Glad to see Mendez near the top, not so happy to see Pamoja winning. Very pumped for the expansion teams, maybe someone can repeat the Amazing Emperors and win it all in their first year.

RoughRiders9 wrote:

QCS wrote:

Glad to see Mendez near the top, not so happy to see Pamoja winning. Very pumped for the expansion teams, maybe someone can repeat the Amazing Emperors and win it all in their first year.

I'm hoping that's the case too! Last couple times I added expansion teams they always had the usual "new team struggles out of gate" thing. 

And I'm mad at the Saturn Halos for not doing well, haha. They're one of my favorite teams (design wise) and they have nothing to show for it!

It's only been 30-ish years, that's hardly anything in the "we suck between championships" timeline.

Looking forward to more teams!

2560 Expansion
 
After 16 years of a 20-team league, the SLB were once again ready to expand with the population growth in the solar system and continually reduced travel times with improved technology and new Wave Gates. Enter the next era of the Big Bang Expansion, as they added FOUR more teams to the league!
 
The SLB have finally achieved their dream of adding teams to all major celestial bodies of the solar system by placing a team on the classically “ninth” planet, Pluto.
 
The other three teams were focused within the inner solar system (not the Inner Divisions).
 
Mercury finally gained their “interleague” partner team on the Horus Space Station (the largest space station that orbits the Sun itself).
 
The other two were added to the Lagrange Islands, Harmony One and Nolan Station.
 
Harmony One is the capitol city for the Space United Nations (SUN). Nolan Station is a major spaceport for service and refueling station heading to the outer planets.
 
The two Lagrange Islands teams were added to the Outer Division, despite being in the foothold of the Inner Division between Earth and Luna, due to their major spaceport sizes and the ease of traveling into the outer planets region. Plus, the SLB preferred not to break up the Original Six teams at all if possible, with the Ceres Belters moving from the Outer Division to the Inner Division.
 
The four expansion teams, ordered outwards, were added to the league in 2560:

• Horus Pharaohs
• Harmony One’s
• Nolan Engineers
• Pluto Demons

 
 
Horus Pharaohs
 



Origins – When Horus Island, the first permanent space station orbiting the sun, opened several years ago, people knew that they wanted to go with an Arabic and or Egyptian theme. So after a brief fan poll, the citizens of Horus voted on the Pharaohs after the god of the sky in Egyptian legends. 
 
Colors – The Horusians knew they wanted to avoid black and yellow due to the Mercury Mets, the nearest SLB team and their inevitable natural rivals, the Pharaohs decided to go with orange and brown with a hint of gold in their scheme. The orange was for the bright sun and the heat that can be found in the Mideast. The brown was for the dirt, sand, and rocks that were used to build the pyramids. The gold represented the nobility of the ancient pharaohs on Earth.
 
Stadium – Due to its proximity and being on a space station, Horus Stadium had “dusk” or “twilight” games at almost all times. Horus Island had a special device that allowed the players and fans view the looming star in its full colors, but at a brightness that didn’t damage their eyes. 
 
 
Harmony One’s
 


Origins – Playing on a Lagrange Island named Harmony One, it was almost a no-brainer that the team would be called the 1’s. As the capital city of the Space United Nations (SUN), Harmony One got all kinds of travelers from all corners of the solar system and they all worked together as ONE to create the best possible life for every SUN citizen.
 
Colors – They kept things simple, as the Harmony 1’s took inspiration from the official SUN Flag to use yellow and blue as their team colors. The “1’s” was enclosed inside a circle to represent the harmony of life and the togetherness that Harmony One provided. Plus, a circle had one “side!” Inside the H of “HARMONY” on their jersey, H and 1 were fused together to create a monogram.
 
Stadium – Being one of the richest locations in the solar system, Harmony Park was possibly has the most modern and sleek felt in the SLB. The size of the stadium itself was quite cozy, as it was built on a simple city block. Nestled right in the heart of downtown, Harmony One’s bustling skyline was right in the stadium’s face as their defining feature. The park was immediately awarded the best city views ahead of the LunarDome and Kennedy Field.
 
RR9’s Note – For reference, the Lagrange Island location itself is known as Harmony One, while the baseball team name itself is Harmony 1’s. Like how it’s the 49ers, not the Forty-Niners.
 
 
Nolan Engineers

 

Origins – Due to Nolan Station’s roots in creating the Wave Gates, the “airports” of the SUN, and serving as a major fueling and service station for starships in the SUN, they had a strong engineering community on the one of the five Lagrange Islands. Therefore, the team was called the Engineers.
 
Colors – During the name-the-team process for the Nolan team, there were several favorites that emerged early; Engineers, Monkeys (as in grease monkeys), and Pilots. So the team decided to combine all three of them! A monkey with an aviator hat and glasses called the Engineers! The team also was the only team with gray as a primary color. And they became the first SLB team to be allowed to wear their road grays at HOME too, as an “alternate” jersey. Their shade of gray was also a little darker than the normal shade that the other SLB teams usually wear. 
 
Stadium – Given all of the climate control technology that the SUN has, there basically was no reason to have a fully “indoor” stadium. Many teams had an “outdoor” stadium with certain restrictions on weather, such as scheduling rainstorms around games and whatnot. There also were clear day games and night games with sunsets and so on.
 
The Engineers decided to go against the norm and build a fully indoor stadium! Built to look like a starship hangar, there was a lot of steel and industrial look all around the stadium. The stadium was still “open-air” beyond the outfield, with a window-like view of sweeping sights of outer space, busy starship lanes, and the blue marble in the sky, Earth, looming over the outfield wall. The stadium was dubbed the Nolan Baseball Bay.
 
 
Pluto Demons
 


Origins – The technology in the SUN has finally progressed enough to the point where travel times and accommodations to Pluto, the farthest planet in the solar system, had finally become acceptable for Solar League Baseball. While they still have the longest travel times (think if Hawaii or even Guam had an MLB team while all others are on the mainland), the smallest planet in the solar was more than ready to host their own Solar League team. Pluto was named after the Roman god of the underworld, and therefore they were dubbed the Pluto Demons.
 
Colors – As the team from the underworld, the team decided to go with a dark navy blue as their primary color to represent the aggressive and darkness of the Demons. The Demons did not want to emulate the other “fire-like” team of the Io Vulcans, so instead of an orange or red “fire” accent colors, the team decided to go with hot pink to set themselves as the “pink” team of the Solar League, even though it was just an accent color. The cap logo is a monogram of P and D with the devil’s tail on it.
 
RR9’s Note – I want to give credit where it’s due. My local minor league team, the Iowa Cubs, renamed themselves as the Demonios de Des Moines as part of Minor League Baseball's "Copa de la Diversión" or "Fun Cup" initiative created to celebrate local Hispanic and Latino culture and heritage. When the team released the logo, I immediately fell in love with it and knew I wanted to borrow it of for my league someday. Even though the actual team had a little more “red” in their logo I decided to make it pinker to make the team more unique. So… just wanted to give everybody a heads up! Some more pics of their sets here, here, and here. 
 
Stadium – Pluto had one of the smaller population sizes in the SUN, so they kept their stadium on the cozy side, seating just 20,000 fans compared to the average 32,000 seats for the other SLB teams. The stadium is outdoors in Pluto’s capital city, Brass Knuckles, with a view of the Brass Knuckles mountain range. Instead of fireworks going off after each home run, the stadium will shoot up a burst of pink flames to honor the underworlds of Roman mythology.
 
 
What's up next? 
The next era with 24 teams! Hopefully I'll have a post up this weekend. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Looking great, as always. Big fan of Harmony's color scheme, powder blue and yellow just work well together. Love the Demons, the Hounds brand never worked quite as well on the old thread. Of course, the team that was somewhat my own creation, the Pharaohs, look spectacular. Amazing work, can't wait to see how the teams do!

Hello guys! Right now I'm simming to the 2570's and I'll be posting the results when I'm done. 

But I thought I'd ask if there are any requests that you may want to see? I'm simming this whole thing in OOTP, so the stats can be pretty thorough. What would you like to see? All time home run leaders? Season records? Hall of famers? Etc? 

Just let me know what you'd like to see, and I'll see if I can pull them up!