Creating Baseball Fiction With Numbers (Or: Bill James' AH Idea)

[Coiler]

Found this piece from the legendary Bill James on making the story of a fictional yet plausible baseball player entirely through stat-lines. Although he doesn't use the words "alternate history", he does theorize about how "you can make up a universe with its own rules", such as the 1960s being a hitter's era instead of a pitchers one as it was IOTL. James admits a giant book of fictional stats, though obviously appealing to him, would not work now. I personally don't think it ever could, because even baseball stat nerds would prefer to look at actual history, and they'd inevitably start nitpicking the figures to death.

Me being a big-butterfly person in my own AH writing, I like how he does emphasize interconectedness, complexity, and making it feel organic.

 

[d32123]

There was a piece I saw online years ago similar to this which was "what if player X was born in year Y". So you get things like a modern day Babe Ruth, Negro Leaguers playing in the integration era, etc. That would have a bit more appeal.

 

[Japhy]

I actually need this shit so thank you for sharing it.

 

[Thande]

Reminds me of @Meadow 's suggestion that one way to normalise AH to the general public is to describe it as "fantasy football, but for politics" (or war or whatever).

 

[Coiler]

Reminds me of @Meadow 's suggestion that one way to normalise AH to the general public is to describe it as "fantasy football, but for politics" (or war or whatever).

Interestingly, I could argue the movie The Natural could easily be considered "alternate history", showing once again how often suitable fiction isn't branded as or even considered as such. Note I'm using the movie, because its later production date, older setting, and more divergent ending makes it more "AH-y" than the book.

1. The movie takes place in the past, showing classic old-time baseball compared to its 1980s production date.
2. The movie features a team (The New York Knights) and players (such as Roy Hobbs) that did not actually exist in the past (of course, the Knights, like the less subtle "Mammoths" in Mark Harris' novels, are kind of a stand-in for the New York turned San Francisco Giants, but still).
3. The movie features said team winning a league pennant and getting to play in the World Series-which is a divergence.

Granted, it could probably fall in the category of "alternate and historical but not AH", but you could make a legitimate case for it as "AH as setting".