[big8dog88]

For those who are putting together all-time fantasy leagues and want to import Negro League players, you should know that pretty much everyone who ever played in the Negro Leagues is in this game. However, some players are much harder to find than others. In this thread, I hope to remove much of that difficulty, I learned mostly through trial and error, if there is another thread that explains it in a concise, non-Excel expert sort-of way, I couldn't find it. So here is how I go about doing it.

Many of you probably already know much of the following, but I want to bring everybody up to speed, so bear with me. First, pull up Baseball-Reference on your web browser and find the page of the player you want. Then in the game click League Transaction > Free Agents > Actions > Import Historical Player(s).
Select historical_database.odb and confirm.

At this point, I will present three options to find the player you want. First, enter the season year you want to use (you can do this second as well, just don't forget to do it) Then enter the player's BBRef major league (Lahman) ID. You can find this in the address box of your player's page, it's found just before .shtml. Usually it's the first five letters of the players last name, followed by the first two letters of his first name, followed by a two digit number (often 01). If the ID in the box is radically different from this pattern, it's probably the player's minor league ID*, more on that next. I would recommend unchecking the "Include Player(s) in minor league database" box here, it will work either way, but it's faster if that box is unchecked. Click "Import Player". If it works you're done, if not...

The player's major league ID didn't work. So now we'll try his minor league ID. Go to BBRef. On that page, above the player's stats, click "Show Non-Major". This will send you to the player's minor league page. His minor league ID is found in the address box at the end after "id=" This is usually the first six letters of his last name (with dashes filling in the space if his name is short^), followed by a three digit number, follwed by the first three letters of his first name (again, with dashes filling in space if necessary). So now, again click "actions" and "Import historical player(s)", and again select "historical_database.osb" and confirm. Reenter your year, and this time, be sure to check the "Include player(s) in minor league database" box, this is very important. Now enter the player's minor league ID (don't forget to include the dashes if necessary) If it works, great, if not, I'll present the third option.

The third option is what this thread is about. Some players have a code that's exclusive to the game and not found on Baseball-Reference. Usually these players replace the middle three numbers with "049". So check the following list to see if your player's name is on it, and if it is, repeat the steps to get to the import box, again reenter the year and make sure the "include minor league database" box is checked (very important), and this time, enter the id provided.

If this doesn't work, your last recourse is to save the game and create a new historic game from the year of the player you want to import. Play that game in commisioner mode, find the player, click "Editor", and find the box that says "Historical Minors ID". This is the code that is in the game and will work. If you have to do this, you may post the id you found here and save the next person some work. Go back to the original game you want import into, and go to the import box and use that code, again, make sure the date is correct and the "Include minors" box is checked (very important).

Anyway, here is the list of players who have, or at one time had the code with the "049" in it. My source for this list is rather old, so definitely do the first two steps before using it. I've excluded players identified as "Ballplayer" or with a single initial. I've copied this from an Excel spreadsheet, the format is Last Name, First Name, Nickname (when applicable) and ID. Please note, if you find the imported player ratings less than satisfactory, that's a completely different issue than I'm covering here.

* Example, Oscar Charleston: Major League ID: charlos99; Minor League ID: charle001osc; Theoretical Game ID: charle049osc.
^ Cool Papa Bell has four letters in his last name, his minor league ID is bell--001coo, with 2 dashes bringing the number of characters to six.

Aballi Gabriel aballi049gab
Abbott Jim abbott049jim
Abreu Jose abreu049jos
Abreu Juan abreu049jua
Abreu Ramon abreu049ram
Acosta Agustin acosta049agu
Acosta Jose Acostica acosta049jos
Acosta Pedro acosta049ped
Addison Tom addiso049tom
Alegret Felix alegre049fel
Alexander Buck alexan049buc
Alexander Chuffy alexan049chu
Alexander Hub alexan049hub
Alfonso Lorenzo alfons049lor
Allen Cliney allen049cli
Allen Half Pint pint a049hal
Allen Hap allen049hap
Allen Major allen049maj
Alonso Jose alonso049jos
Alvarez Raul alvare049rau
Anderson Robert anders049rob
Andrews Jabbo andrew049jab
Andrews Pop andrew049pop
Aragon Angel Pete aragon049ang
Arango Pedro Luis arango049ped
Arbelo Nicolas arbelo049nic
Arcano Alfredo arcano049alf
Archer Luke archer049luk
Armas Felipe armas049fel
Armenteros Juan arment049jua
Armenteros Pablo arment049pab
Armstrong Mule Army armstr049mul
Arnold Paul Sonny arnold049pau
Arriola Nicolas arriol049nic
Arumis Joaquin arumis049joa
Aruz Ernesto aruz049ern
Atan Raul atan049rau