Why did you choose this team?
To put it simply, I'm a Cardinals fan. There was more to that though.
This was started based off the 2023 season. Which came on the back of the 2022 season which should live on in the memory of any Cardinals fan. Not because we made a deep run in the playoffs (we were bounced in the wild card round after winning the division) but because it was Yadier Molina's last season, Albert Pujols came back to go on an incredible run at 42 years old to cross the 700 home run threshold, and Paul Goldschmidt won the MVP. In reality 2023 was a terrible season for the Cardinals with the first losing record since 2007 and a last place finish in the division.
However, this was a lot of hope for me going into the season. We had a lot of guys who I thought were talented like Tyler O'Neil, Tommy Edman, Jordan Walker, and Brendan Donovan. We also had guys who were solid like Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, and newcomer Willson Contreras who was to become Yadier Molina's replacement.
How does this chise separate from your other works?
I think it's been the longest I have done time wise and season wise. I have been able to finish maybe 1-2 seasons of other sports before that are shorter but it usually falls apart in season 2. This chise however, kept me coming back. Probably due to a combination of just enjoying the game/team and encouragement from the members here.
Additionally for me, with the presentation I did with the sim games in the game update, that update took time so I created an app for me to be able to grind out updates quicker. That was pretty cool and something I will remember from this chise. I also continue to use this app on my Seattle chise as well.
What was your biggest hurdle of this chise & how did you overcome?
The difficultly. The first season I played on All-Star because I thought it was the right fit for me and I pretty easily won the World Series. Looking back on it I won a lot of user games that season and several awards. The rest of the seasons were played on Hall of Fame. I did feel a bit of a struggle because I did complete the three peat but Hall of Fame felt better, I lost more games, including playoff games.
There was just something about this team that they always won in the clutch when I played the games, especially in the playoffs. I struggled about whether to change the difficulty to Legend from Hall of Fame because I was able to win so many close games when it mattered. In the new games I have found HoF difficult with my Seattle team so I just assume now that I had a team of destiny in this chise.
Favorite Player or Memory?
Tyler O'Neill was probably my favorite player in this chise. He got hurt a good bit though. I think it was the 2022 season he missed a really good chunk but went off, if he would have played the whole season it was an easy Silver Slugger award.
Jack Flaherty was another good one. I knew I was going to have a good time when he was on the mound. I actually enjoy pitching more than I do hitting. I came up with a whole system of how I select pitch locations and it has worked well for me, I think I got that down by the end of season 1. It allowed for me to give up walks without just completely dominating games and throwing 80% strikes.
As far as favorite moments? I think it was wild that I played the Blue Jays all 3 World Series. That was kind of fun.
The series I played against Atlanta I think was the only series that made me go to 7 games. That was a hell of a series. I thought early on I was finally cooked but like I mentioned earlier. This team had something about it that when push came to shove they got the job done. I hope my Seattle team can get to that level.
I think that's all I got for now. Feel free to ask any more questions, I think this has been my favorite chise I have ever done I think it shows. I sadly put it up just because the game was 2 years old and I had got a 3 peat. I wanted a new challenge and some of the features of the new game.
