150 Seasons of the OBL
7/24/24: Yes, it’s been a while since the most-recent posts on these pages, but “we” (I) haven’t exactly been idle! Now ready for all to view is the Open Baseball League (OBL) summary for the “replayed” seasons from 2001 through 2010. This is exciting for me personally, because it means that my “slugging percentage” is now at .933, having completed 140 of the originally-planned 150 MLB season replays, from 1871 through 2020. (It shouldn’t surprise anyone if “extra innings” ensue to cover 2021 plus).
Basic review time: Teams are defined by 1) Birthplace (state/region/nation, as needed/best fit); 2) Best WAR (Wins Above Replacement) figures for the available players; 3) Covering each of the 9 defensive positions (with no specific DH) for the number of games played in that particular season; and 4) Meeting roster-size and game-appearance specs (minimums and maximums). For each team, the WAR totals provided by baseball-reference.com (based on actual MLB performances in that specific season, from 1871 through 2020) are added up; the standings are determined by those team WAR totals, going from highest to lowest, winners to also-rans to cellar-dwellers. There’s only one overall OBL championship squad per season (no World Series or playoffs): the regular season record is the whole enchilada. Beginning with the replayed 1921 season, the OBL did split into two divisions (counterparts to the American and National Leagues in MLB), but each team played each other team the same number of times (in most cases), regardless of division. Division winners are those with the best season records in the division opposite the OBL overall champs. The same applies to the individual player awards: for example, since 1921, there is the OBL League MVP and an OBL Division MVP from a team in the division other than the overall winner (this is dissimilar in comparison to MLB, where awards are given in each league in each year). So those are the basics for newcomers especially, but even veteran site-viewers could hardly be blamed for not recalling all of the details when our (my) posting sessions are so few and far between! But again, home plate is coming into view — only 10 season replays to go to complete the project’s original objectives — and then there will be plenty of “retrospecumetric” data to go around for the baseball-history buffs, geographical/demographical-trend observers, stat-heads, replay enthusiasts, and the merely curious to turn into a well-stocked pair of websites and a book or two. Back to work for this staff of one or none of it ever will get done.
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4/30/24: Okay, some new goodies for any/all interested parties: Please find on this very page the Open Baseball League (OBL) results for 1991 through 2000 , as well as a page link to updated All-OBL teams, through the 2000 season. As home plate has come into view (project’s end, with the replay of the 2020 season — barring “extra innings” beyond 2020), we’re “rounding third” at this point and ten years into the last 30-year era. After today’s postings, OBL season-replay work will resume with the 2001 season. With that, you’re up to date on baseball150.com and retroplay.net.
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3/20/24: FI-nally… began a new round of page updates on several pages (look for recent update dates at the top of site pages, like this one from this very week). This particular page will be further updated by sometime on 3/22. Only an OBL summary of 1981-1990 and an explanatory section (what’s going on/what’s to come) have been added here so far: (jump below to FRESHLY UPDATED SECTION)
9/28/23: UPDATED TEAM NICKNAMES IN THE 1971-1980 SUMMARIES: FAR WEST TRAILBLAZERS (OFFSHOOT FROM WESTERN PIONEERS, BEGINNING 1977) AND SOUTHEAST SEACAPS (MERGER OF SOUTHEAST ATLANTICS AND MID-ATLANTIC SEACAPS, BEGINNING 1979). CHANGES ARE INCLUDED IN THE RE-POSTED SUMMARIES. MEANWHILE, O.B.L. 1981 IS BEING “REPLAYED.”
9/26/23: TEN (10) MORE O.B.L. SEASONS ARE “IN THE BOOKS.” SUMMARY REPORTS (EXCEL-COMPATIBLE AND PDF) FOR 1971-80 CAN BE FOUND BELOW. AFTER THIS NEW MATERIAL IS POSTED, IT’S ON TO STRIKE-SHORTENED 1981, AS WELL AS A DRIVE TO THE FINISH OF ERA 4 (OF 5 TOTAL), WITH THE COMPLETION OF THE 1990 SEASON. THESE 1981-1990 SEASON “REPLAYS” UNDER THE RETROPLAY SYSTEM SHOULD GO (RELATIVELY) QUICKLY, AS OUTDOOR PROJECTS WILL NO LONGER DEMAND ATTENTION FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2023. OFF WE GO…
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8/2/23: A LIVING DESCENDANT OF HUGHIE JENNINGS MIGHT SHOUT, “EE-YAH!!” IN HIS HONOR, ‘CUZ THIS IS EXCITING: A SUMMARY OF O.B.L. SEASONS #91 THROUGH 100 CAN BE FOUND HERE…
5/2/23: WE’RE BACK WITH OPEN BASEBALL LEAGUE RESULTS FOR 1946-60. JUMP TO ‘EM HERE…
1/14/2023 UPDATE: BREAKING MY OWN RULE HERE ON THIS PAGE, SINCE ALL OF WHAT FOLLOWS RELATES TO THE FANTASY-LEAGUE SIDE OF THE LARGER BASEBALL PROJECT, AS “OPEN BASEBALL LEAGUE” SEASON “REPLAYS” ARE IN VIEW, AND NONE OF THIS RELATES TO THE HISTORICAL (MLB-NLB) SIDE OF THINGS, WHICH IS WHAT WE FOCUS ON AT BASEBALL150.COM (WHERE YOU ARE NOW). I’LL FIGURE OUT THE PROPER PUNISHMENT FOR MY HEINOUS MISDEED LATER, BUT FOR NOW, LET ME JUST RATIONALIZE ALL OF THIS BY POINTING OUT THAT THIS PAGE CAN BACK UP/MIRROR THE COUNTERPART PAGE AT RETROPLAY.NET. YES, … THAT’ LL DO. HOWEVER, IN AN EFFORT TO AVOID FURTHER CONFUSION, AND IN ORDER TO LET EVERYONE IN ON JUST HOW I BREECHED MY OWN CODE, HERE’S A SHORT EXPLANATION RE: THE DESIGN-TEMPLATES FOR MY TWO BASEBALL-ORIENTED WEBSITES:
JUST TO CLARIFY A BIT ON MY TWO BASEBALL WEBSITES:
I RUN TWO BASEBALL-ORIENTED SITES, RETROPLAY.NET (ongoing for several years), AND BASEBALL150.COM (established in 2022, and essentially a “mirror site” until now). WHILE YOU’LL FIND A PLETHORA OF OVERLAPPING/REDUNDANT MATERIAL AT BOTH SITES, REMEMBER THIS 2-PART RULE OF THUMB IN ORDER TO BETTER KEEP THINGS STRAIGHT:
- AT RETROPLAY.NET, THE FOCUS IS ON THE FANTASY-LEAGUE “REPLAYS” OF 150 MLB-NLB SEASONS FROM 1871 THROUGH 2020 THAT EMPLOY TEAMS ASSEMBLED SOLELY ON THE BASIS OF BIRTHPLACE. THE “OPEN BASEBALL LEAGUE” (O.B.L.) IS A “PARALLEL UNIVERSE,” SO IT IS NOT HISTORICAL, AND NO CLAIMS ARE EVER GOING TO BE MADE THAT IT IS OR WAS. HOWEVER, . . . IN ORDER TO NOT REPEATEDLY TRY THE PATIENCE OF ANYONE TAKING AN INTEREST IN THE PROJECT, RATHER THAN USING PHRASES LIKE — “SO IF THIS HAD BEEN TRUE, AND THE TEAMS HAD SET UP JUST LIKE THIS, AND THERE WAS NO COLOR BARRIER, AND IF ALL OF THE PLAYERS NEARLY EXACTLY PRODUCED AS THEY DID IN REAL LIFE IN THAT PARTICULAR SEASON, WE THINK THE RESULTS WOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE THOSE WE CAME UP WITH, AND THEREFORE, . . [etc.]” — WE’LL JUST PRETEND THAT THINGS DID UNFOLD JUST AS WE’RE PRESENTING THEM; IT’S JUST SO MUCH EASIER. BESIDES, IT’S WHAT WE USUALLY DO WITH FICTION, RIGHT?
- AT BASEBALL150.COM, WE’RE LOOKING AT THE ACTUAL, HISTORICAL MAJOR-LEAGUE SCENARIO AS IT SURELY DID UNFOLD FROM 1871 THROUGH 2020 (and possibly beyond, if time remains available to me to extend the project). SO INSTEAD OF RE-COMBINING TEAMS THROUGH RETRO-ACTIVE, ARTIFICIAL MEANS, WE TAKE ALL OF MLB-NLB HISTORY JUST AS IT PLAYED OUT, HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS, WARTS, AND ALL; WE’RE NOT CHANGING A THING. INSTEAD, THE “NEW LENS” WE’RE PROVIDING ON THE HISTORICAL SIDE OF THE OVERALL PROJECT IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY OF RANKING PLAYERS (W.A.R.-BASED, USING THE HISTORICAL STATS) VIA THE RETRO-PLAY RATING (RPR); SO THAT PART IS BEING CARRIED OVER FROM THE RETROPLAY SIDE TO THE BASEBALL150 SIDE, AS WELL AS BIRTHPLACE-BASED ALL-TIME (ALL-STAR) GROUPINGS (BY STATE/REGION/NATION, EVEN A MAJOR-CITY SECTION). IN MY OPINION (IMO, elsewhere), LOOKING AT WHICH PLAYERS WERE THE BEST EVER TO BE BORN IN A PARTICULAR GEOGRAPHICAL ZONE IS STILL A MATTER OF ENGAGING CURIOSITY.
THE NITTY-GRITTY: RETROPLAY AND THE O.B.L. = FANTASY, FICTIONAL; BASEBALL150 = HISTORICAL, REAL, AS IT HAPPENED; BOTH EMPLOY MY OWN RETRO-PLAY RATING (RPR) TO RANK THE PLAYERS
[1/14/2023 UPDATE, CONCLUSION: SO THERE YOU HAVE IT, BUT I MUST SAY, UPON FURTHER REVIEW, THAT A “RULE OF THUMB” DOESN’T EVEN RISE TO THE LEVEL OF A GENUINE RULE, SO…I FEEL BETTER NOW. AAAANNND,… IT’S BACK TO WHERE I SO RUDELY INTERRUPTED MYSELF, REGARDLESS…]
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12/31/22 UPDATE: MIDDLE OF THE 5TH FOR THE O.B.L.
(Happy New Year, BTW!)
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We’re at the halfway mark (!), with the first 75 seasons of Open Baseball League (OBL) replays “in the books.” For your convenience — and to avoid a cluttered, scrolling page — below are 6 summary league reports (Excel-compatible and PDF) that cover the season-by-season “replay” results from 1871 through 1945. This brings us up to the middle of the project overall (150 seasons, from 1871 through 2020), and to the middle of Era III (1931-1960). When we’ve polished off 1946 through ’60, we’ll move forward to Era IV (1961-1990) and, hopefully, finish up with Era V (1991-2020) before we’ve got to change the name to Baseball 155 !
Some reminders about what’s going on over on the fantasy-league side at RetroPlay:
We’re “replaying” 150 years of MLB (& NLB where applicable) history from 1871 through 2020 (+ ?)
All state/co-op/regional/national and extra-national (“foreign”) teams are birthplace-determined
Team success is entirely dependent upon superior core-roster W.A.R. (Wins Above Replacement) numbers (rosters are limited in size, and positional integrity is required; fill each position realistically)
Re: number of OBL games per season, the general rule is to stay at about 90% of historic MLB games played in each particular year (e.g., for 1931 thru ’45, 150-game seasons closely reflect 154 games in MLB)
Great pains have been taken to assign workable and equitable player “territorial rights” that tend to produce enough potential “rosterees” year in and year out for several seasons at a stretch, but note: in combining birthplace groups, geographical connections override all else, and we don’t look at the individuals who’d be combined, but the sheer number of players born in various eras who logged actual MLB experience (OBL minimums to qualify: 10 Plate Appearances/ 9 Innings Pitched in a year)
For more “nuts and bolts” and formulas used, etc., stay alert for updates on other baseball150.com pages. The first couple of months of ’23 will probably be busy with updating site-wide, so that’s just a friendly FYI…
Okay, here are those summary reports (really 2 versions of the same reports; to view larger PDFs onscreen, use titled hyperlink to get in, browser back button to pop out):
UPDATED O.B.L. RESULTS: 1946-1960 SEASON “REPLAY” CHARTS
LATEST O.B.L. SUMMARY: SEASONS #91-100 (1961-1970)
FINAL NOTE FOR THE 8/2/23 UPDATE SESSION: It’ll be back to replays for me (1971 to 1980, in the first chunk), as soon as the posts have hit the pages in this session. Disregarding the temptation to stage an OBL Centennial Celebration, 1970-style (as it would’ve [supposedly] been celebrated then), I’d rather use the time to forge ahead into the remaining 50 years (last 3 “innings”) of this birthplace-based historical replay project. So that’s the plan.
[intervening hours of time, footsteps echo in the corridors — some near, some far away — but mostly silence is the rule at RetroPlay/Baseball150 HQ, and then…]
… Oh, are you still here? Not a problem, but there’s more to see here in the complex, so go ahead and poke around, maybe enjoy a self-guided tour… Almost forgot: the “house band” is hoppin’ over here, so if you’re into instrumental “Retro-Rock,” you might want to check out TEKTONA. In any case, see ya later. Take care…
REVISED/UPDATED OBL SUMMARY, 1971-1980
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FRESHLY-UPDATED SECTION (3/20-22/2024)
Finally carved out the time to execute OBL “replays” for the decade of 1981 through 1990 (the last 10 seasons of our Era 4). At this point, results of 80% of the planned 150 season-replays are in the books and on the web. Immediately below, please find the download links to ’81-’90 summaries in Excel-type (.xls) spreadsheet form, and in PDF just below that:
3-20-24: OBL SUMMARY, 1981-1990
Now that we’re through a full 7 innings’ worth of the 9-inning game, I’m jacked up to see how things play out for the remaining 30 seasons (1991 through 2020, the span of Era 5). The 2020 season is season #150 in the project plan (remember: it’s baseball150.com), but we’ll see if/when we get there if we can knock out ’21, ’22, and ’23 with these birthplace-determined teams (and even 2024, if that real-life MLB season has been played by that time). For those interested, note that on other pages of this site (I should say, these two sites: baseball150.com and retroplay.net), updates are being uploaded that will put into final form all of the accumulated data from 1871 through 1990 (Eras 1 through 4, 30 seasons each). You’ll be able to quickly determine which pages have been updated just recently (this week) by noting the update- dating at the top of each page. Of course, I always reserve the right to correct my own errata — and to change team designations and nicknames (after “further review” of team histories [ahem]…read: I eventually thought of a name I like better) — but that’s as far as I’m willing to veer into “historical revisionism.” Hey, folks, this is all retrospective fantasy, after all; don’t get too upset with me if I don’t give bird/animal nicknames to teams of human beings, or if your hometown/regional team isn’t a world-beating franchise; MY (representative) team — Midwest (IN-MI-WI-born players) — has a franchise record well under .500, but did I just trash the whole project because of that disappointing outcome? Nope! But then again, if you were born in California, you might feel like gloating and bragging about “your guys,” but that would be just as foolish: it’s all on paper, everyone, and none of this really happened in real time, so just relax and appreciate whatever aspects of this sprawling project that you can (hints: different combos of real players (local “heroes”), the use of real stats, the geographical trends, or even the nuts-and-bolts of a unique league structure and the “replays” of 19th/20th/21st Century seasons, using modern metrics (my “trademark” term is retrospecumetrics; retro-specu(lative)-metrics).
With that said, that’ll do it for today (3/22/24) on this page, but there are more updates coming, site-wide. Of special note, find freshly-baked Era 4 Grids here: Eras and 30-year grids page.
OBL SUMMARY FOR 1991-2000 SEASONS (EXCEL-TYPE FIRST, PDF BELOW THAT):
7/24/24 ADDITION: OBL SUMMARY FOR 2001 THROUGH 2010
Immediately below is the Excel-type spreadsheet version download link, and below that, the PDF link: