This site is meant to inspire those who are tinkering with fictional league ideas or are already enjoying the fictional sports league hobby. This document will give you some idea about the makeup of my solo league and why I've chosen some of the characteristics that it has.  Feel free to visit and explore this site often for inspiration and ideas to add to your own fictional league.

The Metro Leagues is a solo league project that I've been involved in for quite some time (Since OOTP2).  I've had to start over several times due to changes in direction or game engine (the current league starting over with OOTP22) and it has given me countless hours of creative fun.  The league is named the Metro Leagues because it's fictional team's play in fictional metropolitan cities.  The Metro Leagues classic brand of baseball is simmed using the most current version of the Out of the Park Baseball sim engine.  This version of my solo league project starts in 1950 with 2 circuits of six teams each. Teams play a balanced 60 game schedule. This rebooted version of my totally fictional league is smaller in scope but I thuroughly enjoy it's simple dynamics. Quick notes on a few Metro Leagues traditions: Uniforms must be loose fitting, but not to baggy. (We outfit men in this league!) The standard issued uniform can be seen in the graphic to your right... High socks are mandatory. Batting helmets are not worn. (Wonderful safety device in the real world, totally unnecessary in a fictional one.) Fielders will always use the classic smaller gloves. (Errors are part of the game.) Starting pitchers are expected to go all nine innings. (Finish what you start!) Facial hair is allowed. (The Gotham Knickerbockers are the only Metros club that resolutely requires it's players to be clean shaved.) Teams travel by rail to out-of-town games. What is a DH? No one will ever know in this fictional universe. (Most pitchers are expected to bunt well in order to move runners over. Some are excellent base runners and a small few can hold their own in the box.) The pennant race will remain pure with no divisions ever added. Teams will never move to another city. (Again, not something necessary in a fictional world.)  Interleague play is strictly prohibited. Click here for a quick geography lesson... National Map Creating Custom Fictional Players This is one of my favorite things about this hobby.  It affords me a creative outlet. I get a real kick out of creating and naming fictional players. This adds an exciting dream element where there are no preconceived ideas as to how a player should perform. Still, the vast majority are created by the OOTP sim engine itself. But, I enjoy creating custom fictional players from time to time. This gives me a chance to breathe some instant excitement into the league. Another nice benefit is that while these players will perform as stars, they still fit into the flow of my league without overwhelming it. For a time, I used to create custom players from scratch, then I began importing historicals and turning them into fictional custom players. I also use the 'create a player' feature since it has been updated to allow for a selection of various initial talent levels. So, at times during the offseason, I will create players with star or legendary talent levels.  Next, I give him a name or keep the name the game assigns him. Sometimes, I tweak/edit the player a little more to carefully craft the type of star I want. The newly created player is automatically placed in the FA pool so he can be signed by a club. This simple process saves me even more time.  Once custom created players are introduced into the Metros they're on their own. It's a lot of fun to track them as their careers unfold.  I always make it a point to watch their very first game in the Metro Leagues. Loads of fun to watch these guys compete. Here's how I use the 'import historical player' feature to create fictional players: (You'll need to be in commish mode to do this).... First, you'll need to think about the type of player you want (Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, etc.) and then go ahead and import him from historicals. Once imported and cloned, you can tweak/edit them a little more, (if you like), to carefully craft the type of star you want. Ok. Here's the process... Go to baseball reference and look at the SHTML and see what the players "code" is for say Babe Ruth. (It would be ruthba01). It's usually the first 5 letters of the last name, and first 2 of the first and normally 01, but if there are multiple players with the same letters, there would be an 02, 03, etc.) Go to the free agent screen of your game or the Draft Pool. On the bottom there is Import Historical Player. Point to the historical_database.odb hit ok then put the SHTML line for whichever player you want. And whichever other options you want... hit ok/enter... and viola you have Babe Ruth or whoever else sitting in your FA pool. Next, you have to clone the historical player after you import. (Right click on the historical player and then click 'Clone'. This can be done at anytime, but best to do this right after you import and before you place him on a team to start his career in your league.) That will duplicate the historical player but gets rid of his previous years stats. (For example, you'll have two Babe Ruths sitting in free agency.) Now you can go ahead and delete the original imported historical player. (Not sure which one is the original? No problem, just open his profile and see if he has any previous years stats. If he does then he's the one you delete.) Next, if you want your cloned historical to start out as a rookie you'll have to edit all of his service years categories (3 of them) to 0 and then remember to edit his age to your liking. That'll do it. Now you have an imported historical, without previous stats, as your base to keep as is or edit/customize further.) (Special note to those who want to import historical players into a totally fictional universe... There are actually two methods that can be used to accomplish this... METHOD #1: Append to your world.dat file. I kept wondering why OOTP would crash every time I tried to import a historical player into my totally fictional universe but import fine in a real world universe. After several experiments I discovered that when the game attempts to import historical players into a league it looks for a birth city match and will crash if it does not find a match. This is a problem for totally fictional worlds because the player's birth city likely does not exist there. So, to insure that the game find a city match I tried the suggested method of appending my fictional universe to the end of a real world.dat file. It worked! Now I was able to import historical players without a hitch as the birth city is assured a match. Keep in mind that this method must be implemented in your world.dat file before you create a new league as this approach will not work with an existing league. I use notepad to edit my world.dat file but you can find more info about how to edit the world.dat file by doing a search on this OOTP forum. Also, make sure to BACK-UP YOUR ORIGINAL WORLD.DAT FILE BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY EDITS TO IT. METHOD #2: Use the in-game nation editor. What if you have already created your totally fictional world? Can you still import historicals? The answer is yes! There is another approach you can use that will take several steps, but it works. I've also tested this method with success. Here's how it can be done... First, use the baseball reference site to locate the birth city (if you're not aware of it already), state and country of the player you want to import. Then open OOTP and use the in-game nation editor to manually add the country, state and, city to your fictional world. (Make sure you get the nation and state abbreviations correct otherwise the game will crash when you try to import a player.) After you've done that you can go ahead and import your historical player. You'll have to do this each time you import a historical player with a different birth city than the ones you've already added to your world. Follow these guidelines and you'll be able to import historical players into totally fictional worlds. 12 Fictional Clubs Wanted to keep the league small and intimate.  This way it's easier to track and get used to the players more quickly.  All clubs are fictional and most have nick names from teams that no longer exist.  I got most of the nick names from a reference book called Pro Baseball Franchises From the Abbeville Athletics to the Zanesville Indians by Peter Filichia.  Next, I matched the nick names with a fictional metropolitan city of my choice.  Here are the clubs... Established 1950, the East Circuit starts with six charter clubs in a single circuit.     Established 1950, the East Circuit starts with six charter clubs in a single circuit. Ballparks My favorite way to play out Metros games is using the 2D feature in OOTP. I use selected 2D ballpark graphics included with the OOTP game. (All of which I've slightly edited to give a more fictional feel.) Click on the 'national map' link a few sections above or the 'Ball Park Tour' link on the home page to visit the various ballparks. Here are the stadium assignments.... East Circuit Gotham Knickerbockers - Knickerbocker Stadium St. Cruze Solons - Century Park Oakdale Spiders - Oakdale Park Boardwalk Atlantics - Boardwalk Grounds Roxford Excelsiors - Roxford Park Sterling Tomcats - Sterling Park West Circuit Metropolis Blue Sox - Metropolitan Park Rivermount Summits - Great West Park Baytown Diamonds - Diamond Stadium Delta Stars - Sportstime Ballpark Capeside Cyclones - Capeside Park Parkland Perfectos - Forson Field Running A Team I consider myself the league administrator and do not manage any of the teams on the field nor manipulate lineups/rotations.  The computer handles all of this.  Although I do watch quite a few regular season and all championship series games. Two Circuits, No Inter-Circuit Play, No Playoffs The league is made up of two circuits. The East and the West. However, there is no inter-circuit play. This fosters a classic feel where the season really means something and the pennant race is tight.  In order to earn the right to play in the BIG dance you have to win your circuit.  The Metro Leagues have no playoff system to pamper second place teams.  In fact, the season becomes one big playoff and winning the pennant is a magnificent accomplishment. Rosters Metro clubs carry 25 players on their active roster. Each team also has a 15 player reserve roster . The nice thing is that players still develop normally even though they are just sitting there. (NOTE: Every so often I plan to manually prune the Metros reserve rosters in order to keep them from clogging. I'll do it by releasing players or working out a fill-hole trade with another Metro club. In the future I might also decide that each team can only have a fixed amount of players at each position on the reserve roster. (Perhaps one to two players at each position) This will make it easier to prune. I haven’t quite sat down and worked all this out yet.) The roster expansion rule is turned off. Here are the general AI roster settings... Typical Starting Rotation Size - 3 Man Rotation Starting Rotaion Mode - Start Highest-Rested Allow Starters in Relief - Yes Number of Relievers - 4 Number of Position Players - 18 Allow Two Way Players is turned off. Style of Play Here's the general style of play... Homers are minimized with home runs of 20 plus or less for the league leader. (Keep in mind this is a 60 game season.) Normal action on the bases including steals, bunts, and hit & runs. Pinch hitting for pitchers is rare. Pitchers are expected to know how to make an offensive contribution by bunting well, and being skilled on the paths if fast enough. Some can even hit well. Defensive substitutions are rare. Here are the general strategic tendencies setting... Hook for Starting Pitcher - Default Hook for Relief Pitcher - Default Use of Relievers - Rarely Use of Closers - Rarely Pitcher Stamina - High Pinch Hit for Pitchers - Rarely Pinch Hit for Position Players - Rarely Defensive Substitutions - Normal Stealing Bases - Normal Hit & Run - Very Often Bunting - Normal Infield shift - Normal League Totals I use the default league totals and lock league total stats. Because the league is a 60 game season it's not rare to see .400 hitters from time to time. HOF Criteria Here are the numbers... Minimum Hits - 1000 Minimum Home Runs - 200 Minimum average - .300 Hits Minimum for Average Above - 600 Minimum VORP - 700 Minimum Wins - 100 Minimum Saves - 200 Maximum ERA - 3.33 Minimum Wins for ERA Above - 60 Financials Gone are the mammoth million dollar salaries. Players are paid well, the super-stars even better, but it's more in line with common-man salaries. The minimum player salary is $53k, while the super-star will make about $200k. The average manager will make about $53k, but the top tier managers and most GM's will make more than twice the average amount. This is a fictional universe so there is no need for inflation. Team Markets Here are the city market sizes from largest to smallest market. (Huge=10, Big=8, Average=6) Gotham (HUGE) Metropolis (HUGE) Rivermount (HUGE) St. Cruze (HUGE) Boardwalk (Big) Baytown (Big) Oakdale (Big) Sterling (Average) Capeside (Average) Delta (Average) Parkland (Average) Roxford (Average) Metros Fictional Broadcast Coverage The following fictional broadcast networks cover Metro Leagues games. This section explains how clubs create revenue through national, exclusive and local media coverage. National Media Coverage: The National Baseball Network (NBN) is the official Metro Leagues network and is used to broadcast special programmimg to a national audience. The national media contract earns all clubs $500,000 in revenue per season. NBN Special Programming (Presented on the National Baseball Network)... Friday at the Ballpark: The NBN selects two games to cover on Friday and broadcasts these to a national audience. All other Friday games receive local coverage or exclusive broadcast coverage. Game of the Week: The NBN selects one game to cover on Saturday and broadcasts it to a national audience. All other Saturday games receive local coverage or exclusive broadcast coverage. Baseball Sunday: The NBN selects two games to cover on Sunday and broadcasts these to a national audience. All other Sunday games receive local coverage or exclusive broadcast coverage. Pennant Playoff Game (If necessary) & Post Season Metro Series Championship: Broadcast nationally on NBN. Exclusive and Local Coverage:     These networks provide club exclusive national coverage or local media coverage. Exclusive networks have been created by specific clubs and earn them an additional $400,000 in revenue per season. However, local media contracts earn all clubs $200,000 or more in revenue per season... KNIK Network - This network gives Gotham Knickerbocker baseball national coverage. It covers all Knickerbocker home and away games. However, it does not cover Knickerbocker games that fall within NBN's special broadcast coverage. MBS Metrocast - This network delivers Metropolis Blue Sox baseball to the masses. It covers all Blue Sox home and away games. However, it does not cover Blue Sox games that fall within NBN's special broadcast coverage.  Broadcast Republic - This network brings a national audience to St. Cruze Solons baseball. It covers all Solons home and away games. However, it does not cover Solons games that fall within NBN's special broadcast coverage. Local Broadcast Coverage - All other teams are covered by local networks that broadcast games to each team's city and it's regional market. However, these do not cover games that fall within NBN's special broadcast coverage. Merchandise Revenue The Merchandise Revenue Baseline is set at $300,000. GM's / Managers / Scouts The in-game complete coaching feature is turned on. Scouting is turned off. Trades The trade feature is turned on and the trading deadline is June 30th. Some trades I negotiate myself in order to fill holes in teams, but this is rare. Injuries This option is turned on from March thru May. Injury frequency is set to low. It is turned off from June thru end of post season.  Free Agency The reserve clause will remain in place until 1970. After that, all players earn FA status after 7 years of service. Rookie Draft There is no rookie draft. Rookies are discovered by scouting the myriad of amature circuits (i.e.; highschool, company, college, etc.) that dot the country, given a try-out, and then signed if successful. (NOTE: The above statement is only how I imagine it in my mind. Actually, what really happens is that the game generates free agent rookies and places them in the FA pool. From there any Metro club can negotiate with and sign them. The game creates enough rookies at the end of the season to cover retirements.) Minor Leagues There are no minor league affiliates. This keeps things manageable for me. Spring Training This feature is turned off. All-Star Game / All-Metro Team Selection No all-star game is scheduled.  The All-Metro Team is the equivalent of the silver stick award winners, with the exception of pitchers, who are selected based upon their pitching stats. Two Circuits With No Divisions There are 6 teams per circuit with no divisions. The teams that finish the regular season in first place are crowned the circuit champions. 60 Game Schedule, No Inter-circuit Play The league features a balanced 60 game schedule. The entire season runs from March thru July with the championship Metro Series comencing in early August. Games are played in 3-game series, one per team per week. Most series are played on the weekends. However, some series start on Wednesday and others on Thursday or Friday each week. Monday and Tuesday are always an off day for all teams. Created a custom schedule, with fewer games, in an attempt to move the league out of the MLB realm. This way players can only be compared to what came before in the Metros and not the MLB. Metro Series Championship The circuit champs play for all the marbles in the post season championship called the Metro Series. The home field is rotated between the circuits from season to season. Resolving Pennant Race Ties The most common tie is the 2-way tie. It will be resolved in the following manner... Teams play a one game playoff. Home field is determined by head-to-head record, then coin toss. A 3-way tie will be resolved in the following round-robin fashion... A team has to lose twice before being eliminated from the tiebreaker. The tiebreaker is essentially divided into two parts. In the first part, each team plays 1 game against each of the two other teams in the tiebreaker, on consecutive days. The teams are designated as A, B, and C by lot, and then play the following schedule: Day 1: B at A Day 2: C at B Day 3: A at C If at this point any of the teams has lost twice, it is eliminated. The remaining two teams then play again on Day 4, with the site determined by coin toss. If this game does not result in a team losing its second game, the teams play one final time on Day 5, with the visiting team from Day 4 being the home team. After this game one of the teams would have definitely lost twice and is eliminated. The other team has then won the tiebreaker. If however none of the teams has lost twice (i.e. they all have 1-1 records) then the next step is: Day 4: A at B -or- B at C -or- C at A The exact matchup to be played, from the above possibilities, is determined by lot. The loser of the game would have suffered its second loss and is eliminated. On Day 5, the winner of the game from Day 4 then hosts the team which was idle on Day 4. The winner of the Day 5 game wins the tiebreaker, while the loser would have suffered its second loss and is eliminated. So, in summary it means that a 3-way tie will result in a total of either 4 or 5 tie breaking games being played, taking either 4 or 5 days (and consequently delaying the Championship Series by that many days). End of Season Awards Althouh there is no intercircuit play only one player wins each award irregardless of the circuit he plays in. Sort of like it is in College football where only one player wins the Heisman trophy irregardless of the fact that he may never have faced the other candidates. Batting Champ - Awarded to the player who finishes the season with the best batting average. MVP - Press vote most valuable player of the season.  Given to a hitter or pitcher. King Hurler - Press vote best pitcher of the season.  Given to a pitcher. All-Metro - Press vote the best offensive player by position, with the exception of pitchers, who are selected based upon their pitching stats. Gold Glove - Press vote the best defender by position. Triple Crown - A player earns this when he leads the circuit in three statistical categories... A batter must end the season leading in home runs, runs batted in (RBI) and batting average. A pitcher must end the season leading in wins, strikeouts, earned run average (ERA). Metro Series MVP - Press vote player who made biggest imapct during a Playoff Series or a Metro Series. Sim Schedule No set schedule.  I just sim games and update the site when I have time. Can you send me your Metro Leagues files? Sorry. The Metros is my own special project, my baby. So, I don't make the league file available. However, you are welcome to use any of the ideas presented here in your very own fictional league project. Thanks for taking the time to read this document.  Also, thanks to Markus Heinsohn for developing such a fantastic baseball sim that supports us in this exciting hobby.   Send questions, comments to Jon Johnson My Fictional League Hobby I've played and organized fictional leagues ever since the day my dad gave me one of those aluminum football fields that vibrated to make the players move. Later, I found that I could do this by utilizing card and dice games. Then, along came the computer and sports game software. I started with Tom Landry Strategy Football (now called Pro Strategy Football which I still use to power my fictional Metro Football League), then found baseball software. I've used Micro League, Hardball, FPS Baseball Pro, Tony LaRussa, Oldtime, High Heat and finally Out of The Park Baseball (OOTP). The common thread in all this is that I've used all of these games to pursue my fictional league hobby. I never run teams, but get great enjoyment out of watching things unfold from a fans perspective. I did run an online fictional league once. (The Electronic Baseball League) It was fun and I had quite a successful league. However, I eventually discovered that sticking to a sim schedule was not something I could do long term. So, I stepped down and let a trusted and responsible league member take over the league. Besides, solo play is where I longed to be. It fits in better with my time constraints. Anyway, the biggest kick I get out of running solo fictional leagues is creating fictional players, dropping them in the league and then seeing what happens. I also enjoy designing fictional leagues, from the league structure, city and team nick names to the team colors and uniforms. It's a wonderful creative outlet. I've also discovered that I don't have an urge to create multiple new fictional leagues. I rarely get bored with my league. If I do, I simply step away from it  for a time and come back to it when I get the urge. However, there are times when I might have to start over, such as when switching to a new sim engine. Still, I usually carry my favorite player names and characters from previous leagues into the new creation to give it some familiarity. I love building up my league's history and then looking back over the seasons, just as I do with real baseball history. I'd say that's why I like to stick with one fictional league for the long haul. So far, the greatest baseball software I've found for this hobby, in my book, is Out of the Park (OOTP). It allows me to create just the sort of league I want to play. I can customize just about everything and really immerse myself in my fictional creation. I'm not sure how I came upon the OOTP series, but I do know that the first version I purchased was OOTP2. I've purchased it every year since. I've found it to be the perfect sports software to pursue my fictional league hobby. Re-Discovering My Love of Baseball My father introduced me to baseball when I was about eight years old. He gave me a worn out glove that he used when he was a kid. We would play catch in the backyard. But, I was never really good at it. So, I never developed a real interest in actually playing the game. However, I found going to the Dodger games with my dad and family very enjoyable. It was a great way to pass the time with my family and I quickly became a Dodger fan. I loved Steve Garvey, Ron Cei, Reggie Smith, Steve Howe and so many other Dodgers from the 70's and 80's. But, by the mid 80's I became interested in the Dodgers from a distance. This is because I developed a love affair with the NBA when Magic Johnson came to the Lakers. That love grew so deep that I actually began to play the sport and was quite good at it. Meanwhile, baseball was placed on the back burner behind basketball and football. That is, until I saw the documentary 'Baseball' by Ken Burns. This documentary opened my eyes to the deep and rich history of the sport of baseball in America. I had known about Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson through my study of history in school. But, they were almost fictional historical characters to me. The documentary brought them to life in ways that I had never known. Also, I absolutely fell in love with the history of the game. In fact, the documentary rekindled my interest in the grand 'ol game. So much so that I began to purchase historical books on the game in order to learn more. Eventually, I even purchased the 'Baseball' documentary on DVD and still watch it often. I love baseball history. Also, I love watching the game at the ballpark and on T.V. I love sleeping with a game playing in the background. I still find it fascinating how a big play can awaken me and I still know what's going on, despite dozing off. In fact, now I take my own family to Dodger games and it's fun to explain the intricacies of the game to them. It feels like I'm passing on something very special. It's okay, because the pace of the game allows a father the time to do that. As a result, I don't have to do much explaining anymore as my family has absolutely embraced the game and now knows what's happening on the field. Baseball, despite all its recent woes, is still a fantastic pastime for families.

Metro Leagues teams, players and cities are totally fictional.