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JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer


Imagine a world where Pete Rose finally enters the Hall of Fame, where the Iran-Iraq war never occurred, and the spirit of baseball united the Islamic world and Middle East into one of peace, harmony, and friendly competition. Imagine a world where George W. Bush is remembered as a hero, a peacemaker, and is beloved by Muslims, Jews, and Christians worldwide.



That is the world of Muslim (and Israel) League Baseball (MaILB).
Our team, the Istanbul Constantinoples, is struggling to make its name in the young league, and will watch history unfold around it.

There's where you, goons, come in. As a general rule, any collaborative goon effort results in ruin. To prove this rule to be true, we will do a collaborative Let’s Play of the latest version of Out of the Park Baseball 15, hereafter called OOTP.

What is OOTP?

OOTP is an extremely intricate baseball simulator game. Unlike its cousin Baseball Mogul (of which there are a serious of great Let’s Plays/Leagues found here), OOTP lets the player control virtually every aspect of their baseball team, from trades to rosters to minor leagues, as well as an obscene array of customization options with regards to the league itself. You then simulate the team’s play, either by doing it pitch by pitch, or letting the season run and managing the finances/rosters of your team.

If you’re a huge baseball nerd like me, it’s a lot of fun. Hopefully some baseball ambivalent people can just come and enjoy the LP, watching numbers change dudes named after them hit balls really far with bats.

Who the hell are you?

I’m JosefStalinator, and while I don’t post all that much (and this is my first LP), I’ve run a brief character-driven sim in traditional games. You can find it here. Don’t be fooled by Maxrob’s lies, I did most of the writing. I’ve also logged an ungodly number of hours of OOTP with my own leagues, so I have pretty intricate knowledge of its mechanics.

So what is this LP going to do?

This LP will focus on a goon-made, and goon run team, in which the posters will regularly vote upon general strategies to create an effective, and hopefully successful, baseball team. As the thread starts, the posters will help decide the structure of the league, its settings, team names, and so on. Goons will also assist with the drafting process – from the inaugural draft, to yearly rookie drafts, to signing international agents.

Goons will be the GM and the Manager, and, if history is any indication, they’ll be lucky if their team finishes in second to last place.

How will goons be involved?

The posters in the thread will serve as collective Manager and GM, and I’ll help streamline decisions and make options obvious or available. Do we bench Assy McFart? Should we look for a new third basemen on free agency? Do we trade all our goon friends away and rebuild Astros style? And so on.

Once the long and intricate setup process is done, and players are drafted, I will assign goons to players on a first come, first serve basis. You can always choose particular positions first, as they are available, and wait until such a position comes up. Goons will be able to use their Username or some other name, doesn’t matter to me. More details will follow below.

What will updates look like?

Once we are set up, I’ll begin simulating the season. I’ll do periodic updates on how the goons themselves are doing, highlights of our wonderful posters who are doing well (or awful), as well any relevant banter between them, our AI owner, and others around the league. I’ll also include important news and other happenings. Decisions will be highlighted and the posters can determine their next actions. I’ll probably start off weekly (or two weeks at a time, we’ll see what works best), and show general stat lines, but memorable games or performances, or games with more importance to the playoff race (including playoffs themselves), will be outlined in greater detail.

Our triumphs will be chronicled, and maybe, just maybe, goons can manage to win it all.

For the sandcastle, I did a demonstration found here. It has information about the game’s mechanics, as well as a sample of what we might expect to see in updates. I’m not entirely wedded to the “witty banter” style of LP, mostly because I’m not that witty, and it may end up being more like the Football Manager LP, relying on crafting an amusing meta-story than individual characters. We’ll see how it evolves.

Note: I received some good feedback in the Sandcastle thread about the formatting and picture size. I’ve got Irfan installed and a better understanding of resolution limitations, so the updates here will be a bit easier to read. Let me know if there are any problems as we go along.

Help what is bases-balls what do I do?

An appreciation for the great sport of baseball is not required for this LP. I fully expect goons to make horrible decisions on a regular basis, and start Shitface McHolocaust because he has a better name than the actual good player. I will try to explain baseball mechanics for the uninitiated as I go along, along with the game’s mechanics and presentation, as well as offer advice on strategies to assist the players in making good decisions. Whether you ignore me totally is your call.

The following is now irrelevant as the league is set-up, and preserved for posterity. Skip to post two for more relevant information:

Initial Setup Tasks:

The time will come to vote on these as prompted, so don’t do so yet.
The initial tasks for the posters will be to determine the following characteristics of the league. This will be done with votes, though not necessarily in this order:

1. League Location – Our league needs a location!

Want a team based in Mexico that is a Latin American League? Want a league that is entirely comprised of Kazakh teams? An Israeli league? All are possible in OOTP! The league can be based in any country, and it can be comprised of any combination of cities, countries, or regions.
OOTP actually comes with an auto-region function, so I’ll first ask posters to vote on a region or country, and then I can randomize the teams and we’ll pick the team we most like. If you want to include a particularly desirable city, I’ll make sure to do so.


Here you can see the basics of how team location, naming, and structure play out.


Here’s some of the autoregion options. There are even more than can fit in one screenshot, and if you want to create a custom one, I can get creative and work accordingly. The full list of autoregion options can be found here.

2. League Name – Our League needs a name! Call it whatever you want, along with an abbreviation

IE: Baseball Advanced Loser League (BALL)

3. League Structure – Our league needs a structure! The modern MLB has 2 subleagues, 3 divisions, each with 5 teams. That makes for a total of 30 teams.

You can vote to structure it how you like, but I’m going to impose a limit of 16 teams max. It’s just more fun with fewer teams, and it might be fun to do an expansion eventually.


You can see the structure options here

4. Our team – The most important choice. After we determine the location of the league and the regions, I’ll randomize the cities. Goons can vote for their favorite, then vote for the best team name. Go Tashkent Terrorists!

5. Year – What year do you want to start the league in?

This is mostly arbitrary, but may impact financials. Also, a gimmick 1939 German League or some other horrendous event might be fun. 1871 is the earliest year, to 2014.

Feel free to be creative – it will actually help with my writing if I can incorporate some world events or whatever into the LP, even if we all just love watching numbers change.

6. Da Rules – I need help choosing some of the rules. While I’ll be doing a lot of the defaults or arbitrarily choosing some things, some additional stuff to vote on when we get there:

-DH rules
-Playoff Structure

7. Financials are complicated, so the following options will be chosen from:

a. Absolute equality – all teams are forced to adhere to a (roughly) similar budget.

b. Free Market – all teams will have budgets influenced by their market size and fan enthusiasm

c. Luxury Tax – Free market, but with a fat luxury tax of 50% above 120% the average payroll. The tax is distributed to the poors.

d. Set % of income – Free market, but income is taxed at 25% of total team income, then distributed equally to all teams.

These will be voted on AFTER we decide our team, so we can see if it’s a small or big market team.

The real variation in finances comes from two variables: market size and fan enthusiasm.

Market size is borne by the size of the metro area and, roughly, where you can generate a market to sell merchandise and whatnot to your fans. This variable is kind of arbitrary, but you can more or less determine that New York will have a big market, while Tampa Bay will have a smaller market.

Fan Enthusiasm is determined by a team’s success. Technically, markets with high fan loyalty will make this less elastic, even in bad times. Think of how Wrigley continues to sell tickets to Cubs games.

In a totally free environment, teams with small markets will face permanent handicaps in how much money they can generate from merchandise, tv deals, and ticket sales, while big market teams will always have cash on hand. This also makes small market teams more dependent upon fan enthusiasm, which waxes and wanes with success.

In order of imposed fairness, option a is most extreme, followed by c, then d, then b for full inequality freedom.

Inaugural Draft

Once the team is chosen and the settings confirmed, the game will begin, and the team will participate in the inaugural draft. For fun, I’ll give the goon team the first pick – and ask for a general strategy as the draft proceeds. We’ll likely do the first few rounds one at a time, but when it comes down to trash minor leaguers and fillers, we won’t be doing all 50+ rounds, and I’ll let the AI fill them out.

I’ll offer advice along the way, and show the stats of the most viable candidates for drafting. If the will of democracy is to draft all terrible players, then enjoy a terrible team.

Stuff I’m Choosing For You

The season will be 162 games long, there will be an All-Star game if we have two sub leagues.

We’ll be doing a 5 man rotation, with otherwise standard strategy. The particular strengths and weaknesses of hitting/pitching will vary with the player generation/league evolution.

It will be a Major League (no HS league you ADTRW rejects), and I’ll choose the presentation.

There will be a AAA, AA, and A minor league system. This is mostly to ensure we have some new goons coming in from time to time. I can manage this for the most part, but I may ask goons whether to call up or send down players from time to time.

I’m going to have our owner set our budget for now, but if I ever feel like we need to wrest control of the team from him, it can be done.

Goon Players

Once we are drafted and ready to go, I’ll start allotting goons to players. You can add your name to the Google doc found at this link. Don’t be dicks or I’ll revoke your edit privileges. There are three columns: Your desired name, your position preference, and your facial preferences.

Name: There are three parts to a name, First, Last, and Nickname. The game may give you a nickname, which can be fun in its randomness, but I don’t care if you want a custom one. The name will be displayed in the format: First “Nickname” Last.

Position: I’ll go in order of the list, first come first serve, but you can request particular positions or skill levels. If you choose “best available pitcher” or “highest rated second baseman”, you’ll receive it, and I’ll move down the list. I’ll probably stop with the 25 man roster, maybe naming some top prospects, and leave the rest of the goons on reserve in case anyone gets called up or drafted later.

Facial Preferences: The game offers some limited options for the way your player looks. You’re free to post your own preferred picture (the recommended size is 90x135 or it’ll be all squished). If you want to let the game pre-gen it, you can choose your race between Hispanic, Caucasian, White, African, or East Indian. There are a number of beard and moustache options, though few good neckbeards (mostly handlebars and historical baseball facial styles.) I’ll do my best to go with your wishes. You can also set your hair color (only realistic ones, unless you do a custom picture).

Additional Duties

Once we get into the swing of things, I’ll present additional duties and decisions for goons to make. This game is really, really complex, so I’ll also accept spontaneous and complex decisions if the thread consensus demands it. There’s also a whole bunch of further decisions to be made regarding personnel, scouting potential players, changing player positions, and so many more I’m probably forgetting. I won’t let us get bogged down in votes, but I also want to make sure this is as collaborative as possible.

Reference:
Goon Sign-Up Sheet

Let me reserve a few posts before posting, please.

JosefStalinator fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Nov 24, 2014

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JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer
League Website and Home Page!

League Location: Middle East
League HQ:: Beirut, Lebanon
League Year: 1981
League Name: Muslim (and Israel) League Baseball (MaILB)
League Structure: 2 subleagues, 2 divisions each
DH Preference: DH in Shiite League, no DH in Sunni League
Financials: No taxes, cap or other restriction on team spending :evil:

League Teams and Standings:


League Map:


Goon Team: Istanbul Constantinoples

Lineups


Rotation and Bullpen


Budget


Stadium


League Schedule


The Founding of Muslim (and Israel) League Baseball
Chapter 1: From Texas to Teheran
Chapter 2: From Baghdad to Beirut
Chapter 3: From Cincinnati to Constantinople
A Brief Interlude in Baghdad
Chapter 4: From Crawford to Caliphate

Inaugural Draft (Skip this if you aren't interested in draft strategy!)
Mechanics and Overall Draft Strategy
First Round
Second-Third Round
Fourth-Fifth Round
Sixth-Seventh Round
Eighth-Ninth Round
Tenth-Eleventh Round
Twelth-Thirteenth Round
Fourteenth-Fifteenth Round

Season One (1980) - Istanbul Rising
Meet the team and Mechanics Explained
Meet the Goons
Update One - New Year to Spring
Update Two - Spring Training
Update Three - First Game and Two Weeks
April 1980
May 1980
June 1980
July 1980
State of The Team 1980
August 1980
September-October 1980
Leaderboards and Team Stats 1980

Season One: Final Standings


Season One (1980) Playoffs - Abu Bakr Series "Taste the Meat, not the Heat"
Game 1 @Istanbul
Game 2 @Istanbul
Game 3 @Qatar
Game 4 @Qatar
Postseason Wrap-up

Offseason One (1980)
Offseason Update 1: Oct 25
Offseason Update 2: Oct 25 - Nov 1
Story Conclusion Season 1
Offseason Update 3: Nov 1 - Nov 15
Offseason Update 4: Nov 15-19
Offseason Update 5: Nov 19 - Jan 12, 1981

Season Two (1981) - Electric Boogaloo
Meet the New Goons 1981!
Spring Training 1981 March 3 - April 6th, 1981
April 1981
Where are they now? 1980's lost Goons
May 1981
Amateur Draft 1981
June 1981
July 1981
August 1981
September 1981

Season Two: Final Standings


Playoffs 1981 - Same as it ever was (1981)
Playoff Preview
Game 1 @Istanbul
Game 2 @Istanbul
Game 3 @Qatar
Game 4 @Qatar
Islamic Championship Series

Offseason Two (1981) - No Team for Old Men
October 22 (1)
October 22 (2)
October 22 - Nov 15
MVPete Awards 1981
Organization Overview
Free Agency Overview (and Webpage launch!)
Nov 15 - Jan 30
Jan 30 - April 5

The Winter of Our Discontent (1981 Offseason Story)
Old Habits
Flags Fly Forever

Season Three (1982) - Hatay Fever
April 1982
May 1982
June 1982
July 1982
August 1982
Meet the new goons 1982!
September 1982
Where are they now? 1982's Lost Goons

Season Three Final Standings


Playoffs 1982 - Third Time's the Charm
1982 Abu Bakr Series Preview
Game 1 @Istanbul
Game 2 @Istanbul
Game 3 @Islamabad
Game 4 @Islamabad
Game 5 @Istanbul
Caliphate Series Wrap-up

Offseason Three (1982) - The Center Cannot Hold
Offseason Update 1 - October 20, 1982
Offseason Update 2 - OOTP 16!
Offseason Update 3 MaILB Awards
Update 3.5 Nov 3 - Nov 13, 1982 and MVPete Awards
Free Agency 1982
Offseason Update 4 Nov 12, 1982 - Feb 28, 1983

Season Four (1983)
Winter Meeting Story Update
Spring Training 1983
April 1983
May 1983
Amateur Draft 1983 Part Two
June 1983
July 1983
Trade Madness! Part Two

Goon Contributions
By Ralepozozaxe


By Danny Glands




JosefStalinator fucked around with this message at 10:02 on May 2, 2015

JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer
Meet the Goons




Franklin Fink
SA Username: cucka

Istanbul Constantinoples 1980-1
Free Agent, signed by Teheran Mahdis 1982 (700k bonus)
Released by Teheran Mahdis 1982
Free Agent, signed by Qatar Propane 1982 (320k bonus)
Free Agent, Minor League Deal with Jakarta 1983 (270k bonus)










Cam Stevenson
SA Username: oldskool








Awards:
-Texas Swagger Award for Hittin' Good: 1980
-Pete's Olympic Hustle and Grit Award: Gold 1980
-Stay the Course Fieldin' Award 1982, 2B
-Texas Tater Touch 'Em All Award 1982, 2B




Eric Clink
SA Username: Clinkster







Awards:

-Pete's Olympic Hustle and Grit Award: Silver 1980





John "Whiteboy" Black
SA Username: Johnfw50

Free Agent, Minor League deal with Jakarta 1983 (150k bonus)








Cash "Money" Considerations
SA Username: Icephoenix





Awards:
-Lone Star Rookie Award 1980: 2nd place
-Stay the Course Fieldin Award 1982, LF







Reeve Tresher
SA Username: Revenant Threshold

Free Agent, 1983 signed by Damascus Steelers





Prince Kelly
SA Username: TheFlyingLlama






Awards:
-Pete's Hustle and Grit Award: Bronze 1980





KKKLIP ART
SA Username: KKKLIP ART





:rip: Jub "Jubs" Jub, 1980-1980.:rip:
Jub's BNN Page
SA Username: Jubs







Mohammad Jihad
SA Username: Bguy32








Jack "Golden" Price
SA Username: GoldenPrice






Awards:
-Pete's Olympic Hustle and Grit Award: Gold 1980
-Decisive Decider Pitchin' Award 1982: Second Place
Texas Swagger Award for Hittin' Good 1982: Second Place





Flex Townshend
SA Username: Monicro








Sai Torr
SA Username: Saitorr









Albrecht "Hagen" Alby
SA Username: Albrecht "Hagen" Alby






Rob MacGregor
SA Username: TheMcD





Awards:
-Pete's Olympic Hustle and Grit Award: Silver 1980
-Cowboy Up Closer Award 1982: Second Place





John "Very Reverend" Friar
SA Username: Friar John






Alex "This isn't Cricket" Campbell
SA Username: Kingal

Istanbul Constantinoples 1980-1980
Free Agent, signed by Cairo Cleopatras 1981
Free Agent, signed by Damascus (minor league deal) 1982
:rip:Retired, October 1982:rip:


Signed as Hitting Coach for AA Yerevan




Bolivar Mallen
SA Username: Val Helmethead







Xerxes Ironfist
SA Username: Arquebus

Awards:
-Pete's Olympic Hustle and Grit Award: Bronze 1980




Sky Shadowing
SA Username: Sky Shadowing

Qatar Propane 1980 Caliphate Championship Ring!
Free Agent, Signed by Istanbul Constinoples 1981-









Rahim "the Hefty" Lefty
SA Username: Jesterea

Istanbul Constantinoples 1980
Free Agent, signed by Damascus Steelers 1981 Caliphate Championship Ring!
Free Agent, signed by Riyadh Wahabbis 1982
Free Agent, 1983





Jeff "Jefferino" Jeffers
SA Username: Soviets




Kabul Cabal 1980
Istanbul Constantinoples 1981

Daniel "Danny" Glands
SA Username: Daniel "Danny" Glands

1980 Drafted by Kabul Cabal
Free Agent, 1981 signed by Istanbul Constantinoples
Free Agent, 1983 signed by Kabul Cabal







Burt "Rampage" Roberts
SA Username: beru04




Kurt Engle
SA Username: Antitonic




Robin Williams
SA Username: Neopie

Istanbul Constantinoples 1980-1981
Traded to Islamabad Beef 1981-






Constance "Consty" al-Istanbuli
SA User: Maximo Roboto




Franq-in Friq
SA Username: Frankenfreak




Hoshi "Pantsu" Uemura
SA Username: Lord Pants







Eric "Gravedigger" Garrett
SA Username: Antitonic




Kane
SA Username: Tanglewood1420







Rex
SA Username: Ice To Meet You



Nif "Human" Bot
SA Username: Niftybottle







Queen "Dongers" Al Khalifa
SA Username: Dongsbot 9000





[url=http://74.122.196.130/~chrismac/josefstalinator/http-docs/your-league/reports/html/players/player_353.html]Kyle "Terminator" Reese
SA Username: gbuchold

Beirut Pines 1980-1983
Traded to Istanbul 1983-

JosefStalinator fucked around with this message at 10:07 on May 2, 2015

Maximo Roboto
Feb 4, 2012

I don't give a fiddler's fart about anything, but the location should be in solidly Islamic State territory, inshallah.

PASS THE MASH
Oct 30, 2013


Maximo Roboto posted:

I don't give a fiddler's fart about anything, but the location should be in solidly Islamic State territory, inshallah.

Iran. 1979. Lets do it

JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer
I'm fine with the Middle East idea - you guys can propose to let it do the "Inter-Continental Middle East" region, or just every Middle East country, represented by their capitals, etc.

Iran 1979 might be fun - or just a general Cold War Mid East idea (goons would totally pick Israel just to be the odd man out). So would something like the Islamic State League, in which it starts as a small league in Syria/Iraq, but grows alongside the caliphate.

Up to you guys, just remember to bold it in your post to submit it as an official proposal.

PS: Make sure to put your SA username in the google doc, so I know who you are.

Revenant Threshold
Jan 1, 2008
Intercontinental - Commonwealth, England, 1871. Let's replace cricket in the world entirely.

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

I like the Cold War idea, but I think we could go a bit differently - how about Europe, whatever region Germany is in, Germany, 1950? Nothing better than baseball to bring the two halves together, right?

cucka
Nov 4, 2009

TOUCHDOWN DETROIT LIONS
Sorry about all
the bad posting.
South America, 1971. The drug cartels are gonna get a few new runners in the City of God.

JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer
Since it was the first one proposed, here's an example of the commonwealth idea, with some demonstration on how the auto-region function works:



I think that it weights on population, making India a bit over represented, with some other randomness. I'd certainly smooth out any team generation to be a bit more representative (IE: Add more European teams, maybe some Canadian ones as well) to provide geographic representation, as well as group them by region.

Keep suggesting - I guess if no consensus gathers, I can either make an arbitrary OP choice, or put it up to a vote if we start getting more participation.

StupidSexyMothman
Aug 9, 2010

JosefStalinator posted:

1979, every Middle East country, represented by their capitals

I vote that.

Saitorr
Dec 23, 2008

YES THE CARPET MATCHES THE DRAPES IN BOTH COLOR AND LENGTH
Middle east sounds good.

I'll admit I'm more interested in their hockey manager sim but I am down for some baseball spreadsheets.

TheFlyingLlama
Jan 2, 2013

You really think someone would do that? Just go on the internet and be a llama?



1979, every Middle East country, represented by their capitals

Works for me.

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

TheFlyingLlama posted:

1979, every Middle East country, represented by their capitals

Sounds like a plan to me.

Jubs
Jul 11, 2006

Boy, I think it's about time I tell you the difference between a man and a woman. A woman isn't a woman unless she's pretty. And a man isn't a man unless he's ugly.
Mexico City Dinger Gods

Ralepozozaxe
Sep 6, 2010

A Veritable Smorgasbord!
To the Middle East

But also add the USA who is constantly trying to change the other team's owners.

tadashi
Feb 20, 2006

Ralepozozaxe posted:

To the Middle East

But also add the USA who is constantly trying to change the other team's owners.

This, please. If not the Middle East in the late 70's, then some sort of Soviet/Soviet allies league in the 60's.

Signed up on the player list, too.

Politicalrancor
Jan 29, 2008

I really like that Soviet idea, personally

JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer
It looks like a consensus is brewing, but I want to keep taking suggestions for a bit just in case any cool ideas capture the posters' imaginations (and because I can't move onto the next step until later tonight).

Here's what we've got so far:

Commonwealth - 1971
Central Europe/Germany - 1950's
South America - 1971
Middle East - 1979
Mexico City Dinger Gods - 1500's?
Reformed Soviet Union - 2014
(from the test post, I'm assuming)

I'll show off a preview of what it might look like tonight, and we'll move to vote on League Structure then.

EDIT: Just to be clear, feel free to keep voting and voicing your support for any options. If any alternatives start to gain support, I can easily do a quick runoff.

Also, I started following your suggestions and putting some of the more creative potential images for your players in the doc, so feel free to voice your opinion there if you love/hate it.

JosefStalinator fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Sep 24, 2014

ForeverBWFC
Oct 19, 2011

Oh, the lads! You should've seen 'em running!
Ask 'em why and they reply the Bolton Boys are coming! All the lads and lasses, smiles upon their faces,

WALKING DOWN THE MANNY ROAD, TO SEE THE BURNDEN ACES!
Commonwealth - 1971 Sounds good to me :britain: !

LambdaZero
Nov 5, 2009

suck it
I know nothing of this game, but I think trying to create the Cold War of Baseball would be pretty drat cool. Maybe a two league system where one is based in the USA and the other is based in the Soviets Union? There'd be the Cold War World Series and teams made up entirely of spies and baseballs with tiny recorders hidden in them!

LambdaZero fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Sep 25, 2014

KKKLIP ART
Sep 3, 2004

The idea of bombing the Middle East with home runs to root out terrorist and extremism seems appealing to me.

fucking love Fiona Apple
Jun 19, 2013

samus comfy so what

Middle East 1979 :jihad:

JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer
Alright, I think it's pretty clear that most of you wanna do a Middle East Cold War baseball league. I have some ideas about a 1979 start so I'm leaning to 1979 as our start year, but I may do a slightly earlier one if inspiration hits me.

Then, let's move onto the next stage of decision making.

You need to decide our League Structure. This means determining how many subleagues we have, how many divisions per subleague(s), and how many teams per division.

So, post your preferences on the following:

1. League name (and acronym)
2. Number of Subleagues and names
3. Number of divisions per subleague, and division names
4. DH preference (per subleague)
5. Home Nation (basically just where the HQ is, purely for flavor)


I'll put a cap of 16 on the total number of teams, but I don't care how you approach it otherwise.

Here's what a 16 team, 2 subleague, 2 divisions of four teams each might look like in the Middle East:



I know it's a lot, but since most of it is related, and I don't want to have two dozen votes on all the minutiae, let's see if we can get this covered in one fell swoop.

And FYI, when it's time to actually choose a team, I'll make sure the desired city shows up on the list. The example is just to give some idea of the countries considered "Arab World" or "Middle East" for your reference. Also to demonstrate league structure.


What is the DH? For the uninitiated in baseball, DH stands for "Designated Hitter". The Designated Hitter rule is optional, and allows a team to put replace the pitcher in their offensive lineup with a different player, typically one who is better at hitting. Pitchers tend not to hit very well, so this boosts offense, and allows players with sub-par defense who can still hit well to prolong their career. Not using the designated hitter forces the pitcher to bat, usually ninth in the lineup, which means we will see more :bunt: and more pinch-hitters (giving bench players more of a role).

Not having a DH may allow more pinch hitting by goons who got some of the bench players, while a DH would allow another goon player to regularly appear on the lineup, and prolong some goon careers by keeping old guys around. Both have advantages from a play perspective, so I don't mind either way.

JosefStalinator fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Sep 25, 2014

PASS THE MASH
Oct 30, 2013


1. Muslim (And Israel) League Baseball (MAILB)
2. 2 Subdivisions Sunni Shia
3. 2 divisions per sub league Hussein, Khomeini, Netanyahu, Jinnah
4. No DH at all
5 Lebanon cuz Beirut was pretty cool.

Dee Ehm
Apr 10, 2014
1. Muslim League Baseball sounds pretty good, but if someone comes up with a cleverer acronym I'm all for that.
2. Sunni and Shia leagues for sure
3. 2 subdivisons each sounds fine, don't know what they're called
4. Shia should have a DH, Sunni shouldn't
5. No opinion

JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer
Seems like people don't care quite as much about league structure, so if more suggestions don't start trickling in, I'll roll with the johnfw50 suggestion and let us pick our team in a few hours. Though we do have some disagreement on the DH rule, which I'm honestly shocked hasn't at least elicited some strong opinions.

Feel free to vote on only one aspect of the 5 things I listed - you don't have to introduce a full slate. I'll cobble together all your opinions.

I have to say though - it is strange that you want to name one of the divisions after a young Netanyahu with few accomplishments.

ForeverBWFC
Oct 19, 2011

Oh, the lads! You should've seen 'em running!
Ask 'em why and they reply the Bolton Boys are coming! All the lads and lasses, smiles upon their faces,

WALKING DOWN THE MANNY ROAD, TO SEE THE BURNDEN ACES!

Dee Ehm posted:

1. Muslim League Baseball sounds pretty good, but if someone comes up with a cleverer acronym I'm all for that.
2. Sunni and Shia leagues for sure
3. 2 subdivisons each sounds fine, don't know what they're called
4. Shia should have a DH, Sunni shouldn't
5. No opinion

This, but make the home nation Turkey.

The Merry Marauder
Apr 4, 2009

"But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."

JosefStalinator posted:

I have to say though - it is strange that you want to name one of the divisions after a young Netanyahu with few accomplishments.

Presumably, not that Netanyahu.

PASS THE MASH
Oct 30, 2013


Yeah my thoughts for divisions were the first famous middle easterners I thought of. Maybe just be lazy and go Cardinal directions for divisions.


E: nah I was actually thinking the current one. Maybe Meir?

PASS THE MASH fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Sep 25, 2014

PASS THE MASH
Oct 30, 2013


Quote is not edit

PASS THE MASH fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Sep 25, 2014

JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer
If Israelis were to deify any of their leaders for a baseball division, it would probably be Ben Gurion.

But don't worry, I'm sure plenty of Israeli leaders will be showing up at some point. I know Ariel Sharon is nearing the apex of his terrorism military career.

cbx
Dec 4, 2007

Smasher Dynamo's assistant of the Super-League.
One of the DH divisions should be the Greenberg Division, in honor of the most talented Jew to ever play the game, Hammerin' Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers. Greenberg voluntarily enlisted in the US Army 2x, and immediately after his second term, came back to the Tigers (who would go on to win a World Series) and hit a grand slam walk-off winner to clinch the AL pennant.

JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer
Alright, it doesn't look like there were too many objections or strong opinions on this, so to get the Let's Play closer to actually playing, here's a rough draft of what the league structure may look like:



The team names themselves were just randomly generated and will change, but the rough distribution of teams seems pretty solid. I just lumped all the non-Muslims into the Shiite league because there weren't as many Shiites as Sunnis.

Now, :siren:I need everyone to propose the team we should play, and its name:siren:. This is important, for it will decide who we will be playing as for (at least the first part) of this Let's Play.

You can choose a team not on the screenshot, so long as it fits the general MaILB theme.

Also feel free to propose team names for other teams than our own - any failed team names, or alternatives, will be used for the other teams we regularly play against.

JosefStalinator fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Sep 25, 2014

TheFlyingLlama
Jan 2, 2013

You really think someone would do that? Just go on the internet and be a llama?



Oh man, we have to go with the Islamabad Beef.

JosefStalinator
Oct 9, 2007

Come Tbilisi if you want to live.




Grimey Drawer

TheFlyingLlama posted:

Oh man, we have to go with the Islamabad Beef.

That one was randomly generated - the only one I changed was the Alexandria Copts (to justify another team in the Greenberg non-muslim division).

If you do play as Islamabad, it may be worth putting an Indian team in there somewhere.

mrnoun
Jul 24, 2007
How many Reggie Smiths will there be in this LP?

Super Jay Mann
Nov 6, 2008

Kuwait Kumquats because alliteration is cool.

Sky Shadowing
Feb 13, 2012

At least we're not the Thalmor (yet)
I have few bad ideas but the one that keeps popping into my head is the Istanbul Constantinoples.

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Supreme Lord Jeremy
Jul 12, 2006

"We have waited centuries for this moment. The rivers will flow with the blood of those who oppose us."

Sky Shadowing posted:

I have few bad ideas but the one that keeps popping into my head is the Istanbul Constantinoples.

I fully support this idea... Besides, Turkey needs a team. Certainly more than Yemen, at least.

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