1974 Continental Major League Baseball Card Set

Here's the first installment of what we plan to be a series of vintage season card sets for the PLAAY Games fictional baseball universe--the 1974 Continental League!

The thought process of a fictional baseball time line-sprung from a conversation we had in 2022 with PLAAY gamer Larry Merithew about a possible Baseball America Hall of Fame, which Larry suggested might be a part of the league's 10th anniversary season. That conversation expanded to encompass all three fictional baseball entities in the PLAAY universe: the 1940s Century League (which was released when the game came out in 2013, been around over ten years now, has never been updated), Baseball America (also inaugurated in 2013, with yearly updates), and our one-off pseudo-fictional 1961 Continental League, which features REAL players who would have been available to populate rosters of a 1961 Continental League, IF the league HAD played.

The thought germinated, what if we could weave all THREE of these leagues into a single fictional baseball story line? In May, we created a timeline for this, in which the Century League forms in 1946, the Continental League launches in 1961 and operates side-by-side with the Century League (coexisting with the real-life American and National leagues), and the two leagues merge in 1974. This card set represents the first season of the merged leagues, under the Continental League banner. It includes twelve clubs (seven from the original Continental League and five from the Century League). The league re-brands as Baseball America in 2013.

There are lots of reasons to love the idea of building out a vintage/classic fictional history. One of them is the flexibility it allows gamers. You can set up your project however it works best for you. Vintage fictional baseball also has a broad appeal to sports game hobbyists-it's uniquely "old" and "new" at the same time. While the story is set fifty years ago, nobody's actually experienced the 1974 Continental League season to know how it's supposed to turn out! That's for YOU, the gamer, to determine on your own game table! It's like discovering a secret door into a time machine that transports you back to the '70s to an undiscovered world of professional baseball. I feel like there's strong appeal in this approach.

To us, the key thing to all this working properly is the presence of authenticity. In other words, we want the 1974 Continental League to "feel" like 1970s big league baseball. The goal is for the game and cards to generate a sense of going back in time to a specific era of baseball. To accomplish this, we've considered a number of things...

• The Look of the cards. We've designed the cards to look like they came from the 1970s. The fonts and colors reflect the presentation of baseball cards and games of that era.

• Statistical similarities. The '74 Continental League will generate numbers within tolerance of real-life 1970s big league baseball.

• Plausible, interesting, realistic player career progression. We want to be able to encompass the universe of career possibilities, and it's a big universe. Many players are going to have a career ascent and descent that's going to be fairly steady, but could span a relatively few or many years. Then there are the "flash in the pan" guys who light it up for a season then--disappear! The guys who have unremarkable but very long careers, with no real ascent. Players who start strong, fall off for whatever reason (injury, emotion) but then have a big comeback--momentary, or prolonged. Since this is our first vintage fictional season, it's going to serve as the plumb line for future vintage seasons as we aim to reflect this unpredictable but very real aspect of professional baseball.

How should the clubs in the '74 Continental League be aligned? Well, you can arrange them any way you want, but we recommend two divisions of six teams. The Eastern Division could include Buffalo (Bees), Boston (Minutemen), Hartford (Emeralds), Montreal (Royal Blues), New York (Skyliners) and Washington (Filibusters). The Western Division could include Chicago (Brawlers), San Antonio (Six-Guns), Milwaukee (Barrel Men), St. Louis (Showboats), Denver (Grizzlies) and Toronto (Totems). Alternatively, you could arrange the clubs non-geographically based on heritage. For example, you could have a Century Division made up of the five original Century League clubs plus one transplant from the Continental League, and a second "Heritage Division" (or similar) made up of the remaining clubs, all original Continental League members.

Realistically, the entire history of PLAAY baseball isn't likely to be carded for posterity. Rather, our goal is to aim for representing general eras, over time. With the release of this set, we have 1946, part of 1961, 1974 and 2013 forward. Next, our plan is to "fill a gap" somewhere, possibly with a 1950s Century League season, or a 1980s or '90s Continental League season. Gradually, we'll fill in enough of the blanks to begin populating our own Hall of Fame. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here's a great opportunity to get a taste of the fun of fictional baseball, with this colorful new card set rooted in the legacy of 1970s big league baseball. The 1974 Continental League gives you a full twelve-team major league, with all the highs and lows, thrills and spills of real baseball in an open-ended "what's gonna happen next?" context! We think you'll LOVE it!