The Federal League began as an alternative professional league to Major League Baseball. The league ran two seasons (1914 and 1915) before being bought out by the MLB after the 1915 season. This league takes on the premise that the league re-formed several years later and eventually became a viable alternative to the MLB.

1920s and 1930s

The Federal League re-formed in 1925, in he heart of the Roaring 20s, as a 14-team independent professional baseball league that existed mainly east of the Mississippi River. In the early days of the reformation, the league was mainly used as a vehicle to promote gambling and launder the owner's Prohibition revenue. The quality of the play on the field wasn't exactly their number one concern, however the league did feature many quality players who kept fans interested in their local team. The owner's main concern was, as you would expect, profit and how legitimate their business looked. The league struggled for a good portion of its early history, especially during the years of the Great Depression, which sank the league into financial despair and further neglect.

1940s

The hard times continued through much of the Depression and World Ward II, as many ball players spent time moonlighting in other jobs to make ends meet, as well as serving in the military. The owners, on the other hand, were now focused on profiting from the war - and profit they did. The only positive to come out of this era wouldn't be realized until the next decade. The Pacific Ball Players League, a small six-team independent league with a presence west of the Mississippi River, came into existence during this time, starting in 1940 and running up until its merger in 1950.

1950

At the end of the war, the team owners decided to take advantage of the much improved economy, the country's general good spirit, and the renewed interest in professional baseball. The owners partnered with other businesses and invested a large portion of the money they earned through the country's war effort to revitalize the league. The result was a complete overhaul in 1950, which involved a player re-draft, print and radio advertising campaigns to improve the league image, and a massive investment in stadiums, uniforms, and radio coverage. The league also increased its market size by merging with the Pacific Ball Players League, which would become the West Division of the newly renamed Federal Baseball League. This merger would expand the league to 20 teams and the league market from coast to coast. The league also struck a deal with the long running Cuban Professional League to showcase Cuban talent in the United States.

The ultimate goal for the owners was to turn the league into a legitimate and compelling alternative to the Major League Baseball. Will they succeed?

League Setup

• The league is fictional in nature, starting in 1925. Human owners took over teams in 1950 with a complete re-draft.
• This is a talent-only league. Player ratings will not be shown.
• Number of teams: 20 total, 1 league, 3 divisions (7/7/6 per)
• Each season is 154 games, with a balanced schedule.
• Sims: See schedule; 7 days per sim. Sims will take place on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
• The league uses 1950s era baseball and financial settings. No DH.
• League Structure: One major league with 20 teams, each having 3 minor league teams.
• Feeder Leagues: High School and College
• International league: Cuban Professional League, 6 teams
• Scouts/Coaches OFF
• Player personality OFF
• Player morale ON
• Foreign Player Percentage: Off to start, gradually increasing through history.
• Misc Settings: Low injuries, Reduced talent development randomness
• The league utilizes Sepia/BW Player player pictures.
• Initial Fan Loyalty (0 - 10): 6
• Initial Fan Interest (1 - 100): 60
• Team Market Size: Average

Financial Settings

• Avg Attendance: 15,516
• Tickets: $0.75
• Avg Media Contract: $150k (same for all teams)
• $250k cash max
• Minimum $7500
• Super Star $280k, Star $205k, Good $150k, Above Avg $100k, Average $50k, Below Avg $22k, Fair $13k, Poor $8500
• Owner control over budget?: No

Ownership

Owners must:

• Own OOTP2007/OOTP8
• Play fairly - respect other owners and no cheating. Any suspicion of cheating (collusion, owning multiple teams, etc.) or extreme disrespect of other owners will be looked at by the League Office and may result in loss of ownership.
• Participate in the league. Guidelines:
  • Submit exports, participate in the forums, and/or communicate extended time off to the Commish. Failing to export, log on to the forum, or email the commish over the course of a month''s time will result in loss of ownership without notice.
  • Voting in All-Star, HOF, year-end awards, and league polls is highly encouraged. Failure to do so may shorten the length of time in guideline #1.
  • Make your own draft picks, submit a pick list, or provide instructions (pick guidelines or instruct a CPU pick) - just defaulting to a CPU pick through no communication is highly discouraged and frowned upon by all! Failure to somehow make your own pick (through the acceptable methods mentioned above) may shorten the length of time in guideline #1.
  • Make an effort to improve your team through trading and/or off-season free agency

Face of the Franchise

In order to promote the integrity and professionalism of the league, each team will name a Face of the Franchise, essentially a franchise player, who will act as a league ambassador in the team's community. As the Face of the Franchise, the player will get a lifetime contract equal to the average of the top 10 salaries in the league at the time of designation. This contract remains in effect until retirement, trade, or release.

Face of the Franchise players will be designated with the nickname "Franchise" and be given 'Extremely Popular' local popularity and 'Very Popular' national popularity.

Trading a Face of the Franchise

If a team trades its franchise player, the team will lose 10 fan interest and 1 fan loyalty points in addition to any changes applied by the game engine. If a team trades a franchise player for another team's franchise player, no additional damage will be applied to either team beyond the game engine. Each player will also retain their Face of the Franchise status.

Any team acquiring a former Face of the Franchise will be given an opportunity to replace their current Face of the Franchise with the new player at the time of the trade. If the switch does occur, the contract of the team's former Face of the Franchise will be reduced to one that expires at the end of the season. The same principle applies to the newly acquired player, if that player is not named the new Face of the Franchise. Teams will have an opportunity to negotiate a contract extension with any player that loses the franchise designation due to trade.

Teams trading their Face of the Franchise (and not acquiring one back) will have 3 in-season sims or until the start of following season, if in the off-season, to name their new Face of the Franchise.

Releasing or Waiving a Face of the Franchise

Any time a Face of the Franchise player is released or put on waivers and claimed by another team prior to announcing retirement, the team releasing the player will be penalized 10 fan interest and 1 fan loyalty points in addition to any change applied by the game engine. Teams are also responsible for 100% of the remaining lifetime contract of any Face of the Franchise player released, up until the age of 38. (For example, if you release a player at age 36, you will be responsible for 2 additional years to fulfill the lifetime contract.) If placed on waivers and claimed, the new team is given an opportunity to switch Face of the Franchise players. The process will work the same as with trades detailed above.

Releasing or waiving Face of the Franchise players MUST be done in the league forum and announced by press release due to the significance of the matter.

Face of the Franchise Retirement

When a designated player retires, the team is no long responsible for the lifetime contract and will need to select a new Face of the Franchise by the start of the season following the retirement announcement.

Removing the Face of the Franchise Designation

Teams may remove the designation from a player, without using any of the measures outlined above, but will be penalized 20 fan interest points and 1 fan loyalty points.

Stadiums

Team stadiums will be selected before the pre-sim period begins (1920). All stadium factors will need to average out to 100 for the entire league to start, however stadium improvements can be purchased in future seasons. All stadiums will start with 24,000 seats.

Improvements

All improvements must be purchased during the off-season:

• Change park factors by +/- 10 points in two categories (Avg vL, Avg vR, 2b, 3b, HR vL, or HR vR). Cost = $200,000
• Additional improvements may be added in the future, as the league progresses

Rosters and Transactions

General Roster Rules

• There must be at least 23 players at the ML level during the regular season (extra room to account for DL, roster moves, etc.). Having a full 25-man roster is encouraged for fair competition. Anything less than 23 players will be addressed by the Commish at his discretion.
• There is a 50-player maximum at any minor league level.
• 40 man roster expansion on September 1st of each season
• Any team that fails to get it's roster down to 25 players for the playoffs or the start of the regular season will have players sent to the minors at the discretion of the Commish.
• Waiver period will be set to sim length + 1 day
• Designated for Assignment (DFA) length will be set to sim length x 2
• Players left in DFA for longer than this period will be handled by the CPU, meaning there will be an attempt to place the player on your roster where appropriate (based on contract type, number of option years left, 40-man roster room, etc.) but if that can''t happen the CPU will release your player. (This is a feature of the in-game Commish portal.>

Trades

• Trade deadline is July 31st of each season
• Cash can be included in trades
• You may trade your team's amateur draft picks for the upcoming draft only (no future drafts or trading acquired draft picks)
• Trades protested by 5 owners will go to the League Office for review (a majority vote will decide)
• Trading opens immediately after the Federal Baseball League Championship Series
• All trades must be posted and confirmed on the league message board. Trades will be processed:
  • Trades posted with roster instructions by both teams get processed before the sim.
  • Trades posted without roster instructions by both teams get processed after the sim.
• Please keep your financial situation in mind when making all deals

Signing Free Agents (In-season)

• All in-season free agent signings will be done in-game through team exports. Free agent signings are not instant like previous versions of the game, so the player will consider your offer and make a decision at a later date.
• Since players decide where they will play, there is no limit to how many FA offers you may make or FA signings per sim.

Waivers & Releasing Players

• Waiver claims and releasing players will be handled in-game through roster exports.
• If you release a player, you will be stuck with what ever is left on his contract. If releasing, the player does not have to pass through waivers first.
• If a player is claimed off waivers, the claiming team is responsible for the player's contract.
• If the player goes unclaimed, the team will have the remaining DFA period to re-assign the player or release them outright.
• Irrevocable Waivers are used to get a player off your 25-man roster (if the player refuses assignment)
• Revocable Waivers are used to remove a player from your 40-man roster. When putting a player on revocable waivers, the game will ask you if you''d like to pull back the player from waivers if they are claimed by another team. If Yes is selected, the team''s waiver claim will be denied.

Re-signing own players during season (extensions)

• All player extensions will be done in-game through team exports.
• There are no limits to length or timing of extensions.

Off-Season Free Agency

• Bidding on off-season FAs will be much like in-season free agent bidding. Contract offers are submitted via team export and players will consider offers on their own schedule.
• Free Agency will take place in the month proceeding Spring Training. See the sim schedule for more details.

Ammy Draft

A 10 round Ammy Draft (5 rounds by GM; 5 by AI) will take place each year near the beginning of Spring Training (March 1st). The player pool will be released to the league 75 days before the draft. Teams will be allowed to trade their own draft picks during the draft only. No trading of acquired draft picks will be allowed at this time. (Due to game limitations.)

The first round of the Ammy Draft will be determined through a randomized lottery system. Each team is assigned a relative chance of getting the first pick. Then teams are assigned randomly from there. Each team is ranked by record 1 to 20 (best to worst) and then your ranking is multiplied by a factor of 3.5. So the worst team has 20^3.5=35,777 chances at the first pick, the second worst teams has 19^2=29,898 chances at the first pick, on down to the best team, which has 1^3.5=1 chance at the first pick. A randomized lottery is then done to assign all the picks of the first round.

The remaining rounds will be ordered by record, from worst to best.

Hall of Fame

Additional details will be released after the initial 25 year sim.

• A player shall become eligible to be nominated for election upon official retirement as stated in the League News at the start of each new season. Players may be nominated by any member of the JOBL.
• Owners will vote by poll on the Federal Baseball League forums. If someone feels that an eligible player who is not on the ballot deserves a vote, write-in votes are welcome.
• Any player who receives 75% of the votes cast in any year will be elected.
• Any player who is not elected in their first year must receive 1 vote to stay on the official ballot. Each subsequent year, an additional vote is required to stay on the ballot (1st year-1 vote, 2nd year-2 votes, 3rd year-3 votes, etc). Players who have fallen off the ballot due to lack of supporting votes may still receive write-in votes until they''ve reached the maximum number of years post initial eligibility.
• Players are eligible for election for 10 seasons post retirement.

Seasonal Awards

Additional details will be released after the initial 25 year sim. All awards will be selected by the league ownership at the end of the season.

All-Star Game

All All-Star players will be selected by the league ownership and recorded in-game on July 1st of each season.

Relocation

No franchise can be relocated more than once every ten seasons.

Required to relocate:

• Press Release / Announcement
• New Logo
• Fee: $20 million ($250,000 moving fee, $750,000 for the stadium), payable over 4 seasons.
• Select park factors for new stadium