SI Article - Page 2

Rowleyball · 10-23-2002, 01:22 PM

I had the dice-based game, but got frustrated with the results being off, so I changed all the proportions and ratios and whatnot. The homerun cutoff was 20 homeruns, so a guy with 20 HR would have many more homeruns in the game than a guy with 19 HR. Once, I think it was back in the mid 90's (I'm 19 now), I saved a copy of the entire MLB schedule I got out of the newspaper on opening day, and then, using the Sports Illustrated scouting reports for every team, started the season exactly how it was in the big leagues. I typed up team pages with all of the players' stats and ratings. When it came time to start the season I had done so much in preparation I was exhausted. I had spreadsheets for every team with every stat I could think of, I kept track of records and hitting streaks, I did everything except trading players. That would just be too complicated for me. Anyways, I started out the season and got through playing about 2 weeks of the season, playing every single game of all 28 teams. I think Ellis Burks was leading the league with an average of something like .470.

Man, looking back on that I realize how pathetic that was, but it was like my summer project every year. My Pony baseball season ended in May, and I did have some random soccer tournaments in June and July, but that's what I did most of the summers. I knew that there was no possible I could play out the entire seaons using the MLB schedule, but it was still fun.

ednote · 10-23-2002, 01:24 PM

I was a huge Statis Pro junky back in the mid 80s. When I spent a year stationed in Egypt, my roommate and I played the entire 1986 season, game by game. We randomly drew our teams. He got the Yanks, I ended up with the Red Sox. Art didn't imitate life. Clemens was a hard-luck 19-15 guy and I could never come up with a solid fourth starter, although my favorite 2-5 guy (Al Nipper) did throw a Fourth of July no-hitter.

Ah, the good old days.....

Drood · 10-23-2002, 03:32 PM

I never got into baseball until I was in my 20's unfortunately. Had my share of fantasy sports games, but none involved baseball. Being a Brit (I live in Canada now though), baseball wasn't high on the list of sports. Too bad because I know I would had ADORED spending my entire summer playing and cataloging stats... *sigh*

If anyone is interest, if you do a search for strategic baseball on Google the second link is a link to a dice based game based off of Strategic Baseball Simulator. (A cool freeware baseball game.) It looks like it's loosely based on Extra Innings, I could be wrong though. What's cool is that to create whatever teams you want, you just need the datafiles you can download for SBS itself. I'm going to be printing out the rules and a few teams. (I have this odd obsession with the 1927 season for some reason).

Perfect for those of us who want a baseball fix, but have to share a computer

Khaos · 10-23-2002, 04:39 PM

I loved making my own cards for All STar Baseball. I graduated to Strat in high school. That was over 20 years ago. OOTP is my addiction now. Some day there will be a game for us to manage the team and actually watch the action in Toy Story quality graphics.

LivnLegend · 10-23-2002, 04:57 PM

My first “league” was started when I was a kid in the early 1980's. I had a fictional Dodgers team (renamed the Thunderbirds) in which I was the starting SS. The first application of my "league" was using Head to Head Baseball, a simplistic electronic game which gave batting averages to the players in your lineup, indicating how likely they were to get a hit.

I also used a dice controlled baseball game I made up copying a commercial game's formula and compiled all of my stats with pen and paper. Years later, I was able to move my league to a personal computer as I got my first Macintosh in 1988. I used the game MicroLeague Baseball II starting around 1990 to run my league. I still use some of the same player names and team names in my solo leagues as well as my on-line leagues. Anyone in my leagues may have seen fictional names like Ned Fargo, Dominic Broccoli, and Slidin’ Billy Hopper, among others, all names that came from years of using them in my solo league since I was a kid.

frozenrope9190 · 10-23-2002, 06:44 PM

I had that electronic game when I was a kid! Damn, I completely forgot about that. More good memories.

I also used to play a game with the Topps Baseball cards where I would compare the 3 digit card number on the back and make it a best of 3 game 'series' between cards. Man, I used to spend HOURS doing that. Don Aase had card 199 in 1985 or 86 and using an last name alphabetical order tie breaker, he was a tough card to beat. Topps was the best because the card numbers were more random than Fleer or Donruss.

Sigh.. Wish I had time to do that again.

KWizard · 10-24-2002, 01:26 AM

LOL. I hated Topps cause of their random numbering system. Fleer and Donruss were easier to collect cause they usually numbered the cards by team and/or player name.

I too spent hours playing Cadaco's All-Star Baseball game as well as their Foto-Football.

treedom · 10-24-2002, 08:26 AM

When we were about 15 a friend and I made up a dice baseball game. We had a 10 x 10 grid, and each of the 100 slots was filled with stuff like HR, S, D, T, KO, BB, ground out, fly out, pop out, SB, CS, etc. For each at-bat we'd roll two 10-sided dice and keep meticulous records of all stats.

We got some other neighbourhood kids to join in and eventually had an 8 team league, complete with a schedule. We each made up our own players and teams, and were allowed one real MLB player per team. I remember mine was Kelly Gruber.

It was lots of fun.

After a while we got even fancier and made two more grids, one weighed a bit more toward hitting and another toward HRs. We then were allowed to have one player per team use each of those grids.

frozenrope9190 · 10-24-2002, 09:24 AM

Hey KWiz, Was Foto-Football the game where you posted a transparent defense sheet complete with dots for players against an offensive sheet that runs a play? Loved that game, if that's what it was.

Memories....like the corner of my mind....ageless, water-colored memories, of the way we were. Sigh.

Stomp · 10-24-2002, 03:51 PM

This is such a great thread, it actually got me to register in order to post after lurking around here for some time.

I used to play alot of whiffle ball as a youngster. There was this one particular friend of mine I would play maybe twice a year when we would go over to the others house. It was so few times due to the distance involved, but anyway...

He was a couple eyars older than me, and I would always get beat, without fail. Well there was this one game where I was ahead by two runs entering the bottom of the final inning, and I could taste finally getting a win. I guess I was quite the competitve 8 year old, heh. Well, to make a long story short, he hit a three run home to win the game and I was heartbroken. In fact I actually cried.

I felt pretty stupid, but he felt so bad he gave me his own Cadaco All Star Baseball game.

I had so much fun with that thing, I actually took all the discs and created a league of five teams, and actually ran about six seasons (of maybe 20 games per team).

With a pen and ruler I made a scoresheet for every game and recorded every at bat, and after the season I compiled all the totals and entered them in a notebook, each player had his stats listed under his name. Just like the Topps cards would do I would bold an entry that led the league hehe.

What a great game that is.

Oh and LivnLegend, I still have my Head to Head electronic baseball game. Good stuff.

GForce22 · 10-24-2002, 04:18 PM

I went from Statis-Pro (my brother got me into it...I used to help him do the stats...he had the 1980 or 81 set and Bruce Sutter in the game had one of the most amazing seasons in history...he gave up like 2 runs in 67 innings or something like that. Absurd stuff. But the majority of the numbers were at least remotely realistic. I started with it in 1985 I think, he got it for my birthday. I took every team and did 3-game series matchups to see who got to be in the league.

Then I went to Pursue The Pennant. I got the '88 set for that, but ended up doing 8 all-star teams because it came with great single seasons in the 80's (guys like Kal Daniels in his big year), the 69 playoff teams, and the 88 set. So between those sets I created 8 teams and did a season. THAT was a blast, and when I really got interested in merging eras such as the current all-time project.

After that it was MicroLeague, then APBA (when I first did a full all-time set), then High Heat (my first public roster work) before I found OOTP.

Had to cut it short...work got busy.

GH

10-23-2002, 04:39 PM	#24
Khaos Major Leagues Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canfield, OH Posts: 473	I loved making my own cards for All STar Baseball. I graduated to Strat in high school. That was over 20 years ago. OOTP is my addiction now. Some day there will be a game for us to manage the team and actually watch the action in Toy Story quality graphics. __________________ squish

10-23-2002, 04:57 PM	#25
LivnLegend Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: 100% pure adrenaline! Posts: 5,624	My first “league” was started when I was a kid in the early 1980's. I had a fictional Dodgers team (renamed the Thunderbirds) in which I was the starting SS. The first application of my "league" was using Head to Head Baseball, a simplistic electronic game which gave batting averages to the players in your lineup, indicating how likely they were to get a hit. I also used a dice controlled baseball game I made up copying a commercial game's formula and compiled all of my stats with pen and paper. Years later, I was able to move my league to a personal computer as I got my first Macintosh in 1988. I used the game MicroLeague Baseball II starting around 1990 to run my league. I still use some of the same player names and team names in my solo leagues as well as my on-line leagues. Anyone in my leagues may have seen fictional names like Ned Fargo, Dominic Broccoli, and Slidin’ Billy Hopper, among others, all names that came from years of using them in my solo league since I was a kid. __________________ Excess ain't rebellion. You're drinking what they're selling.

10-23-2002, 06:44 PM	#26
frozenrope9190 Minors (Single A) Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Aurora, Illinois Posts: 57	I had that electronic game when I was a kid! Damn, I completely forgot about that. More good memories. I also used to play a game with the Topps Baseball cards where I would compare the 3 digit card number on the back and make it a best of 3 game 'series' between cards. Man, I used to spend HOURS doing that. Don Aase had card 199 in 1985 or 86 and using an last name alphabetical order tie breaker, he was a tough card to beat. Topps was the best because the card numbers were more random than Fleer or Donruss. Sigh.. Wish I had time to do that again. __________________ Owner - Arizona Discotheques of the FOBL

10-24-2002, 01:26 AM	#27
KWizard Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 30	LOL. I hated Topps cause of their random numbering system. Fleer and Donruss were easier to collect cause they usually numbered the cards by team and/or player name. I too spent hours playing Cadaco's All-Star Baseball game as well as their Foto-Football. __________________ NGBL - Milwaukee Brewers FAST - Chicago Cubs CCIBL - San Francisco Giants http://www.ccibl.com/ NSBL - Pittsburgh Pirates http://nsbl.ootp-leagues.com/

10-24-2002, 08:26 AM	#28
treedom Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2002 Location: Transylvania Posts: 2,900	When we were about 15 a friend and I made up a dice baseball game. We had a 10 x 10 grid, and each of the 100 slots was filled with stuff like HR, S, D, T, KO, BB, ground out, fly out, pop out, SB, CS, etc. For each at-bat we'd roll two 10-sided dice and keep meticulous records of all stats. We got some other neighbourhood kids to join in and eventually had an 8 team league, complete with a schedule. We each made up our own players and teams, and were allowed one real MLB player per team. I remember mine was Kelly Gruber. It was lots of fun. After a while we got even fancier and made two more grids, one weighed a bit more toward hitting and another toward HRs. We then were allowed to have one player per team use each of those grids. __________________ A rake and a roustabout.

10-23-2002, 01:22 PM	#21
Rowleyball Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Winter Park, FL Posts: 265	I had the dice-based game, but got frustrated with the results being off, so I changed all the proportions and ratios and whatnot. The homerun cutoff was 20 homeruns, so a guy with 20 HR would have many more homeruns in the game than a guy with 19 HR. Once, I think it was back in the mid 90's (I'm 19 now), I saved a copy of the entire MLB schedule I got out of the newspaper on opening day, and then, using the Sports Illustrated scouting reports for every team, started the season exactly how it was in the big leagues. I typed up team pages with all of the players' stats and ratings. When it came time to start the season I had done so much in preparation I was exhausted. I had spreadsheets for every team with every stat I could think of, I kept track of records and hitting streaks, I did everything except trading players. That would just be too complicated for me. Anyways, I started out the season and got through playing about 2 weeks of the season, playing every single game of all 28 teams. I think Ellis Burks was leading the league with an average of something like .470. Man, looking back on that I realize how pathetic that was, but it was like my summer project every year. My Pony baseball season ended in May, and I did have some random soccer tournaments in June and July, but that's what I did most of the summers. I knew that there was no possible I could play out the entire seaons using the MLB schedule, but it was still fun.

10-23-2002, 01:24 PM	#22
ednote Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Ironwood, Mich. Posts: 222	I was a huge Statis Pro junky back in the mid 80s. When I spent a year stationed in Egypt, my roommate and I played the entire 1986 season, game by game. We randomly drew our teams. He got the Yanks, I ended up with the Red Sox. Art didn't imitate life. Clemens was a hard-luck 19-15 guy and I could never come up with a solid fourth starter, although my favorite 2-5 guy (Al Nipper) did throw a Fourth of July no-hitter. Ah, the good old days.....

10-23-2002, 03:32 PM	#23
Drood Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 425	I never got into baseball until I was in my 20's unfortunately. Had my share of fantasy sports games, but none involved baseball. Being a Brit (I live in Canada now though), baseball wasn't high on the list of sports. Too bad because I know I would had ADORED spending my entire summer playing and cataloging stats... sigh If anyone is interest, if you do a search for strategic baseball on Google the second link is a link to a dice based game based off of Strategic Baseball Simulator. (A cool freeware baseball game.) It looks like it's loosely based on Extra Innings, I could be wrong though. What's cool is that to create whatever teams you want, you just need the datafiles you can download for SBS itself. I'm going to be printing out the rules and a few teams. (I have this odd obsession with the 1927 season for some reason). Perfect for those of us who want a baseball fix, but have to share a computer

10-24-2002, 09:24 AM	#29
frozenrope9190 Minors (Single A) Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Aurora, Illinois Posts: 57	Hey KWiz, Was Foto-Football the game where you posted a transparent defense sheet complete with dots for players against an offensive sheet that runs a play? Loved that game, if that's what it was. Memories....like the corner of my mind....ageless, water-colored memories, of the way we were. Sigh. __________________ Owner - Arizona Discotheques of the FOBL

10-24-2002, 03:51 PM	#30
Stomp Bat Boy Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 17	My story This is such a great thread, it actually got me to register in order to post after lurking around here for some time. I used to play alot of whiffle ball as a youngster. There was this one particular friend of mine I would play maybe twice a year when we would go over to the others house. It was so few times due to the distance involved, but anyway... He was a couple eyars older than me, and I would always get beat, without fail. Well there was this one game where I was ahead by two runs entering the bottom of the final inning, and I could taste finally getting a win. I guess I was quite the competitve 8 year old, heh. Well, to make a long story short, he hit a three run home to win the game and I was heartbroken. In fact I actually cried. I felt pretty stupid, but he felt so bad he gave me his own Cadaco All Star Baseball game. I had so much fun with that thing, I actually took all the discs and created a league of five teams, and actually ran about six seasons (of maybe 20 games per team). With a pen and ruler I made a scoresheet for every game and recorded every at bat, and after the season I compiled all the totals and entered them in a notebook, each player had his stats listed under his name. Just like the Topps cards would do I would bold an entry that led the league hehe. What a great game that is. Oh and LivnLegend, I still have my Head to Head electronic baseball game. Good stuff.

10-24-2002, 04:18 PM	#31
GForce22 Banned Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 2,654	I went from Statis-Pro (my brother got me into it...I used to help him do the stats...he had the 1980 or 81 set and Bruce Sutter in the game had one of the most amazing seasons in history...he gave up like 2 runs in 67 innings or something like that. Absurd stuff. But the majority of the numbers were at least remotely realistic. I started with it in 1985 I think, he got it for my birthday. I took every team and did 3-game series matchups to see who got to be in the league. Then I went to Pursue The Pennant. I got the '88 set for that, but ended up doing 8 all-star teams because it came with great single seasons in the 80's (guys like Kal Daniels in his big year), the 69 playoff teams, and the 88 set. So between those sets I created 8 teams and did a season. THAT was a blast, and when I really got interested in merging eras such as the current all-time project. After that it was MicroLeague, then APBA (when I first did a full all-time set), then High Heat (my first public roster work) before I found OOTP. Had to cut it short...work got busy. GH