended a five-year postseason drought and the Growlers got their third straight wild card. Lower Midwest runner-up Tulsa at 90-72 ended up as the third wild card, impressively bouncing back from a 68-win 2035. The Tornado ended a three-year postseason skid.

The remaining contenders were locked in battles for the East and Northeast Divisions. Ottawa and Halifax ended even in the Northeast at 89-73, both one back on Tulsa for the final wild card. The Elks prevailed in the tiebreaker game over the Hound Dogs, which ended a four-year playoff drought in the Canadian capital. Toronto, who was the NACS runner-up with 102 wins last year, fell to 80-82.

Six teams had a real shot in the East with Baltimore and Philadelphia ending even at 89-73; also both one short of the Tornado for the final wild card. Behind them were Pittsburgh (87-75), Washington (86-76), and Brooklyn (84-78). The Orioles defeated the Phillies in the tiebreaker game for their third playoff trip in four years. It was Baltimore’s first division crown since all the way back in 1986. The Admirals still have had nothing but winning seasons back to 2021, but missed the postseason for only the fourth time of that streak.

Virginia Beach was tied for the National Association’s worst record at 67-95 despite having the MVP in 3B Sax McIntyre. He had 51 of the first place votes with Milwaukee’s Clemente Garcia with eight, despite Garcia leading in both homers (60) and RBI (142). Raleigh’s Glenn D’Eramo also had five first place votes.

McIntyre led in hits (206), total bases (407), and WAR 9.5). The 25-year old from Gainesville, Florida had 112 runs, 32 doubles, 55 home runs, 130 RBI, and a .344/.402/.681 slash. He was the #3 pick in the 2031 MLB Draft by the Vikings and would commit long-term despite the team’s struggles on an eight-year, $191,900,000 extension in the winter.

A competitive Pitcher of the Year award race was won by Ottawa’s Jay Lilley with 27 first place votes and 322 points. Philly’s Trent Najarro was close behind with 24 first place nods and 284 points, while Milwaukee’s Kakenge Niyonkuru had 11 first place votes and 254 points. The ERA champ Shazrin Andik from Wichita had two first place votes.

Lilley had signed with the Elks in the offseason on a five-year, $160 million deal. The 32-year old righty from Valparaiso, Indiana had bounced around between Seattle, Halifax, and Toronto before that. Lilley put it altogether in 2036 with a 2.44 ERA over 258.1 innings, 18-12 record, 205 strikeouts, 169 ERA+, 69 FIP-, and 7.9 WAR.

In the first round of the playoffs, two division champs advanced with Ottawa 3-0 over Chicago and Milwaukee 3-1 over Tulsa. The lone upset for a wild card was Grand Rapids defeating Baltimore 3-1. The Growlers then stunned top-seed and defending champ Louisville with a second round sweep with 4-3, 7-3, and 5-4 finals. GR earned its first National Association Championship Series trip since joining Major League Baseball with the 2021 expansion.

On the other side, Milwaukee took game one 7-2, but Ottawa promptly rolled to 6-3, 5-4, and 2-1 wins for the 3-1 series upset. The turning point was game three, which had a walkoff RBI single by LF Albert Bergeron. The Elks earned their fourth NACS trip in a decade, having won pennants in 2028-29. It was Ottawa’s 20^th NACS appearance all-time, second behind Philadelphia’s 22.

Grand Rapids opened the series with a 5-4 road win, but Ottawa evened it 5-2 in game two. The Elks then earned 2-0 and 11-2 wins in Michigan, but the Growlers survived 6-3 in game five. Back in Canada, GR took game six by an 8-2 margin, forcing the first NACS game seven since 2022. It would be an all-time classic and the fourth game seven in NACS history to need extra innings. 2036 would be the longest of those encounters, needing 13 innings.

GR started up 3-0 with solo spots in the first three innings. Ottawa had two in the sixth and one in the seventh, evening the game at 3-3 until the 11^th inning. Both squads scored once in the 11^th and 4-4 held into the 13^th. There, the Growlers’ Melvin Wegner and Sergio Romero both smacked solo home runs, pushing Grand Rapids to the 6-4 road win and their first-ever pennant. The Growlers were the second expansion team from 2021 with a pennant, joining Birmingham (2034).



Las Vegas had the American Association’s top seed at 109-53, led by an all-time great power effort by MVP DH Jose Angel Esqueda among others. The Vipers set all-time MLB team records for homers (342) and team slugging percentage (.514). They were one homer better than San Diego’s 341 from 2018 and bested 2030 Sacramento’s .505 slugging. Vegas scored 1010 runs, third-best in MLB behind Houston’s 1024 from 1913 and 1022 from 2033.

The Vipers earned their fourth playoff trip in six years and their third Southwest Division title of that run. Las Vegas also had one of MLB’s best-ever run differentials at +341. The Southwest also had the second-best record in the AA with San Francisco at 100-62, earning back-to-back wild cards. San Diego notably dropped to 81-81, their first time missing a winning record since 2022.

Atlanta and Birmingham were even at 98-64 atop the Southeast Division, but the Aces won the tiebreaker game for their first division crown since 2023. Atlanta got back-to-back playoff spots while the Boomers earned their second in three years. The division also had 92-70 Tampa, who got the third and final wild card. The Thunderbirds have earned five consecutive postseason trips, although they have yet to win a playoff series in that stretch.

Anchorage won a competitive Northwest Division at 93-69 and allowed the AA’s fewest runs at 632. Although the Avalanche got their sixth playoff trip in eight years, this was their first-ever division title. Behind them and just short in the wild card race were Seattle (89-73), Salt Lake City (87-75), and Calgary (85-77). The Grizzlies’ streak of winning seasons now is 17 years. Last year’s AACS runner-up Edmonton was a non-factor at 75-87.

Defending World Series winner and Baseball Grand Champion Houston grew their playoff streak to ten, although they barely held onto the South Central Division. The Hornets at 88-74 survived challenges from El Paso (87-75), New Orleans (86-76), Dallas (82-80), and Austin (81-81). It was Houston’s eighth division title in a row and they’ve taken first place 12 times in the last 15 seasons.

Unanimous American Association MVP Jose Angel Esqueda had what many would consider the best-ever hitting effort in MLB history. It was the fourth total MVP for the 29-year old Dominican, who won the Caribbean League’s top prize from 2031-33 with Barbados. Esqueda joined Las Vegas on an eight-year, $249,800,000 deal in 2035. Everyone knew the lefty nicknamed “Dump Truck” had exceptional power, but his 2036 effort hit marks considered impossible with the talent and play style of MLB.

Esqueda obliterated the MLB single-season records for home runs (84), RBI (184), runs scored (166), and total bases (500). The previous homer best was Simon Trejo’s 74 from 2031, which was MLB’s only 70+ season. Aitor Cerda’s 175 RBI had held as the top mark since 1913, Lukas Warrell had the old runs mark of 150 from 1994, and Sebastian Lunde’s 476 was the top total bases tally back in 1949. Esqueda’s .786 slugging was also an MLB record, topping Hunter Morrissey’s .786 from 2026.

The 84 homers were the sixth-most in any world league ever and the only other 80+ seasons had been the higher-scoring leagues of SAB, AAB, and ALB. Esqueda’s 184 RBI was tied for the seventh-best in world history, the total bases ranked tenth, and the runs ranked fourth. It was one of only five seasons in world history of 160+ runs; only world home run king Majed Darwish had done better. On May 18, Esqueda also had MLB’s 49^th four home run game against San Diego.

Esqueda also led in plate appearances (733), OPS (1.216), wRC+ (226), and WAR (12.2). He had 224 hits, 24 doubles, 88 walks, a .352 average, and .430 OBP. The WAR was the fifth-best by an MLB position player, especially impressive since Esqueda was a DH who played only nine games in the field all season. The OPS ranked second behind Morrissey’s 1.243 from 2026. Against right-handed pitching specifically, Esqueda had an absurd .374/.455/.868 slash, 1.323 OPS, and 252 wRC+.

Pitcher of the Year was Atlanta’s Evens Antoine with 45 first place votes, beating out Anchorage’s Jose Gonzalez who had 19. Antoine was in his third season with the Aces, having started in CABA with Jamaica. The 28-year old Haitian lefty came to Atlanta in 2034 on a six-year, $137,600,000 deal. Antoine had some growing pains in 2034, but had finished second in 2035’s POTY voting with an ERA title. In 2036, Antoine led in wins (21-5), quality starts (24), and WAR (8.0). He added a 2.87 ERA over 278.2 innings, 200 strikeouts, 161 ERA+, and 66 FIP-.

Division champs all prevailed in the first round. The one most likely to be an upset was the most lopsided with Houston over San Francisco 3-1. Anchorage survived 3-2 over Birmingham and Atlanta outlasted Tampa 3-2. The Avalanche took game one 6-3 against the Aces, but Atlanta earned 7-4, 5-3, and 3-2 wins after that in the second round. The Aces’ game four clincher went 11 innings as they secured their first American Association Championship Series trip since 1994.

Despite Las Vegas’s hype and power, they were upset by the defending champs Houston in round two Las Vegas took game one 10-4, but Houston went ahead with 4-1 and 12-6 wins. The Vipers got game four 6-2, but the Hornets claimed the finale 5-4 in 11 innings. Houston earned a third straight AACS trip and its fourth in six seasons. The Hornets have been to the association finals 28 times, the most of any MLB squad.

Houston’s hot streak continued with 10-4 and 9-3 road wins to start the series. Atlanta got their own 5-4 road win in game three, but was on the brink after a 4-2 Hornets win in game four. The Aces survived with another 5-4 road win to escape back to Georgia. Atlanta then dominated with back-to-back 8-2 victories to dethrone the reigning Grand Champion in seven games. The Aces ended a 54-year pennant drought with their fourth American Association title (1927, 1969, 1981, 2036).



In the 136^th World Series, the teams traded victories in the first six games with Atlanta taking the odd-numbered encounters and Grand Rapids’ the evens. The first three games were decided by one run, including a walkoff in game three. The trend finally was broken in game seven in Michigan as the Growlers won 3-1, getting eight innings of two-hit pitching from Braden Williams. GR went ahead on a two-run Melvin Wegner homer in the sixth inning.

The Growlers became the 41^st different franchise with a World Series ring and the first of the 2021 expansion teams to do it. Wegner was finals MVP in his seventh year with Grand Rapids, going 10-27 in the series with 3 homers and 8 RBI. In the playoffs, he had 25 hits, 11 runs, 7 homers, 3 doubles, 19 RBI, and .942 OPS.

Pitcher Bin Li was big in the playoffs, winning games two and six with a 1.15 ERA over 15.2 innings. For the postseason, Li went 7-0 with a 2.36 ERA over 45.2 innings and 42 Ks. The 34-year old Chinese righty became the first pitcher in any world league to record 7 wins in a postseason run.



Other notes: Ottawa’s Devon Figueroa set multiple playoff rate stats by a pitcher (15 innings required) with a 1.80 H/9, .067 opponent’s average, .067 slugging, and .192 OPS. The Elks closer tossed 15 scoreless innings with 20 Ks, 3 walks, 3 hits, and one unearned run. Figueroa was one of 12 in MLB playoff history to pitch at least 15 innings and post an ERA of zero. MLB’s 39^th perfect game came on August 18 by Raleigh’s Kellen Wilson with 11 strikeouts against Virginia Beach. SP Noah Skeen won his 7^th consecutive Gold Glove.



Neil Hollinger became the 17^th member of MLB’s 700 home run club. The 600 club grew to 54 sluggers with Ethan Clark, Will Desbiens, and Austin Grace joining in 2036. Doogie Wright and Shakil Nelson were the 133^rd and 134^th to 500 dingers. Nelson and Grace were the 143^rd and 144^th with 1500 RBI and Pat Eichelberger was the 135^th to 1500 runs scored.

Mike Rojas and Milton Ramirez were the 14^th and 15^th to reach 3500 career hits. Ramirez is 36-years old for 2037 and might have the best shot of anyone in a long time at catching Stan Provost’s record 4133. The #2 spot is 3714 by Jess Lewis, which Ramirez (now at 3543) could realistically reach with a good 2037 campaign. Mark Jonhston is also on the cusp of 3500 hits (now at 3468), although it is uncertain if the 40-year old RF will get signed in 2037.

Rojas meanwhile became only the 3^rd to score 2000 runs and Johnston the 10^th to 2000 RBI. Rojas is only the 34^th across all of baseball history with 2000 runs scored, but his pursuit of further MLB records appears done. He only played 67 games in 2036 due to numerous injuries, although he was still effective when he played.

For 2037, Rojas left MLB, signing a three-year, $41,800,000 deal with AAB’s Bangui. Rojas ranks 2^nd in MLB homers (872), 2^nd in RBI (2275), 3^rd in runs (2002), 15^th in hits (3542), 3^rd in total bases (6904), and 5^th in WAR for position players (135.69). Even if he’s done in the Majors, he makes a case for the league’s Mount Rushmore of batters.

2036 was the final season for 2B Jeff Bonner, who almost quietly put up 798 homers, 1963 RBI, 3297 hits, 1950 runs, 404 doubles, 6323 total bases, 155 wRC+, .887 OPS, 6 Silver Sluggers, and 114.5 WAR. At retirement, Bonner is 3^rd in homers, 13^th in RBI, 8^th in runs, 29^th in hits, 6^th in total bases, and 19^th in WAR among position players.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 2036 Baseball Grand Championship was the 27^th edition of the event and was hosted in Busan, South Korea. Earning the auto-bids were MLB’s Grand Rapids and Atlanta, CABA’s Costa Rica and Toluca, EAB’s Hamamatsu and Seongnam, BSA’s Ciudad Guayana and Santiago, EBF’s Warsaw and Budapest, EPB’s Krasnodar, OBA’s Guadalcanal, APB’s Johor Bahru, CLB’s Hangzhou, WAB’s Dakar, SAB’s Hanoi, ABF’s Bursa, ALB’s Muscat, and AAB’s Mombasa. The at-large teams were AAB’s Dar es Salaam, WAB’s Douala, and APB’s Cebu.

All eyes were on Hamamatsu, who had just won the East Asian Championship with a 126-36 record. That was the best record ever by a team to win its overall league title and with a Grand Championship win, the Chickenhawks could credibly call themselves the best team in baseball history.

The 2036 BGC ended up as the most competitive in event history, showing the remarkable parity between the world leagues. Ten teams were within one win of first place and 13 teams were within two. In the end, four finished even for the best record at 13-8; Hamamatsu, Muscat, Atlanta, and Grand Rapids. Six teams were one behind at 12-9.

The head-to-head between the top four wasn’t clean either with no one sweeping the other three. Two teams were 2-1; the Chickenhawks and Growlers. Both had beaten Atlanta; 7-3 by Hamamatsu and 3-2 by GR. Grand Rapids also beat Muscat 6-4. The Threshers beat the Chickenhawks 2-0, but lost to the Aces 5-4; putting both Muscat and Atlanta at 1-2.

The game that served as the eventual tiebreaker was Hamamatsu’s 7-3 victory over Grand Rapids. With that, the Chickenhawks were the first-ever Japanese Grand Champion and the second from EAB, joining 2012 Goyang. Hamamatsu’s rise was incredible considering they had only begun play as a 2025 expansion team. Their combined record between the regular season, playoffs, and BGC was 150-48. With that tally, the 2036 Chickenhawks made an incredibly compelling case for being the best team in professional baseball history.



Hamamatsu wasn’t overwhelming in the BGC, finishing with only a +7 run differential. Grand Rapids had the best differential at +22 and was the top-scoring team with 104 runs. The Chickenhawks had the top two qualifying pitchers by ERA (21 innings required) in Masamichi Kasai (1.05), and Onpei Yokoyama (1.57). Kasai tossed the 15^th no-hitter in event history with 8 Ks and 1 BB facing Bursa. GR was officially second with Atlanta third and Muscat fourth. The Threshers were the first Arab League team in the top four since Basra was third in 2020.



After a convoluted mess of tiebreakers was sorted, the finishing order of the six teams at 12-9 was Hanoi fifth, Dar es Salaam sixth, Warsaw seventh, Budapest eighth, Krasnodar ninth, and Guadalcanal tenth. Each of those teams looked back with regret at one or two bounces going against them that separated them ultimately from the top prize. Three teams were 11-10; Dakar, Douala, and Santiago. The Bombers had the fewest runs allowed at 57, while the Dukes set a record for pitching strikeouts at 270.

Seongnam was alone in 14^th at 10-11, followed by 9-12 finishes by Cebu, Costa Rica, and Johor Bahru. Bursa, Mombasa, and Toluca were next at 8-13. Guangzhou went 7-14 and Ciudad Guayana was last at 6-15. The Giants’ 117 runs allowed ranked as the second-worst in event history.

The close field also led to no players with enormous standout performances. Tournament MVP went to Krasnodar 1B Aleksey Andreev, a 25-year old Belarusian in his first full season. He had 28 hits, 12 runs, 4 doubles, 8 homers, 16 RBI, 1.137 OPS, 230 wRC+, and 1.3 WAR.

Best Pitcher went to Dakar’s Irad Lawali, who has won three straight Reliever of the Year awards for the Dukes. The 26-year old Nigerian righty tossed 19.1 scoreless innings over 11 appearances with 6 saves, 1 win, 41 strikeouts, 6 hits, 4 walks, and 1.7 WAR. He fell just short of the 21 IP needed for rate stats with only two pitchers in event history getting 21+ innings with a zero ERA. Lawali was the first to win Best Pitcher with only relief appearances.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

Decided this is as good a spot as any to drop in a little programming note. Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed some slight changes and additional details from the 2036 write-ups. That’s because amazingly, I have finally caught up to the present time in this sim, which is something I never actually expected to happen when I started doing these write-ups.

A small history lesson, I created this world and started the sim back in 2021 when OOTP 22 came out, eventually playing through 136 years across all of the assorted leagues. I eventually stopped because I had my fix and because moving the file forward also was a slow process considering the size of the save. Eventually in March 2022, I decided to go back through the history of the game with these write-ups cross-posted between the OOTP forums and Operation Sports. I only did a few posts in March, then eventually started some consistent posting in July.

I assumed I’d get bored of it or bogged down pretty quickly, but eventually got absorbed in all of the nuances of this unique fictional baseball world. I remembered why I found the concept for fascinating, although all these years later I definitely would’ve structured and changes some things in the game now that I better understand the intricacies of OOTP. But I can stand incredibly proud of what I initially created in 2021, a time that feels like a different lifetime (and really is in many respects with changes in my personal life and worldview since then).

Over the last three-and-a-half years, doing these write-ups has been one of the few constant joys in my life. Those joys are certainly needed to survive as the real world becomes increasingly grim and brutal. The things that have given me the most peace are hiking desolate mountains and imaging this better fictional world where baseball has brought humanity somewhat together. These write-ups have also been a way to exercise my brain and creative juices, especially since I know I’m not as mentally sharp as I was before the pandemic started.

Part of me wants to go back through the posts and do re-writes, but I know I’d just drive myself crazy picking out mistakes or nitpicks. I definitely evolved how I write these stories and added more and different details as time went on. Much like with real baseball, the unique quirks and stats became more fun to dig for as the history of these leagues deepened. Hopefully, you have appreciated seeing these stories as well.

I want to thank anyone who has followed or checked in these posts, because not all of the view counter can be bots, right? I would’ve never guessed that I’d get to this point in these stories, but after more than three years, I’m amazed and proud to have gotten to this point.

With that said, THIS IS NOT THE END! I do intend on continuing the save for an indeterminate amount of time, either until I fully get bored of it, fall off a cliff, or the file completely crashes. It did actually crash and collapse once during this process, but thankfully I had the behemoth backed up on an external hard drive.

I do plan on changing things up somewhat, as there are more details you can find when actively in a season. OOTP stores a remarkable amount of data, but there are still some things when looking at past seasons that aren’t available (like individual game results, standings at different points in the season, etc). The overall flow will be similar, but I’ll be able to sprinkle in more details and more screenshots/images of the world in action. I’m thinking I might add in some offseason notes in there as a new annual post and maybe some other things, but I haven’t decided firmly on anything.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) these stories about this fictional and magical world of baseball glory.

[FuzzyRussianHat]

For the first time since 2019, Major League Baseball didn’t add any players into the Hall of Fame. SP Rowney Simpson was the closest to the 66% induction threshold with 62.7% on his second ballot. CL Heihachiro Okasawa was next at 59.5% on his eighth try, then it was 3B Kwang-Sik Oh at 55.3% for his second go. 1B Gilbert Windemere was the only debut above 50% at 52.8%. Two other returners were above 50% with SP Luke Harrison at 51.8% for his seventh ballot and SP Storm de Ruyter at 51.1% with his fourth attempt.



Dropped after ten failed ballots was SP Trevor Ford, who finished with a peak of 45.8% and was never below 35%. He won 2009 Pitcher of the Year with Columbus, which was his lone outstanding season or time as a league leader. In 17 seasons, Ford had a 244-210 record, 3.46 ERA, 4106 innings, 3684 strikeouts, 926 walks, 162 complete games, 100 ERA+, 90 FIP-, and 74.9 WAR.

Ford’s longevity ranked him 57^th in wins, 89^th in losses, 75^th in innings, and 21^st in strikeouts; but he missed the top 100 for WAR among pitchers. He was also on mostly forgettable teams and had a 5.44 ERA in his six career playoff starts. Ford certainly had a commendable career, but one more suited towards the Hall of Pretty Good. No one else was dropped after ten failed ballots in the 2037 MLB voting.