The Unofficial SDMB Out Of The Park Baseball League has an opening and is looking for a new owner.
Out Of The Park baseball is a baseball simulation game where you take control of a fictional baseball team. The SDMB League began five (real-time) years ago and has just started its 12th season. The league page is here and the league blog is here.
The team that is available is the Hickory Huskers. Hickory started out as an expansion team a few years ago, but has made remarkable progress. Hickory recorded its first ever second-place finish in the Adams League last year. If you take control of the team, you’ll be able to relocate/rename the team after the season.
The team is led by outfielder Paul Shunk, who, at the age of 25 has 153 home runs to his credit. In addition to being a power threat, he also has some speed on the basepaths, with 65 career swipes.
Another “veteran” youngster on the Hickory team is 26-year-old first baseman Dong Lutz. The former #1 pick is a career .279 hitter with 194 career round-trippers (including six this season… and we’ve just finished April).
Your pitching staff features some solid pitchers, including Donald Hunnicutt and Alberto Carballo… but no one whom I’d call a star.
Right now, Hickory is in third place in the Adams League, with a 14-13 record.
Out of the Park Baseball is a baseball simulation game where you act as the GM. You draft amateur players, guide them through the minors and bring them up to the majors. You set the lineups and the pitching staff. You pick out the coaches, scouts and minor league managers. You can trade players with other owners, negotiate contracts, sign free agents in the off-season, etc. You also have to deal with the injuries, the prospects who don’t “pan out” and the players who go into slumps at just the worst time. In short, you get to be the GM!
We usually simulate half a month of play every week. We just finished up the month of April in the 2013 season. We’re currently using version 9 (the most current version) of the OOTP software, which is available here. The cost for the software is $39.99, but you can download a trial version for free.
All we ask is that you be an active owner. This doesn’t mean that you have to spend an extensive time with the game. What it means is that you have to upload your roster/lineup/pitching staff changes (if any) to the game server at some time during the week. You should respond to owner inquires for trades and the like. And, if you can post on the league blog once in a while, that’s good too.
So, do you think you have what it takes to lead the Hickory Huskers to the league championship? Join us and find out. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask here in the thread or email me at commish at izev dot com.
Zev Steinhardt