Chris

End of Year
Awesome season though the ending was a bit of a tough pill to swallow. Things started with James van Riemsdyk tearing his ACL(Out 7 months), then Mike Richards slightly tore his MCL(3 months), Kim Johannson tore his UCL(3 Months), Spezza had a shoulder issue(2 months), Giroux had a hip flexor issue(1 Month), and last but not least Pekka Rinne had a strained shoulder(3 weeks). All that within the last few weeks of the playoffs. Still managed to take 1st in the conference, but a tough battle vs the Montreal Canadians proved too much(Swept in 4). Ended up trading Jeff Carter and two prospects to Anaheim for Bobby Ryan and Ryan Wilson. The amount of injuries led to John Tavares being called up and he filled the 2nd line slot amazingly well(9-21-30, 8.19 AVR) and secured his roster spot next year. The Phantoms also took 1st in the conference and also fell in the 1st round. Holtby was a monster for them. Thrashers won their 2nd Stanley Cup beating Vancouver 4-3(Series and Game 7 in OT).






 

San Jose win the Stanley Cup







Pretty solid draft for us. Columbus came calling about Blum and I managed to get their 1st out of it which turned into Bogosian. Trusted my scouts in this draft. Holtby was a pretty unanimous pick at the 6th overall selection by the scouting staff.

Scout Reports:
Holtby - Starting Goalie, Better Mike Smith
Bogosian - 1-2 D, Better Andrew Alberts
Moisan - 1-2 D, Better Tom Poti
Stepan - 1-2 C, Better Johnny Pohl
McRae - 2nd Line, Like Henrik Zetterberg
Pouliot - 3rd Line, Like Ryan Smyth
Jacquemet - 3rd - Limited, Better Konstantin Baranov
Kessel - 3-6 D, Like Ryan Whitney
Guerette-Charland - 3rd Line, Like Vaclav Prospal

Pretty high hopes for these prospects

Flyers Miss Playoffs for 1st Time Since 1993

The Philadelphia Flyers continued their downfall after the lockout, as they failed to make the playoffs. Antero Niittymaki struggled in his first year as the starter in Philadelphia posting a 31-29-9 record with a 2.96GAA and 89.3SV% while Robert Esche continued to struggle after his 2004 Stanley Cup Playoff performance. On offense the Flyers were led by their top line of Gagne-Forsberg-Knuble, but struggled to find secondary scoring particularly from their young up and coming players like Jeff Carter, Mike Richards and RJ Umberger. Joni Pikanen led the Flyers defense but Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje failed to make the impact they were looked upon since signing their contracts shortly after the lockout ended. GM Paul Holmgren was fired at the end of the season and replaced by Nicholas Ritt, who led the Phantoms to an exceptional season. GM Nicholas Ritt quickly let Ken Hitchcock go and hired John Meckler. Ritt was also quick to ship off some veterans for solid youth and picks
 



Draft Report




Flyers had arguably the best 2nd round due to the three of the first ten picks in the round. James van Riemsdyk was labeled by some scouts as a Top Three selection but fell to #6 while Jonathan Blum and Kevin Shattenkirk could make an impact in a few years. Look for Carl Hagelin to surprise some in the coming years.

Next report Free Agent Season and Notable Trades from last season

Game: Eastside Hockey Manager
Roster: UUDB 6.1 (Updated Roster and Prospects out to 2014)(http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11256)
Start Date: Simmed one year(06-07) Took over after Regular Season
Monthly Updates
 
 

Stumbled upon this site through Twitter and OOTP's Board. 
Going to bring my EHM07 story over from another site.  I'm the same Nickflyers on OS and Sportsbin and Nickphillies on OOTP

We have now moved to www.bmjleague.com
 
We currently don't have any teams open but the waiting list is empty and a few teams could open at the end of the season.
 
Chris, owner of this site, has stopped by and has said nothing but kind words towards our league. Stop by and check us out.
 
-Stratford

Hi everyone!

I'm JaysDailyDose from over at the Out of the Park forums.  I got an invite from one of the founders or moderators to start a dynasty report over here, and seeing as how I just lost all of my leagues while making quickstarts for the community the other day -- I felt I could come over here and start a report to get some more people involved in my writing.

I am a longtime OOTP player, and while I'm not an "oldie" in that community, I'm not a young man, either -- so I mainly appreciate both historical and fictional play.

I don't know exactly what I will write about here, but the site looks great so far, and I'm happy to be here!  Thanks, and I hope to talk to you all very soon!

Hey guys.

If any of you are interested in helping the data for BTS we are now looking for researchers:
 
Please visit this thread on our forums and let us know!

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/bts-general-discussions/244008-interested-being-researcher-bts.html
 
Thanks everyone,
Francis

I really like the graphic infusion in this dynasty. I might have to start playing Madden again. It looks awesome these days! 

Jamal Smith, 1st Asst Coach:
 
Coach V called a team meeting after our final pre-conference game. He told the players to put the pre-conference behind them and out of their minds. It was nothing more than preparation for what’s to come…and that’s to fight to win every conference game. That means working hard in practice and then focusing that hard work into a stellar performance each and every game from here on out. He said we can beat any team in the Big Sky Conference and everyone on the team needs to believe that. We’re not going to take a back-seat to anyone.

After the team meeting, he told the coaches that Robbie Taflinger will be playing more at the 2 than the 1 in the future due to his high turnover rate and that he going to try Brian Robisch as the backup to Tim Dove at the point. Shawn Jackson will continue to start at the 2. Terence Hillier will move from playing the 3 to being a backup at the 4 position. Joe Blackwell will start at the 3 backed up by Delawn West and Travis Dawson. The interior starters will continue to be Cory Davis and Joseph Palmer, backed up not only by Hillier but also Odie Joseph and Michael Taylor.

Live Ring Ceremony & Draft Lottery video conference scheduled for this coming Saturday

Year 2: Michael Angelo's Work
 
As the 2286 season approached, Michael Angelo was able to reveal the newest uniforms, as well as updating some of the old uniforms. All uniforms would be worn for the first time starting on Opening Day. 
 Every MBL team had both a home and away uniform.  The PL teams had only one uniform, except for Nuka Cola and H&H Tool Company since they were using the 2285 major league team uniforms. The NCR Cubs were using the home uniform for the major league club. Aerotech Tops used the road Tops uniform. RobCo only had one uniform in 2285, so the RobCo PL team was using that uniform.  Overall Michael Angelo and his crew did a great job of making each uniform look unique without huge color overlaps from team to team.  

Hey guys!
 
I'm Cartola, and i'm here to present you to the new game of my company!
 
It's called 'Cockpit Manager '14 ! It's a F1 managerial game, where you take control of your favorite F1 team.
 
Manage all the aspects of a F1 team: hire drivers, sign sponsorship contracts, develop your car, look for new talents, determine your own strategy during the race, and keep an eye on your budget if you want to be able to race another season!
 
For registered users we have the 'Paddock', area of the site where you can download other playable seasons (as the 1991 Senna vs. Prost vs. Mansell vs. Piquet, and the 1976 Lauda vs. Hunt)
 
Take a look at: http://www.cartolagames.com.br/en/cockpitmanager
 

 
Any questions or suggestions, I'm all ears!

Nov. 26: 67-58 over Spokane. 1st single digit win. We were in control all the way but they kep’ it close. 23, 15 for Mars, 16, 7, 2 for White. 12, 37. It stayed close because the zebras kep’ us in foul trouble all night. They were awful.
 
Nov. 30: 87-49 over USC. 28, 6 for Hess, 25, 12 for Mars, 14, 11 for White, 8, 4, 10 for Lean. 7, 39.
 
Dec. 3: 66-46 at Michigan. The usual. 12 TOs, 40 RBs.
 
B. J., Bell banged a hip. Day ta day.
 
Dec. 7: Beat #8 Utah at their place, 69-53. 20, 10 for Brian Mars who has been steadily fantastic. 18 for Nick Hess who is a force. It feels like he can score as many as he wants to but he needs to get a little more selfish, which I keep telling him. Ian White continues to own the inside with Mars. Jed Lean runs the show from PG, an’ he does a great job of it. 15, 42.
 
“So where do we look for my nex’ job?”
 
“Northeast, Northwest. Berkeley, Stanford, anywhere in Oregon or Washington, UConn, UMass, Temple, Iowa, Iowa State maybe. Some places in the Midwest but we need to be careful, lot of ‘Babble Belt’ there.”
 
“Berkeley wanted me in April.”
 
“I hadn’t started investigating yet.”
 
“Okay. Public universities mos’ly. Not goin’ ta a religious school, obviously.”
 
She laughed. “Um, no.”
 
So we’ll have choices. Hopefully a school where I can build a national power, but whatever. I love coachin’ so it’ll be fine wherever we land, as long as we’re careful an’ pick a place that fits our beliefs an’ lifestyle, an’ esp. what we want our kids to be exposed to- positive, open, intelligent, affirmin’- alla that stuff.
 
Ray is 6 months old, Mandy a little more than 18 months. Growin’ like weeds, both of ‘em. Changes ev’ry day. It’s a joy ta see an’ ta be part a all a this.
 
Never thought it would happen for me an’ wouldn’t a if I hadn’t a met Lucy. Grateful ev’ry day an’ I even remember ta tell her.

Cool...will combine these with some votes for starters I'm getting in the Wolverine Studios forums. Thanks.

OK, I'll give you my preferences as starters for your next game this season:
 
Pos Name
1 Dove (seems to be doing the job)
2 Robisch (worth giving him a start to see how he does)
3 Blackwell (been productive so far)
4 Davis (tough choice, almost went with Joseph)
5 Taylor (again, worth a try at starter)

Mid June Report
 
The Standings

 
Chicago White Sox are keeping pace with the NY Yankees. White Sox are 13-6 in June after a 19-13 May. Yankees on the other hand are 13-9 thus far in June. On the other side of the league, the SF Giants are struggling in June after a 10-8 in May.
 
Reds Report
 

 
The Reds continue to struggle with pitching staff. Juan Marichal is 3-9, 4.04. Sam Jones is 3-7, 3.47. Ken McBride is the ace of the staff with 7-5, 2.79. Jim Davenport continues to shine, last eek he went .519 and .567 obp. Davenport is currently .312 and is in third place in batting average.

In case anyone was curious, you can now easily filter by team on Player Ratings and Player Stats pages. There's a dropdown menu at the top.

Welcome glenn! I look forward to seeing where this is headed!

[Part one - the early years]

As an English kid in the 60's & 70's I had a very sports game deprived childhood. Our games of football, rugby and cricket didn't lend themselves so readily to card & stat games as your American 'stop start' sports did. I was always good at maths and loved stats so I would have really loved your stat games like Strat-O-Matic, but we had barely heard of the sports let alone the games replicating them. The best we could have on the video front was Pong



Computers had yet to become personal and consequently I was in the later half of my twenties before I could afford an Amstrad 9512PCW a very basic thing that had an illuminated green/black screen and ran from twin 3"" floppy discs. It cost around £500 (about $800) and could do limited word processing plus after a fashion .... PLAY GAMES !






By now American sports had made their way onto our TV screens and we even played some of them, I was helping to run an ice hockey club in Oxford which for a fleeting moment actually signed Gary Unger at the end of his career but before he played a game he came to us and asked for his release as Peterborough were going to pay him more. Going back to the Amstrad it had an American Football game called 'Head Coach' which try as I might I've been unable to find any screenshots for the PCW but that whiled away many hours despite being basically dots moving around on the screen. All I seem to remember was that if I ran the 'reverse' play my dot always got pounded behind the line of scrimage but it was my first real introduction to stat based computer games without really knowing much of the rules of the game.



Eventually consoles started to appear and I was finally able to get my hands on sports video games. The Sega Megadrive (called Genesis in America) was my first and my favourite game was the EA hockey series NHLPA Hockey, the best of which was the '93 version which even had blood seeping head injuries not in later versions as EA decided it might not be good for their image lol



My first introduction to baseball had come around this time, just before the 1993 expansion. We had a channel that showed it live a couple of nights a week in the wee small hours and my first video game was MLBPA Sports Talk Baseball.

My favourite batter to play with was either Eric Karros or Eric Davis, can't remember which one, because he always held his bat upright with his hands at his waist rather than over the shoulder as nearly everyone else did ! I always seemed to get more hits with him. I didn't know too much about the intricacies of baseball at that time and it took me ages to hit the ball but I wasn't as clueless as the guy on this video, undoubtedly the funniest video I've seen for a long while



[video=youtube;wEFaE-VshYI]



By now computers were starting to be affordable to the masses and along had come Chamionship Manager 2, the real start of the successful long running Football Manager (FM) series



I bought all of them from CM2 to the current day FM14 and they were great, they were football but they weren't very stat based just as football isn't. The stats don't really matter at the end of the day - it's all about the ball in the net.


My first real breakthrough on a stat based sports sim came when somehow, I can't remember how, I discovered OOTP 6 / 6.5

I still didn't really know what I was doing as I experimented with a few online leagues but soon dropped out as finances, options, waivers and other things were a complete mystery to me. Gradually I learnt myself what things did and meant and by 2008 I was ready to take the step back into the online world. I flitted through many leagues, not finding what I was looking for. Participation was still limited in those days, forums were very impersonal and I was conscious of being quite a bit older than your average American online player. Eventually I came across the MBBA just re-booting with 1995. No fancy webpage just forums but the commish was good and the GM's were a solid crew. I stuck there and despite a few gaps I am now on my fifth franchise there in (game date) 2015. They required a certain amount of writing, a few paragraphs here & there, which helped in the immersion but at the pace of three 10-day sims a week quite often was to much for me.

In 2010 I took the plunge and applied to get into a league I had always admired, the PEBA. I had always thought that the amount of creative writing was beyond me but with a bit of friendly coaxing from founding commish John Rodriguez I managed to prove I could do it and they became my main league. The forums there are immense and I learnt lots of previously hidden intricacies from the friendly forums which really are a community with over 81,000 posts to date. The slower pace of two 7-day sims a week helped me to produce better writing but even that was a struggle at times with shift work. I got my reward last year in my fifth game year in the PEBA when I won my first ever online OOTP championship



This year, having taken early retirement in late-2012 and struggled with time management initially, I began to look for something different and found it I think in One Day at a time sims. The slow pace is perfect for me to slip some writing in and I find the chat box a wonderful thing. I was never a fan of instant messenger things as my time on the computer was generally limited, snatched in-between work, meals and sleep. A message always popped up as I was rushing off but now I answer to no-one I find the chat box great to dip in & out of.

So that's my life story of sports video games which kinda degenerated into my ootp history lol

I'm not too sure what my first ever manage sim game would have been. I think it would be... Championship manager. I remember vividly playing Championship manager 01/02 - as mentioned, this is a very dangerous game, as you will not want to stop playing it, ever!
 
I don't get too drawn into many games. World of Warcraft, supposedly people die playing this game? I can't play it more then about a week at a time, and now, I don't ever play it. But I can list the games I have been totally addicted to and have stole large portions of my life:
 
NHL 94 (still does in 2014!)
Extreme Warfare Revenge 4.2 (Wrestling Sim)
Championship Manager 01/02
Eastside Hockey Manager 2005
Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 - the single greatest manager sim ever made. I have played this game for too many hours.
Giants Killers - a soccer sim on the old Dreamcast console was really, really good!
Football Manager 2008 - the best FM game there is!
 
My story however isn't 'how I started playing' but it's a story nonetheless!
 
Out of the Park Baseball 8. I'd known about OOTP but never really bothered. I loved VR Baseball 97 on the PSX and I always had MLB games, NFL games, NHL games etc. They were shown on TV here in England so it was interesting to see a different style of sport then what we are used too. However, I always would load up OOTP 8, click around and imagine that, yes its a great game, if you can understand it! I had the Football manager UI layout burnt into my brain and I couldn't get used to OOTP. After some months I finally loaded it up and thought, no, I am going to learn this game once and for all. So I sat and read and clicked and read. I had wikipedia open to learn the baseball ratings and slowly I managed to understand who was who, and what screens did what. From there I've bought ever OOTP (just got 15 today!) and It even motivated me to go and play baseball for my local team 'Oldham North Stars'.

I got my start playing sports sims quite a while later than the rest of the folks in the thread, mostly because I am quite a bit younger then them (I am not quite 19). A diehard sports fan since the Mariners historic 2001 season, my first sports video game was NBA Live '05, but they didn't consume me until MLB 2K7. After playing out the first month of the season and having every one of my regulars with 40 HR, I decided to sim into the future. All I can remember is that I reached the 2070s and the best player in league history was a fellow named Ichiro Pujols.

My real love was baseball statistics and a desire to run a ballclub. I was beyond excited for MLB Front Office Manager, and beyond disappointed when I tried to play the incredibly broken game. After a few months I ventured back out and looked on the internet for a game that could satisfy my desire, and I found two, Baseball Mogul and OOTP. After browsing through screenshots, I decided to give the Baseball Mogul demo a try, I was actually turned off of OOTP because if its prettier graphics, perhaps mistrust from Front Office Manager. Baseball Mogul didn't have the Mariners roster right and I disagreed with the player ratings, so I decided to give OOTP a shot. I fell in love. I bought OOTPX and have purchased every version since, including OOTP 15, which has consumed the last few days of my life.

I also play Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2 which I picked up early last year and PFS, which I have been playing since 2010. I eagerly await BTS.