From Fast-Sim to Fictional Reality (MLB09)

[Young Drachma]

I got pretty immersed in the first generation of FOOL (http://www.fool-x.net) players. Not uncommon for an online league I guess, but when your league sims entire generations within the same calendar year, then it's easy to get attached to players across generations and to start to make comparisons of those players, etc.

In any case, I decided for some strange reason to embark on my (most interesting?) latest dynasty where I chronicle at least a season in the life of my FOOL fantasy team.

I went back in history and cherry picked some of my favorite players, so long as they were guys that the game had audio for, so the announcers would say them, etc and that they were notable of course.

I decided to take over the Baltimore Orioles and replace their entire MLB roster with FOOL alumni and downloaded this within a major league roster set, meaning that my FOOL alums would be taking on all sorts of major leaguers from the present day.

The only guy who isn't a past FOOL player that I included is Adrian Tomlinson, because he plays for me currently and fits well with my past players and other favorites. Oh and I did include Juan Sierra after I got started. I mean, how could I leave him out?

Here's the setup. (I recognize for ppl not familiar with FOOL history, a lot of this won't make any sense. I'll post more links eventually. But I just want to keep playing right now.)


Here's the lineup:

CF Thierry Fournier (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_4230.html)
2B Christian Larsen (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_336.html)
SS Clay Darby (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_474.html)
RF Mac Rasmussen (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_7090.html)
C Hideaki Tanaka (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_195.html)
3B Rick Inman (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_6028.html)
1B Bobby Barrett (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_3826.html)
LF Felipe Aguilera
DH Rich Lang

BENCH
CF Adrian Tomlinson
SS Frank Wallace
1B Heath Palmer
C Ralph Nicholson
3B Steven McGill

ROTATION
SP Benny Myers (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_5535.html)
SP Carlos Gonzales (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_3829.html)
SP Dylan Robinson (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_2820.html)
SP Joe Morris (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_4297.html)
SP Gabriel Prado
(http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_654.html)
RP Craig Davis
SP Juan Sierra (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/html/html/players/player_1229.html)
RP Doug Frazier (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_14564.html)
RP Aaron Dailey (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_6306.html)
RP Ray Howe


Some guys that I have on the team that aren't currently in the majors:


RP Tom Williams
SS Luke Crawford (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_4110.html)
2B Jose Gonzales (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_1637.html)
C Andy Eaton
SP Billy Smith (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_2041.html)
RP Gabriel Riggs
SP Joe Hart
LF Roberto Pagan


For now, this just might be a lot of videos and pictures and stuff, because well...the visuals is why this is even remotely fun.

[Young Drachma]

This was on Opening Day, Clay Darby (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_474.html) went deep off C.C. Sabathia of the Yankees, of course.

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Clay Darby was one of my favorite players when I first started in the league. I managed to acquire him after he spent years in Colorado giving me hell. So having him on a team of legends like this one is really unreal to see #1 brought to life.

[Young Drachma]

On the 2nd day of the season, we beat the Yankees 6-0.

Rick Inman hit a solo shot:

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My Rick Inman story is...I acquired him and traded him off after just a year of playing for me and he went on to become a Hall of Famer at 3rd base. It was one of my classic miscalculations. I made up for it, but...it's one of the trades that stings the most. So it's fun seeing him on my ballclub.

In that same game, Thierry Fournier hit a grand slam.

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Fournier was acquired as a teenager and brought up too early to the majors, but he went on to have a Hall of Fame career as well as an outfielder. He was a speedster of the first order and retired with over 1200 stolen bases, but did demonstrate some pop from time to time.

[Young Drachma]

I'm going to tweak things a bit, only because I originally set the team up in season mode, rather than Franchise mode and so, I'd only get one season with them and that's it. So I'm recreating the club in franchise mode and then we'll go from there.

I dunno if I'll stick with the Orioles or not. It seems to work for me, but...the decision is mostly based on some fairly esoteric things like "how do the unis look" and "do they have much of a history?" The Orioles obviously do, but...they have direct lineage to the Browns and that tends to make it a bit better, since they basically abandoned that history once they moved.

So I dunno. But this has invigorated my interest in this game light years. I mean, I liked playing every once in a while, but this is a huge shot in the arm for me in terms of being able to really get immersed.

[Young Drachma]

I indeed kept the team as the Orioles. Seems fitting since Baltimore has had a team in FOOL since its inception and the Orioles used to play in St. Louis, where my first dynasty originated and home to the Hall of Fame.

Needless to say, this team is stacked. I haven't decided if I'm ever going to let the FOOL alums play for other ballclubs or not. I'm leaning towards no, at least for now. I think if I can dredge up other guys I want to see in the game, then maybe that'd be worthwhile, but for now, I think the core I have now works and it'll stay interesting for a bit.

[Young Drachma]

I finally found a use for Dynasty Manager. Here's the team home page (http://www.dynastymanager.com/teampage.php?sport=mlb&u=Dark%20Cloud)

Everyone is too young, of course. But I wanted to 1) have a while to play with all of them and 2) I was sorta arbitrary about it.

I might stagger them better a few seasons into this, so there's some natural progression, but I dunno yet.

I don't know that I'll update it much (or this dynasty, after all...I mean, who really cares?), I was just mostly excited that I came up with this little project while being snowed in.

[Young Drachma]

I figured out what I'll do. I'm going to take a second team in the NL that I won't control and fill it with the players I don't start on my club plus some others. There are all sorts of guys I'd love to see play and it would also give this team a run for its money with actual competition.

History League Index (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/history/league_100_index.html)

So if you're initiated on FOOL history and have someone you'd like me to create, drop me a note. But make sure it's a name I can get into the database, so some of the stranger, more notable players in history might be excluded as a result.

I'll worry about second generation players after I get through a decade, but given how little I play outside of bad weather, that might not be an issue.

[Young Drachma]

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This video is from Game 6 of the ALCS where we lost 7-6 in 16 innings. Heath Palmer went deep though to keep us in it, at a crucial point early in the contest.

I created a few more players, as well as sent a few of my guys to Pittsburgh. They don't have an entire roster of FOOL guys, but there are a few there nonetheless. I'll get a list of them together and maybe video when something notable happens over there.

[Young Drachma]

Into my 3rd season. I traded all of the auxiliary FOOL guys to the Dodgers. They made the playoffs as the NL Wild Card and we're in the World Series against them, up 2-1 in the series.

Clay Darby has already been benched this year for the upstart Tomas Santos (who is known as Tommy in the game...) and I dunno. I don't really need him, but I don't know if I can bring myself to trade him.

[Tellistto]

Heh, some of those guys were mine! Well, one at least. Tanaka was a beast!

Tell

[Ramzavail]

I had a couple of those guys too, Fournier really became a HOFer? You have a link to his stats?

[Young Drachma]

I had a couple of those guys too, Fournier really became a HOFer? You have a link to his stats?

Yeah, I linked a few more of the guys in that first post too.

Here's Fournier.

Player Report for #45 Thierry Fournier (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_4230.html)

[Young Drachma]

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Here's Tanaka hitting a single in a World Series game against the Dodgers.

After winning three titles with the Orioles, the 4th season, we lost in the ALCS to the Angels (who had FOOL alum Bryan Hughes as their ace) and my contract was up.

So I left Baltimore and took over the Chicago Cubs. Like the old Chicago Comets of yore, the team has problems and needs a lot of help. So I brought a set of guys with me to help and created some others.

C Anibal Ramirez (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_4240.html)
C Ralph Nicholson (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/html/html/players/player_2592.html)
1B Holden Matthews (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_3287.html)
1B Luis Mendoza (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/html/html/players/player_5390.html)
2B Clay Darby
3B Rick Inman
3B Marcos Montoya
SS Tomas Santos
SS Jose Gonzales
LF Mac Rasmussen
LF Daniel Gil
CF Thierry Fournier
RF Fernando Spindola (http://www.fool-x.net/fool/oldFOOL/players/player_206.html)
RF Jose Lopez

I decided to add a few guys, even if their names weren't in the game, because they were interesting figures.

The pitching staff I'm fleshing out, as well as the roster, as we're still built for the AL and not for the NL and I need more speed guys, so I'll either have to deal for them or create some new ones. I dunno yet. I'm less invested now in having them all on one squad since it's no longer possible, it's interesting to have more of the FOOL alumni joining the game and keeping it interesting anyway.

So that's what we'll continue to do until it bores me.

[Young Drachma]

I was trying to think of a compelling way to do this dynasty and keep it interesting.

I think I've figured it out, too.

I'm going reboot the dynasty a bit by putting together the best team I can. We'll spend one year going through an entire MLB season, I'll chronicle each of the games of that season and the playoffs too.

To make it somewhat fair, I'm going to try to focus more on building a "complete" team, rather than just grabbing every star from history that I can. Then, I'll go ahead and see how far we make it through the year. It'll be immersive that way, but it's also a definitive end to it and it'll give me a way to associate all of the players with a particular club, too, which is fun.

I have no idea what team to use, though, so if you have ideas, let me know. I'll probably start a new thread though, once I get started.

So there you have it.