Finances, schminances -- let's get real, here

[KG Erwin]

This is why I don't mess with finances -- there's too much money floating around, and it takes away the focus from the game on the field.

That being said, the old style reserve clause doen't really work either with 35-man rosters. We need to increase the historical rosters to 50, and get the minors in there, fictional players or no.

[SittingDuck]

Choir.  Preaching.

[akw4572]

I would definitely like to see finances be more challenging.  Seems as though it's difficult to run out of money.

[Claymore Cut]

I'd like to see a true reserve clause setup. Contrary to popular believe, players did have some say as to how much they were paid (although nowhere near what they have today with free agency). Players were known to hold out during spring training or during the season for more money if unsatisfied with their pay relative to what they thought they were worth. Some teams could not just afford the best players, and others were just too cheap and would practically sell their players (or outright sell their players, ala Ruth). Would be great to see this be captured into the game in some way...

[verizon32]

ORIGINAL: akw4572

I would definitely like to see finances be more challenging. Seems as though it's difficult to run out of money.

Try small market teams when setting up the league.
Or edit the finance for each team and make them lower.

[Hitandrun]

Yeah, I love the old days before money took over the game. I loved it when good teams would have the same basic lineup for years. When the stars spent most or all of their career on the same team. I don't use finances.

[KG Erwin]

Sorry if I came on too strong on this issue.  If I played the modern era, I thought about using an actual payroll chart and just set the teams' finances to match reality.

I WOULD do this for the 40s, too, IF I could find payroll data for that era.

Addendum: I found an interesting chart that shows team salaries in 6-year increments from 1977-2001 and in 2004.

To show how crazy the real baseball world has gotten, here's the average team payrolls:

1977-- 1,346,000
1983-- 7,218,000
1989-- 14,239,000
1995-- 33,478,000
2001-- 64,454,000
2004-- 68,913,000 

Source -- http://bss.sfsu.edu/tygiel/hist490/Free ... yrolls.htm