LansdowneSt's Facegen Checklist

[LansdowneSt]

Just a note that I redid the Oscar Mercado fg to smooth out the face a little so the after screenshot and the fg file are newly posted, so to the half dozen folks that got it hot off the presses, you might prefer the revised one. Thanks!

[LansdowneSt]

Yankees pitching prospect Phillip Diehl, who is 24 and could pass for a 16-year-old bat boy, has been teased all spring about how young he looks. “They say I look like a kid,” the lefty reliever said. He’s also the only player who wears glasses. His pitching has opened eyes, too. Diehl has good baseball roots, as he’s a Cincinnati native who attended Moeller High, the alma mater of Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Larkin. He also has a famous athlete as a cousin, and he bragged that he once beat women’s soccer gold medalist Heather Mitts in cornhole. “I’m going places,” Diehl said with a laugh. – NJ.com, covering 2019 Spring Training

He's since been traded then claimed off waivers, currently playing in his hometown Reds’ system.

Redid the facegen.

EDIT: Turns out Phillip has the honor of being the 900th MLB fg I've posted on the forum. As there are also 21 that I've done QA/QC on for my files and my tweaks were so incremental that I didn't post them, that brings me to 921 total or about 4.101% of the 22,457 MLB'ers in Baseball-Reference's Stathead search for every player. That does and doesn't seem like a lot. Of those 921, I've tagged about 50 to go back and look at. "Double check the coloring"... "Is the face to 'heavy'" - that kind of thing - so I'll go back and look at those with fresh eyes some time. Too many others to get to first. Thanks to everyone that takes an interest in growing and improving the CU Facepack. It's nice to give back something to the great OOTP community.

[Scipio Africanus]

The facegen folder has over 52,000 files in it. Who are all those other guys? Minor league players?

[LansdowneSt]

I think a lot of them are the old naming convention. A great many were hand-me down facegens that FancySkunk inherited when others quit the CU Facepack effort and so those fg's are just duplicates that don't even correctly tag to a player anymore. Following silvam14's work here: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=330868 led me to believe that while a lot of them can be corrected - the value of those corrections isn't worth the pain as many are just zombies. In that thread, Lukas confirms which naming convention is correct and it's the one I post.

When I decided to do a wholesale QA/QC on my fg's and post the ones I redo, I didn't just make a checklist to track the ones I had done, I committed myself to one man, one facegen. Also, while I load MLB, minor and foreign facegens into one fg_files pack for gameplay, my off-line storage of the fg's segregates those players out so that my MLB fg folder should have precisely 22,457 files less those without pictures to work off of (adding new debuts each year). Though admittedly, at the moment, that MLB folder has only 921 fg's in it.

The problem with those duplicates is that every install of the CU Facepack reinstalls any that you may have deleted. That reinstall/duplication issue is why I decided to build up instead of tear down when it came to my fg revamp effort.

[Scipio Africanus]

Thanks for the info, and for all the work you're doing here.

[LansdowneSt]

[Let’s talk] about the incomparable Tony Suck. To be fair to Mr. Suck, his name didn’t have the negative meaning that it does today. Whatever his name’s connotation, Suck truly…well, sucked. He was born Anthony Charles Zuck in 1858 (for context that’s only a few days before the town of Denver, Colorado was founded). Why Zuck’s name later became Suck remains a mystery.

He was primarily a catcher, shortstop and center fielder. His first National League appearance was with the 1883 Buffalo Bisons in September of that season. It was a club that featured no less than four future Hall of Famers but Suck got into only eight games that season, going hitless in seven official at-bats. In September of ’83, the Union Association was formed, to begin play in 1884. Suck jumped to the new rival circuit, which wasn’t big league caliber at all, which may partly explain why Suck was able to find employment in it. Baseball-Reference.com considers the Union Association to be a major league, and thus his UA numbers are included in Suck’s final big-league numbers: a .151 batting average in 58 games, a .205 on-base percentage, and a .161 slugging percentage. Totals for RBIs are unavailable, but we can reasonably assume Suck didn’t have very many of them (although he did score 21 runs). Suck’s lifetime minor league stats are even worse, as he batted a nifty .120 (12-100) with no home runs in 30 games. – seamheads.com

There was a single photo available and that’s what I used for the fg. The before was one of those “fake” fgs.

[LansdowneSt]

Herb Goodall holds the record for most at-bats in a career in which the batter hit .400 or better. He collected 19 hits in 45 at-bats for the1890 Louisville Colonels, for a .423 batting average. He did that while also going 8-5 with a 3.39 ERA (115 ERA+) as a pitcher.

Redid the facegen. The only picture was this wood cut/sketch. Did what I could to smooth out some of the lines and still keep the mustache. In the game, it looks better than I thought it would.

[LansdowneSt]

Tanner Roark made the majors in 2013, one year after leading the minors in losses. After going 15-10 the next year, it looked like he would be a member of the team's rotation for years to come, but Washington went out and signed free agent Max Scherzer before the 2015 season. With Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, Stephen Strasburg and Doug Fister still around, Roark was the odd man out. He became a versatile member of the bullpen before returning to the rotation in 2016, finishing 10th in the NL CY Young Award voting. After the 2018 season, the Nats traded him to the Reds who in turn traded him to the A's. Commenting on the trade from Cincinatti, Roark said "I wanted a Beef 'n Cheddar.... and I got traded instead" as he was sitting in an Arby's drive-thru when he learned of the trade. Thereafter he signed a two-year deal with Toronto but struggled in 2020 and 2021.

The existing facegen for Roark is innocuous enough, it's just one of those comes-with-the-game smiling ones. So, consider my fg as simply an alternative.

[LansdowneSt]

Don Hopkins, an outfielder by trade, got into 85 big-league ballgames in 1975 and 1976. He made just eight plate appearances and played 10 innings in the field. Yet he scored 25 runs and stole 21 bases. How did he compile such bizarre statistics? He was the third of Charlie Finley’s “designated runners” with the Oakland A’s. The former high-school track star was built like a racehorse — as A’s beat writer Ron Bergman described him, “at 6-1 and 175 pounds, Hopkins’ legs seem to grow right out of his chest.”

Not long after the ’76 season ended, Hopkins’ hometown newspaper, the Benton Harbor News-Palladium, interviewed him. He looked forward to the upcoming AL expansion draft, thinking that both new clubs, Seattle and Toronto, would be looking for speed. He thought that he’d had a “pretty decent season” at Tucson and shown the scouts what he could do. Still just 24, he hoped that he had many years ahead in baseball. He expressed a goal of getting in enough time for his pension (the minimum then was four years). He concluded by saying, “Just being in the big leagues at all is a dream come true. Even if I don’t play anymore, at least I can say I made it.” Neither expansion team selected Hopkins, and 1977 turned out to be his last season in pro baseball. In 2018, looking back at his career, he said with a chuckle, “They said I couldn’t hit. Well, I pinch-hit for some of the best, like Billy Williams, and against some of the best, like Ferguson Jenkins. The whole experience was exciting to me.” - SABR

Redid the facegen.

[AESP_pres]

Last one was Larry Lintz right? The guy scored 72 times with an average of .214 with my Expos in 1974, is OBP was .347 and when he reached first base it was almost a double everytime since he stole a base 72 times

[LansdowneSt]

". . . New York could not do anything with Ging, a new try from the New London Club, of the Connecticut League. Few newcomers ever made a better debut than Pitcher Ging. A few jokes were cracked about his name . . . but he clearly showed there was nothing in a name by the work he did. He . . . mixed up his balls in a commendable style. . . Boston had an option on this man but failed to avail itself of it... There are few opportunities offered nowadays to get such men as Ging for the modest price of $200. If he enters fast company and does not do well it will be a great surprise to many." - the assessment of Sporting Life's Boston correspondent in the October 7, 1899 issue

It's hard to fault Billy Ging for his performance. He appeared in one major league game, on September 25, 1899, with the Boston Beaneaters and went 8 innings, giving up only one run. That gave him an ERA of 1.13. He continued to play in the minors through 1905. - bRef Bullpen wiki

Redid the facegen. The "before" fg from the CU Facepack is one of those fake pics tied to so many one-and-done 19th c. players. The pic I used was the revised one posted down below in the thread. If you were one of the first to download this one (sans mustache), redownload this one. Thanks

[LansdowneSt]

Originally Posted by AESP_pres

Last one was Larry Lintz right? The guy scored 72 times with an average of .214 with my Expos in 1974, is OBP was .347 and when he reached first base it was almost a double everytime since he stole a base 72 times

Yes, but don't forget Matt Alexander

[LansdowneSt]

Duluth, Minnesota native, Jerry Ujdur rode a strong right arm to his high school baseball team as an 8th-grader and then on to mound for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. The All-Big-10 pitcher then signed a professional contract with the Detroit Tigers who selected him in the 4th round of the 1978 draft. His career was short. He pitched 5 years going 12-16 with a 4.78 ERA (85 ERA+). He was a starter for the 1982 Tigers going 10-10 but his favorite story was of his duels with Reggie Jackson. Facing his childhood idol, he struck him out and in two complete games versus the Yankees he never gave a home run to Mr. October. - Duluth News Tribune

I started this one just to dilute the pink in the face and ended up redoing the facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

‘If you don’t like Dave Rucker, you don’t like ice cream,” - Sparky Anderson

Rucker pitched for the Tigers for three years before being traded away in 1983 to the Cardinals. He pitched extremely well for the Cards in '84 going 2-3 with a 2.10 ERA (167 ERA+) while his old mates rolled to a World Series victory. In 1985 he was traded to the Phillies. Overall, the reliever finished with a 16-20 record with a single save.

Redid the facegen. The coloring is better in the game than looking at my fg close-up. Does he not look a little like hopper from Stanger Things on Netflix? Is it just me? Am I crazy? [shakes head as has been staring at faces too long]

[LansdowneSt]

Sim Bullas had a brief professional baseball career in the United States in his early 20s, the peak of which was a 13-game spell with the American Association’s Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884 as a catcher. By the late 1880s, it seemed that Bullas’s prospects for a return to pro ball were limited indeed. But while he did not play again professionally in the States, a fortuitous link to a wealthy English industrialist led to a brief but fascinating foray into paid baseball overseas.

Of note from Bullas’s time in Toledo is that another catcher making his debut in the majors with the Blue Stockings that year was African-American Moses Fleetwood Walker. After the 1884 season, it would be more than six decades until the big-league color barrier was broken again, by Jackie Robinson.

By the late 1880s Bullas was working as a metal molder in a foundry in Cleveland. In March 1890, the management at the foundry received a letter from an industry partner named Francis Ley, who operated a malleable castings factory in Derby, England. Ley had written to them to ask that any two men who could work and play baseball be transferred from the Cleveland plant to his works in Derby in order to continue with their trade and also play for his new English baseball team. The gutsy catcher finished with a batting average of .279 in 118 at-bats; his hits comprised 23 singles, nine doubles, and a triple. Ley honored players’ contracts up to September 1, and they were said to have been kept on with good jobs in the factory.

At the close of the British pro baseball season, Sim Bullas returned to the United States, and by mid-September he was reported to have joined an amateur team in Cleveland. As a player, Bullas was described as “the life of [the Derby] team,” and he was remembered in the town for some time after his departure. In March 1891, for instance, Bryan wrote that Bullas was “asked about every day,” with his friends being “legion.” Sadly, Bullas lived only into his mid-40s, passing away in Cleveland in January 1908. - SABR

Redid the facegen. The "before" is that same darn face...

[cinemaodyssey]

Here's another option for Ging that is clearer. It's a family cabinet photo of him.

[LansdowneSt]

Originally Posted by cinemaodyssey

Here's another option for Ging that is clearer. It's a family cabinet photo of him.

Thanks!! I'll mock that one up and swap it out with the one above. About to post another photo/facegen I got from you on the Photopack thread...

[LansdowneSt]

"Billy Annis, of the Providence Grays, is one of the most popular ball players now before the public." - Sporting Life, July 4, 1891

Bill Annis was the fourth outfielder on the 1884 Boston Beaneaters. He played in 27 games as an outfielder for the Beaneaters, collecting 17 hits in 96 at bats for a .177 batting average. He played for several minor league teams from 1885 to 1892. - bRef Bullpen wiki

Redid the facegen. Thanks to the thread next door for the photo

[Scipio Africanus]

Is it just me or do the last 4 guys you posted have very green eyes?

[LansdowneSt]

I see it too, Scipio. It's not the facegen. It's the OOTP game.

Go to picture functions in the editor (the same place you refresh the fg or add facial hair) and look at the toggle for eye color. That's the cause. The facegen eyes actually go away in the game and swap out with "OOTP eyes". That's why sunglass people look like raccoons - because the OOTP game adds white eyes of some color per that selection box in the spot where the fg eyes would be.