Playing historical leagues -- what holds your interest?

[Antonin]

I haven't started a pre-1947 historical league in many years, because segregated baseball just doesn't feel like real baseball to me.

But last week I was thinking about Ray Chapman, the Cleveland shortstop who was killed by a pitch in 1920 in a game against the New York Yankees. I began to wonder just how his career might have gone if he had lived. So I created a league with the Cleveland team of 1920.

There were some interesting characters on that team, and throughout major league baseball of that time. But I'm wondering how others who play historical leagues from the deadball era and earlier maintain their interest in those leagues. Especially since none of us saw any of those players actually play.

[jksander]

Originally Posted by Antonin

I haven't started a pre-1947 historical league in many years, because segregated baseball just doesn't feel like real baseball to me.

But last week I was thinking about Ray Chapman, the Cleveland shortstop who was killed by a pitch in 1920 in a game against the New York Yankees. I began to wonder just how his career might have gone if he had lived. So I created a league with the Cleveland team of 1920.

There were some interesting characters on that team, and throughout major league baseball of that time. But I'm wondering how others who play historical leagues from the deadball era and earlier maintain their interest in those leagues. Especially since none of us saw any of those players actually play.

If I play with real teams, I try to pick a season that interested me for a particular reason. With OOTP 24 I used Chicago but focused on Ernie Banks ... starting with him as a rookie in 1953. In OOTP 25 I went with Kansas City, and asked what would have happened if they hadn't become the MLB farm team for the Yankees when they moved in 1955. I then play out all my games, so I REALLY get to know the players. Any who jump out and do something spectacular who I haven't heard of, I read up on them and treat it like a history lesson -- but with OOTP's engine twisting history from the established record.

I've yet to have one that held my interest enough to transfer it to the next year's game, but there's bound to be one eventually. This year I've been playing out modern scenarios, but I've gotten into a new fictional one I just started that may hold my interest for longer ... not sure I have any ideas for a truly historical one this year, though I've thought about trying one at some point that riffs on the old story that Veeck wanted to break the color barrier first but Tennessee Mountain Landis stopped him. But I've just never taken the time to set something like that up for anything but a test ... especially since it would be during WW-II and a lot of players are free agents unless you want to go through and set ALL of them back to their proper teams. Talk about a headache lol