The only baseball sim I've ever gotten addicted to...

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by D-BacksJosh

What are you his agent?

So much for being gracious.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by gehrig38

Ok so I think I figured out my sweet spot, for now anyway.
But before that, how I found OOTP.
My first 'game' ever, was Panzerblitz, when I was 11. Played all day long, by myself. My first sports game was APBA baseball and I can remember ordering that thing, and coming home from school every single day checking the mailbox, literally sitting outside on weekends waiting on the mail.
My cousin and I had THOUSANDS of notebooks with millions of stats, I kept stats for everything.
Been a gamer my whole life, computer sims were the next step. Played them all to some degree but I am a realism fanatic, and this was the first game I ever felt 'got it' to the degree I love.
So my new league, 16 teams, starting out using 1990 data.
I took the Sox, the Red ones...
Have a HS, JUCO and College feeder league.
Here's the funny part, I have news set to entire world and I love it. I went through the 20 JUCOS, 50 Colleges, and 100 high schools and after I got my schools, and schools I knew, I named them all after either nationally ranked HS, or JUCO's, and created college conferences based on the real things. Broken into divisions, but now I get daily news and when a medfield kid punches out 15 it's cool, and way more personal. When a kid from Yavapai gets 5 hits it feels more real, very cool.
And I can also follow these kids from early on. Just saw a HS kid punch out 20 in 9, with a potential 21/16/15 rating! Great stuff.
The big leagues is stacked with talent.
Also figured out my work around with 2 pitch guys.
In the Editor I give them a logical 3rd pitch, guys with good stamina, but a horrid rating with medium upside on the pitch, so they develop into starters. I only do that with the 'bigger' kids mostly (actually only done it once so far)
Enjoying this.

My first baseball sim gaming experience was with Strat-O-Matic. I can't remember the sequence of events, but 30 years ago, probably right around this time, I walked into a toy store that doesn't even exist anymore. I think I was looking for something to amuse myself with on the upcoming annual summer family vacation. I would think the Strat-O-Matic box leaped off the shelf at me, screaming "BUY ME!". I believe Ivan DeJesus was one of the players on the cover and the uniforms were all blotted out due to licensing issues.

One of the guys that was working in the store that day was an avid Strat player, and regaled me with stories of his team in a league he played in using 1980 cards, which was the set in the box, where his ace was Britt Burns, and his best hitter was Bruce Bochte. The guy must have been into OBP because Bochte was no power hitting option at 1B, despite slightly above AL average ISO power. I was 11 at the time, so I probably borrowed the $40ish from my mom and bought the game on the spot and paid her back later. The best money I ever spent because it gave me a thirst for the best sim experience possible, which led me from Strat to Strat on the computer to Diamond Mind to Baseball Mogul, and finally to here.

I had the game when we went on the vacation to a resort with individual little cottages with a whole bunch of other families. My best friend's family (with whom I would go on a baseball trip 4 years later - well at least the baseball addicts in that family - story for a different thread) was in the cottage next door for years up there. That summer was quite different from previous ones. We spent a lot of those two weeks wearing that game out. We'd play it in one of the cabins. We'd play it at one of the family picnic tables. Wherever. It didn't matter. Our parents thought we were completely nuts. I can't speak for my friend, but I won't dispute that in my case.

Fortunately at that time the cabins had trees to shade them and prevent them from becoming ovens. One year the owners decided to cut down the trees in order to address the complaints about too many mosquitoes being near the cabins. Good idea in principle, at least the right motivation, but a poorly thought out plan with a bad end result. The cabins instantly became uninhabitable sweatboxes during the day with absolutely oppressive heat...Which we managed to ignore in our quest for victory over one another. I would guess the parental units became quite concerned at this point, and rules were probably set down about how long we could play inside, which we probably pushed/broke before being shooed out of whatever cottage it was for a swim in the lake to cool off.

We would play 36 game series (yeah I know even number, can't remember why we chose it, but we did) and compile the stats every three games. I don't think we ever required a game 37, because somebody usually won 19-17 or 20-16, but not before there were breaks for temper tantrums, pouting, snit fits and "No fair, no fair, that's totally unrealistic". Call it my first exposure to the cruel, and sometimes ecstatic wave of small sample sizes

Last story before I bore the crap out of you all with wistful memories of simulations past. It was whatever day the 1982 set of cards were due to come out in early 1983. I had skipped the 1981 set out of protest and because I thought the results would be kinda skewed in that strike shortened season (I was right dontcha know ). I probably had my order in early that year like always. Like you gehrig38, I would wait impatiently, pestering my mom when I got home from school every day "Did it come today?"...Wash, rinse, repeat. Finally one day a note arrived telling me there was a parcel for me that had been picked off by Canada Customs. Ugh, are you freakin' kidding me?

The building I had to go to was in downtown Toronto and I lived in a suburb, so it was going to be a bit of a hike. Can't remember if I took the subway down or got a ride down. Backstory: very shy, reticent, deferential, nervous, blush easily etc kid here. In lots of ways I haven't outgrown that...Anyways, point being I walked into the building with my little claim form and handed over to the big, burly Customs Agent when it was my turn. "What's in the parcel son?" the agent asked as he pawed my precious cargo...Gulp..."Er it's a baseball game you play with dice and stuff" stammer, . As usual, being a person in power, he felt the need to exert his authority and keep me a little longer asking questions and I believe he opened the parcel at one point to verify my nervous ramblings. What sacrilege...The nerve...Finally he let me go...

...Yes! Free at last to slither back to my nerdy passion, and figure out lineups for my Jays, who had finally figured out how to at least get into a tie for last place with the Indians in the AL East, and so were finally somewhat worth taking for a spin. Stieb, Clancy, Leal, Gott. That part was settled, the rest would be tough and would be tackled on the "long journey" home. Whether that journey was in mom's car or the subway I have no idea. One thing I can be certain of, is that I would've been fiddling with those cards for the duration, and probably up until bed time. I certainly would not have noticed anything going on around me.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...To wit: "The only baseball sim I've ever gotten addicted to..." started by gehrig38. Thanks for your endurance/patience if you made it this far. This Tolstoy like post was inspired by: "Played all day long by myself. My first sports game was APBA baseball and I can remember ordering that thing, and coming home from school every single day checking the mailbox, literally sitting outside on weekends waiting on the mail.
My cousin and I had THOUSANDS of notebooks with millions of stats, I kept stats for everything." Brought back lots of happy memories. Cheers.

[gehrig38]

My ace battled through a game 1 win, and then a clutch 2 out 3R HR in the top of the 9th broke a 5-5 tie in game 2! Up 2-0 with my leadoff hitter now returning, a day off for the pen. Back to Boston!
Update....
I can't fathom how, but somehow I've now managed to put the Sox in a 3-0 advantage...
The bullpen has been outstanding and we're 1 game away from a WS appearance.

Does anyone else ever feel like the players 'reset' their performance when the post season starts? I can't explain it, and maybe it's well known here or maybe I'm just seeing things. Just feels like guys 'revert' to their early season performance when the playoffs start.
(I'd also argue that should be another 'trait' the game AI tweaks and plays with, post season ability. Maybe a 1-10 scale that adversely or positively impacts their performance. Maybe everyone starts at 0, and the statistics drive a rating? 1-10, maybe even -10 to +10, every point is like some mystical enhancement, or detractor, from their abilities, say 5% or something).

[LeiterFanatic]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

So much for being gracious.

God help us if Ross Gload posts here!
Seriously. Thanks Curt for positing here. You have provided some good perspective on baseball and the game. thanks also for the 1993 series. Phillies and Blue Jays were two fun teams to watch.

[gehrig38]

That's right, after dropping a game 4, the Boston Red Sox pounded out 14 hits in a 7-3 win, led by the return of Jeremy Kessler (from suspension!) and his 3-5 night. The Sox held Jeff Lindsey (he of 180+ RBIs!) to a paltry .235 series, and the bullpen, still paper thin, held the line in just about every game.

The Sox will meet the Baltimore Orioles, who came back from an 0-2 deficit, outscoring the Senators 37-16 over the final 4 games.

This will likely be the only chance these two teams will ever meet for a World Series, as current plans are to realign, and expand, after the inaugural season.

(One question! Do I need to do anything in the off season with settings? I set the initial season at 1990 stat wise, will that update to 91 in the offseason? Stay at '90? I am not sure if I want it to progress or just leave it at 1990, but either way do I need to set it or does it automatically do it?)

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by gehrig38

The Sox will meet the Baltimore Orioles, who came back from an 0-2 deficit, outscoring the Senators 37-16 over the final 4 games.

You have the Red Sox in the National League?

[gehrig38]

For now
Sox win game 1 btw! That same Kessler fella hits ANOTHER 3R HR and the Sox survive a late rally, 5-4.

Game 2 sees it 1-1 heading into the 9th! Boston sneaks a run across and is 3 outs away from a 2-0 series lead! With their closer on the shelf due to fatigue (can't imagine having Keith Foulke say he's too tired to pitch in an October game! Fwiw I think fatigue should be drastically different in the post season) they stuck with one of their 4 BP studs, Paul Rivers. The O's managed a 2 out rally and tied the game 2-2! Into the 11th it stayed that way, 3 straight 2 out hits ended the game in walk off fashion as the O's squared the series at 1 game apiece! (Btw I am torn right now, I kind of don't want to win it all the first year out, but the amount of effort I've put into this team, and how hard I've managed them, I don't think I am going to piss and moan!)

Game 3 was ugly. An 11-8 final indicates a far closer game than it was. 3 9th inning runs made it a 3 run finish, but the O's started early and hit often.

Down 2-1 with two more at the Fens before heading back to Baltimore.

Holy crap! Down 7-1 after 4, after bringing the ace back on 3 days, the Sox scored 4 in the 8th and 1 in the 9th to tie the game! Game stayed tied until the bottom of the 13th when Boston won on Jeffrey Ayers walk off, 2 out, solo HR (his 2nd HR of the game btw!)
Last game in Boston and the series is knotted at 2. With a Boston Bullpen that's dragging ass.

Series is heading back to Baltimore with the O's down 3 games to 2. Robert Moseley ran his post season record to 3-0 with 3 shutout innings of dominant relief from Paul Rivers. A 3R HR from catcher Paul Pierce broke a 2-2 tie and gave game 5 it's final score of 5-2....

Well....They did it. Enduring a last week potential collapse to win the WC, a 2 game suspension of their best offensive player and lead off hitter to start the playoffs, the Boston Red Sox managed to win the inaugural World Series against the vaunted Baltimore Orioles, 4 games to 2! A surprising pitchers duel broke out and the Sox had just enough arm to finish off the Birds, 3-1 in game 6. Jeremy Kessler netted the post season MVP after missing the first 2 games by hitting .393 with 3 HR and 10 RBI's from the leadoff spot in the Sox order. The Boston bullpen was fantastic.

I cannot wait to get into the offseason now!

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by gehrig38

(One question! Do I need to do anything in the off season with settings? I set the initial season at 1990 stat wise, will that update to 91 in the offseason? Stay at '90? I am not sure if I want it to progress or just leave it at 1990, but either way do I need to set it or does it automatically do it?)

If you have updated your game to the most recent patch, then check the league settings on the strategy page.

If the box for "Auto Adjust League Totals...." is checked then the game will automatically load 1991's totals and run Auto-Calc the day before Opening Day. If the box is unchecked, the game will do nothing and the 1990 totals will stay in place. You should run Auto-Calc manually the day BEFORE Opening Day (Opening Day is too late), in this case. By the way, a small bug: if the box is unchecked the header above the totals will still advance and say "1991" in the next preseason, but the actual totals will not change and it is harmless.

Also, I am pretty sure you did NOT run Auto-Calc before your first season since your league's totals are definitely not in line with 1990.

[Questdog]

Also, you do NOT want to check the box for "Automatically control in-game engine...."

[Questdog]

Red Sox in the NL AND a DH for the Nationals?

Is NOTHING sacred?.....

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Red Sox in the NL AND a DH for the Nationals?

Is NOTHING sacred?.....

As The Wolf would say: "It's gehrig38's game, let gehrig38 play it his way."

Originally Posted by The Wolf

So much for being gracious.

Does anybody else see the irony in the man who takes the handle of a cunning predator asking for people to be gracious?

[gehrig38]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Red Sox in the NL AND a DH for the Nationals?

Is NOTHING sacred?.....

I will not have pitchers hit in this sim, makes no sense

I put 16 teams in there and tried to make it 16 close to original franchises.

And ya I am pretty sure you are right I didn't run auto-calc, and now that I have run a season I likely won't. So if I don't do that, I don't need to synch up the next season for 1991, or do I?

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by gehrig38

I will not have pitchers hit in this sim, makes no sense

I put 16 teams in there and tried to make it 16 close to original franchises.

And ya I am pretty sure you are right I didn't run auto-calc, and now that I have run a season I likely won't. So if I don't do that, I don't need to synch up the next season for 1991, or do I?

I probably wouldn't. Leave it and see what happens. If the offense starting getting crazy, use auto-calc before the next season and it will draw things back down.

[GrantDawg]

And I'd take it from that comment that you didn't particularly enjoy bunting.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by gehrig38

I will not have pitchers hit in this sim, makes no sense

I put 16 teams in there and tried to make it 16 close to original franchises.

And ya I am pretty sure you are right I didn't run auto-calc, and now that I have run a season I likely won't. So if I don't do that, I don't need to synch up the next season for 1991, or do I?

Just make sure the box for "Auto Adjust League Modifiers...." is unchecked and everything should stay as it is. Though without Auto-Calc, Year 1 of any league is usually a bit higher offensively than it should be, so expect the league totals to go down somewhat regardless.

[Questdog]

It also seems a bit odd to me that a former pitcher would LIKE the offense getting the upper hand!.....

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Questdog

It also seems a bit odd to me that a former pitcher would LIKE the offense getting the upper hand!.....

Perhaps he absolutely, positively, 100% detested having to bat(?).

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Questdog

It also seems a bit odd to me that a former pitcher would LIKE the offense getting the upper hand!.....

I sort of get it. I grew up a national league fan, and used to disparage the DH. Now, I wish both leagues had it. I have just grown to hate watching hitters hack at balls, or not even try. There was a Reds pitcher a couple of weeks ago I watched during a Braves game. He stood up there with his bat on his shoulder, not even trying. Then he purposely swung the bat at the third pitch, just to make sure he could go and sit down. Where is the fun in that? I would much rather see Manny Ramirez swinging a bat, than Derek Lowe.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I sort of get it. I grew up a national league fan, and used to disparage the DH. Now, I wish both leagues had it. I have just grown to hate watching hitters hack at balls, or not even try. There was a Reds pitcher a couple of weeks ago I watched during a Braves game. He stood up there with his bat on his shoulder, not even trying. Then he purposely swung the bat at the third pitch, just to make sure he could go and sit down. Where is the fun in that? I would much rather see Manny Ramirez swinging a bat, than Derek Lowe.

The fact that most pitchers are crappy hitters makes it that much more special when one of them either 1) is a decent hitter or 2) has a big day at the plate.

The Reds pitcher in question, surely wasn't Mike Leake or Bronson Arroyo who are both very fun to watch hit, Leake because he's pretty good and Arroyo because he looks horrible, but actually has decent results (ask Carlos Zambrano).

If we had DH's in both leagues since the beginning of base ball we would have missed special things like Rick Wise's no-hit/homer game, Dave McNally's WS grand slam, John Smiley's 4 for 4 day for the Reds (half his season hit total) and many more special moments. You go to a game and see the pitcher jack one, you remember it forever; see a DH jack one, and so what?

But most importantly, if the DH was instilled in 1876, then no one would have ever found out that Babe Ruth could hit......

[Matty86]

Originally Posted by RBLwebguy

Come on, the 04 playoffs and eventual World Series title while sweet for me and even to see that first World Series for my Sox in my lifetime wasn't the highlight. It was in the ALCS coming back from the 0-3 deficit and beating the New York Yankees. That had more highlights and drama than one could ever imagine! Especially after seeing the Sox lose game 3 as bad as they did.

As a life long Sox fan, I have to agree (completely understandable that it's different for Curt and players because they didn't grow up with all of the heartbreak of a Sox fan pre 04), coming back against the Yankees is what I think of from that season. The World Series was the after thought, there wasn't a doubt in my mind or probably many other peoples that the Sox wouldn't roll through the Series after what they did to the Yanks.


I also loved '01 as well, I remember running around the house screaming when Gonzo blooped that hit over the infield... make a Dbacks fan out of me for a little while at lease.... As the saying goes, it's the Redsox or anyone who beats the Yankees!