Update on The Legends

[Spanky]

Spanky's All Time Greats

Well the legends are among us folks!

I'm just about done with the 1980's. Imagine that, just a few weeks ago (o.k. its been over a month ago!), I started pouring over the baseball encyclopedia starting in 1901 and now, after 100's of hours work, am almost finished reviewing the greatest players of the 1980's.

How would you like to have Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Doc Gooden, or Tom Seaver on the mound and Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage, or Tug McGraw in the Bullpen.

Of course they might be facing such hitters as: Pete Rose, Andre Dawson, Wade Boggs, Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett, and many others.

So far, my players file includes "the-best-of-the-best" from 1900 thru almost the end of 1989 (only 4 teams to go).

Then its on the the exciting 1990's and 2000's.

While it was not my intention to be so extensive as to provide the possibility of creating "great teams" by the decade, it appears that, in many cases, I have included enough players to do exactly that. So, for instance, not only can one create an all-time "dream team," one can also create "dream teams" for other periods of time including teams by the decade. For example, the best of the 1980's Yanks versus the best of the 1950's, 60's, or 70's Dodgers, and so on for almost every team.

Let me know if there is any interest among those of you out there in OOTP'dom and I'll see if I can make arrangements to post a copy of my file on somebody's website for easy download.

Regards
Spanky

[twins15]

I would certainly be interested in this. Thank you for something that sounds like it will be great.

[asaintsfan]

Confused as to how you will make this work - BUT I am VERY interested!!!

[Eugene Church]

As I understand you, this is just a list of alltime players for each franchise. Each player will not come complete with ratings based on his career so we can use them in OOTPB.

It would be great not to have to spend endless hours editing player ratings.

I just finished doing it for 2000 players...1900 to 2002...took about 6 months start to finish.

I would love your info if it has career ratings.

[Spanky]

Spanky's All Time Greats

All players included in Spanky's All Time Greats have been imported from the Lahman's Database and include Batting or Pitching Stats for the year selected and their RATINGS are based upon their whole career.

This makes for some interesting managerial considerations:

Do you leave in your aging slugger, say Mantle'61, late in a close 1 run game or do you grab an "A" rated younger player to sub for defensive purposes?

I've included 1000's of players in the Greats library - I've even included lots of player's whose status is less than great but, in many aspects, above average. In some cases, I threw in fan favorites or utility players of less than average skill. Heck, I even stooped so low as to include Mario Mendoza! Hey, somebody has to establish the Mendoza line!

Not only that, buy you will find many multiples of the same player so that YOU can choose which year to include in your league.

The All-Time Greats will come with all the players and an an old-timers league already created covering the time period from 1900 to 1929. I strongly suggest that you keep an unused copy of the original league and players file handy - make a copy of it and then edit it from there so as to suit your own purposes. The editing will be a piece of cake compared to what I've had to go through in sifting through all these players and teams, etc.

In otherwords, you would create a new historical league in OOTP5 and, for the initial set-up only, import any league from Lahman's, say 1901 (for 2 leagues); or 1999 (for all leagues and divisions). Be sure to give your new league a name, i.e. The Legends. After this is done, you would simply "RESTORE" from a backup file (Spanky's All-Time Greats; SATG) and 'PRESTO" you would have your new league. Now, you edit from this new league and make backup up copies where you can repeat the same process in your route to creating the "Dream League."

All this may sound confusing but its really simple. Of course, it could be easier if our friends at OOTP make a utility for this sort of activity. That's where you come into play: POST A "I WANT IT" message on the boards and, maybe, we'll get it somewhere down the road.

Regards,
Spanky

[twins15]

I am not sure if Spanky has said anything else about this, so I am wondering if there is an update?

[Spanky]

Legends League Update (08-18-03)

I just thought I'd post this note to let all interested parties know where I'm at with regards to the "Legends League" of All-Time great players.

My initial project was nearly completed as I had gone from 1900 to the mid-1990's before my files became corrupt. This may have been due to a couple of factors such as 1) playing some games as I was in the middle to adding/deleting players; 2) Using the Restore/Backup feature too often and; 3) Most likely because I was transferring the data from one computer to another for the sake of convenience (working at work and home).

While in the middle of the 1990's the my old program suddlenly would not import any more players. I tried everything I could think of to recover but nothing worked (talked about being bummed out after 100's of hours of hard work!).

Well, I did the only thing I could under the circumstances - I started over! Presently, I'm 1/2 way done with the 1970's
and using only one computer and making more frequent backups and not using the restore/backup feature in OOTP (which, works just fine for 99% of one's activities).

The good news is that I've included even more players than before and have paid closer attention to each players "durability ratings." In addition, I'm working a little slower than before on this project but its possible that I may have it completed sometime before the end of the year (there are many more teams in the 70's, 80's, & 90's. But, it will be well worth the wait.

I'm currently playing a league composed of the great players from 1900 to 1920 and its a blast in a half! The games are always exciting and usually won by 2 runs or less. Pitching in that era dominates and the HR is practically non-existent since, at the time, there were no HR greats. Its a lot of small ball tactics and substitutions. Every run is at a premium and getting the lead is a big pyschological boost. Relief pitching is so very important as well as good gloves in the field.

Personally, I can't wait to play games with the likes of Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan, and so many more pitching against Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Willie Mays and on and on.

So, hang on to your hats folks - the Legend Express is on the way. Let's just hope that Markus keeps us old timers in the loop as he upgrades OOTP. By the looks and feel of it, I'm confident he will.

Regards
Spanky

[bsbll_n_mn]

i'm sorry to hear the bad news Spanky, but glad you are starting over

[Spanky]

Spanky's All Time Greats - Update

Good news (so far) ... I'm 1/2 done with the 1980's and the work is going smoothly (at least for now).

For clarification: All the players who make it into the Greats League are taken right out of Lahman's and include all of their respective ratings. The only rating I've chg'd is "durability."

Most players will have a duribility rating of normal, some will be rated as durable and few as prone. I would like to extend this concept to middle relivers and closers. So, I'm open to any ideas anybody would have regarding this issue. For instance, how many games or IP would it take to make a reliver "durable" or, on the other hand, prone?

Another item I want to include is the kind of pitches thrown by each pitcher, ie., Charlie Hough & Phil Niekro throw knuckleballs while Bruce Sutter and Goose Gossage threw split-finer. Anybody know where I can find a list of what pitchers threw what type of pitch?

Lastly, after I complete importing players, I want to set up the beginning league. So far, the leagues will be based upon the current day model of divisions and, at the very least, include
all the current modern day teams. Should I include more teams?

I was thinking of seeding each team with players who were on the teams roster from 1900 to 1920. All other players would be in Farm System. Or, more interestingly, I could seed the Leagues with each teams best or near best season Won-Lost record.
For example: the 1927 Yankees, 1955 Dodgers, 1976 Reds, etc.

The only problem with this scenario is that each team may not have every players best year. However, the player for whatever year would most likely be in the Farm System.

I would be happy to hear anyone's thoughts on this issue.

Keep in mind that I'm including every great and many not-so-great players for each team. Therefore, each team represents its own mighty All-Star squad.

Thanks for reading this memo and let me know any thoughts you might have.

Spanky

[Bohica]

Thanks for the update!!!

[Eugene Church]

I suggest you go to the Baseball-Reference website, find the 162 game career average for each player, then select the year that is the closest to his career averages. Otherwise, you may import an off year, bad year, or best year of his career.

This is what I did and it saved me some editing time when I revised the Lahman Database ratings.

[Bohica]

How is this going spanky??

[Bohica]

Bump, Waiting for an answer please!! Thanks

[beavers10]

I WANT IT! Yeah, this sounds like it will be really great. Thanks for all your hard work and effort. I couldn't have done this. I'm a lazy bum.

[Spanky]

Legends Update

My second attempt has temporarily come to a halt due
to the same problems I experienced before - Lahman's just
stops importing after a very long period of time. Why? I don't know.

However, there may still be light at the end of the tunnel.
I have mailed my player and league files to Markus and soon he will look them over and see if he can help me fix the problem.
I very grateful for his taking up his very valuable time to look into this problem.

Remember, I started importing players from 1900 and had just finished up thru the entire 1980's American League and was just starting the National League for the 1980's when the lights went out. That would have meant I'd only have had the 1990's and a little of the 2000's to go before completing that part of the project.

Providing Markus can fix my files, I will still have some of the 1980's, the 90's, and 2000's to go before the next steps are taken:

(1) Delete all unwanted players;
(2) Delete some of the greats whose other years were way off
from there best years;
(3) Populate or seed 30 teams with players.
(4) Spice up a few aspects like keying in what type of pitches,
curveball, knuckleball, split-finger, etc., each pitcher normally
threw.

Along the way, I tried to scale back and was working on a second
league populated with the same great players up to the 1980's
and sprinklered with players from later era's but picking teams
with the best WIN-LOSS seasons from 1970 to 2003. This project crashed too!

I don't suppose anybody wants to hear about my next failed project? - A sedgeway demolition derby using penlight batteries.

Just joking! If I have to scale way back then, at the very least, I'd look into committing suicide! (ha, ha again).

How about an all girls league with Tommy Lasorda and Arnold Schwartenagger as the announcers and Tammy Lee Baker and Ariana Huffington as cheerleaders? Ok, let's get serious.

I would work on creating a league comprised of the "best teams" over the decades. For example, the 1927 Yankees or 1955 Dodgers, etc. And, I would include players from other eras from the same teams. The major criteria, with a few exceptions, is that a team could only qualify its players into the league pool providing the team won at least 90 wins for that season.

Hopefully, it won't come down to this and I'll be able to pick up where I left off ... having brain surgery!

Well, that's my story ...

Spanky

[Bohica]

Thanks for the update, thats a real disappointment. But thats life!!!

[Spanky]

Legends League Update
Oct 1, 2003

Many thanks to Markus who was kind enough to take a look at and fix my Legends League player files! Not only that but Markus says he's put a fix into the program to prevent the problem from occurring again.

This means that I can resume work from where I left off - on the 2nd 1/2 of the 1980's. Then onto the 1990's and 2000's.

I kinda liked the idea of seeding the Leagues with 3 divisions each and 6 teams in each league. Teams with the best or near best WON-LOST record would be represented, ie., 1998 Yankees or 2002 Angels, etc. Each team would have its "core" players on the roster for that year as well as some additional players from the same era so as to make up a 40-man roster. The idea here is that even the best of teams, in light of the overall database of great players, would have to manage and fight over drawing replacements, i.e., Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds etc., from the FA Pool so as to enhance their team and fill weak spots.

With any luck I might be able to finish this project by DEC or early JAN (providing there are no further setbacks).

I would be very pleased and interested in hearing any feedback form those of you who are interested since once I post the LEAGUE files - that will be it.

Again, many thanks to Markus and the wonderful folks at OOTP developments.

Spanky

[jened]

thanks spanky (and markus too)!

[Spanky]

Just A Note
10/03/03

I'm happy to say "I'm back to work on the Legends project!"

At this point I'm 3/4 done with the 1980's and starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Here's an FYI:

Eventually there will be a couple versions of the Legends league.

(1) The "unedited" version will consist of all the players accumlated in the "players.dat" database. This way one would be able to choose from a number of different Mickey Mantle's or Mark McGuire's or Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and so on.

Remember, each player will have the following additional information after his last name - the year he played and an abbreviation for the team he played for that year. For example,
Mantle'61Y or Mays'55G, etc.

Putting a Great team together will be a snap. The hard part will be to "balance" out the entire league.

The "unedited" version will include great teams from the past with a 40 man roster but without those players who did not play in any games or who played in only a handful of games. Therefore, a typical great team may only have 20-23 or so players from its original roster for that year. The remaining players will be drawn from the same team but from another year approximating the year from which the original team was created.
For example, if the great team were the 1986 Mets (who won 108 games or so), the 40-man roster would be rounded out with met players from the 1980's or as close to 1986 as possible.

At this time, I'm still debating as to whether or not include great teams for the NY Giants and San Francisco Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers and LA Dodgers - say the old teams in the East and the newer ones in the West. I like the idea of blending in the past with the present - after all that's the whole concept behind the Legends League ... "what if this and what if that?"

(2) The "edited" version - will include all of the above but with far less duplicates of the same player. I would limit duplicates to "upgrades" only. For example, 1987 Mark McGuire (49 HRs) to a 2000 Mark Mcguire (68 HRs), etc.

(3) "unedited" version - All Time Great Teams. Composed of each teams all-time greatest players as defined by Bill James (baseball's biggest fanatic!).

(4) "Edited" version of the above with very few, if any, duplicates.

Now, are we in baseball's pig heaven or what?

(Again: "THANK YOU" - MARKUS.

Stay tuned ... Spanky

[Cowboys3356]

Looking forward to it!