Legacy Baseball League - Fictional Deadball League

[LBL_Brendan]

Franchise Highlight: The Chicago Packers

Set against the bustling Polish neighborhood of Buck Town in the Wicker Park District, the Packers of Powers Field play against a noisy and bustling working-class community near the newly-constructed Wicker Park train line.

Hand-selected from the best city meat-packer baseball organization, local politician and banker Horatio Powers bankrolled the formation of the Chicago Packers in 1891 and secured several lucrative contracts with the city to construct a crude and unappealing ballpark amidst the dim and coal-swept brick neighborhood lined with factories and church towers.

The Packers are a tough, mean, and unforgiving lot–just like their diehard fans, who leave work an hour early for home games to line the stadium seats often still adorned in their bloodied aprons and coveralls. This is quite the sight to visiting teams, and generates the sort of intimidating air the Packers pride themselves in producing each home game.

As the legend goes, long before Wicker Park incorporated into the municipality of Chicago, “Buck Town” was so-named for the many goats who would wander the Polish shacks and alleyways. In this tradition, each home game begins with a parade of “The Great Goat of Bucktown,” a goat selected by Mr. Powers each spring to be spared the factory. The goat has it’s own booth near center field, and is indiscriminately named “Bucky.” So, in north Chicago, the Packers and their fans are often affectionately referred to as “Buckies.”

The Packers had a rough go of it in the 1900s and will need the type of patient GM interested in a total organizational overhaul. There are some good pieces within the franchise, but a turnaround will likely take a few seasons to be successful.

Apply for the GM Position Here!

[catamount_kid]

Join us for a live stream of the 1910 Legacy Cup series!

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[LBL_Brendan]

Franchise Highlight: The Boston Banshees

“In the end, his mother told him, it was the wailing that took his father. A pox on their family. After each joyous beginning, the wailing would consume him until the silent, stillbirth would drown the fairy’s cries with its gurgling, violent emptiness. The cycle continued, unabated, like the tide—day giving way to night. At last, when the cries began anew again, he stepped over the cliff’s edge and carried her wails with him below and buried them beneath the crashing waves. The next cries were the boy’s.”

When the famine hit, Atticus Jones and his mother left Ireland for Boston. An immigrant, raised alone by his mother with no siblings, Jones arrived speaking only Irish—a stranger in a far-off land. He took solace in the American game and, proved himself a fierce competitor and a quick study. Like many immigrants, he learned the language and built his network playing semi-professional ball.

Upon retiring from the game he loved, he entered into a clerkship with a local attorney that had been a fan of his semi-pro team and devoted his life to righting inequities through the law. Having helped many, and his own fortunes, through the practice of law, he used his small fortune to give back to the greater Boston community—and return to a love of his youth–by forming a new professional ballclub in Boston.

The Banshees, named for the folkloric creatures that had so vexed his father, are, like the city they call home, a ragtag rough-and-tumble band of men as likely to start a brawl as to win a ball game. Security at the Boston Yards, the park that they call home, is the strictest of any LBL venue. Historically, Banshees’ supporters have been known to rush onto the field of play to confront opposing teams and—if a Banshees’ player has not performed to expectations—their own players. The hostile environment provides for a strong home field advantage with Boston typically performing much better at home than on the road.

The Banshees are a sleeping giant in the Eastern League. They have three of the best young bats in the game -- C Thrash Dixon, 1B Carl Mullinger, and OF Walter Dingwall -- and have focused their last few drafts on obtaining young pitching to complement the bats. The next GM will need to focus on building strength up the middle while nurturing the young arms currently developing in the minors.

Apply for the GM Position Here!

[catamount_kid]

The LBL currently has three openings for new GMs. We are still utilizing OOTP 24, but keeping an eye on OOTP25 patches for an eventual migration.

The Baltimore Clippers

Positioned near the southern end of the Eastern League, the Baltimore Clippers boast young infield hotshot Elroy "Music Man" Fowler and the rising, hard-hitting lefty Raphael Harris. A fair amount of prospective bats reside in the Clippers' potent farm system. One of the few teams yet to make the playoffs in the cuthroat pitching environment of the Eastern League, the Clippers are an ideal "rebuild" organization with some minor league gems.

The New York Kings

The only franchise in the LBL exempt from the Players' Union, the gaudy New York Kings boast a promising pair of young, lefty pitchers and three-time Golden Bat 2B John Dabney. A small trove of bats can be found in the Kings farm, led by the near-ready 2B Frederic Fisher, who is currently collecting no shortage of hardware on his journey to the bigs. A prospective NYK GM must develop their clutch of offensive talents and shore up a lukewarm defense to punch their weight in the Eastern League.

The Providence Angels

Several potential future stars can be found in the Providence farm, but this small-market team will need a firm hand and strategy to capitalize on their potential. Young SP Audie "Wasp" Darwin, just 21, is a serious contender in the dynamic EL pitching scene. The fate of Providence is fully in the hands of their future GM--the legacy of the Angels may sink or swim, depending on how this young franchise is developed.

Apply here!

[catamount_kid]

The Clippers and Angels are available for the discerning GM!