Oklahoma Indian Reservations Access Genealogy

If you've ever been in San Francisco, you're familiar with BART -- Bay Area Rapid Transit, their rail/subway system. So it's fitting the San Francisco Giants have a player named Joey Bart. It would be like the Yankees having a guy named Frankie Subway! It was also pretty cool when Aaron and Austin Nola played for the New Orleans Zephyrs -- New Orleans, Louisiana, is abbreviated as "NOLA". And who can forget Marvin Eugene Throneberry -- M.E.T. -- the man they said was "born to be a Met."
Sometimes the baseball gods get it right... but sometimes they get it so very, very wrong.
Here's the All-Wrong Team Team!
Luis Angeles not only never played for neither the Dodgers nor the Angels... he was a prospect of the San Francisco Giants. Talk about being on the wrong team! The right-hander looked promising in Rookie ball in 2010, going 8-3 with a 1.85 ERA and 0.914 WHIP in 13 starts, but would post an ERA of 6.96 over the next two seasons and was released in 2012. Alas, Los Angeles did not sign Angeles.
Daryl Boston played for four teams in 11 years, but never for the Red Sox. Adding insult to injury, he ended his career in 1994 by getting 77 AB with the Yankees. A 1st Round pick (#7 overall) by the White Sox in 1981, he hit .249/.312/.410 in his career as a platoon outfielder.
Outfielder Angel Bravo was neither an Angel nor a Brave. The Venezuelan made his debut in 1969 with the Chicago White Sox; he'd also play for the Reds and Padres, hitting .248 in 218 career AB. The same goes for Angel Pagan, who never played for the Angels or, if there is a team with this name, the Pagans. He played 11 seasons, seeing time with the Cubs, Mets, and Giants; in 2012 he hit .288/.338/.440 with a league-leading 15 triples in 605 AB.
Of the six players with the last name Bird, not one played for the Orioles, Blue Jays, or Cardinals! Surely that can't be a coincidence. Doug Bird played for the Royals, Phillies, Yankees, Cubs, and Red Sox between 1973 and 1983; Frank Bird played for the St. Louis Browns in 1892; George Bird played for Rockford Forest Citys in 1871; former Yankee Greg Bird has been in the minors with the Rangers and the Phillies; and Kyle Bird was on the Rangers in 2019. But most shockingly of all was the pitcher named Red Bird who did not play for the Cardinals. (Or the Reds.) So many missed opportunities!
There have been nine players with the last name Brewer (and one Breuer) but not one has played for the Milwaukee Brewers! The only Brewer who is currently active in MLB is Colten Brewer, a 28-year-old right-handed reliever who has been in the minors with the Pirates and Yankees and in the majors with the Padres and Red Sox. Brewer has not only never pitched for the Brewers, he's also never pitched against the Brewers. Lift a glass in the hope this Brewer will make it to Milwaukee one day.
Ed Brooklyn was a left-handed pitcher in the Washington Senators farm system from 1949 to 1951. Alas, he never made it to the majors, let alone the Dodgers. We don't have a lot of stats for him, but we do know he went 22-14... but also that he walked 143 batters in 159 innings in 1950. I suppose that's why he never made it to the bigs.
Mike Busch was a third baseman for the Dodgers in the mid 1990s, getting 22 hits in 100 AB. At least he got to play in Busch Stadium, albeit as a visitor, picking up two singles (and three strikeouts) in six at-bats.
Conrad Cardinal pitched in six games for the Houston Colt .45s in 1963, giving up 14 runs (nine earned) on 15 hits and seven walks in 13.1 innings. The 1960s St. Louis Cardinals had better pitching options.
The second-best MLB player born in Saskatchewan is Reggie Cleveland. (Swift Current's Cleveland had 8.9 bWAR in his career, well behind Melville's Terry Puhl's 28.4, but comfortably ahead of the other seven Saskatchewanians to have played in the bigs.) He went 105-106 with a 4.01 ERA in a 13-year career that saw him wear four different MLB uniforms, but alas, never that of the Indians. Reggie's best season came for the Cardinals in 1973, when he went 14-10 with a 3.01 ERA and 1.214 WHIP in 224.0 IP.
Pitcher Alfredo Colorado is a minor league free agent formerly in the Cubs system; he was last seen with the A-ball Eugene Emeralds in 2019, giving up five runs in 5.2 innings. Hopefully Colorado signs Colorado.
Infielder John Dodge was just 19 years old when he made his MLB debut in 1912, but unfortunately, not for the Brooklyn Dodgers. (Were they the Dodgers then? Sort of. The "Trolley Dodgers" nickname was used in print as early as 1895, but it was only one of several informal nicknames used for the team, including the Atlantics, Bridegrooms, Grooms, Robins, Superbas, and Wonders, as the team's official name was simply "the Brooklyn Base Ball Club." The name "Dodgers" was used on and off by the team, including on a program in 1916, but it didn't appear on jerseys until 1932.) Dodge played for the Phillies and then the Reds in 1912 and 1913 before returning to the minors. In 1916, playing for the Mobile Sea Gulls in the Southern Association, Dodge was hit in the face with a fastball (thrown by a former teammate with whom he had remained friends) and died the next day, at the age of 23.
Neither of the two minor leaguers with the name Frisco ever made it to San Francisco. Frisco Roberts was in the St. Louis system in the 1940s, but was out of baseball before the Giants moved out west. Reliever Frisco Parotte was in the Yankees farm system in the 1990s, but never made it out of A-ball.
Tyler Houston played for six teams in eight seasons but never for the Houston Astros. A catcher, third baseman, and first baseman, Houston hit .265/.312/.423 in 1,805 AB between 1996 and 2003. There also was an infielder named Houston Jimenez in the 1980s, who played for the Twins, Pirates, and Indians, but never for the Astros.
Eight-time All-Star Indian Bob Johnson got his nickname because he was born on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. Bob was a firefighter, but when his big brother Roy made the Tigers, he decided to try to become a ballplayer: "I was always better than Roy," the self-confident Bob told reporters. "When he stuck with Detroit, I knew I was good enough for the big leagues." But at his try-out for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, he wore borrowed cleats that were too big for him, making him look awkward in the outfield. A local sportswriter described him as a "big-footed Swede." Being called big-footed didn't bother him as much as being called a Swede. “If I knew that writer’s house were burning, I would have let it burn," the former firefighter said. "Me, 'a big-footed Swede.' Me, through whose veins the blood of the Cherokee warriors flowed.” He would play for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1933 to 1942, for the Washington Senators in 1943, and the Boston Red Sox in 1944 and 1945, but Indian Bob never played for the Indians.
Jon Jay is a free agent, so there's still a chance Jay could play for the Jays! A second-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006, Jay has played for six teams in 11 seasons but never for Toronto. His best season was probably 2012 when he hit .305/.373/.400 in 443 AB.
Infielder Al Montreuil was a minor league journeyman with the Red Sox and Cubs in the 1960s and 1970s, but never got a chance with the Montreal Expos. A native of Louisiana, I'm sure he would have fit right in. But at least the Expos had two seasons of minor league outfielder Romel Canada!
First baseman Mike Oakland was in the Colorado Rockies organization from 1992 to 1995, never making it out of A-ball. Oakland missed their chance to sign Oakland.
Seunghwan Oh pitched for three MLB teams but never for the O's. A stand-out pitcher in both the Korean and Japanese leagues, Oh came to MLB at the age of 33 and had a tremendous rookie season with the Cardinals in 2016, recording 19 saves with a 1.92 ERA and 0.916 WHIP (18 BB, 103 K in 79.2 IP). He would also pitch for the Blue Jays and Rockies before returning to the KBO in 2020.
Another nice addition to Baltimore would have been outfielder Oriol Perez, a prospect in the Seattle Mariners organization in the 1980s. This Oriol's career got off to a soaring start (.281/.391/.552 with the Bellingham Mariners in 1983) but never took flight. He was released two years later and retired without the Baltimore Orioles ever bringing him into the nest.
There's never been a player with the name Pittsburgh, but Gaylen Pitts was a minor league journeyman with the Cardinals, A's, and Cubs -- but never with the Pirates! -- between 1964 and 1977. He finally got to the bigs at age 28 in 1974, going 10-for-41 for the A's; the next season he'd go 1-for-3 (with an RBI!) in another brief call-up. He would later be a minor league manager, coach, and scout with the A's, Cardinals, Brewers, and Yankees, but again, never with the Pirates.
The only player named Ranger in MLB history is... on the Phillies! What? Ranger Suarez went 6-1 with a 3.14 ERA in 37 relief appearances in 2019, but missed most of this season after testing positive for COVID-19. He only made three appearances in 2020, giving up nine runs on 10 hits and four walks in just four innings.
Robbie Ray could have fulfilled his destiny by joining Tampa Bay this off-season, but instead he re-signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. The left-handed starting pitcher has gone 49-51 with a 4.26 ERA in seven MLB seasons.
Dozens of players in baseball history have had the nickname Red, but not one of the three Hall of Famers with the nickname -- Red Faber, Red Schoendienst, or Red Ruffing -- played for the Cincinnati Reds. (Ruffing did play for the Red Sox, at least.) Another prominent Red was Red Rolfe, who spent his entire career with the Yankees. Recent MLB players Mike Redmond, Mark Redman, and Tim Redding never made it to the Reds either. The best Red by bWAR who did play for the Reds was 1920s and '30s pitcher Red Lucas, who went 157-135 with a 3.72 ERA (107 ERA+) in a 15-year career, eight of which he spent with the Reds.
Of the 16 players with the nickname Rocky, not one played for Colorado... including the four who were active while the Rockies were in existence: Rocky Biddle, Rocky Cherry, Rocky Coppinger, and currently, Rocky Gale, a 32-year-old catcher who was with the Padres from 2015-2017, with the Dodgers from 2018-2019, and with the Rays in 2019. He was on the Dodgers' "taxi squad" this summer but didn't see any playing time, and is now a minor league free agent. So there's a chance this Rocky will be on the Rockies!
Gary Royal was an infielder in the Mets minor league system in the 1970s. Alas, he never made it to the bigs... and never made it to the Kansas City Royals either. Gary hit an impressive .310/.375/.424 in the Rookie league in 1974 but was out of baseball by age 24.
Reliever Steve Shea made his pro baseball debut the same years as the New York Mets -- 1962 -- and was in A-Ball two years later when Shea Stadium opened. But he never got to pitch there as a member of the New York Mets. Shea, who started out in the Cubs farm system as a 19-year-old, would find his way to the majors in 1968 as a member of the Houston Astros. The next year he'd pitch in 10 games with the expansion Montreal Expos. He then returned to the minors and never came back, his pro career ending after going 3-6 with a 6.51 ERA in 105 innings for the Triple-A Winnipeg Whips. Shea pitched in two games at Shea Stadium, giving up no runs and striking out three batters in 3.2 innings.
None of the five MLB players with the nickname Snake ever played for the Snakes, but maybe free agent Jake Arrieta will sign with the Diamondbacks? There also was Scott "Snakeface" Downs, who didn't pitch for the D'backs either.
Four players in MLB history have had the nickname Socks, and none of them played for either the White Sox or the Red Sox. Hank "Socks" Perry played for the Tigers, Joe "Socks" Holen played for the Phillies, and Ralph "Socks" Seybold played for the Philadelphia Athletics. A decade later, 20-year-old Harry Seibold joined the Athletics. Philadelphia still had same manager (and owner), Connie Mack, who promptly dubbed the rookie Socks Seibold.
Henry Wrigley was a first baseman for the Rays and Rockies, but never made it to the bigs... and therefore never got to play at Wrigley Field. He hit .257/.297/.424 over eight minor league seasons before retiring in 2015.
Rudy York played 13 seasons, but never with a New York team. The seven-time All-Star played 10 years in Detroit before ending his career with the Red Sox, White Sox, and Athletics.
Bad Timing
These guys never got a chance to play for the "right" team because it wasn't in existence during their careers.
Cub Stricker played for seven teams in 11 years, but never for the Cubs... but as it happened, Chicago's team wasn't called the Cubs in the 19th century anyway. Chicago's National League team was founded in 1870 as the Chicago White Stockings, but by 1890 they were known as the Chicago Colts; when Cap "Pop" Anson left the team after 27 years as a player and manager, local newspapers started calling them the "Orphans" (because they'd lost their "Pop"). A newspaper dubbed them the Cubs in 1902, and the name would become official in 1907. This Cub played for the American Association version of the Philadelphia Athletics, three different Cleveland-based teams (Blues, Spiders, and Infants), the Boston Reds, and the National League versions of the Baltimore Orioles, St. Louis Browns, and Washington Senators. I can't find a source on how he got the nickname Cub, but he wasn't a Bear: He was 5'3" and weighed 138 pounds!
Lenny Metz was a long-time minor leaguer who briefly played for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1920s, hitting .172 in 58 career AB as a middle infielder. Too bad he was about 40 years too early, because he would have been a perfect fit on the 1962 Mets!
A speedy outfielder born in Kansas City was a late-season rookie call-up in 1912. A teammate dubbed the newcomer "Kansas City", which was shortened to K.C., and eventually transformed into the name we know him by today: Casey Stengel. Alas, young K.C. never got a chance to play for K.C. as his playing career ended in 1925, which was 44 years before the Royals came into existence, though he was still managing when the Athletics were playing there.
Marlin Stuart played for three teams in his six-year career but never for the Marlins... probably because he was 74 years old when they played their first game. "Mott" made his pro debut in 1940, but then lost three years to World War II; he would later throw a perfect game for the Toledo Mud Hens in 1950. In 1954, The Sporting News asked the game's best hitters who was the toughest pitcher they'd faced, and Ted Williams said Mott Stuart. Stuart went 23-17 with a 4.65 ERA in 485.2 innings with the Tigers, Browns, Orioles, and Yankees.
Twink Twining played one game for the Cincinnati Reds in 1916, giving up three runs in two innings. Twining was 67 years old when the Minnesota Twins were founded in 1961, but he'd long switched careers from baseball to dermatology. Twining was the first graduate of Swarthmore College to reach the bigs.
There have been eight players with the last name Washington in MLB history, and not one of them played for either the Washington Senators or the Washington Nationals. The one who came closest was LaRue Washington, who was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 1975... three years after the franchise had relocated from Washington, D.C. LaRue went 5-for-21 (.238) in his brief MLB career, though he would hit .286 in 2,555 minor league at-bats... including two seasons with the Double-A Denver Bears, then an affiliate of the Montreal Expos... who in 2001 would become the Washington Nationals!
Yank Robinson was a 19th century infielder who would have been an OBP favorite had he played today: He led the league in walks three times in his career, posting a career .376 OBP despite a .241 batting average. His best season came with the St. Louis Browns in 1887, when he hit .305/.445/.405 with 75 stolen bases in 125 games! It was probably while he was playing in Missouri that someone gave the Massachusetts resident the nickname Yank. He died at the age of 34 in 1894, nine years before New York City got an American League team and two decades before they would officially become known as the Yankees.
Honorable Mention
Don Aase actually pronounces it "Ah-see", but I always thought it was pronounced "A's". (Or should it be Ass'y?) In any event, Oakland was not one of the five teams he pitched for. Aase came up with the Red Sox, but was traded to the Angels in 1977 for Jerry Remy; he would later be a closer for the Baltimore Orioles.

Hello everyone,
First off we would like to thank everyone who participated, by either nominating and/or voting, in our Best of the Decade Vote. Below you will find the top 3 voted on books in every category. I would, however, recommend you also check out the nomination threads as quite a few great books are mentioned in there.
Best Science Fiction of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin - nominated by Speaker4theRest

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

2nd place: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin - nominated by sSlipperyPickle

This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

3rd place: The Martian by Andy Weir - nominated by Aglance

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills — and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Best Debut of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi - nominated by okiegirl22

Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

2nd place: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - nominated by baddspellar

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.
Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.

3rd place: The Martian by Andy Weir - nominated by TheItalianDream

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills — and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Best Literary and General Fiction of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Circe by Madeline Miller - nominated by honeyiamsorry

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

2nd place: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - nominated by SinoJesuitConspiracy

My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.

3rd place: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - nominated by Scurvy_Dogwood

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity.
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.

Best Mystery or Thriller of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Gone Girl by Gillain Flynn - nominated by johnnywash1

Marriage can be a real killer.On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

2nd place: 11/22/63 by Stephen King - nominated by thatgirl21

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

3rd place: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - nominated by mercutio_died

At a gala party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed--again. She's been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden's only escape is to solve Evelyn Hardcastle's murder and conquer the shadows of an enemy he struggles to even comprehend--but nothing and no one are quite what they seem.

Best Short Story Collection of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Tenth of December by George Saunders - nominated by rjbman

In the taut opening, "Victory Lap," a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In "Home," a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antique store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill—the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders' signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation.

2nd place: Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang - nominated by amyousness

This much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revelatory ideas and deeply sympathetic characters. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and the temptation of second chances. In the epistolary "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications not just for his own people, but for all of reality. And in "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," a woman cares for an artificial intelligence over twenty years, elevating a faddish digital pet into what might be a true living being. Also included are two brand-new stories: "Omphalos" and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom."
In this fantastical and elegant collection, Ted Chiang wrestles with the oldest questions on earth—What is the nature of the universe? What does it mean to be human?—and ones that no one else has even imagined. And, each in its own way, the stories prove that complex and thoughtful science fiction can rise to new heights of beauty, meaning, and compassion.

3rd place: Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh - nominated by ApollosCrow

There's something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh's stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful, and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities. Homesick for Another World is a master class in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition. But part of the unique quality of her voice, the echt Moshfeghian experience, is the way the grotesque and the outrageous are infused with tenderness and compassion. Moshfegh is our Flannery O'Connor, and Homesick for Another World is her Everything That Rises Must Converge or A Good Man is Hard to Find. The flesh is weak; the timber is crooked; people are cruel to each other, and stupid, and hurtful. But beauty comes from strange sources, and the dark energy surging through these stories is powerfully invigorating. We're in the hands of an author with a big mind, a big heart, blazing chops, and a political acuity that is needle-sharp. The needle hits the vein before we even feel the prick.

Best Horror of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - nominated by Bennings463

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.
The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

2nd place: The Fisherman by John Langan - nominated by ifthisisausername

In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.

3rd place: My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix - nominated by leowr

Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, when they bonded over a shared love of E.T., roller-skating parties, and scratch-and-sniff stickers. But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to act….different. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there’s only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favorite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

Best Graphic Novel of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples - nominated by improveyourfuture

When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

2nd place: Daytripper by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon - nominated by RanAWholeMile

What are the most important days of your life?
Meet Brás de Oliva Domingos. The miracle child of a world-famous Brazilian writer, Brás spends his days penning other people's obituaries and his nights dreaming of becoming a successful author himself—writing the end of other people's stories, while his own has barely begun.
But on the day that life begins, would he even notice? Does it start at 21 when he meets the girl of his dreams? Or at 11, when he has his first kiss? Is it later in his life when his first son is born? Or earlier when he might have found his voice as a writer?
Each day in Brás's life is like a page from a book. Each one reveals the people and things who have made him who he is: his mother and father, his child and his best friend, his first love and the love of his life. And like all great stories, each day has a twist he'll never see coming...

3rd place: My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris - nominated by zedshouse

Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge.

Best Fantasy of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Brandon Sanderson - nominated by holden147, AHerosJourneyPod & spaldingmatters

Brandon Sanderson is a well-liked and prolific author. This past decade he has published over a dozen books, novellas, short stories and graphic novels. The books that were nominated for this vote in particular were The Way of Kings, Oathbringer, Words of Radiance & A Memory of Light with Robert Jordan.

2nd place: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin - nominated by cheesechimp

This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

3rd place: Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft - nominated by ullsi

The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of airships and steam engines, of unusual animals and mysterious machines.
Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya, in the overwhelming swarm of tourists, residents, and miscreants.
Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he'll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the long guns of a flying fortress. But if he hopes to find his wife, he will have to do more than just endure.
This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.

Best Poetry Collection of the Decade - Nomination Thread
Not enough nominations for an award in this category.
Best Young Adult Novel of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - nominated by okiegirl22

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

2nd place: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - nominated by Suzune-Chan

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . .
A convict with a thirst for revenge
A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager
A runaway with a privileged past
A spy known as the Wraith
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes
Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

3rd place: One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus - nominated by AnokataX

Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Best Non-Fiction of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - nominated by TriangleTingles

In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.
Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.

2nd place: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann - nominated by GanymedeBlu35

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.
In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, “the Phantom Terror,” roamed – virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.
A true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.

3rd place: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou - nominated by Flashy-Band

The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar startup, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end in the face of pressure and threats from the CEO and her lawyers.
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup "unicorn" promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn't work.
For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. When Carreyrou, working at The Wall Street Journal, got a tip from a former Theranos employee and started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first of dozens of Theranos articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company's value was zero and Holmes faced potential legal action from the government and her investors. Here is the riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a disturbing cautionary tale set amid the bold promises and gold-rush frenzy of Silicon Valley.

Again, thank you to everyone who participated.
Happy reading!

A common trait Assassin’s Creed groups have is the constant theorizing about future settings, because historical tourism is one of the best parts of the series. This series of posts will act as a counter to my Mildly Obscure setting discussions, but rather than looking at a single point, I will be taking a broad setting that is popular and looking at several potential settings to explore within it. Today’s setting is the United States. I want to say that I personally am not a huge fan of the setting, and like WW2, worry about whether or not Ubisoft could actually tactfully do these settings, but due to the lore potential, I’m willing to discuss them. Most of these settings would suffer from issues that plagued Syndicate such as proximity to the modern-day causing fake events and characters to be made to avoid lawsuits, parkour issues from wide streets and small buildings, or painfully tall buildings, and poor weapon variety due to legal carrying restrictions.
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Shays’ Rebellion
The American Revolution had a heavy toll on thousands of soldiers. Besides the loss of life and injuries, many men never received their full pay. In the early 1780s, this started to become a major issue, as men returning home from warlike Daniel Shay were being asked to pay large debts and taxes that they couldn’t afford because of the lack of pay. Many protests were held in Massachusetts from 1782 to 1785 against these taxes and to get the pay the veterans had earned. In August 1786, protestors organized to begin forcefully shutting down the courts. Government officials denounced the mob mentality but did nothing to stop it. Daniel Shays would start to organize more of these shutdowns and lead about 300 men to the Springfield Courts, which were then protected by William Shepard who held about 800 men at his command. After a day of demonstrations with no violence, Shepard led his men to the Springfield Armory due to rumors of the mob planning to attack it. By October of 1786 more protests had successfully shut down courts in Taunton, Great Barrington, and Concord. State officials now feared the violence and the potential for civil war and Samuel Adams worked with the state officials to draft a riot act to suspend habeas corpus and imprison the rioters without a trial while advocating for the execution of anyone who tried to rebel against the republic. With the new legislation in place, several of the movement’s leaders were arrested in eastern Massachusetts, causing 4,000 men to form an open rebellion against the “tyrannical state”.
The open rebellion caused Benjamin Lincoln to be granted money to form a militia and march west on January 19th. By that point, Shepard had amassed a local militia of 1200 men at the Springfield Federal Armory (a place he was not technically legally allowed to defend as a local militia)and Daniel Shays had coordinated with Luke Day to advance on the federal armory. Due to correspondence being stopped by Shepard’s men, Shays didn’t know Day was running late by a day and arrived at the armory on January 25th with no support from the west. Shepard had 2 cannons fired as a warning shot which scattered Shays forces. General Lincoln managed to track the army down to Pelham on the 4th of February during a snowstorm and capture about 150 men. Shay went into hiding as Lincoln’s army melted away from lack of funding. By the end of February, the 3000 man army dwindled to less than 200, and during that time a force of 200 men regrouped to attack Stockbridge on early February 27th. The remaining army eventually caught up with them in the night at Sheffield leading to the bloodiest battle of the rebellion with over 30 men killed, and 150 captured. Shays’ Rebellion was ultimately a failure, but it had a large impact on the creation of the modern US constitution and the creation of a standing army. I also think it may be interesting if Shay Cormac had taken the name Daniel Shays during the Revolutionary War to act as a Templar mole searching for the Piece of Eden George Washington would find and that the “little revolution” he referenced at the end of Rogue was not the French Revolution, but him orchestrating Shays’ Rebellion against the new republic that the Templars largely fought against. Daniel Shays would eventually die in 1825, and while Shay would be very old by that point, it would make sense to be that late due to Shay’s relationship with his grandson Cudgel.
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War of 1812
America’s relationship with Britain continued to strain during the years following the Revolutionary War. Britain used its colonies in Canada to give supplies and aid to Native American tribes with the intent of those tribes attacking American settlers. By 1805 a confederation of Native Americans formed in the great lakes and would actively kill any European-American settlers. Leading this was Tecumseh who was the brother of the original mastermind of the confederation. This conflict would lead the American government to lead the Battle of Tippecanoe against Tecumseh in 1811, and hostilities only increased from there. During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain set up large blockades of ports to stop Americans from trading with the French. While enforcing this, British ships had killed dozens of Americans and impressed even more into service. On June 1st, 1812, President James Madison sent Congress a list of grievances the United States had with Britain, and 4 days later, Congress voted to declare war for the first time.
The first stage of the war primarily took place in the North East US and Canada. I’d personally say that this should be the bulk of the main map with cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec. And then we could see the other primary theatres as smaller self-contained maps. William Hull initially led the charge into Canada in early July of 1812, only to be chased back out by Shawnee natives combined with forces of the British Major General Isaac Brock who then laid siege to Detroit in August. Following Hull’s defeat, General William Henry Harrison took control of the American Armies and led them to victory in several battles around the Great Lakes, primarily against the Tecumseh Confederacy. On October 5th, 1813, Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames. The next year was a constant back and forth between Americans and British fighting over forts along the Canada-US border with several notable sieges at York (Toronto), Niagra, Fort Erie, and Plattsburgh. To the west, a series of battles were fought from 1812 to 1814 along the Mississippi River reaching down to St Louis.
The east coast of the US saw a lot of action during the war. Starting in 1812, the British set up a series of blockades around the US. The blockade ended up serving as a large way for Black Refugees to escape slavery and get to Canada where they’d be freed. It also gave partial control of the Chesapeake Bay, and despite attempts to fortify the Potomac River in 1813, by 1814 the British freed of the Napoleonic Wars sent more ships to the war in America, breaking through the fortifications. Their first major attack was the Burning of Washington DC in response to the Battle of York (Toronto) a year prior. The British then went north and led a land and naval battle at Baltimore (the naval bombardment of Baltimore was partially what inspired the lyrics of the Star-Spangled Banner). During the battle, the British General Ross was killed, leaving command to Colonel Arthur Brooke who after finishing the battle, commanded his troops and ships to New Orleans.
The Creek War was the southernmost war partially influenced by Tecumseh’s Confederacy. The Lower Creeks in Alabama had been trading partners for the US and Settlers, adopting many of their cultural practices, while the Upper Creeks controlled the rivers and were concerned about the loss of the culture and lifestyle to encroaching US settlers. Over the course of 2 years, General Andrew Jackson would lead US and Lower Creek troops against the Upper Creeks and ultimately gained 21 million acres for the US in what is now Alabama and Georgia. During this American General James Wilkinson took the city of Mobile and part of western Spanish Florida. At the end of 1814 and January of 1815, the British would lead multiple offenses against New Orleans and Mobile, losing each time. By that point, both the Americans and the British had sent delegates to Ghent to negotiate a stalemate. On December 24th the Treaty of Ghent was signed, but it wouldn’t be until February that the news reached America and the fighting ceased. The most lore we have is that every presidency was contested between Assassins and Templars and the first Templar President was Franklin D. Roosevelt. I do really like this period for opening up the capability of expanding Connor’s Story, tying up Shay, maybe meet Shay’s son. There’s a ton of lore possibilities here. We also know that the apple Connor dropped in the ocean was retrieved by the 20th century, so it’s possible that part of the heavy naval portion of this war and blockade was a British effort to search for the apple.
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Mexican-American War
In 1836 the Texas Revolution saw Texas freed from Mexico to the chagrin of Santa Anna, the sitting Mexican President. 9 years later, the Texas Republic continued to face threats from Mexico which did not view them as sovereign; the United States, as a result, annexed Texas. Texas, however, still claimed more land than it owned, and Mexico refused to recognize this, leading to American President James K. Polk to send an emissary to Mexico City to negotiate to buy land on good faith while also sending American troops over the border with the intention of provoking an armed military response. It did, and after American troops were fired upon at Palo Alto, America declared the Mexican-American War on May 13th, 1846. The war itself was largely controversial, including Abraham Lincoln; and many northern abolitionists saw it as a way to strengthen slavery in the south.
The first campaign of the war was to capture what became New Mexico. Santa Fe was captured by August of 1846 but rebels in the area led small assaults and raids for another year until the Battle of Cienega Creek. Following this, General Kearny marched his troops across the Sonoran Desert to California. It took 3 months for news of the war to originally reach California, and when it did, American troops planted flags in San Francisco. American armies would lead several battles just outside San Diego and Los Angeles, with small rebels popping up near San Francisco, but California was largely conquered by January of 1847.
Throughout 1846 troops marched from San Antonio and Corpus Christi to be met with battles in Monterrey and Buena Vista. By March 9th, 1847 General Scott was ordered to bring the war to a close by President Polk by capturing Mexico City. Commodore Matthew C Perry arrived at Veracruz on March 24th and opened it up with a naval bombardment. Despite several soldiers coming down with Yellow Fever during the 12-day siege, General Scott pushed on to Puebla and then Mexico City with Santa Anna expecting the diseases to wipe out the army. After a stop at Puebla due to the sick, Scott marched on to the Battle for Mexico City, a week-long series of battles that left Scott the military governor of the city on September 15th, 1847. Santa Anna then attempted to besiege Puebla but failed due to the Battle of Huamantla lifting the siege in early October. Following the defeat, a new Mexican Government led by Manuel de la Pena y Pena ceded over military control from Santa Anna to General Jose Joaquin de Herrera. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed on February 2nd, 1848, with nearly 339 million acres of land given to the United States while the US paid $15 million dollars (approximately 5 cents per acre). Once again there’s next to no lore in this area, and we could see Shay’s son or Grandson be active during the war. That said, the United States was extremely aggressive during the war, and making assassins allied with either the US or Mexico could feel somewhat forced, as this was ultimately two countries fighting over land.
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The Civil War
I personally don’t wish to discuss this setting too much, as I don’t believe Ubisoft could actually do this setting well, especially with the current lore. First of all, is the reasoning for the war. States' rights were ultimately the reason for southern secession; and slavery was the biggest of those concerns, and many smaller concerns revolved around slavery. Northern abolitionists had been sending over voters to commit voting fraud and try to force states below the Mason-Dixon line to not allow slavery. The Northern states refused to follow the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, multiple states were displeased with high federal spending, they had issues with the regulation of the banks which hurt southern states more than northern, Northern States ruled congress due to population density, and there were many questions about how the south would survive economically if slavery was abolished. While we all agree in the modern-day that slavery is wrong (and our assassin character should agree), people did not historically hold that view. And to be fair to their fears, following the civil war the southern economy did crash, affecting more than the 1% of land-owning slave owners. Even the now freed blacks had nowhere to go or anything to do because they spent their entire lives on plantations. This resulted in many blacks essentially becoming serfs for their former masters. Segregation and Jim Crow laws only increased after the civil war due to racism, and despite freed black men legally being able to vote, they rarely could because of new racist restrictions. The south wasn’t alone in enacting racist legislation though, as New York has been called the capital of Jim Crow. Northerners may have been against slavery, but that doesn’t mean they cared what came next. Templars were primarily behind the south and secession, while assassins backed the north and abolitionists. Abraham Lincoln’s election is what ultimately set off the secession despite not even being an abolitionist. He, despite being against slavery, agreed that it was sanctioned by the US constitution under the 10th amendment. He cared more about keeping the union together, and still, the south seceded. Lincoln couldn’t let that stand and put northern troops in Fort Sumter, squarely in southern territory. He loaded the fort with arms and rations enough to last a long siege. The newly forming Confederacy of the United States saw this as a threat and fired upon the fort. Just like with the Mexican American War, Lincoln could now claim that not only did he want to keep the Union whole, but the south fired first. Lincoln then (illegally) declared Martial Law in Maryland in order to make sure the capital (Washington DC) wasn’t surrounded by enemies.
Despite the Assassins backing the north, we know from the movie that Assassins also supported the south. Perhaps this was similar to how General Lee was a general for the confederacy because of his family ties despite being against slavery? Perhaps Assassins and templars in the South agreed about very real potential issues with civil rights in the wake of slavery’s abolition and felt the solution could be worked out more diplomatically. We also know Templars controlled major parts of the North. William “Boss” Tweed was the boss of Tammany Hall and played a major part in the Democratic Party’s organization and the corruption in New York City. He was also a Templar master who worked with Cudgel Cormac (the grandson of Shay), to orchestrate the New York City Draft Riots in 1863. An assassin, Varius, worked for the Union and delivered a PoE to General Ulysses S Grant. John Wilkes Booth, a templar affiliate, assassinated Abraham Lincoln and then was killed by assassins 12 days later. Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, would go on to ratify the 13th through 15th amendments. His presidency was also about when the gilded age began, a period of 30 years marred by mass corruption and monopoly overreach during intense industrialization. Personally, I don’t think Ubisoft should attempt this setting. The rampant racism, the debate over what was a state right, the rise of organizations like the KKK, the bloody battles, and intense politics all still heavily impact the united states. Some men and women today can still say that their grandparents were freed from slavery between 1863-1865. The racism and corruption that poured forth in the aftermath can still be felt by many within the United States, even if such institutions have been since criminalized. The Civil War can be a very sensitive topic to people all across the United States, and it should be handled sensitively. I think there can be some very nuanced lore about the assassins and templars' roles during the war and why they chose certain sides. But ultimately I do not trust Ubisoft to handle this setting well. Unity nor Syndicate maturely handled themes of extremism or marxism well, and Origins and Odyssey have just blatantly ignored a lot of historical sexism and slavery. Freedom Cry was about freeing slaves and yet the slave ship you board shows a handful of men all chained separately and sitting up rather than the barbaric and cruel reality of the transatlantic slave trade that intended to spread disease and filth to break the body and mind of the slaves. Ignoring Injustices does not respect them or what millions of people went through.
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Cowboys, Outlaws, and Indians in the West
The United States is incredibly beautiful, and the current games in this series have barely scratched the surface. Luckily, the westward expansion and wars America waged against the Native Americans are not only full of potential for fantastic (and tragic) stories but also can showcase a lot of America’s landscapes.
Founded in 1850 by Allan Pinkerton in 1850 the Pinkerton Detective Agency was a private security force that rose to prominence during and after the civil war. They’re well known for investigating and causing the collapse of several unions, investigating murders, serving as bodyguards for Abraham Lincoln, and infiltrating the Molly Maguires (a secret Irish organization in Pennsylvania). They famously were hired to hunt down Jesse James, the Reno Gang, and Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch. Outlaws were common in the south around Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Some like Jesse James and Black Bart were from farther North. Outlaws would generally prey on stagecoaches, trains, and banks, easy targets for quick money. Local sheriffs would then form posses to track down and bring the outlaws to justice. In cases of more notorious outlaws, detective agencies like the Pinkertons may be involved. Recently, however, the Pinkerton Agency has sued Rockstar for their portrayal in Red Dead Redemption 2; so it may not be possible to use them and we may see another Syndicate situation with Ubisoft making up fake gangs and agencies. Some towns and settlements began to pop up that supported outlaws. And these old west towns weren’t just down south in Texas and Arizona but stretched all the way north to the Dakotas, most famously including Deadwood where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane died. Some other famous towns include Tombstone Arizona and Cody Wyoming. Arizona was home to a number of towns like Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff which was close to the Grand Canyon. Las Vegas existed as a small settlement in what is now Nevada, only a little to the west of the Grand Canyon, but wasn’t founded officially until 1905. California is home to Death Valley and part of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts while also holding massive mountains and rolling hills covered in redwoods. To the east were cities like Albuquerque and John Cross ranch (now Truth or Consequences) in New Mexico, Amarillo, El Paso, Austin, Houston, and Dallas in Texas. North of Arizona is Utah, home of the Mormons and Salt Lake City, containing Arches National Park. Right next door is the rocky mountains and Denver that was founded during the gold rush. Wyoming contains Grand Teton, Devil’s Tower, and Yellowstone. Montana and the Dakotas are filled with forests and stunning hills and landmarks like the Badlands. Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa are largely flat open plains, home of large cattle ranches and cowboys, and easy targets for the outlaws while Louisiana is just a flat swamp. East of the Mississippi are still some plains until you reach the Appalachians which border the east Coast. The only place I’d say we should go that’s east of the Mississippi is Detroit, which was called the Paris of the West and home to the Pinkertons.
Despite the fun lawlessness found commonly throughout the frontier as explored by Red Dead Redemption, America also had a much darker side. The westward expansion that exploded into the west following the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush meant violently pushing Native Americans out of their land into reservations. This led to dozens of wars and battles in a series called the Indian Wars. I don’t have enough space to go into details about the wars, but between 1850 and 1900 there were well over 50 wars just west of the Mississippi between Native American tribes and the United States military. This is even ignoring the trail of tears in the southeast. Some of the more famous wars are the Sioux Wars and the bulk of these lasted from 1854-1890. They included some of the most famous American Generals and Native American leaders including George Cook, George Custer, Little Crow, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull. During the Great Sioux War Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and over 300 of his men were killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Years later in 1890, one of the most famous incidents occurred where Kicking Bull and Sitting Bull led to their deaths. The natives entered into Ghost Dance War, and during it, the US Army entered the native camp at Wounded Knee and after hearing a gunshot, massacred 350 native men, women, and children. Those are just 2 famous events, the map linked above under Indian Wars shows the locations of dozens more battles and forts. Once again, this setting would need a lot of care and respect to do it right and is something I’d be very concerned about Ubisoft doing well.

It could be best run in terms of anything and only Male Actors.
Humphrey Bogart: Brother Orchid, Tokyo Joe, The Maltese Falcon, All Through the Night, Casablanca, Sahara, Thank Your Lucky Stars, To Have and Have Not, High Sierra, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, They Drive by Night, Key Largo, The Wagons Roll at Night, Passage to Marseille, Across the Pacific, Dead Reckoning, Knock on Any Door, Virginia City, Action in the North Atlantic, Conflict, I Am an American, Never Say Goodbye, Always Together, and Two Guys from Milwaukee.
Edward G. Robinson: Brother Orchid, Scarlet Street, Key Largo, Double Indemnity, The Stranger,The Woman in the Window, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, It's a Great Feeling, House of Strangers, The Red House, All My Sons, Journey Together, Destroyer, Tampico, Mr. Winkle Goes to War, Unholy Partners, Larceny, Inc., A Dispatch from Reuters, Manpower, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, and The Sea Wolf.
Joseph Cotten: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Shadow of a Doubt, Gaslight, Since You Went Away, I’ll Be Seeing You, Love Letters, The Farmer’s Daughter, Portrait of Jennie, The Third Man, and Beyond the Forest, Hers to Hold, Under Capricorn, Duel in the Sun, and Lydia.
Cary Grant: Notorious, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, None but the Lonely Heart, Night and Day, Penny Serenade, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Arsenic and Old Lace, Suspicion, My Favorite Wife, The Talk of the Town, I Was a Male War Bride,The Bishops Wife, Once Upon a Honeymoon, Mr. Lucky, Every Girl Should Be Married, Destination Tokyo, Once Upon a Time, and The Howards of Virginia.
John Garfield: The Sea Wolf, Air Force, Destination Tokyo, Between Two Worlds, Hollywood Canteen, Pride of the Marines, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Nobody Lives Forever, Tortilla Flat,Humoresque, Body and Soul, Gentleman’s Agreement, Difficult Years, Jigsaw, Force of Evil, We Were Strangers, Nobody Lives Forever, Out of the Fog, Dangerously They Live, Castle on the Hudson, Flowing Gold, Saturday's Children, and East of the River.
William Holden: Arizona, Texas, The Fleet’s In, The Remarkable Andrew, Dear Ruth, Rachel and the Stranger, Apartment for Peggy, Streets of Laredo, Variety Girl,The Man from Colorado, Miss Grant Takes Richmond, Dear Wife, Streets of Laredo, Blaze of Noon, The Fleet's In, I Wanted Wings, The Remarkable Andrew, Young and Willing, Meet the Stewarts, Our Town, and Those Were the Days!.
Robert Mitchum: The Story of G.I. Joe, The Locket, Pursued, Crossfire, Out of the Past, Rachel and the Stranger, Blood on the Moon, The Big Steal, Holiday Affair, Border Patrol, Beyond the Last Frontier, Follow the Band, Gung Ho!, Cry 'Havoc', Nevada, Colt Comrades, Bar 20, False Colors, Riders of the Deadline, The Human Comedy, The Magic of Make-up, Hoppy Serves a Writ, Aerial Gunner, We've Never Been Licked, The Lone Star Trail, Doughboys in Ireland, Corvette K-225, The Red Pony, Desire Me, Undercurrent, Till the End of Time, Girl Rush, West of the Pecos, Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More, When Strangers Marry, The Dancing Masters, Minesweeper, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.
Gregory Peck: The Keys of the Kingdom, The Valley of Decision, Spellbound, The Yearling, Gentleman’s Agreement, Yellow Sky, Twelve O’Clock High, Duel in the sun, Gas Light, Days of Glory, The Macomber Affair, and The Paradine Case.
Vincent Price: The Invisible Man Returns, The House of the Seven Gables, The Keys of the Kingdom, Leave Her to Heaven, Dragonwyck, The Web, The Long Night,The Three Musketeers, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,Shock, Rogues' Regiment, Up in Central Park, Moss Rose, Bagdad, The Bribe, A Royal Scandal, Wilson, The Song of Bernadette, Hudson's Bay, The Eve of St. Mark, Brigham Young, and Green Hell.
James Stewart: Ziegfeld Girl, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Shop Around the Corner, The Mortal Storm, The Philadelphia Story, Come Live with Me, Call Northside 777, Rope, The Stratton Story, No Time for Comedy, Pot o' Gold, Magic Town, Malaya, and On Our Merry Way.
Orson Welles: Citizen Kane, Jane Eyre, Tomorrow Is Forever, The Stranger, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth, and The Third Man.
Coronel Wilde: A Song to Remember, Manila Calling, Leave Her to Heaven, The Homestretch, It Had to Be You, The Walls of Jericho, ,Roadhouse, Stairway for a Star, Kisses for Breakfast, High Sierra, Lady with Red, Knockout, Life Begins at Eight-Thirty, Manila Calling, The Perfect Snob, The Bandit of Sherwood Forest, A Thousand and One Nights, Wintertime, Shockproof, Road House, Centennial Summer, and Forever Amber.
Henry Fonda: The Lady Eve, The Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, The Ox-Bow Incident, You Belong to Me, On Our Merry Way, Daisy Kenyon, Chad Hanna, Jigsaw, Fort Apache, The Return of Frank James, The Fugitive, Lillian Russell, Wild Geese Calling, Immortal Sergeant, The Male Animal, The Magnificent Dope, Tales of Manhattan, The Long Night, and The Big Street.
Gary Cooper: Sergeant York, Meet John Doe, The Pride of the Yankees, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Fountainhead, Along Came Jones, Ball of Fire, Unconquered, Cloak and Dagger, Saratoga Trunk, The Story of Dr. Wassell, Casanova Brown, North West Mounted Police, The Westerner, Good Sam, Variety Girl, Unconquered, Task Force, and It's a Great Feeling.
John Wayne: Red River, Fort Apache, The Shepherd of the Hills,Sands of Iwo Jima, Reap the Wild Wind, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Wake of the Red Witch, The Fighting Seabees, Flying Tigers, They Were Expendable, Dark Command, Reunion in France, The Spoilers, Lady from Louisiana, Dakota, Angel and the Badman, Without Reservations, Flame of Barbary Coast, Tall in the Saddle, The Fighting Kentuckian, 3 Godfathers, Tycoon, Pittsburgh, A Lady Takes a Chance, In Old Oklahoma, Back to Bataan, Three Faces West, The Long Voyage Home, A Man Betrayed, The Shepherd of the Hills, Lady for a Night, In Old California, and Seven Sinners.
Spencer Tracy: Woman of the Year, The Sea of Grass, A Guy Named Joe, State of the Union, Adam's Rib, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Keeper of the Flame, Boom Town, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Edison, the Man, Tortilla Flat,Northwest Passage, and Malaya.
Fred Astaire: The Barkleys of Broadway, Blue Skies, Easter Parade, Second Chorus, Ziegfeld Follies, You Were Never Lovelier, The Sky's the Limit, Holiday Inn, and You'll Never Get Rich.
Bing Crosby: Going my Way, The Bells of St. Mary's, Out of This World, Road to Morocco, Birth of the Blues, Holiday Inn, The Princess and the Pirate, My Favorite Brunette, Welcome Stranger, Duffy's Tavern, The Emperor Waltz, Blue Skies, Road to Utopia, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and Dixie.
Ray Milliand: Reap the Wild Wind, The Lost Weekend, The Major and the Minor, The Big Clock, The Uninvited, Arise, My Love, Variety Girl, So Evil My Love, It Happens Every Spring, Ministry of Fear, Skylark, and I Wanted Wings.
Laurence Olivier: Hamlet, Rebecca, Henry V, 21 Days, That Hamilton Woman, 49th Parallel, This Happy Breed, and Pride and Prejudice.
Joel Mccrae: The More the Merrier, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, Ramrod, Reaching for the Sun, Foreign Correspondent, Primrose Path, The Great Moment, Colorado Territory, and The Unseen.
James Cagney: White Heat, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Time of Your Life, Johnny Come Lately, 13 Rue Madeleine, City for Conquest, Torrid Zone, The Strawberry Blonde, Blood on the Sun, Captains of the Clouds, The Bride Came C.O.D., and The Fighting 69th.
Ward Bond: The Grapes of Wrath, Sergeant York, The Maltese Falcon, Gentleman Jim, My Darling Clementine, It's a Wonderful Life, The Fugitive, Fort Apache, 3 Godfathers, Joan of Arc, Canyon Passage, Dakota, Unconquered, Slightly Dangerous, Gentleman Jim, and The Shepherd of the Hills.
Gene Kelly: For Me and My Gal, Pilot #5, DuBarry Was a Lady, Thousands Cheer, The Cross of Lorraine, Cover Girl, Christmas Holiday, Anchors Aweigh, Living in a Big Way, The Pirate, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and On the Town.
Burt Lancaster: The Killers, Desert Fury, Brute Force, Criss Cross, Rope of Sand, All My Sons, Sorry, Wrong Number, Variety Girl, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, and I Walk Alone.
Frank Sinatra: Las Vegas Nights, On The Town, Ship Ahoy, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Anchors Aweigh, Step Lively, Reveille with Beverly, The Kissing Bandit, It Happened in Brooklyn, Till the Clouds Roll By, Higher and Higher, and The Miracle of the Bells.
Montgomery Clift: Red River, The Heiress, and The Search.
Walter Brennan: Sergeant York, To Have and Have Not, Red River, My Darling Clementine, Dakota, The Princess and the Pirate, A Stolen Life, The Pride of the Yankees, Stand By for Action, All Through the Day, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!, Driftwood, Brimstone, Nobody Lives Forever, The Task Force, Nobody Lives Forever, Blood on the Moon, The Westerner, Maryland, Northwest Passage, Meet John Doe, Rise and Shine, Nice Girl?, The North Star, This Woman is Mine, Swamp Water, Home in Indiana, and Hangmen Also Die!.
Tyrone Power: The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan, Prince of Foxes, Captain from Castile, Nightmare Alley, The Razor's Edge, Johnny Apollo, Brigham Young, Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, This Above All, A Yank in the R.A.F., The Luck of the Irish, That Wonderful Urge, and Crash Dive.
Claude Rains: Casablanca, Notorious, Kings Row, The Wolf Man, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Moontide, Now, Voyager, Phantom of the Opera, Forever and a Day, Lady with Red Hair, Saturday's Children, The Sea Hawk, Strange Holiday, Mr. Skeffington, Passage to Marseille, Song of Surrender, Deception, Rope of Sand, This Love of Ours, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Passionate Friends, Angel on My Shoulder, and The Unsuspected.
Peter Lorre: The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Arsenic and Old Lace, All Through the Night, The Boogie Man Will Get You, Three Strangers, Hollywood Canteen, The Mask of Dimitrios, The Verdict, The Chase, The Conspirators, Hotel Berlin, Black Angel, The Constant Nymph, Stranger on the Third Floor, The Face Behind the Mask, Background to Danger, You'll Find Out, Invisible Agent, The Cross of Lorraine, Casbah, Confidential Agent, My Favorite Brunette, and The Beast with Five Fingers.
Kirk Douglas: Out of the Past, I Walk Alone, Champion, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, A Letter to Three Wives, Mourning Becomes Electra, The Walls of Jericho, and My Dear Secretary.
Farley Granger: Rope, They Live By Night, The Purple Heart, Roseanna McCoy, and Enchantment.
Clifton Webb: The Razor's Edge, Laura, Sitting Pretty, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College, and The Dark Corner.
Lee J. Cobb: The Luck of the Irish, This Thing Called Love, Paris Calling, Boomerang, Call Northside 777, The Miracle of the Bells, Thieves' Highway, The Dark Past, The Song of Bernadette, Johnny O'Clock, Anna and the King of Siam, Tonight We Raid Calais, Buckskin Frontier, and Men of Boys Town.
Sydney Greenstreet: The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Across the Pacific, Three Strangers, The Conspirators, Background to Danger, They Died with Their Boots On, Between Two Worlds, Devotion, The Verdict, Ruthless, The Hucksters, The Woman in White, Malaya, Flamingo Road, It's a Great Feeling, The Velvet Touch, Conflict, That Way with Women, Christmas in Connecticut, and Pillow to Post.
Tim Holt: The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, The Magnificent Ambersons, Laddie, Swiss Family Robinson, Back Street, The Fargo Kid, Wagon Train, Dude Cowboy, The Bandit Trail, Come on Danger, Land of the Open Range, Six-Gun Gold, Robbers of the Range, Western Heritage, Guns of Hate, Indian Agent, Brothers in the Saddle, Along the Rio Grande, Riding the Wind, Thundering Hoofs, Bandit Ranger, Pirates of the Prairie, Sagebrush Law, Thunder Mountain, Fighting Frontier, The Avenging Rider, Under the Tonto Rim, Gun Smugglers, Rustlers, The Mysterious Desperado, The Arizona Ranger, Stagecoach Kid, Red River Robin Hood, My Darling Clementine, and Wild Horse Mesa.
George Raft: Background to Danger, Red Light, A Dangerous Profession, The House Across the Bay, They Drive by Night, Man Power, Broadway, Nob Hill, Stage Door Canteen, Nocturne, Mr. Ace, Johnny Angel, Intrigue, Whistle Stop, Outpost in Morocco, Race Street, Christmas Eve, and Johnny Allegro.
Melvyn Douglas: This Thing Called Love, A Woman's Secret, The Great Sinner, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, My Own True Love, They All Kissed the Bride, Three Hearts for Julia, The Sea of Grass, The Guilt of Janet Ames, Our Wife, We Were Dancing, Too Many Husbands, He Stayed for Breakfast, Third Finger, Left Hand, A Woman's Face, That Uncertain Feeling, and Two-Faced Woman.
Henry Travers: It's a Wonderful Life, The Moon Is Down, Mrs. Miniver, The Bells of St. Mary's, Gallant Journey, The Flame, The Yearling, The Girl from Jones Beach, The Accused, Beyond Glory, Shadow of a Doubt, Dragon Seed, Madame Curie, The Very Thought of You, Thrill of a Romance, None Shall Escape, The Naughty Nineties, Ball of Fire, The Bad Man, Wyoming, High Sierra, Primrose Path, Edison, the Man, A Girl, a Guy and a Gob, I'll Wait for You, Anne of Windy Poplars, Pierre of the Plains, and Random Harvest.
Toshiro Mifune: Snow Trail, These Foolish Times 1 & 2, Drunken Angel, Jakoman and Tetsu, Stray Dog, and The Quiet Duel.
Walter Huston: The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Maltese Falcon, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Swamp Water, Dragon Seed, The North Star, The Outlaw, Edge of Darkness, Dragonwyck, And Then There Were None, Duel in the Sun, December 7th: The Movie, Mission to Moscow, The Great Sinner, Summer Holiday, The Shanghai Gesture, Always in My Heart, and In This Our Life.
Erol Flynn: Edge of Darkness, Santa Fe Trail, San Antonio, Virginia City, The Sea Hawk, They Died with Their Boots On, Gentleman Jim, Footsteps in the Dark, Dive Bomber, That Forsyte Woman, Silver River, Adventures of Don Juan, Cry Wolf, The Lady from Shanghai, Never Say Goodbye, Escape Me Never, Uncertain Glory, Northern Pursuit, Objective, Burma!, and Desperate Journey.
Chishū Ryū: Late Spring, Ornamental Hairpin, A Hen in the Wind, Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, Army, There Was a Father, and Record of a Tenement Gentleman.
Trevor Howard: The Third Man, Brief Encounter, They Made Me a Fugitive, The Way to the Stars, So Well Remembered, The Way Ahead, I See a Dark Stranger, and Green for Danger.
Alec Guinness: Kind Hearts and Coronets, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Evensong, and A Run for Your Money.
Basil Radford: Flying Fortress, Just William, Crook's Tour, The Flying Squad, Night Train to Munich, The Girl who Forgot, Room for Two, Spies of the Air, Girl in the News, The Next of Kin, Unpublished Story, Twilight Hour, Dear Octopus, Millions like Us, London Scrapbook, The Captive Heart, Whisky Galore!, Quartet, A Girl in a Million, Passport to Pimlico, Dead of Night, The Winslow Boy, Stop Press Girl, Helter Skelter, and It's Not Cricket.
John Mills: The Black Sheep of Whitehall, Old Bill and Son, Cottage to Let, This Happy Breed, The Big Blockade, We Dive at Dawn, In Which We Serve, The Young Mr. Pitt, Great Expectations, The Way to the Stars, Waterloo Road, So Well Remembered, Scott of the Antarctic, The October Man, The History of Mr. Polly, and The Rocking Horse Winner.
Anton Walbrook: The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Gaslight, The Queen of Spades, Dangerous Moonlight, The Man from Morocco, and 49th Parallel.
Edmund O’ Brien: The Killers, A Double Life, White Heat,The Web, For the Love of Mary, Another Part of the Forest, Winged Victory, An Act of Murder, Task Force, Fighter Squadron, Under Capricorn, Powder Town, The Amazing Mrs. Holliday, Obliging Young Lady, A Girl, a Guy and a Gob, and Parachute Battalion.
Van Johnson: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, A Guy Named Joe, The Human Comedy, Too Many Girls, Murder in the Big House, For the Common Defense!, Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant, The War Against Mrs. Hadley, Somewhere I'll Find You, Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case, Madame Curie, Pilot No. 5, The White Cliffs of Dover, Week-End at the Waldorf, Between Two Women, 3 Men in White, Two Girls and a Sailor, Easy to Wed, Thrill of a Romance, Battleground, Till the Clouds Roll By, Mother Is a Freshman, Command Decision, In the Good Old Summertime, Scene of the Crime, The Romance of Rosy Ridge, The Bride Goes Wild, State of the Union, No Leave, No Love, and High Barbaree.
Bob Hope: The Great Lover, Variety Girl, Where There's Life, Sorrowful Jones, Road to Rio, The Paleface, The Story of G.I. Joe, My Favorite Brunette, Monsieur Beaucaire, Road to Utopia, Road to Morocco, Let's Face It, The Princess and the Pirate, Show Business at War, They Got Me Covered, Combat America, My Favorite Blonde, The Ghost Breakers, Star Spangled Rhythm, Nothing but the Truth, Louisiana Purchase, Caught in the Draft, Road to Singapore, and Road to Zanzibar.
Fred MacMurray: Star Spangled Rhythm, Double Indemnity, Family Honeymoon, An Innocent Affair, Singapore, Smoky, Suddenly, It's Spring, Pardon My Past, On Our Merry Way, The Miracle of the Bells, The Egg and I, Father Was a Fullback, Practically Yours, Murder, He Says, Where Do We Go from Here?, Captain Eddie, Above Suspicion, Standing Room Only, Take a Letter, Darling, The Forest Rangers, Flight for Freedom, No Time for Love, Virginia, And the Angels Sing, New York Town, Dive Bomber, Rangers of Fortune, The Lady Is Willing, One Night in Lisbon, Remember the Night, Little Old New York, and Little Old New York.
James Gleason: When My Baby Smiles at Me, Miss Grant Takes Richmond, Tycoon, The Homestretch, Down to This Man's Navy Earth, The Clock, The Keys of the Kingdom, Arsenic and Old Lace, This Man's Navy, Captain Eddie, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Well Groomed Bride, Lady Luck, Home Sweet Homicide, The Bishop's Wife, Bad Boy, The Hoodlum Saint, Smart Woman, The Life of Riley, The Return of October, Take One False Step, The Falcon Takes Over,Footlight Serenade, My Gal Sal, Tales of Manhattan, Crash Dive, Manila Calling, A Guy Named Joe, Once Upon a Time, The Dude Goes West, Babes on Broadway, Hay Foot, A Date with the Falcon, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Tanks a Million, Nine Lives Are Not Enough, Meet John Doe, Affectionately Yours, Grandpa Goes to Town, and Earl of Puddlestone.
Glenn Ford: Convicted Woman, Men Without Souls, The Lady in Question, Babies for Sale, Texas, Blondie Plays Cupid, So Ends Our Night, Gilda, A Stolen Life, Go West, Young Lady, Destroyer, Flight Lieutenant, The Adventures of Martin Eden, The Desperadoes, The Loves of Carmen, Framed, Gallant Journey, The Mating of Millie, Lust for Gold, The Man from Colorado, The Return of October, Mr. Soft Touch, The Undercover Man, and The Doctor and the Girl.
James Mason: Odd Man Out, The Seventh Veil, The Wicked Lady, This Man Is Dangerous, Hatter's Castle, Alibi, Thunder Rock, The Night Has Eyes, Candlelight in Algeria, The Man in Grey, Secret Mission, Caught, Madame Bovary, The Reckless Moment, East Side, West Side, The Upturned Glass, Fanny by Gaslight, Hotel Reserve, A Place of One's Own, They Were Sisters, The Bells Go Down, and They Met in the Dark.
Van Heflin: Johnny Eager, The Feminine Touch, Santa Fe Trail, Kid Glove Killer, H. M. Pulham, Esq., The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Possessed, Green Dolphin Street, The Three Musketeers, Tap Roots, Till the Clouds Roll By, East Side, West Side, B.F.'s Daughter, The Secret Land, Act of Violence, Madame Bovary, Tennessee Johnson, Seven Sweethearts, Grand Central Murder, and Presenting Lily Mars.
Fredric March: The Best Years of Our Lives, Victory, Susan and God, The Adventures of Mark Twain, Lights Out in Europe, One Foot in Heaven, Bedtime Story, So Ends Our Night, Valley of the Tennessee, Lake Carrier, Another Part of the Forest, Tomorrow, the World!, I Married a Witch, Christopher Columbus, Ford Theatre, and An Act of Murder.
Thomas Mitchell: It's a Wonderful Life, The Outlaw, Wilson, The Keys of the Kingdom, Adventure, Within These Walls, Buffalo Bill, Tales of Manhattan, Moontide, Flesh and Fantasy, Bataan, Immortal Sergeant, The Black Swan, The Long Voyage Home, Three Cheers for the Irish, Our Town, Angels Over Broadway, Swiss Family Robinson, Song of the Islands, Out of the Fog, This Above All, Flight from Destiny, The Fighting Sullivans, Dark Waters, Captain Eddie, Three Wise Fools, Joan of Paris, The Romance of Rosy Ridge, The Dark Mirror, High Barbaree, The Big Wheel, Alias Nick Beal, and Silver River.
John Ireland: All the King's Men, My Darling Clementine, Red River, Red River, I Shot Jesse James, The Doolins of Oklahoma, Mr. Soft Touch, The Undercover Man, Anna Lucasta, Roughshod, A Southern Yankee, I Love Trouble, The Walking Hills, The Gangster, A Walk in the Sun, Somewhere in the Night, Railroaded!, Repeat Performance, It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog, Raw Deal, Open Secret, Wake Up and Dream, and Behind Green Lights.
David Niven: A Matter of Life and Death, Enchantment, The Bishop's Wife, The Way Ahead, The First of the Few, The Perfect Marriage, Magnificent Doll, Bonnie Prince Charlie, A Kiss in the Dark, A Kiss for Corliss, and The Other Love.
Walter Pidgeon: Mrs. Miniver, How Green Was My Valley, Madame Curie, Flight Command, Blossoms in the Dust, Sky Murder, Phantom Raiders, Dark Command, The Youngest Profession, Design for Scandal, White Cargo, Week-End at the Waldorf, Mrs. Parkington, Holiday in Mexico, Cass Timberlane, The House Across the Bay, It's a Date, The Secret Heart, Command Decision, Julia Misbehaves, The Red Danube, If Winter Comes, and That Forsyte Woman.
Mickey Rooney: Love Laughs at Andy Hardy, Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble, National Velvet, Summer Holiday, The Big Wheel, Killer McCoy, Words and Music, Andy Hardy's Double Life, Thousands Cheer, The Human Comedy, Girl Crazy, The Courtship of Andy Hardy, Babes on Broadway, A Yank at Eton, Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Strike Up the Band, Young Tom Edison, Andy Hardy's Private Secretary, Life Begins for Andy Hardy, and Men of Boys Town.
Dana Andrews: Laura, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Ox-Bow Incident, Berlin Correspondent, The Purple Heart, A Walk in the Sun, Night Song, Sword in the Desert, The Iron Curtain, The Forbidden Street, No Minor Vices, Canyon Passage, My Foolish Heart, Deep Waters, Daisy Kenyon, State Fair, Fallen Angel, Swamp Water, Crash Dive, The North Star, December 7th, Lucky Cisco Kid, Tobacco Road, The Westerner, Kit Carson, Belle Starr, and Belle Starr.
Erich von Stroheim: Portrait of an Assassin, Le Signal rouge, Danse de Mort, Devil and the Angel, Scotland Yard Investigator, The Mask of Diijon, On ne meurt pas comme ça, Storm Over Lisbon, The Great Flamarion, The Lady and the Monster, Five Graves to Cairo, Tempête, Menaces, Macao, l'enfer du jeu, So Ends Our Night, and I Was an Adventuress.
Robert Cummings: The Devil and Miss Jones, Saboteur, Princess O'Rourke, Spring Parade, One Night in the Tropics, The Lost Moment, The Bride Wore Boots, Sleep, My Love, Free for All, Heaven Only Knows, The Accused, The Chase, Let's Live a Little, Tell It to the Judge, Reign of Terror, Between Us Girls, You Came Along, Flesh and Fantasy, Forever and a Day, It Started with Eve, Kings Row, Moon Over Miami, Free and Easy, And One Was Beautiful, and Private Affairs.
Dennis Price: A Canterbury Tale, Easy Money, Jassy, Holiday Camp, Master of Bankdam, Caravan, Good-Time Girl, Snowbound, The White Unicorn, The Bad Lord Byron, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Echo Murders, Hungry Hill, The Magic Bow, Dear Murderer, A Place of One's Own, Helter Skelter, and The Lost People.

{I drove across the Dakotas recently and came to this conclusion about how war would be fought in that kind of land. Taking in to account how the plains Tribes fought against the Federal troops in the regions. This is my head cannon of the 2ACW.}
​

With Douglas McArther's strategy of “Virginia stronghold” much of the midwest was left open to the PSA, CSA, and AUS. All three factions raced into the region to gain control of the important farmland. The PSA focused the majority of it's forces to the south, on the Texas and Oklahoma front, in an attempt to gain control of the oilfields of Oklahoma and Texas. The CSA focused the majority of it's forces along the Kentucky and Virginia fronts against the AUS and Federal forces. 

The Dakota front was only an after thought of both the PSA and CSA forces. Both sides knew that winning the Dakota region was important to securing food production for their side, but both judged different theaters of the war as more important to their overall victory. The CSA saw the capture of Virginia, and elimination of the federal faction, as the most important goal. The PSA saw the capture, or destruction, of Texas oilfields as the most important step in eliminating the AUS faction. What resulted is a theater of warfare unlike any other in history.
Stretching 600 miles north to south, from the southern border of Wyoming to the Canadian border, were only about 25,000 soldiers on each side. After the war began the PSA implemented General Marshal's race across the Rockies. At the same time CSA forces pushed westwards across Minnesota. With all regular federal troops pulled to Virginia both sides only met scattered resistance from local militias that supported the federal government.
Both sides met in approximately the middle, fighting began near the western borders of Nebraska, North and South Dakota. While the PSA forces had in their possession more vehicles, and the gas to run them, they had to pass over mountainous terrain just as the snow began to melt and flood low laying areas. CSA forces moved primarily by foot and supported by horse wagons since almost all motorized assets were allocated to the Virginian and Kentucky fronts.
In North and South Dakota were many Indian reservations of northern plains Indians; Lakota, Crow, Blackfeet. Each tribe was split on who they wanted to support. Both the PSA and the CSA had approached the tribes with various promises if they joined their side of the war. What resulted was an almost even split between the tribes supporting the PSA or the CSA. From the Indian youth came recruits to both sides who had learned a tradition of war from their elders that differed greatly from that taught to their officers. The CSA general in charge of this front, Milton Wolf, described the fighting on this line as, “A combination of 'Red' and 'White' tactics that forced the commander on the ground to choose between two methods of waging war. Choosing the wrong method at the wrong time could lead to catastrophic results for those under their command.”
The 'Red' tactics he refers to are those traditional tactics of the plains Indians. The 'White' tactics are the tactics of professional European armies. In this irregular theater of war, both were used as the commander saw fit.
'Red' tactics, to vastly oversimplify, involved bushwhacking and raids to inflict as much damage on the enemy while receiving the least amount of damage, as the Indians fought historically. 'White' tactics were the ideas of well defined battle lines with Weltkrieg style trenches and bunkers.
'Red' tactics depend on mobility and denying the enemy of their mobility. If the enemy sets up a static defensive point than simply outflank him and destroy his logistics, his horses or vehicles. A unit on the open northern prairie with no horses or cars could be left alone to die of thirst in a few days. By driving to his rear and destroying, or stealing, his horses or cars a unit could simply stay out of the enemy's range, but within sight, destroy or scare off any resupplying trucks, and watch him starve or surrender. If the enemy also takes to 'Red' tactics then the battle depends on initiative and cunning by not just the commanding officers, but of every member of the unit. If the enemy attacked with 'Red' tactics then a red force must use the main 'Red' defensive tactic, run away. A 'Red' battle is highly mobile with both the attacker and defender moving almost constantly. In a 'Red' battle who is the attacker and who is the defender may change in an instant.
'White' tactics depend on organized battle lines and supply chains. 'White' defensive fortifications of trench lines and barbed wire, if properly built and manned, were impenetrable by the scattered and small units of both the PSA and CSA. 'White' tactics depended on having a sufficient amount of troops in a small enough area that they could build complex fortifications, or assault such fortifications, in a coordinated and effective manner. If not enough troops were available to launch a 'White' assault the commander was forced to revert to 'Red' tactics of skirmishing and raiding. In the massive, mostly featureless, expanses of north and south Dakota it was rare for either side to have enough troops for 'White' tactics. However, the commander that set up a planned defensive line as the enemy tried to skirmish and raid into his range could reek havoc and devastation into his enemy. Many 'Red' patrols, of both sides, met their ends from the barrels of planned machine gun positions.
If either side came across dug in enemies they would usually just go around them. With the large distances of rolling hills and farmland it was impossible for either side to keep an opponent from simply going around them and attacking in the rear. If attacking in the rear is not viable either then an attacker would usually try to demobilize and starve out those in defenses. With both sides supply chains stretched out as far as they were, neither side was ever able to build up a sufficient stock pile of food, water, medical supplies, and ammunition to mount a Weltkrieg style trench system.
Every unit, on either side, had to move constantly and get the majority of their food from local sources.
It is widely agreed that the turning point on this front was the “Sioux falls cattle theft” that turned the local populace against the CSA.
From the very beginning both sides took great pains to get the local populace on their side. Commanders took great pains to keep their men from stealing cattle or property, harassing local women, or accidentally killing civilians. Anytime a soldier broke any of these rules commanders were quick to provide compensation to the locals and publicly punish the offending man. Troops put up propaganda posters in signs in every town they passed through. Pamphlets were printed out by the thousands telling the people about every wrong doing, real or imagined, committed by the other side.
Both were able to recruit militia troops from the local towns and farms as well as request, or trade for, food from the locals, mainly in the form of live cattle.
The most important thing the locals offered the armies were eyes. A commander operating in a region would often give a radio to a local sympathetic of their side and have them send them information on the movements of enemy troops. In the wide open spaces of the northern great plains a simple tip off from a local could help a commander locate and destroy enemy units. After the Sioux falls cattle theft, where CSA forces confiscated large herds of cattle from local farmers as they were gathered to be sold to market, there was a massive shift in popular opinion against the CSA. Hundreds of locals contacted PSA commanders begging for a radio so that they could locate CSA units for them.
By confiscating the cattle the CSA regimental commander who ordered it, his or her name has been lost to history, doomed CSA actions in the region. With their livelihoods stolen from them the local ranchers believed that supporting the PSA was in their best interests.
In the end it was the CSA's initial advantage and the PSA's initial failing that led to this massive shift in the balance. CSA units had always had much more autonomy, more 'Red' focus, while the PSA units were much more disciplined and centrally controlled, more white focused. This let the CSA forces much more easily adapt to red tactics on the open plains initially and inflict significant casualties to the PSA. However, this autonomy allowed the CSA forces to slip more and more into unruly behavior that antagonized the locals more and more. The general in charge of this front, Milton Wolf, frequently complained that he could do little to correct his soldiers behaviors without their commanders consent. While the PSA began to allow more autonomy to adapt to this new warfare they never lost the core ideas of discipline and keeping with the commanders intent. While crimes were committed by PSA troops in the Dakotas those responsible were quickly punished for their crimes. Elaborate executions were staged by PSA commanders where guilty individuals, often just CSA POW's, were hanged in front of gathered locals in order to gain their support. In the end it worked. The PSA took control of the Dakotas after many battles during the summer of 1937.
When the CSA pushed into the Dakotas in 1939 they had to contend with not only scattered PSA forces, highly skilled in 'Red' tactics, but a hostile local population that would never trust them and never willing trade with them. This forced the CSA to take harsh measures to secure food for local forces at the expense of alienating the local farmers.
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{Personal head cannon after spending a week in the Dakotas. Criticisms Welcome}

I dont know why the formatting added all the extra spaces after copy/pasting I apologize if it makes reading difficult for anyone
In response to:
"Let’s help the Bellefonte Area School District have a better mascot."
Message:
TaiGuey Natiaos Siyou Yuwi (Good Day Sisters and Brothers)
I do not know if you have reach a decision on your mascot yet or not. The most recent update on the website states “August 19, 2020” and seems to imply there has yet to be a change. I thought your discussion might benefit from some different insights and perspectives regarding the people your mascot “represents” in addition to some basic history that, as an originally public school educated mixed race citizen, I know is not taught on any level. Before continuing further, I feel it would be uncouth not to also acknowledge the sheer absurdity that this conversation must be had at all. All that has to be done, to not offend an entire peoples, is change a logo and a name. Even the most basic moral compass should not need an explanation as to why that should already have been accomplished. But here we are.
First it is important to also note without any misunderstanding, misrepresentation, or bias, that the current state of affairs in which we are faced with the context of this discussion is rooted in a multi-generational history of racism, genocide, and purposeful oppression and brutality. The Indian Policies which this country operated under, and openly funded with both massive manpower and financial resources in addition to the great efforts put forth in anti-indian propaganda production were directly praised by none other than Adolf Hitler himself. They would go on to serve not only as the inspiration for his camps and ghettos, but the Reservation systems *still in place today* would serve as the very model for his attempt at the complete division and eventual destruction of the Jewish people. That is a pretty uncomfortable thing to acknowledge, but it is a vital part of the American story if we are to understand it in its current form at all. It is well understood (or at least hoped) that the average American today probably does not support or even entertain the idea of genocide even in a general sense, but it is also necessary to see and understand that in the past however, that thought was not only commonplace but easily perpetuated.
In 1928, Hitler remarked, approvingly, that white settlers in America had “gunned down the *millions* of redskins to a few hundred thousand.” When he spoke of ‘Lebensraum’, as he often famously did, which was the German drive for “living space” in Eastern Europe, it well understood that he had a very American inspired sort of Manifest Destiny in mind. See also James Q. Whitman’s “Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law” (Princeton) for more insight. Hitler praises America as the one state that has made progress toward a primarily racial conception of citizenship, by “excluding certain races from naturalization” and as such, the discussion of such influences on history and our own country to this day are either taboo or omitted entirely. Please keep in mind, the purpose of this information and this email is not to say “by having a red raider mascot you are perpetuating Nazism” I am simply providing a background for those who may not understand the broader weight such an image carries, and why it is inherently disrespectful and clearly rooted in racism and genocide and thus seen as a symbolic slap in the face to those who not only know their history, but are forced to live out the consequences of it struggling to retain their languages, traditions, and ancient histories already hanging in the balance for survival by a thread. Perspective is important. This leads me to an old dialogue I have heard shared in various forms to those who will listen over the years:
A white man and an elderly native man became good friends, so the white guy decided to ask him, “What do think about Indian mascots?”
The Native elder responded, “Here’s what you’ve got to understand. When you look at black people, you see ghosts of all the slavery and the rapes and the hangings and the chains. When you look at Jews, you see ghosts of all those bodies piled up in death camps. And those ghosts keep you trying to do the right thing. But when you look at us, you don’t see the ghosts of the little babies with their heads smashed in by rifle butts at the Big Hole, or the old folks dying by the side of the trail on the way to Oklahoma while their families cried and tried to make them comfortable, or the dead mothers and their infants displayed on the ends of bayonets for photo ops at Wounded Knee, or the little kids at Sand Creek who were shot for target practice. You don’t see any ghosts at all…
Instead you see casinos and drunks and junk cars and shacks. Well, we see those ghosts. And they make our hearts sad and they hurt our children. And when we try to say something, you tell us, ‘Get over it. This is America. Look at the American dream.’ But as long as you’re calling us Redskins and doing tomahawk chops, we can’t look at the American dream, because those things remind us that we are not real human beings to you. And when people aren’t humans, you can turn them into slaves or kill six million of them or shoot them down with Hotchkiss guns and throw them into mass graves at Wounded Knee. No, we’re not looking at the American dream. And why should we? We still haven’t woken up from the American nightmare. (Nerburn, 2009)
To contrast this, and better understand the kind of sentiment that not only allows for a Bellefonte Red Raider mascot to persist, in addition to the historical poison that is wrapped up in the term redskin we have the words of none other than L. Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of Oz, from a newspaper editorial published for all to read at the time:
“…The Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are.”
This was L. Frank Baum’s specific response to the tragic Massacre at Wounded Knee of an estimated 300 Lakota people, most of which were unarmed and many women and children. As referenced briefly in the other text above, this event was known for its unrivaled brutality in which US soldiers were issued multiple Medals of Honor (one of the highest military honors that exist) and yet we have these accounts from both sides:
“There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce, and the women and children of course were strewn all along the circular village until they were dispatched. Right near the flag of truce a mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing, and that especially was a very sad sight. The women as they were fleeing with their babes were killed together, shot right through, and the women who were very heavy with child were also killed. All the Indians fled in these three directions, and after most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed or wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys who were not wounded came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there.”
– Chief American Horse
“I know the men did not aim deliberately and they were greatly excited. I don’t believe they saw their sights. They fired rapidly but it seemed to me only a few seconds till there was not a living thing before us; warriors, squaws, children, ponies, and dogs … went down before that unaimed fire.”
– Edward S. Godfrey, Captain, Co. D, 7th Cavalry
“General Nelson A. Miles who visited the scene of carnage, following a three-day blizzard, estimated that around 300 snow shrouded forms were strewn over the countryside. He also discovered to his horror that helpless children and women with babies in their arms had been chased as far as two miles from the original scene of encounter and cut down without mercy by the troopers. Judging by the slaughter on the battlefield it was suggested that the soldiers simply went berserk. For who could explain such a merciless disregard for life?”
– Hugh McGinnis, First Battalion, Co. K, 7th Cavalry
This is just one isolated example of the kind of history a “red” mascot spits in the face of and enables, unknowingly or otherwise. A legacy of a merciless disregard for life. The conquest of this country by settlers consists of thousands of Wounded Knees. You either condone it or you do not. You are either a part of the problem, or a part of the solution. It really is that simple. We can not change history, but we can change how we react to it and how we teach it to our children. Showing respect and having a dialogue, and a willingness to learn about and overcome our uncomfortable yet undeniably shared histories should not be so much to ask for and changing a school mascot while it is a simple gesture, it is also a very big one. As an ancestor of the indigenous Taino peoples myself, the tribe of “first contact” whose numbers dwindled from 23 million to a mere few thousand after the arrival of Columbus- everywhere in America there are still stark reminders of colonialism, slavery, and hundreds of years of oppression and racism by people who once deemed themselves superior. At this point, a little basic respect goes a long way.
Thank you for your time, and hopefully your open hearts and minds.
Sincerely, (omitted from copy for privacy)
Tau Taino-Ti (Good Spirits Be With You)

Welcome to my little experiment that I call the Civil War Baseball League, where I have created a custom 50-team league—one team for each of the 50 U.S. states—and filled them exclusively with real-life active MLB and MiLB players from those states. (This is gonna be a long read but hopefully some of you enjoy it!)
I will be simming one season and playoffs under the following rules. This post is merely the introduction to the league, rules and teams makeups. I will make a separate post with the results and link that write-up here.
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General Setup Rules

• Playing OOTP 21 in the in-game year 2020
• All ratings mentioned going forward are on the 20-80 scale relative to MLB (100% scouting accuracy)
• All park factors neutralized
• Player development off
• Chemistry, personalities and morale off
• Injuries off
• Suspensions off
• Transactions off
• Rainouts off
• All-Star game off
• Draft off
• 26-man rosters (usually 14 batters/12 pitchers but will allow wiggle room if teams can’t fill that)
• Two-way players allowed
• No roster expansion in September
• DH enabled (even though that’s not pure baseball)
• All-Star Game on (35 players per roster, each team does NOT automatically get an All-Star)
• 155-ish game schedule (I guess the game can’t handle 50-team leagues and I don’t know anything about custom schedules but who cares)
• Team split into two leagues alphabetically: the first 25 in the Alabama-Missouri League and the last 25 in the Montana-Wyoming League
• 12 team qualify for playoffs
• 4 rounds of playoffs:

o First round (best of 5, 2-2-1 format, top 2 teams from each league get a bye)
o Second round (best of 7 format, 2-3-2 format, 8 teams participate)
o Third round (best of 7 format, 2-3-2 format, 4 teams participate)
o Final Round (best of 7 format, 2-3-2 format, 2 teams participate)
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Rosters

• Rosters for each team are comprised with active MLB and MiLB players born in that team’s state.
• Washington DC-born players are on Virginia’s team. (Sorry Maryland!)
• For this experiment, foreign-born players are not involved. (Sorry Dominican Republic, you would’ve crushed this league!)
• Rosters are initially auto-sorted by AI and rarely adjusted by me when necessary
• Teams that do not have enough home state players to fill a 26-man roster will be filled by cloning the players they do have (ex. If a team has one hitter, he will be cloned so there are 14 of him; if a team has two pitchers, each will be cloned so that there are six of each).
• All lineups and depth charts sorted by AI (though I reserve the right to adjust anything I find egregious)

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Quickstart here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tN486yOQwZAvE_FyWpBeONXb3bxUktKN/view?usp=sharing
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Now let’s meet the teams…
Alabama Alabamians
The pitcher staff is headlined by ace Corey Kluber (66) and rounded out by Casey Mize (50), Kyle Wright (48), Spencer Turnbull (47), and Kendall Graveman (47). Some good strength at the end of the bullpen with Craig Kimbrel (78) and David Robertson (61).
Offensively, they are led by OF David Dahl (52), who is joined by SS Tim Anderson (50), 1B Garrett Cooper (45), 3B Shed Long Jr. (45), and OF Phillip Ervin (44). No other hitters rate over 40.
Alaska Alaskans
It could be a tough year for the Alaskans, whose pitching staff is made up of six Tony Barnettes (35) and six Daniel Schlereths (20). Five of the Barnettes make up the starting rotation and the other is the closer.
It’s even worse offensively, as Padres prospect C Jonny Homza (20) had to be cloned 13 more times to fill out the roster. Heeeere’s Jonny!
Arizona Arizonans
Zach Davies (53) and Merrill Kelly (47) headline the rotation, while Aaron Bummer (49) serves as closer.
CF Cody Bellinger (77) is the obvious star of the Arizonans, though among those joining him are OF Alex Verdugo (52), OF Kole Calhoun (48), 1B Kevin Cron (47), 2B Scott Kingery (47), and Eric Sogard (45).
Arkansas Arkansans
NOTE: I initially left Arkansas off this write-up (though they were always in my save). Apologies, Arkansans and Arkansas enthusiasts!
Drew Smyly (46) and Jalen Beeks (41) lead the rotation as the only starters rated above 28. Closer Tyler Zuber (48), along with Ty Tice (45) and Hunter Wood (44) are the top relievers.
RF Craig Gentry (43) is easily the Arkansans’ best hitter, followed by LF Jonathan Davis (39). 24-year-old CF Torii Hunter Jr. (22) will try to make dad proud. Every other hitter is 20 overall.
California Californians
Easily the best team in either league, California has 15 players on its roster rated 68 or higher. The team is so good that players like Justin Turner, Mike Moustakas, Kyle Hendricks and Eric Thames will be wasted in AAA this season.
Their rotation is made up of all 68 or better players—Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito and Shane Bieber. Tyler Glasnow (80) and Max Fried (69) will fill the back of the bullpen, along with the likes of Trevor Bauer (60), Corbin Burnes (61), and Ian Kennedy (57).
It’s just as good on the offensive side, as 7 of their 9 starters rate 68 or higher. (C Austin Barnes at 50 and CF Joc Pederson at 57 are the only exceptions.) Leading the show are two 80-overall players (LF Christian Yelich and 1B Freddie Freeman), followed by 3B Nolan Arenado (77), RF Aaron Judge (74), 2B DJ LeMahieu (73), 3B Matt Chapman (69) and SS Marcus Semien (68). This team even has studs on the bench, including 2B Jeff McNeil (74), RF Giancarlo Stanton (66) and 1B Rhys Hoskins (62). (Alaska would like to know if they could borrow some guys!)
Colorado Coloradans
The Colorado rotation is headlined by Kevin Gausman (60), Marco Gonzales (56), and Kyle Freeland (47). They have a few strong relievers in closer Taylor Rogers (69) and Mark Melancon (56).
However, they may struggle offensively with their highest-rated player being 2B David Bote (46). 1B Greg Bird (42) and 3B Chase Headley (42) will try to help the cause.
Connecticut Connecticuters
Pitching-wise, Aaron Civale (47) is the only starter of note. Closer Matt Barnes (67) is easily the best of the bunch and Scott Barlow (49) will chip in as well. Matt Harvey (29) would have been useful some years ago but is a shell of his former self.
For run support, Connecticut will rely on former World Series MVP George Springer (66) and fellow outfielder AJ Pollock (49), because there isn’t much else around them (no one rated above 37).
Delaware Delawareans
This is another team that required a lot of cloning to fill the 26-man roster. Almost every pitcher had to be clones, giving them two Chad Kuhls (48) in the bullpen, but unfortunately every other pitcher—including the entire starting rotation—is rated 20 overall.
The good news about cloning is this team now has TWO Paul Goldschmidts (60 overall). But Joey Wendel (44 at 2B, 40 at SS) are the only other hitters of note. I don’t know if this team is gonna make Joe Biden proud.
Florida Floridians
Florida has some strong pitching, with a rotation of Jacob deGrom (80), Chris Sale (73), Mike Clevinger (66), Zack Greinke (66) and Lance McCullers Jr. (65). Austin Adams (73), Nate Pearson (69), Luke Weaver (61), Luke Jackson (59), and Andrew Miller (52) highlight the bullpen.
The offense is stacked as well, led by 1B Anthony Rizzo (73) who is actually forcing Pete Alonso (69) into a platoon role at DH. We’ve also got Manny Machado (63), OF/DH JD Martinez (61), Josh Donaldson (60), Andrew McCutchen (57), and many others.
Georgia Georgians
A solid but not spectacular team, Georgia’s rotation is led by Zack Wheeler (58), Adam Wainwright (50), and Brad Keller (49). Closer Will Smith (62) joins Richard Lovelady (53) and Drew Steckenrider (52) in leading the bullpen.
1B Matt Olson (67) is Georgia’s best offensive player, followed by LF Austin Meadows (59), RF Charlie Blackmon (56), CF Byron Buxton (56), and C Buster Posey (56). The team is actually so deep in the outfielder that Dexter Fowler and Josh Reddick couldn’t earn a spot on the roster.
Hawaii Hawaiians
Hawaii isn’t a deep team but they actually had more high-rated players than I expected. The rotation is rough, led by Jordan Yamamoto (42) and Rico Garcia (34), but they do have Kirby Yates (74) in the bullpen to close.
2B Kolten Wong (65) and C Kurt Suzuki (58) are easily the top two offensive players, with no one else cracking 43 overall. Kolten’s younger brother, Kean, starts at third base and has a 41 rating.
Idaho Idahoans
Idaho’s pitching staff required 4 clone players, giving them two each of CL James Hoyt (47), SP Damon Jones (42), SP Cy Sneed (41) and RP Josh Osich (33). Then you’ve got RP Stephen Fife (28) and a bunch of 20-overall players.
Idaho only had two offensive players—C Alex Guerrero (20) and 2B Jackson Cluff (20)—so 7 of each will be filling out the lineups. Their starting lineups will contain two Alex Guerreros (at catcher and RF) and seven Jackson Cluffs. That’s…not ideal.
Illinois Illinoisans
Illinois has a solid rotation of Jake Odorizzi (58), Collin McHugh (56), Mike Foltynewicz (50), JA Happ (49), and Trevor Richards (47). They’ve also got a strong closer in Nick Burdi (72).
C Carson Kelly (56) headlines the offensive along with RF Mike Tauchman (50) and 2B Nicky Lopez (43). Former Indians All-Star 2B Jason Kipnis (43) is notably relegated to the bench.
Indiana Indianans
Indiana has a solid but unspectacular rotation of Lance Lynn (59), Sean Manaea (52), Kyle Gibson (47), Jeff Samardzija (47), and Clayton Richard (41). Closer Zach Plesac (47) is one of three relievers rated 45 or higher.
C Tucker Barnhart (54) is the highest-rated offensive player, followed by CF Kevin Kiermaier (51), C Kevin Plawecki (46) and 2B Michael Brosseau (45). Veteran Adam Lind (31) provides a left-handed bat off the bench.
Iowa Iowans
It won’t exactly be a field of dreams for the Iowans, with only three pitchers—SP Mitch Keller (53), CL Tony Watson (52), and SP AJ Puk (47)—rated above 32 overall.
Likewise, RF Scott Schebler (43) is the only hitter above 35 overall, and I’d tell you more about the other guys but I’ve literally never heard of any of them. Like none of them.
Kansas Kansans
Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore, but if we were, we’d see that CL Ryne Stanek (49) is their best pitcher, followed by SP John Means (43) and Blake Treinen (43), who is somehow in the starting rotation because of lack of options I guess.
C Jacob Stallings (47) is the highest-rated hitter, followed by CF Nick Heath (39) and RF Bubba Starling (35). Not exactly a tornado of offense.
Kentucky Kentuckians
SP Walker Buehler (62) is ready to lead Kentucky, and he will have to as no other starter is rated higher than 37 overall. Trevor Gott (51), Nate Jones (45), and Tyler Clippard (44) will likely be relieved upon heavily from the bullpen.
Another young Dodger—C Will Smith—is easily the top offensive player at 67 overall. CF Jo Adell (49), SS JT Riddle (45), and 1B Adam Duvall (41) are the other hitters of note.
Louisiana Louisianans
The appropriately named Aaron Nola (64) leads the Louisianans’ starting rotation, joined by the likes of Wade Miley (50) and Cole “Have You Seen My” Stapler (42). Seth Lugo (59) and Taylor Guilbeau (56) lead the bullpen.
Aaron’s brother, Austin Nola, will be his battery mate at 45 overall. LF Mikie Mahtook (44), 3B Ryan Schmipf (43), CF Andrew Stevenson (42), SS Jordy Mercer (41), and RF Justin Williams (39) are the other main contributors on offense.
Maine Mainers
In a scarier situation than anything Maine native Stephen King has ever written, the Mainers’ entire pitching rotation will be made up of 12 clones of Cody Laweryson—a 14th-round pick by the Twins last year. He’s a 20-overall player (reminder: that’s the lowest possible rating).
It gets a little better on offense (but not much) with seven Ryan McKennas (who peaks at 39 overall as a center fielder) and seven Treyjn Fletchers (20). The game refuses to even put a catcher and shortstop into the lineup, but I guess they’ll start somebody once the sim happens.
Maryland Marylanders
Despite having 30 stamina, All-Star closer Josh Hader gets the call as one of Maryland’s starting pitchers and still grades out as a 56 overall. No other starter grades out above 35, but Bruce Zimmerman (34) is the closest. Adam Kolarek (53) and Brady Feigl (41) run the bullpen.
Outfielders Jake Fraley (41), LaMonte Wade Jr. (41), and Buddy Reed (35) are the highest-rated offensive players for Maryland—no one else cracks 31 overall.
Massachusetts Massachusettsans
Sean Newcomb (46) headlines the Massachusetts rotation, followed by Alex Cobb (44), who is as excited as anyone that injuries are turned off in this sim. Curiously, the game wanted to use Rich Hill (61) as a reliever, but I thought he’d be better served in the rotation, even with a drop to 45 overall. They’ve still got a strong pair in the bullpen with setup man Oliver Drake (53) and closer Scott Oberg (56). Steve Cishek is also in the mix but he’s no longer what he once was, sitting just 43 overall.
SS Nick Ahmed (57) is easily their best hitter, followed by LF Mike Yastrzemski (48) and 2B Isan Diaz (45). No other player is rated above 36.
Michigan Michiganders
Michigan only has one starting pitcher of note—Matt Shoemaker (48)—while no other starter is rates above 34 overall. The bullpen is also questionable with only one player above 42—James Bourque at 44.
It’s just as bad on the offensive side with 3B Jon Berti (46) grading out at the top. CF Ryan LaMarre (41) and SS Richie Martin (38) are the next-best hopes for run production.
Minnesota Minnesotans
Closer Nick Anderson (78) and reliever Brad Hand (63) are far and away the two best pitchers on the team. The rotation is rough, with Michael Baumann leading the way at just 38 overall.
Judging by the ratings, the Minnesotans’ offense will be colder than a local winter. Only one player rates above 35 overall—CF Michael Reed (41).
Mississippi Mississippians
Brandon Woodruff (62) should be a strong starter for Mississippi, with Chris Stratton (44), Justin Steele (35), Jacob Turner (35), and Michael Rucker (32) joining him in the rotation. Jonathan Holder (44) ranks as the best reliever and will serve as closer, helped by DeMarcus Evans (42) and Tony Sipp (31).
Offensively, Mississippi is OK but not great. RF Hunter Renfroe (51) leads the way, followed by LF Corey Dickerson (49), 2B Brian Dozier (49) and 1B Mitch Moreland (43). They’ve also got plenty of speed on the roster with Billy Hamilton and Jarrod Dyson.
Missouri Missourians
Missouri’s got a couple of Cy Young winners leading the way with Max Scherzer (80) and Jake Arrieta (47). Peter Fairbanks (52) and Trevor Rosenthal (50) headline the bullpen.
Offensively, Luke Voit (59) will DH while Logan Morrison (51) plays first base. C Austin Allen (48) and CF Monte Harrison (43) are the next-best offensive players.
Montana Montanans
Here’s the bad news: the pitching staff is made up of 3 clones each of Andrew Sopko, Gage Hinsz, Caleb Frare, and Brac Warren. Sopko is the highest rated at 33 overall. I think I’ve heard of Frare before.
Here’s the worse news: they don’t have any position players, so I had to bring real-life catcher Rob Johnson out of retirement at age 37 to serve as the entire offense. Johnson last played in 2013, has a career .200 average and a 20-overall rating in OOTP. He’s also listed as a two-way player so what the hell, we’ll let him pitch too.
Nebraska Nebraskans
Closer Jake Diekman is the highest-rated pitcher at 50, followed by real-life-but-not-in-OOTP switch-pitcher Pat Venditte (42). Kyle Kubat (37) is the only starting pitcher that isn’t a 20 overall.
We only had 9 hitters to work with, which mean we had to clone 5 of them to get us a full roster. I tried my best by cloning their five highest-rated players—Alec Bohm (45), Alex Gordon (39), Grant Kay (35), Jackson Reetz (35) and Darin Ruf (33). Bohm and Gordon are each starting at two positions.
Nevada Nevadans
There isn’t a lot of pitching to be had in Nevada, but CL Brandon Kintzler (52), SP Tyler Anderson (51), and RP Paul Sewald (41) lead the way. Chasen Shreve used to be good, but he’s a 28 overall so that doesn’t help much.
Offensively you’ve got some serious big boppers with RF Bryce Harper (71), CF Joey Gallo (66) and 3B Kris Bryant (65)—though I’m not sure about Gallo playing center field. LF Tommy Pham (59) is also no slouch, nor is 2B Garrett Hampson (45). Too bad they didn’t need anyone cloned!
New Hampshire New Hampshirites
The pitching staff is made up of six Kevin McGowans (29), who comprise the starting rotation and the closer spot, with all other relief duties going to six Will Gaddises (20). To quote Mad Men, “Not great, Bob!”
I had to clone a few guys to fill the 14-batter need, but it doesn’t matter who they are because they’re all 20 overall prospects. The one with the most potential is Grant Lavigne (who now exists 3 times) and sometimes becomes a decent power first baseman in my saves…but this league has no progression and only goes for 2020, so that doesn’t matter.
New Jersey New Jeseyans
Starters Charlie Morton (67), Zac Gallen (57), Anthony DeSclafini (52), and Rick Porcello (50) lead the rotation, while Alex Reyes (52) is the highest-rated reliever. However, the closer is actually Cody Stashak (48).
Best-player-in-baseball Mike Trout (80) is the obvious headliner here and will attempt to carry New Jersey along with guys like OF Jason Heyward (49), 2B Tommy La Stella (46), OF Matt Szczur (40) and Mark Zagunis (38). (What’s New Jersey’s obsession with current and former Cubs?) 3B Todd Frazier (47) is the second-best hitter behind Trout (But slightly less good).
New Mexico New Mexicans
New Mexico only had 9 pitchers so I had to clone 3 guys—lucky for them, one of the clones was 80-overall Ken Giles who is now setup man AND closer. Trevor Rogers (42) fills two rotation spots and is the only other pitcher above 25.
They also benefit from cloning on the offensive side, as they now have TWO Alex Bregmans playing shortstop (76) and third base (74), as well as two Mitch Garvers playing catcher (65) and first base (45). Everyone else is a 20 overall, so hopefully the Bregman clones can boost his teammates’ performances with some stolen signs.
New York New Yorkers
The big three in the rotation are Patrick Corbin (61), Marcus Stroman (58), and Steven Matz (50). Dellin Betances also stays in New York to represent the home state as the 65-overall closer. Adam Ottavino (54) and Tommy Kahnle (53) are strong setup men.
Defensive specialist OF Harrison Bader leads the hitters with a 57 rating, although the best actual batter is probably LF Jesse Winker (54). Nick Markakis (46) rounds out the outfield and is joined by C Tom Murphy (50), RF Tim Locastro (44), and Danny Mendick (44) as other notable hitters on the squad.
North Carolina North Carolinians
The Tarheel State has a deep rotation with Chris Archer (58), Madison Bumgarner (55), Alex Wood (54), Carlos Rodon (49) and Mackenzie Gore (48). Bryse Wilson (57) is the highest-rated reliever but will serve as setup man to Kodi Whitley (50). Veteran Greg Holland (43) is also present.
The Seager brothers, SS Corey (63) and 3B Kyle (53), lead the offense, joined by OF Brian Goodwin (47), 1B Wil Myers (47), 1B Ryan Zimmerman (56) and OF Cameron Maybin (46). 2B Brandon Phillips is also here but Is a 32 overall by now. (He’s like the Greg Holland of the offense.)
North Dakota North Dakotans
Clones of Matt Strahm and Ben Strahm (probably related?) comprise the entire rotation. Matt (43) is the only pitcher on the team rated above 20 overall. Clones of some dudes named Alex DuBord and Jay Flaa are the other relievers.
The offense is made up of 14 Andy Youngs, who peaks at 36 overall as a third baseman and can’t catch. This might not go well.
Ohio Ohioans
The pitching staff is deep and solid but without stars, as all players rate between 43 and 55 overall. Brent Suter (51), Chris Bassitt (47), and Caleb Ferguson (46) lead the rotation, while closer Andrew Chafin (55), Chaz Roe (51), Craig Stammen (49), and Joe Smith (46) represent the ‘pen.
Ohio’s got a handful of decent outfielders leading their offense, including Kyle Schwarber (56), Adam Eaton (52), Andrew Benintendi (50), and Derek Dietrich (50). C Sean Murphy rates as a solid 52, while the team has other players who have fallen off from their peak, like 3B Travis Shaw (47), 2B Scooter Gennett (41), and 3B Josh Harrison (37).
Oklahoma Oklahomans
Oklahoma’s got a solid, deep rotation with Garrett Richards (62), Jon Gray (57), Andrew Heaney (56), Michael Fulmer (52), and Dallas Keuchel (51). Archie Bradley (59) serves as closer along with notable relievers like Adrian Houser (62), Ryan Helsley (49), and Josh James (49).
Offensively, C JT Realmuto (80) is going to have to shoulder a heavy burden as the only player rated above 52 and one of just 3 players rated above 42. The next-best hitters are Brian Anderson (52) and Matt Kemp (43).
Oregon Oregonians
Pitching is gonna be rough for Oregon, with only 7 of their 12 pitchers rating over 20. CL Keynan Middleton (42) rates the highest, while the team’s top starters are Anthony Shew (39) and Bradley Shipley (38).
2019 first overall pick C Adley Rutschman may be a star in the making, but I don’t know if he’s ready to lead just yet. But he’ll have to do just that as the team’s highest rated player (46). 3B Jed Lowrie (45) will also contribute, but no one else on offense is notable or ranks above 36.
Pennsylvania Pennsylvanians
Pennsylvania’s best pitcher is two-way player Brendan McKay, who leads the rotation at a 56 overall rating. CL Dan Altavilla (48), Lou Trivino (47) and Ray Black (46) headline the bullpen.
Unfortunately, McKay isn’t much of a hitter yet despite his two-way status, with solid power (50) and eye (55) but just 35 contact. RF Derek Fisher (46) and 3B Ian Happ (46) are the team’s best hitters, followed by 1B Christian Walker (46) and CF Travis Jankowski (another 46). They’ve also got some veteran bats like C Devin Mesoraco (43), 2B Neil Walker (43), 1B Matt Adams (43), and hit-by-pitch specialist Brandon Guyer (37).
Rhode Island Rhode Islanders
EDIT II: I realized I left off this team initially. My bad, yal!
The Rhode Islanders are going with an all-lefty rotation featuring two Thomas Pannones (41), two Kyle Regnaults (27) and one Mason Feoele (20). Trevor Kelley serves as closer because I guess his 20 overall rating is somehow more impressive than everyone else’s 20 overall rating.
The team also required six clones on offense, giving them two Chris Iannettas (39) to lead the way at catcher and DH. Two clones of OF Nick Zammarelli III are 23 overall—the only other position player above 20.
South Carolina South Carolinians
South Carolina’s top 3 pitchers are all relievers—CL Chad Green (62) plus Carl Edwards Jr. (52) and Emilio Pagan (52). The rotation is led by Jordan Lyles (45), Zack Godley (43), and Grant Holmes (40).
Offensively, 2B Whit Merrifield (54), LF Brett Gardner (48), and 1B Justin Smoak (48) are the top bats, followed by CF Steven Duggar (46) and C Matt Wieters (43).
South Dakota South Dakotans
If you were to create a Mount Rushmore of South Dakota pitchers, you’d end up with three Sean Doolittle (60) clones, who will fill the two setup man spots and the closer role. RP Sam Wolff (45) also exists three times in this bullpen, while the rotation has another Sam Wolff (35) plus two each of Duane Below (20) and Tyler Mitzel (20).
The offense is made up of lots of clones of C Tyler Cropley, 1B Jake Adams, and SS Dusty Coleman. Coleman as a shortstop (23) is the only one rated above 20.
Tennessee Tennesseans
Tennessee’s got a deep rotation comprised of David Price (62), Sonny Gray (61), Robbie Ray (58), Dakota Hudson (51), and Mike Minor (51). Drew Pomeranz (55) serves as closer, while Phillip Pfeifer (48) and Cody Reed (46) are the next-best relievers.
Nashville native Mookie Betts (80) is the stud of this Tennessee team, followed by 3B Nick Senzel (49) and LF Bryan Reynolds (47). SS Zack Cozart (56), CF Tony Kemp (45), and 1B Austin Riley (45) are also solid bats. Brothers Caleb and Corey Joseph aren’t big bats, but at least they have each other! #familyfirst
Texas Texans
The best team in their subleague and probably the second-best team after California, Texas is unsurprisingly stacked. The rotation is comprised of Noah Syndergaard (77), Clayton Kershaw (69), Jameson Taillon (59), Chris Paddack (56), and Michael Wacha (49). The bullpen’s also strong with Corey Knebel (78), Jordan Hicks (72), Ryan Pressly (69), Chris Martin (61), and Will Harris (60).
Texas is tough offensively as well, led by 1B Max Muncy (72), SS Trevor Story (70), 3B Anthony Rendon (67), and 1B Josh Bell (65). RF Randal Grichuk (50) and LF Jay Bruce (49) fill out the outfield, while former All-Star and Silver Slugger Matt Carpenter can’t even crack the starting lineup and Brandon Belt (53) can’t make the team!
Utah Utahns
Utah had just enough homegrown pitchers to fill out the 12-man staff. Unfortunately, only closer Joe Barlow (42) and reliever Kolton Mahoney (34) are the only guys rated above 30. Brady Lail (30) headlines the rotation.
I basically recognize none of the players on this team and had to clone four guys just to get to 14 hitters. The only players above 20 overall are CF Brennon Lund (33), clone Brennon Lund (29), C Marcus Littlewood (28), and C Payton Henry (21).
Vermont Vermonters
If you’re a fan of Bernie Sanders’ Medicare For All plan, you’ll be less enthusiastic about the Bad Pitching For All plan. The pitching staff is comprised of six Theo McDowells (five in the rotation, one as closer) and six Rayne Supples. All of them are rated 20 overall.
Vermont had no hitters to add to this team, but that actually works in their favor as I just unretired the last MLB hitter they had, which turned out to be better than having a bunch of 20-overall prospects. Filling all 14 hitter spots are 34-year-old Daric Barton, who rates at 38 or 37 depending on the position he’s playing with solid contact (45), gap (50), eye (60), and K’s (55). Unfortunately, he’ll be playing out of position a lot, as the AI refuses to put him at any position in lineup except for first base, left field, and DH.
Virginia Virginians
Justin Verlander (76) will look to lead the rotation, and he’ll need to as he’s the only starting pitcher rated above 40. Closer Daniel Hudson (50) will work with Sean Poppen (54), Jeremy Jeffress (48), Zack Kelly (45), Tyler Zombro (44), and Tyler Webb (41) in the bullpen.
2B Brandon Lowe (53) is the highest-rated offensive player, followed by 1B Justin Bour (52), CF Jackie Bradley Jr. (52), and SS Chris Taylor (51). Outfielders Justin Upton (47) and Denard Span (45) platoon in left.
Washington Washingtonians
Blake Snell (71) leads the rotation along with Matthew Boyd (55) and Jon Lester (49). Andrew Kittredge (55) serves as closer and be helped in the bullpen by the likes of Trevor May (49), Drew Rasmussen (46), and Wyatt Mills (45).
A handful of decent players are present on offense, including RF Michael Conforto (61), LF Michael Brantley (51), C Reese McGuire 45), 3B Jake Lamb (43), and RF Steven Souza Jr. (43).
West Virginia West Virginians
Due to lack of pitchers available, three Jordan Montgomerys (47) and two Michael Groves (20) will fill out the rotation. Three David Carpenters (22) “lead” the bullpen. Yikes.
Similarly, three Jedd Gyorkos (46) lead the offense, along with a bunch of dudes I’ve never heard of. Gonna be a rough walk down that country road this season.
Wisconsin Wisconsinites
Closer Ben Heller (48) is the highest-rated pitcher on the team, while Jordan Zimmermann (42) is the only other pitcher above 40 overall.
Leading the offense is 2B Gavin Lux (55) who unfortunately won’t be able to progress into his usual “best player ever” in this sim. Two catchers rate the next highest—Danny Jansen (47) and Daulton Varsho (43). CF Jarred Kelenic is the only other hitter above 40.
Wyoming Wyomingites
Unfortunately, Wyoming doesn’t have a single pitcher in baseball right now. Which is why I brought 34-year-old Jeremy Horst (who had a solid 3.34 ERA from 2011-13!) out of retirement and cloned him 12 times. He rates as a 24-overall starter and 20-overall reliever. Best of luck, Jeremy!
In a beneficial situation, Wyoming ends up with seven clones of Brandon Nimmo (who peaks at 56 overall) on offense. He’s joined by seven Marvin Malones (20 overall). The game’s AI refuses to put anyone at catcher, second base, third base, or shortstop. Bold strategy, Cotton!
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In the next entry on Monday 5/25, I’ll look at the Preseason Predictions!