There is a moment every baseball life remembers — walking out of the concourse into open air, the green of the grass hitting you first, then the diamond: clean lines, still dirt, a field waiting. Something in you falls in love before you can name it.

Years later you learn the rest in the dugout — the quiet talk passed down from a grandfather who saw the game a certain way, a father who corrected him gently and taught you another. How a pitcher works a hitter. Why a lineup feels right. What courage looks like with two outs and a runner on third. That is dugout lore: not a slogan, the inheritance of the game.

Summer Cup Preview is where that feeling becomes a series.

You do not draft a fantasy club. You claim a real franchise and a real season — the 1986 Mets, the 1998 Yankees, the 2001 Mariners — and manage them as history left them. Then you take that club into a best-of-seven against a friend or against the computer. Every team-season from 1901 on is available. Cross-era baseball on the same diamond. The argument is not who had better marketing. It is who can still win when the grass is green and the series is on the line.

A fair fight

Every club carries a Team Strength Score — how good that season was compared to every other season in the pool. Challenges stay within 15 points, so nobody accidentally brings the 1927 Yankees against a 100-loss club. Identity stays intact. The fight stays honest.

You manage the club — not the market

No draft. No free agency. The roster is the roster.

You set the lineup, rotation, bullpen, and strategy. The era still knows how it pitched and played. Your edge is the same edge they talked about in the dugout: judgment. When to trust the default. When to break it.

Lock in. Wait for the game.

Summer Cup Preview is built for a few minutes a day — not a live broadcast glued to your phone.

• Scout the matchup, then set Lineup and Staff
• Lock your side before the freeze — miss it and the club takes its defaults
• Games publish on a schedule (Eastern clock) — you wait for the game, then read the box, the key moments, and the summary

Depth you can hold in your hand. The thrill is opening the game when it drops — not watching every pitch unfold in real time.

The road ahead

The prize in the full products is the Summer Cup. Preview is the short form that teaches the rhythm first: one series, seven games, real clubs, real judgment.

• Franchise Apex — claim a franchise-season and take it into a full league across eras (opens December 2, 2026)
• Clash of Titans — draft peak player-seasons from every era and build the club yourself (opens Spring 2027)

An early look — with sharp eyes welcome

This is an early version. A few surfaces are still unfinished and a few numbers are still being tuned. That is why you are here — if something does not look like baseball to you, we want to hear about it.

Read the Manager's Guide when you want the full walkthrough. Or pick a club and start a series.

Summer Cup Preview is free to play.