Born In '69 Adjusted League File
 

There are some great league files out there already, but in case anyone's interested...

STOP PRESS: Version 2.1, with proper managers and minor teams (courtesy of MD) now available at the link provided, thanks to Sporr!

BORN IN ’69 LEAGUE FILE README

I decided I wanted to make a league-file for 1969 that allowed me to use Soxman’s glorious stadiums without the double park effects kicking in – namely, that Willie Stargell is imported as player who’ll hit 5 less homers because his stats were recorded in Pittsburgh, then he loses 5 again because he’s still playing there. I also fancied doing lefty/righty splits.

’69 is a wild year for baseball. The dominace of pitching about to force MLB’s hand, etc. etc.‘69 also sees major expansion – do you want to lead the Royals, the Expos, even the Pilots to greatness? Now’s your chance!
Moreover, ’69 is also the first season we have left/right splits from, and a real bugger for historical simmers. How do you deal with the fact that next year’s historical rookies will be much better offensively?

Now, obviously, this league has its problems. The ’70 rookies will not be split, and it doesn’t solve the ‘69/’70 gap issue. What I’m doing is going with fictional rookies from ’70 onwards, recreating baseball as if the change to the more modern offense had happened slowly. I’ll set my rookies with the following development modifiers:

Batting: -5 contact, -15 power, +15 eye,
Pitching: +15 end

This will import 1970 style rookies. Your minors will be very thin, so I’d recommend a June draft and a preseason draft for your first year!

So, what has been done with this league file:

1 – All hitters with over 200 ABs and at least 100 ABs against lefties and righties have been adjusted for historical left/right splits. This can be pretty exciting. For example, OOTP6 imports ‘69 Curt Flood as a good hitter with good gap power. When historically split, we see he’s actually in ’69 a league average or worse hitter against righties with very little in the way of secondary average, who just kills lefties. In certain situations, where it is clear a player is being platooned (200 ABs against righties, 20 against lefties, for example), I have edited the players down against whichever side they never bat against.

2 – Similarly, any batters with over 200 ABs who played the whole season in the one stadium was park-adjusted.

3 – All batters with over 200 ABs have been adjusted for defence using Baseball Prospectus.

What has NOT been done:

1 – Pitchers have not been touched. I have no idea how they import, and what part getting hits plays. I didn’t want to risk it.

2 – Triples have not been touched. I have no idea how OOTP now calculates a triple.

3 – Speed has not been touched. I didn’t want to risk skewing triples or steals by editing speed when I didn’t know what I was doing.

4 – Players with less than 200 ABs have not been touched.

5 – Players who performed excellently in say 250 ABs have NOT been edited down to represent career performance. My belief is these guys had a good year, and their talent will drag it down eventually.

6 – Talents have not been touched, and remain what they were on import from Ankit’s wonderful database.

This started off as a bit of fun, but I thought I’d offer it up. I’ll email it to the relevant download centers. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a good starting point.

Version 2.0 is a joint production of the original file plus the cracking good work of HR, BillII and TigerFan.

Other thanks to:
dh for stats, HR/dh for fielding idea, Mats for the retrosheet point-out, Ankit for the wonderful database update that meant I was just typing in the easy stuff!

I’m using Soxman’s Stads, TigerFans’s wonderful 50s and 60s debut photos, and JDEWs 1901-2004 Uniforms and Logos.

Things I would like to do: get my hands on that Neyer book MD mentioned and fix the pitchers!

Version 2.0 Update: New Features!:

Fully updated record books (including team records!) along with accurate HOF and career leaders - Bill II
Exact league totals to replicate the 'perfect' '69, and a lovely authentic logo-pack - Holyroller
Schedule added representing the real schedules (minus double-headers) employed by MLB for the 20-team league - TigerFan

Version 2.0 Update: New Features!:
Full managers and minor-league teams (where they existed) - MalleusDei

What a project! Nice effort, Doug!

Thanks very much LL! It was intense, but hopefully rewarding, when I finally get to properly play the thing. ;)

Thanks to the beloved Sporr, here's the file. Comments welcome!


http://www.baseballmaelstrom.com/bornin69.zip

Can I talk you into uploading it to www.baseballsimcentral.com?

Yeah, I should do that too. I sent one off to the luvverly JoeRock as well, so for full saturation I'll upload it tommorrow to BBSC!

Joe Rock's site looks a bit dead.

I really think that we need to get everything up on BBSC for safekeeping.

Doug this is awesome, I can't wait to start using it!!!

Thanks for the note, Brad. I hope its fun - I enjoy it, but I'm pretty much the worst judge ;)

REGGIE! REGGIE! REGGIE! :)

Doug,
This looks great, I had just started a 1969 career solo league. but now I'm going to scrap it in favor of your league. If you are interested, I have beta versions of the hall of fame, career leaders & record books as they would be at the start of the 1969 season.

Thanks Bill! Don't scrap your league on my account!

I'd be very very very interested in those things - I really had no idea how to do a HOF!

Edit: I can't attach the Retired.zip file as it's too large (249 KB), would you like me to e-mail it to you?

Here you go Doug. Add the Retired.dat & Records.dat files to your league folder.

The Hall of Famers are in the Retired.dat file (as are HoF'ers who retired before the 1969 season & where inducted into the Hall in 1969 or later). Also anyone who qualified for the career leader lists are included.

The Records are 20th century. If I had included 19th century records, many pitching record would be completly un-assailable. It also kept the AL & NL records more even. For Team records, I included the whole franchise history. (Baltimore Orioles records include Saint Louis Browns & Milwaukee Brewers items). The records are not complete, there are no single game or rookie records included. Some other items (like hitting streaks) are not complete.

There are two other things I'm not including because they are derivative of other peoples work & I'm not sure if it would be appropriate to include them.

First, there are Big Phesta's league history files that I simply edited out any items after 1968.

Second, are photos for all of the players (exept for Jake Stenzel, who seems to have entered the witness protection program after he retired from baseball) in the Retired.dat file. They include photos from Portrait Matt, Tigerfan, LFJ, AngelInOF, Jeff Olsen, Darkhorse, Myself & probably others.

Enjoy (I hope).
Bill

That's fantastic Bill. My email address is available through my user profile. Over the next few days, what I'll do is update the file, stick your name on it too, and send it back around. This is an invaluable aid!

Great stuff!

Feel free to send the updated file to me. I'm still more than happy to host it for you.

Well, v2.0 has been sent out for uploading, and this time its a joint project!

BillII provided fantastic record books (including team records!!!) and HOF!
HolyRoller provided exact league totals and a lovely logo set!
TigerFan's 1969 onwards schedule has been incorporated!

Well, I'm going to have to start my league again. Rico Petrocelli was off to an improbably hot start, so bad luck, Rico. I've update the front post when it becomes available!

I for one thing that when the file is found to be tested and ready you should use it to start your own Online Historical League and allow me to have the Orioles. :)

(I have webspace if that's an issue)

Version 2.0 is now available through Sporr's link! The update is not yet up at BBSC, but should be soon! Have fun! :D

I don't think I could adequately explain how bad a Commisioner I would be ;) Best sticking to mucking about with leagues, and leave the running of them to those with the organisational skills!

Bump while there's 30 viewing ;)