Please, not so many comments at once! Well, maybe this offseason will get you guys interested:

1973 RIBF Offseason:

Player Movement:
It was a busy offseason, many trades were completed and even a few FA signings. Here's the rundown:

Crescent City was a major trader this year, shipping off prospects for prospects in deals with San Juan and Shinsakai.

Queenston also swapped prospects with Shinosaka.

San Juan made a major trade with the Steamers, shipping off three prospecs for Norihito Yamada, a star catcher who's made the all-star game three times and is a leading batter. The 31-year old will try to help a Shockers team that's struggling to win in the postseason.

Finally in the trades department, Toramoto and Sol swapped a couple prospects and role players.

The free agent market was a little weirder this year.

The Kings extended pitcher Tony Reyes, who won championships with the team in 1969 and 1970.

The Steamers grabbed pitcher Angel Miranda off waivers, snatching the veteran from Toramoto.

Vertlac made a couple of small signings as well.

And now it's time for the tale of Kung-zheng Yun, the Taiwanese pitcher. Does you remember when Joestar traded for an Aorin player only to release him two weeks later? That pretty much happened again. The Crusaders signed him to a one-year deal after he spent a bit with their minor-league team, the Morioh Crusaders. 10 days later, he found himself released and searching for a new job. Fortunately, the Senators decided to pick him up (for a higher price, too). One truly has to wonder what's going on in the Joestar front office.

Retirements:
You better believe there were some retirements! We'll go in alphabetical order of teams.

In Aorin, it was truly the end of an era. 42-year-old 1B Tashiaki Yanagi called it a career. He was part of the incredible Carp team that just lost out to the Senators and many across the country are upset he never got a chance to participate in the playoffs. After exactly 13 years of service, the Carp legend is done with baseball.

In Crescent City, Johnny Bozer has retired. Known mostly for his work in bringing the Stars 4 straight championships, Bozer was taken by the Ducks in the expansion draft. He played two seasons there before hanging it up.

Monarchs player Jonathan Obregon ended his career after 11 years in Queenston. He helped the Monarchs win their only championship as well as return to the RICS the next year. It's possible to see his #19 up in the stands soon enough.

In addition, Monarchs player Yasutoki Kawamura has also retired. He was named RBL pitcher of the year three years in a row and was a consistent all-star in the 1960s.

In an announcement ceremony that brought tears to the eyes of many, Robins legend Nozomu Nishizawa has called it quits. The pitcher also won three RBL pitcher of the year awards as well as three RICS victories with Shinkyo during his time. Nishizawa is extremely popular in the city and it's very likely we'll see him in the Hall of Fame someday.

Chad Lipscomb retired. He wasn't a good player, but his name alone is legendary,

Grizzlies player Braxton Keller hung up his cleats. Having played for Yosemite his entire career, he was an essential part in getting the time on-track for their RICS runs in 1971 and 1972.

Coaching Carousel:
Vertlac fired skipper Katsuhido Koga after a disappointing finish to the season left them on the outside looking in once again. Shouta Nagao was named the replacement immediately.

Ok, with all that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff!

Identity Changes:

Enter The Manufacturers:

With the Aorin Carp looking to cut team costs, they looked to outsource jersey production. They contacted Aorin-based sportswear brand Faultline to see if they would handle production in exchange for advertising rights. They accepted, and the Carp began work on a new set. In Sol, Orions (and Faultline rival Ace) owner Koji Hatoyama wanted to allow his company to outfit his team, and the league relented. In addition, the Grizzlies reached out to him to see if they could get a manufacturer as well. And so, the era of the manufactured jersey begins.



(Logos for Faultline and Ace, respectively.)

We'll start with the smallest change and work our way to the biggest:

Sol Orions:




Ace simply cleaned up their old design, adding a red stroke around the logo to help the light gray stand out more. The jerseys now use an outlined stripe design, in addition to a tightened number font.

Yosemite Grizzlies:




Yosemite made a pretty large change, darkening their brown for better contrast with orange. The jerseys also feature a new wordmark and a larger emphasis on orange. The bear paw logo finds its way to the jerseys as a shoulder patch.

Aorin Carp:




The Carp have gone back to blue! The only team outfitted by Faultline, they use a brand-new design that torches the orange-focused "carp pattern" the team used for the past two seasons. The logo stays, but the only similarity is the wordmark and belt, which remain mostly the same. A neat two-tone sleeve application keeps the Carp looking fresh while not flying against all sense. The "A" primary logo is also found on the sleeves.

So there it is! The Carp go back to blue, the Orions make slight tweaks, and the Grizzlies darken brown. Any comments or criticism for me? I'm excited to be back simulating this series and I thank everyone for their patience.

(Editor's Note: Yeah, I switched templates! I'm now using raysox's amazing template, which has different features than my old one. So, on came the manufacturers! I haven't quite decided how the manufacturers will differ, but rest assured things might get weird.)

First off, congrats to the Thunderbirds!  

So let's see here.... Joestar makes another head scratching move by cutting someone days after signing them!?  Eh, whatever.  While for some teams, making stupid decisions is so embarrassing that the fans recall the moment forever in infamy, for Joestar fans, it's just another Tuesday.  In seriousness though, they seem so incompetently run that it's just funny at this point.

 Definitely a fan of the new manufacturers and yes, the template definitely seems to be a step up in quality, (assuming that is the case and not just that all 3 teams you showed happened to have improved their designs by a lot, though that is the case too!).  In particular, including the Ace in the inside neck of the jerseys is a really nice little detail!

Sol Orions: The uniforms definitely feel a bit more fleshed out and more detailed, which is excellent as this was already one of the best looking teams in the league.   Regarding the numbers, I do like that they are a bit smaller than they used to be, what I don't like is the crammed nature of them.  I'm not sure if it's because of the number 71 being used, but they look a bit like a attempt to merge those 2 digits into a new number altogether.  To be fair, different numbers might look better together, but 7 and 1 look like they got too excited with the super glue.  Otherwise, this is a great uniform!

Yosemite Grizzlies: This is quite good!  I already thought they had the basis of a great design to begin with, but evening out the Grizzlies wordmark on the home jersey (instead of curving it) to match the Yosemite wordmark was a great call.  But yeah, darkening the brown and pushing for more orange on the words and numbers to also match the 2 jerseys was a huge win.  Finally, the shoulder paws are nice and I'm glad you added them!

Aorin Carp: Needless to say, going back to blue as the primary and eliminating the "carp" pattern of the back makes Aorin look great again!  Question, (only because my computer screen is smaller), but does the A on the hats still have the orange outline?  I couldn't see it, (to be fair that outline is normally thin anyway).  I do feel a little more orange on the hat would help the color balancing be at a perfect ratio, but this was a major upgrade in aesthetics!

Overall, great job here, again loving the new template!

 

WAY TO GO HOKKYO!!!!

RoughRiders9 wrote:

Late to the party! Here are some of my thoughts:
 
1972 Playoff Bracket – I LOVE the graphic you used for the bracket. I love how you used the team color for the bracket lines leading to the next round. Very creative. Bummer about the Grizzlies tho.
 
The Orions are looking great. They’re entering that phase where they have that very retro, sci-fi look.
 
I absolutely adore the brown-orange color scheme for the Grizzlies! I need to play that up a little bit in my Solar League 
 
HELLO THERE AORIN! The blue looks fantastic. I always love it when teams don’t use the regular royal, navy, and powder/baby blue. The Carp has a blue that they can “own.”
 
Keep it up! I know we both have very streaky "posting" schedules but it's all good haha. 

Thank you! I'd love to see your take on a brown and orange team. I'm very glad the new Aorin look is going over well, they're a team I keep experimenting with and I'm not sure where they'll end up. I'm hoping both you and I can start posting more consistently, but trust me when I say that I understand that life gets the way.

Anyway, here's the 1973 season!


RBL North:
For the third year in a row, the Grizzlies have captured the RBL North title. Their success comes from their excellent pitching and defense, the best in the RBL. Behind them were the Emeralds, who continue to just miss out on the postseason. They led the division most of the year, but fell apart at the worst time to cede the title to Yosemite. Except big changes if this doesn't get solved soon. The Robins are trending up, but weren't really in contention this year. The Orions got significantly worse, not something you want to see as a third-year team.

RBL South:
It was anyone's division until mid-July, when the Kings pulled away once again to take back the division. However, they look significantly weaker than they have been in the past. San Juan just can't seem to stay competitive, despite a talented team. Queenston was only a game behind the Shockers, bouncing back a bit after last year. The Monarchs have some prospects with real potential in the pipeline, they could be contenders in the near future. Finally, Crescent City continued to struggle, finishing 22 games out of first and nowhere close to success.

SBL North:
Hokkyo was dethroned this year by Toramoto, not giving them a chance to defend their crown in the playoffs. The Tigers look weak on paper but boast Jim Ulrich, the slugger who led the league in home runs (37) and RBIs (104) all while putting together a .330 average. Toramoto's weakness is their pitching, but they could make a deep run this year. The T-Birds just couldn't do well enough in the regular season, missing the chance for a three-peat. Joestar was very close to the other two as well, but just couldn't match Hokkyo's defense or Toramoto's batting. Hayakawa was the division's doormat, hovering around .380 for most of the season.

SBL South:
Shinosaka is once again on top, courtesy of all-around solid playing. Only three games behind them was Aorin, still unable to make it to the postseason. The Carp have gotten close several times but have just missed it every time they get close. The Senators forgot to show up this year and so did the Steamers, both teams just not performing this year.

Playoff Preview:
Yosemite seems to have this one, easily winning the season series against the Kings 12-6. Their team is also better overall, but it's still possible for the Kings to take this one. Meanwhile, the Stars will play the Tigers for a chance to return to the RICS after being robbed two years in a row by Hokkyo. Toramoto isn't a particularly strong team, but it's entirely possible for the Stars to choke once again.

NEXT: 1973 Playoffs

Steelman wrote:

Just wanted to weigh in on the Carp and how good they're looking these days. Nice work on the update! The new template is nice as well. I like that you've used it to introduce uniform brands.

I like Orion but the numbers still really bother me. I feel like there's a cleaner retro route to go with them on the numbers though I appreciate their overall brand.

Yosemite looks awesome. You know I'm a sucker for cream in a color palette. I'm not typically a fan of janky Tuscan-style numbers and lettering but it fits perfectly with their brand. The updated brown is great as well. Much more cohesive scheme.

Maybe someday Aorin will make something of themselves.

Thanks! I'll be honest and say that's entirely your fault that I like cream so much, Torland just looks too good with it. As for the Orions, I agree, I'm having a hard time finding exactly what I want them to look like. I'm really hoping that the Carp will do something someday (they're one of my favorite teams, even though I'm not supposed to have favorites) but they always manage to be on the edge. Eventually they'll do something, I hope.

Anyway, here's the 1973 playoffs!

1973 RIBF Playoffs:

RBL Championship Series:
San Moriuchi got their rematch against the Grizzlies, but just couldn't do anything as Yosemite was simply the better team. The Grizzlies' victories weren't particularly close either, with an 11-1 walloping in Game 4 and a 12-6 victory to close the series out. For whatever reason, Yosemite seems to have figured out the Kings.

SBL Championship Series:
Speaking of not close series, the Stars finally advanced past the first round and swept the Tigers. They scored at least 5 runs in every game while Toramoto's offense simply couldn't get anything going. Without Hokkyo to stand in their way, Shinosaka can finally take another shot at the RICS.

1973 RICS:

For the third straight year, the Grizzlies come up just short of the grand prize.

Game 1 - SNO 2. YOS 0 - In a pitcher's duel, the Grizzlies were simply outplayed as the Stars take game 1. SNO 1-0

Game 2 - SNO 11, YOS 1 - What goes around, comes around, as just as the Grizzlies had done to the Kings happened to them. An 11-1 shellacking by Shinosaka to take a commanding 2-0 series lead as the series heads to Yosemite. SNO 2-0

Game 3 - SNO 2, YOS 1 - In a closely contested game, the Stars simply had the upper hand as they scored a run in the 10th inning to threaten the sweep. SNO 3-0

Game 4 - YOS 15, SNO 3 - Despite scoring only 2 runs over the last three games, the Grizzlies' offense roared to life, forcing Shinosaka to go through about half of their lineup with substitutions. As if the game couldn't get any worse, Shinosaka's young superstar Javy Robles was injured running the bases, making him day-to-day and possibly out for the rest of the series. SNO 3-1

Game 5 - SNO 8, YOS 4 - Clearly whatever momentum the Grizzlies had from the previous night didn't carry over as Shinosaka closed out the series. The Grizzlies simply couldn't keep up with the offensive power of the Stars and it showed. SNO 4-1

This makes Shinosaka's 7th championship, by far the most in the league (the Robins are second with 4) and it comes from their 9th appearance in the RICS. Yosemite, on the other hand, has lost three straight. Stars 1B Alex Hernandez was named RICS MVP after a great performance of 8 hits, 2 home runs, and 5 RBIs across the 5 games. This is actually his second RICS MVP award, winning it in 1968 as well.

YOUR 1973 RICS CHAMPIONS ARE: THE SHINOSAKA STARS!

NEXT: 1974 Offseason + Identity Tweaks