Year-by-year: Open Baseball League results

8/2/2024 ACTIVITY: THE ALL-OBL TEAMS HAVE BEEN UPDATED THROUGH THE LAST-REPLAYED SEASON (2010). JUMP TO THAT SECTION HERE. RESULTS FOR THE ALL-STAR GAMES (MID- AND POST-SEASON FROM 1921 ONWARD) HAVE ALSO BEEN UPDATED, AND CHECK OUT THE TRENDS ANALYSIS BELOW THAT CHART. THE OBL SUMMARY FILES COVERING 2001 THROUGH 2010 HAVE ALSO BEEN CORRECTED AND UPLOADED HERE (THE 7/24 JUMP LINK BELOW WILL STILL GET YOU THERE, ALSO). LAST UPDATE FOR TODAY’S SESSION: INDIVIDUAL AWARD-WINNERS FROM 1921 THROUGH 2010 HERE.

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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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5/1/2024 UPDATES, ROUND 2 FOR 2024: OBL LEAGUE RESULTS SUMMARY; OBL INDIVIDUAL AWARDS CAUGHT UP THROUGH THE YEAR 2000; ALL-OBL SELECTIONS THROUGH 2000; OBL ALL-STAR GAME RESULTS UPDATED THROUGH 2000. HAVING POSTED ALL OF THIS, WE LOGICALLY MOVE ONTO 2001 WITH OUR “REPLAYED” SEASONS (THE 2020 SEASON IS THE LAST PLANNED FOR THIS PROJECT, BUT “EXTRA INNINGS” (2021-2024/2025) MIGHT BE ENTERED INTO; WE’LL SEE).

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FIRST UPDATES OF 2024 (MARCH 22): ON THIS PAGE, O.B.L. SUMMARIES FOR 1971 THROUGH 1980 (CORRECTED/UPDATED) AND 1981 THROUGH 1990 (BRAND NEW) ARE NOW AVAILABLE. THE ALL-OBL SELECTIONS FOR 1901 THROUGH 1990 HAVE NOW BEEN POSTED, AS WELL. THE BIGGEST NEWS IS THAT THE 30-YEAR GRIDS (4-1 AND 4-2), FOR THE ERA 4 YEARS OF 1961 THROUGH 1990, CAN BE FOUND ON OUR ERAS AND 30-YEAR GRIDS PAGE. UP NEXT: THE BIRTHPLACE-BASED-LEAGUE “REPLAYS” WILL ROLL ON INTO OUR 5TH AND FINAL ERA (IN THE ORIGINAL PLAN), FROM 1991 THROUGH 2020 (EXTRA “INNINGS” — 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024? — WELL, WE’LL SEE WHEN WE’VE GOT SEASON #150 IN THE BOOKS. (IT’S BASEBALL150.COM, FOLKS). SO I CAN’T LINGER HERE MUCH LONGER. “WE’VE” (I’VE) GOT 30 MORE SEASONS TO GET THROUGH UNTIL THIS SPRAWLING PROJECT CAN BE COMPLETED. THAT SAID, I’M OFF… (NOT TO BE TAKEN AS A PSYCHOANALYTIC STATEMENT, IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING).

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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” (SINCE THE LAST FULL SUMMARY). 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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8/22/2023 — CALL THIS A “GOOD FAITH DEPOSIT.” JUST LETTING YOU KNOW I’M MOST DEFINITELY ON THE JOB, DOING THE OPEN BASEBALL LEAGUE (O.B.L.) HISTORIC SEASON “REPLAYS” USING BIRTHPLACE-BASED TEAMS AND W.A.R. AS THE VALUE SYSTEM. TODAY, I’M STARTING IN ON 1975 (MID-POINT OF ERA 4, 1961-1990). OBL CHAMPS FOR 1971 AND ’72 WERE THE DEEP SOUTH MONARCHS (PLAYERS BORN IN FL, AL, MS, AND LOUISIANA, AND ACTIVE MLBers IN THOSE SEASONS). THAT MADE THREE CONSECUTIVE TITLES FOR THE MONARCHS, HAVING WON IN 1970 AS WELL (AFTER THE LATIN AMERICA ESTRELLAS REELED OFF A “THREE-PEAT” IN 1967-68-69). BUT IN 1973 AND ’74, THE CALIFORNIA LEGENDS RETURNED TO THE TOP WITH THEIR 17TH AND 18TH TITLES IN ONLY 44 SEASONS AS A FRANCHISE (WITH THEIR 4 DIVISION TITLES ADDED IN, THAT MEANS THEY’D WON A TITLE — ON AVERAGE — EVERY OTHER YEAR)! [Reminder: the CA Legends “flagship” franchise (ALL CA-born players) continued on in the form of California-SOUTH when the new CA-NORTH (CAN) franchise spun off to begin league play in 1969] . WE’LL NOW SEE IF A THIRD TEAM CAN DO ANOTHER “3-PEAT” WHEN 1975 GOES INTO THE OBL BOOKS. “CIAO” FOR NOW….

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8/07/2023 — THIS JUST DONE: 1) ERRATA IN TWO SUMMARIES DETECTED, ADDRESSED HERE, AND 2) INDIVIDUAL MAJOR-AWARD WINNER “HONOR ROLLS” POSTED (IN 3 SECTIONS, BEGINNING HERE)

8/02/2023 UPDATE: MANAGED TO “REPLAY” 10 MORE O.B.L. SEASONS SINCE THE MOST RECENT PAGE UPDATES. WE NOW HAVE 100 SEASONS “IN THE BOOKS,” (100 OF THE 150 PLANNED), SO I GUESS WE’VE MADE IT THROUGH SIX FULL INNINGS AT THIS POINT. THE SUMMARY FOR 1961 THROUGH 1970 CAN BE FOUND HERE…

SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS ON THIS PAGE: UPDATED THE O.B.L. ALL-STAR GAME RESULTS (1921 THROUGH 1970; ONE EACH YEAR AT MID-SEASON AND POST-SEASON). FIND THE TABLE HERE…

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5/2/23 UPDATE: BACK IN THE SADDLE WITH O.B.L. RESULTS FROM 1946 THROUGH 1960 (END OF ERA 3 OF THE 5 PROJECTED). JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE 1945-60 SUMMARY BELOW BY CLICKING HERE…

[THIS PAGE LAST UPDATED 1/13/2023: CONTENT AND LINKS CHECKED; OKAY FOR NOW]

1/4/23 UPDATE: ADDED THE OBL MID-SEASON AND POST-SEASON ALL-STAR GAMES PLAYED FROM 1921 (INITIAL 2 GAMES) THROUGH 1945. SEE THE RESULTS BELOW THE BACKGROUND NOTES HERE

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1/3/23 TEXT UPDATE: FOR THE FIRST SEVERAL WEEKS OF 2023, SITE-WIDE PAGE UPDATES WILL BE TRICKLING IN WITH FINALIZED, “SET-IN-STONE” DATA. SOME PORTIONS OF PREVIOUS TEXT BLOCKS WILL HAVE TO BE REWORKED, AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE PARAGRAPHS BELOW. AS A MATTER OF FACT, WE’LL MAKE IT EASY FOR YOU BY PROVIDING — RIGHT HERE — EXCEL-COMPATIBLE AND PDF FILES THAT SUMMARIZE OPEN BASEBALL LEAGUE (O.B.L. ) RESULTS FOR ALL OF THE SEASONS “REPLAYED” TO DATE (1871-1945; THE FIRST 75 OF THE 150 PLANNED). EXCEL-TYPES ARE FIRST, PDF VERSIONS BELOW:

LATEST OPEN BASEBALL LEAGUE REPLAY RESULTS (1946-60)

ERRATA DETECTED: 1) NED GARVER (1950 CY YOUNG AWARD) PLAYED FOR EAST-CENTRAL (EC), NOT PA; AND 2) DICK HOWSER (1961 DIVISION MATTY AWARD/ROOKIE OF THE YEAR) PLAYED FOR DEEP SOUTH (DS) [OMITTED INFO]

YEARS 91 THROUGH 100 OF THE OPEN BASEBALL LEAGUE

OBL ALL-STAR GAMES (BEGINNING IN 1921, WHEN THE LEAGUE WAS PARTITIONED INTO 2 DIVISIONS)

Background: When the OBL expanded to 14 franchises in 1921, that opened up not only races for division titles and all-division individual honors, but twice-annual All-Star games.

Each mid-season from 1921 onward, an East-West game was played between standout players on the easternmost OBL teams and the more western-based (Latin American players were included on the West team, since they were usually aligned with Texas). This was an entirely geographical split.

At the end of each OBL season, an All-Star game was played between the cream of the Heritage Division (the earliest/ “old school” teams) and the best of the Generations Division (franchises that got their start as “offshoots/spinoffs” of the older franchises). The rosters in both cases involved the same players in both games, but the mix of players varied enough to set up both comraderies and rivalries under this system (different allies/opponents, but more circulation among the elite players); fun and competitive-ness.

In any case, the mid-season games provided a short break, and the season’s-end games took the place of any “World Series” in the OBL. Important note: Each team plays each team in the league an equal number of times during the regular season (balanced, home and away), and the league title is decided by the total league wins and losses (the year’s league championship has already been decided on that basis). The “powers-that-be” didn’t want to repeat the folly of the 19th Century Templeton Cup (back in real life, folks) or reduce the significance of superior long-/regular-season performance against all teams in the league. “They” (read: me, myself, & I ) didn’t want to repeatedly get into a post-season situation where the team that was healthiest at the moment and/or matched up better against a single team in a short series would often emerge as the championship squad. IMO, the regular season champs are kings.

EAST TEAMS: U.S.-BASED EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER (AND 2006+ SOUTH AMERICA)

WEST TEAMS: U.S.-BASED WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER (AND LATIN-AMERICAN-BASED)

HERITAGE DIVISION TEAMS: THE ORIGINAL O.B.L. FRANCHISES OR THOSE WITH THE OLDEST YEARS OF FIRST PARTICIPATION (RETURNING RE-FORMED FRANCHISES)

GENERATIONS DIVISION TEAMS: NEWEST FRANCHISES, “BIRTHED” FROM THE PARENT FRANCHISES

NOTE: AS TEAMS COME INTO EXISTENCE BY SPLITTING OFF FROM THE “PARENT” FRANCHISE, THE DIVISIONS ARE BALANCED (NUMBER OF TEAMS) BY MOVING OLDER TEAMS TO THE HERITAGE DIVISION.

WHAT DO THE ALL-STAR GAME RESULTS TELL US — IF ANYTHING? SINCE THE “GAME SCORES” REFLECT THE NUMBER OF ALL-OBL SELECTIONS FROM EACH SIDE OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL DIVIDE (MID-SEASON A.S.G.) AND EACH DIVISION (HERITAGE=OLDEST FRANCHISES, GENERATIONS= OFFSHOOT FRANCHISES, “BIRTHED” BY THE “PARENT” FRANCHISES), PRODUCING THE POST-SEASON A.S.G. RESULTS, SOME TRENDS ARE CLEARLY INDICATED.

WITH THE GEOGRAPHICAL SHIFT OF THE AMERICAN GENERAL POPULATION (AND THE BASEBALL-PLAYING POPULATION), AS WELL AS THE EVER-GROWING INFLUX OF LATIN AMERICAN-BASED BASEBALL-PLAYING POPULATIONS (INCLUDED, AS EXTRA-NATIONALS, IN THE WEST, FOR EAST-WEST PURPOSES, AND WITH MOST PLAYERS INCLUDED IN THE GENERATIONS DIVISION), THAT THE GAME THAT STARTED OUT AS AN EXCLUSIVELY EASTERN (U.S.) PROPOSITION HAS LONG AGO BURST ITS ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES, AND BY THE LAST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY/EARLY 21ST, HAS TRULY BECOME AN INTERNATIONAL GAME, OFTEN PLAYED BEST BY THOSE WHO ARE ABLE TO PLAY IT MOST OFTEN (WARM CLIMATES: THINK CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA, THE CARIBBEAN, AND EVER-INCREASINGLY, THE NORTHERN PARTS OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN CONTINENT, I.E., VENEZUELA AND COLOMBIA). NONE OF THIS WILL COME AS A GREAT SURPRISE TO ANYONE WHO HAS REGULARLY FOLLOWED MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL (MLB) IN RECENT DECADES, BUT THIS PROJECT PROVIDES — AT THE LEAST — TONS OF BIRTHPLACE-BASED EMPIRICAL DATA (THE REAL SEASONAL W.A.R. NUMBERS FOR REAL MLB PLAYERS) ON THE FRAMEWORK OF THE GENERAL HYPOTHESIS: THERE ARE GOOD REASONS FOR THE OBSERVER OF MLB TRENDS THAT JUSTIFY WHAT THEY THINK THEY’RE SEEING. THE TRENDS BECOME OBVIOUSLY REAL. AND HERE’S SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: BIRTHPLACE-BASED TEAMS ARE GEOGRAPHICALLY-DEFINED, NOT RACIALLY-DEFINED. IT’S NEVER REALLY A MATTER OF SKIN COLOR, AND AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, THERE IS ONLY ONE HUMAN RACE (WE’RE ALL DESCENDED, ULTIMATELY, FROM THE SAME TWO PARENTS, AND EVERY VARIATION IN THE AMOUNT OF MELANIN — THE “SKIN COLOR”-DETERMINING COMPONENT — HAS BEEN PRODUCED FROM WITHIN THE WHOLE RANGE OF POSSIBILITIES PROGRAMMED INTO THEIR GENES).

SO WE RETURN TO THIS MOST BASIC CLAIM: THIS FAR INTO MLB HISTORY, WE CAN SAY WITH A GREAT AMOUNT OF CERTAINTY — BASED ON ACTUAL HISTORY — THAT THE BEST BALLPLAYERS ARE MOST OFTEN BORN INTO AN ENVIRONMENT THAT COMBINES A WARM CLIMATE (YEAR-ROUND PLAY POSSIBLE) WITH A LOCAL/REGIONAL ATTITUDE OF LOVE FOR THE GAME. AGAIN, SIMPLY PUT: BASEBALL IS USUALLY PLAYED BEST BY GROUPS OF PEOPLE WHO PLAY IT THE MOST. WELL…, GO FIGURE, HUH?

INDIVIDUAL MAJOR-AWARD WINNERS (IN THREE SECTIONS):

PDF versions of the above three files:

INDIVIDUAL AWARD WINNERS, UPDATED THROUGH 2010

ALL-OBL SELECTIONS FROM 1971 THROUGH 2010 (UPDATED 8/2/2024)

(TIP: USE THE SLIDER TOOL BELOW THE TABLE TO EXPAND THE VIEW ONLINE)

2023 UPDATES THROUGH AUGUST 7 END HERE; OLD-BUT-PERTINENT (GOOD-TO-KNOW) MATERIAL FOLLOWS

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3/25/2022: WITH A “VINTAGE” O.B.L. LOGO IN PLACE, THIS IS THE ACTION-PAGE TO WATCH GOING FORWARD

This is the RetroPlay.net baseball project-related page that will see the most change in the coming months. While you’re (hopefully) roaming around RetroPlay Park, I’ll be pitting my birthplace-based teams against each other in order to determine Open Baseball League (OBL) seasonal champions for each year from 1871 through 2020. Once the roster-yielding templates are in place — as I’ve already discovered in trial runs — the process won’t take all that long. As the results are produced, you should be able to find periodic reports right here on this page. It’s my belief that once you see some patterns emerge — how localized teammates can come together to form teams that turn into franchise dynasties, for example — it’ll become more interesting and intriguing. If bookmarks are still a thing, I suggest you use one here.

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As we (that is, I ) “replay” on paper every “Major-League Baseball” season from 1871 through 2020, the team standings and rosters of the champions will be posted on this page. Now, just to be clear, this whole run-through has been done previously — twice — using different formats, which a microscopic few of you may even somehow recall. Those two previous iterations/forerunners were the “True Test League” (TTL) and the “Expanded Regional League” (ERL).

The TTL was a strict, state-borders affair, in which only a very small handful of American states could field enough native sons in a given year to even put on the field and cover the positions or fill out a roster (think New York and Pennsylvania in the earliest years, and California from about 1930 onward, and Ohio, Texas, Florida, and Illinois at various times; not many others). So that was little more than a crude experiment that fell way short on player participation and was not very intellectually satisfying; strike one.

The ERL pulled together states that couldn’t stand alone (almost all of ’em!) together into regional teams, but those teams only included players who had at least one season of 1.0 (or better) WAR, or in the case of Negro-Leaguers, who played shorter schedules, a season of 0.5 WAR or more. So here we can see that Black Baseball was on the RetroPlay radar quite some time ago, and that the ERL was an improvement as far as wider player participation goes (no American state was outside of a region’s scope), but still, it proved to be strike two because it became apparent that even the neutral/negative WAR players were needed to field full teams; hey, that’s just real life (I learned, or was reminded).

Once I’d wasted enough time on the learning curve/experimental phase, it became evident what should be done if this thing was going to be done right: every MLB/NLB player who met the minimum requirements for plate appearances/innings pitched — regardless of where in the world they were born — should be given a place to play, a regional team he could potentially join. In the earliest project years, the thinking was that we shouldn’t “saddle” a team with someone who made — numerically speaking — a relatively “negative” contribution, on the whole (which sets aside actual positive game-day contributions in certain cases that are lost in the statistical sea). That was wrongheaded, of course, as I’ve already indicated (that’s life, that’s how things work in reality). So the Open Baseball League saves me, I think, from taking strike three on this decades-long “vision.” I’m satisfied that this is as far as I can take this birthplace-based project, and that the final course of action is the best way to go.

I hope you will enjoy seeing the replay/season-simulation results as they’re posted here in this Retro-Fantasy league escape-scape. It’s not real history, but it can still stir the imagination and make real life — today — a bit more fun.

[Final note for today: as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, and if time permits, I’d really like to run the gamut — 1871 through 2020 — via simulated-season software. This is the remaining “pipe-dream”]

Newly-corrected and added, 1/4/2023: 19th Century results one-page summary (PDF showing W-L records, with franchise abbreviations used above; NEA-NEL separately and combined; NY-NYE [and NYC] separately and combined; champions and high totals in bold):

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:

1. 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?
2. 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…

3/22/2024: 1971-1980 O.B.L. SUMMARY (in two formats):

NEXT UP: OBL SUMMARY FOR 1981-1990. AGAIN, EXCEL-TYPE VERSION TOP, PDF BELOW THAT:

OBL RESULTS SUMMARY FOR 1991 THROUGH 2000 (EXCEL-TYPE, PDF)

AND THAT’S YOUR BALLGAME FOR TODAY IN THIS PARK, FOLKS. REMEMBER: FOR THE BIGGEST DATA HITTERS, GO TO THE ERAS AND 30-YEAR GRIDS PAGE (PLAYERS BY BIRTHPLACE, THEIR WAR VALUES AND POSITIONS, SPREADSHEET-STYLE; REAL STOREHOUSES OF INFO ON EACH PAGE).

7/24/24 ADDITION: OBL SUMMARY FOR 2001 THROUGH 2010

Immediately below is the Excel-type summary download link, and below that the PDF link: