Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I put together a theme league. This one promises to be a good one.

Childhood Heroes '60s Franchise League, ATG8, $120 mil cap, no DH, 5% drop, waivers.

Rules:

1. Pick a Major League Baseball franchise from the 1960s.

2. Player eligibility: Any card, regardless of year and team, based on a Major League Baseball season, of any player who played for the franchise during the 1960s, as set forth in http://www.baseball-reference.com/ . That means appearing in at least one game during the 1960s for the franchise. He does not need to have a card for that franchise as long as he played for the franchise in the '60s and the card does not have to be from the '60s.

Examples:
Orlando Pena played for the Reds in the '50s, the Reds, A's, Indians and Tigers in the '60s, and the Pirates, Orioles, Cardinals and Angels in the '70s. Since he played for the Reds, A's, Indians and Tigers in the '60s, those are the only teams for which he is eligible to play in this league and his card (1966) can be used with any of those franchises

Steve Carlton played for the Cardinals in the '60s, the Cardinals & Phillies in the '70s and the Phillies, Giants, Indians, White Sox and Twins in the '80s. Since he played only for the Cardinals in the '60s, that is the only franchise for which he is eligible to play in this league, but any of his cards (all with the Phillies), 1972, 1977, 1980 & 1982 can be used.

3. Player set used: ATG8, as there are a handful of players in the pre-WWII card set who played in the '60s.

4. Limits on eligibility
a) Satchel Paige pitched three innings for the Kansas City A's in 1965. His 1948 card can be used by the A's franchise. His NeL card cannot be used, as it is not based on a MLB season;

b) Gates Brown cannot be used;

c) George Foster cannot be used.

Below is a link to the list of big league players who played their final game in 1960 and thus would be eligible for this league:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagu ... year.shtml

Below is a link to the list of big league players who made their major league debut in 1969 and thus would also be eligible for this league (except George Foster, who is ineligible):

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagu ... buts.shtml

5. Draft: Autodraft. Put any eligible player on your franchise draft card. Ineligible players assigned during the autodraft must be dropped at the start of the frenzy.

6. Trades: Trades are not allowed, unless all players involved in the trade meet franchise eligibility requirements.

7. Ballparks: Use any Post WWII or Expansion Era ballpark used by your franchise.

8. Getting started: Put your name on the sign up sheet in the next post in this thread. Once there are 12 managers, a randomizer will be run to determine franchise selection order. Once all managers select a franchise, I'll set up a private league and PM the password to each manager.

This league should fill quickly, so sign up now. The sign up sheet is in the next post in this thread.

Good luck and have fun. - Bernie

Sign up sheet:

1. BDWard
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

alt. 1:
alt. 2:

Sign up sheet:

1. BDWard
2. misterg
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

alt. 1:
alt. 2:

Some of you may be hesitant to sign up because you are afraid of the Yankees. The '60s Yankees won the World Series in '61 & '62, but lost in '60, '63 & '64 to the Pirates, Dodgers and Cardinals, respectively. Plus, the Giants took the Yanks to 7 games in '62. Like the Yankees, the Cardinals and Dodgers got a pair of rings in the '60s. The Pirates, Orioles, Tigers and Mets also won the World Series in the '60s and the Orioles won again in 1970 and the Pirates won again in 1971, with Oakland winning three straight rings from 72-74. Aside from the Yankees and Giants, World Series losers in the '60s were the Reds,Twins, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cardinals and Orioles. Many of the players from the '60s World Series teams have cards, as well as players from '50s and '70s World Series teams who were playing with their respective franchises during the '60s.

This league was designed to make it difficult for the Yankees to dominate and with good managers and a good autodraft, any number of teams could win. I expect it to be a very competitive league. Are you up to the challenge?

Curious as to why you're black-balling Gates Brown and George Foster?

Musial6 wrote:Curious as to why you're black-balling Gates Brown and George Foster?

Great question. I made Gates Brown and George Foster ineligible because I want the league to be competitive and I think both would have a disparate impact on their respective teams compared to the amount of playing time they had for those teams in real life. Brown has a card with just 92 AB, but which is likely to get 350 to 400 AB in the franchise league. Foster would have only been eligible to play for the Giants in this league, but had just 5 AB for them in the '60s. The Giants are already loaded with Mays, McCovey, Felipe Alou, Bobby Bonds, Haller, Davenport, Marichal, Perry, etc. that I felt that adding Foster's 1977 .320 52 HR season to the mix would make them hard to beat.

I know that a similar argument may be made for some other players, but, to me, they were the most obvious little used players by their franchises who would upset competitive balance if allowed to play with those franchises.