CCLXXXVII wrote:

Out of curiosity, will you still be enlisting Balu for help for this series?

 
Yeah, Balu will still be helping me simulate and come up with ideas for this project.

Hi guys, I’m here with the 1889 season!
Shortly before the season started, Philadelphia unveiled their new uniforms.

Now for the baseball! In the 1889 NEBL we saw some changes in the standings. Now, Manchester still finished 1st for the second straight season, and Worcester finished 2nd for what seems like the millionth time. But we saw the fall of Boston, who finished just above .500 with just 54 wins. Who rose in the power vacuum toward the top of the standings? Providence. No, their record doesn’t show it to its full extent. In the second half of the season Providence was 39 and 11, rising from what was going to be possibly the worst season in franchise history, to probably the second most powerful team in the league behind Worcester. Manchester whilst still finishing first, looked vulnerable. Their core of Files, Williams, and RF Andy Dunn couldn’t finish in the clutch and just slipped out of handfuls of games. It’ll be interesting to see them play a Valentines team, who’ve been as good as ever. Lead by Brady, Harris and Thomas, and under their coach; Bob Schmitt and his ideas of players resting and exercising good health for his players, which has been more revolutionary for the time. Speaking of revolutionary, the Philadelphia Revolutionaries in their first season in Philadelphia Park, played pretty well, young pieces improved and the future for Philly looks good. However, it doesn’t look so bright for New York, or Brooklyn, who’ve shown no interest in improving. Hartford on the other hand have been slowly collecting pieces, and while it hasn't shown this season. They’ve have some diamonds hidden away, including rookie P Justin Flam, who has shown to be quite the ace on the mound. Flam, with RF Ben Fritz show a exciting future for a Colts team which has been a big disappointment so far.

While this was going down in the NEBL, some big stuff was going down in the USBL, standings wise, we saw Dayton emerge from nowhere and clinch the 1 seed over both the Stallions and AC. marking this the first time Hamilton wasn’t in the championship. Continuing down the line we saw a talented Generals team finish below .500 again, and St. Louis and Evansville fail to improve their records, or in the Crusaders case only improve by 1 win. But baseball wasn’t the focus this year, we had two big events happen in the middle of the season, starting with Covington. The Generals who had another year of disappointment on the field, also got disappointment and heartbreak off the field. When on June 2nd, 1889, Generals Park was set ablaze by an unnamed arsonist. The team who were on a road trip to St. Louis at the time, postponed the series to decide where they would come home to play. All the players hoped to stay in Covington but with Riverside Park open across the river, and the Owner’s desire to play in his hometown, the Generals decided to occupy former home to the Rivermen, giving Cincinnati a new team to cheer for. It’s currently unknown whether the Generals plan on staying in Cincy or moving back to KY. The other big event in the season was the ongoing racial tension in the league, after last off season's scuttle with St. Louis, we heard news that Evansville coach expressed disgust with the rising amount of players of color, so much though, that he addressed the commissioner of the league, proposing to ban people of African and Hispanic descent. Commissioner Armstrong allowed the Railers' coach to ban such players from his team but refused to put any league wide rule in place. It’s unknown what he plans on doing for the future.

 Moving back to baseball, I got my championship predictions!
In the NEBL, i see Worcester sweeping Manchester. The Millers didn’t deserve the top seed, I see the Hearts winning their second straight in only 4 games. They’ll be close yes, but Worcester will win them all. I’ll be excited to see Providence make the next step and give them a better series next year.
Over in the USBL, it’ll be close, but I think Louisville will win. Dayton truly came out of nowhere with no real star. They’re the embodiment of chemistry and team will. It won’t be enough though, sadly. With a midseason trade for RF Cory Beebe from Covington, the Stallions are stacked. I expect Schlagel to have a better series than last year, and Brock and emerging star Hagar to also play well. Louisville also sweeps. 
C&C Appreciated and comments would be lovely, championships should be up soon. 

That is really convenient how the Covington owner wants to move to Cincinnati and then his park burns down. Real convenient.

Last edited by Red Comet (5/21/2019 8:04 pm)

Red Comet wrote:

That is really convenient how the Covington owner wants to move to Cincinnati and then his park burns down. Real convenient.

...I’m glad someone got the memo, nobody did on the boards

Let's go Eagles! Despite them being in a small market hopefully they can survive decently long.