LansdowneSt's Facegen Checklist

[Baby Ruth]

Originally Posted by clarkemi1

Call me morbid, but when I see players who died young (he was 44) I'm curious as to why.

If that's morbid then I'm morbid, as well. I do the same thing. It's amazing how many interesting stories there are about long-gone players that I've one has never heard of. Every life has a story....

[LansdowneSt]

“Yes, I knew him. He had huge hands with crooked fingers. He was a catcher, you know.”

“Yes, I knew Ben. A great guy, everyone liked him. He was everybody’s friend. He often stopped by our house to talk with dad. I delivered his paper, later his mail.”

“He was a real practical joker. Wow! He worked on the second floor. He’d yell out the window at someone he knew walking on the sidewalk directly below. ‘Hey Joe,’ he might say. And Joe would look up and be met in the face by a bucket of water.”

Ben Egan’s career and reputation are little known and remain part mystery, part legend. Though Egan was predominantly a backup catcher during his four major-league seasons, he was an important cog for many of the best minor-league teams in baseball history. He was also an influential teammate and mentor during the early careers of three Hall of Fame pitchers, Lefty Grove, Stan Coveleski, and Babe Ruth. Egan spent about 22 years in professional baseball as a player, coach, and manager. When his professional coaching career ended in 1928 with the International League Baltimore Orioles at the age of 45, he continued managing and coaching for the next 15 years in his hometown.

Best known for catching Babe Ruth’s first professional game, a 6-0, six-hit shutout of Buffalo on April 22, 1914, Ben Egan was a backup major-league catcher, journeyman minor leaguer, captain, coach, manager, prankster, and because of his work ethic, hustle and playful enthusiasm, a fan favorite–a blue collar guy with a heart of gold from the Silver City. He may not have made direct impact on the big stage, but as Joe Stadtmiller of Sherrill, an old coach himself, wrote in a novel published in 2009, individual success isn’t all that important a legacy, “what matters most is the process itself, the impact we have on those we touch along the way.” - SABR

This was one of the A's for The_Game, by request. Some of the pictures when he was younger show a wider face but weren't good ones for a facegen, so I didn't make him too gaunt even though I probably used an older picture of him than his A's days.

[hfield007]

Any chance of an improved playing days Yogi Berra? the one i have just doesnt really look much like him.

[LansdowneSt]

1. "When you come to a fork in the road.... take it."
2. "You can observe a lot by just watching."
3. "It ain't over till it's over."
4. "All pitchers are liars or crybabies."
5. "We made too many wrong mistakes."
6. "No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded."
7. "I always thought the record would stand until it was broken."
8. "Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too."
9. "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."
10. "Pair up in threes."
11. "A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."
12. "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there."
13. "The future ain’t what it used to be."
14. "It's like déjà vu all over again."
15. "I usually take a two-hour nap from 1 to 4."
16. "If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be."
17. "If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer."
18. "We have deep depth."
19. "Ninety percent of the game is half mental."
20. "Never answer an anonymous letter."
21. "Always go to other people's funerals otherwise they won't go to yours."
22. "Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel."
23. "You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn't enough, in the second half, you have to give what is left."
24. "It gets late early out here."
25. "I never said most of the things I said."

Those are my top 25 Yogi-isms

Yogi has a tough face to do. But then, as number 26 on the list one can add this quote: "So I'm ugly. I've never seen anyone hit with his face." I don't think he's ugly but his face is distinct. Close your eyes and you can see it. Those are the toughest faces to do. In my mind's eye, the young face, the one on the far right of the pictures I focused on, isn't the Yogi face I carry in my head. So in the end, I used an older face with the naso labial lines faint but still there to be seen and then I gently rolled back his age by smoothing the facegen to de-age him some but keeping the Yogi that I know.

[hfield007]

much improved over what i was using. thanks as always!

[The Game]

Yogi looks a lot better now.


Any chance for these 4 minor leaguers?
Todd Pridy
William "Pookie" Wilson
Pat Leahy
Jason Tidwell?


All 4 were on the 1993 Kane County Cougars.

[LansdowneSt]

Eight members of the 1993 Kane County Cougars made the majors including Edgar Rentería and Charles Johnson. The four you requested were not among those eight but assuming it's reunion weekend somewhere in Kane County, here are your requested Cougars... absent the narratives in the interest of time this evening...

First up, Todd Pridy

[LansdowneSt]

William "Pookie" Wilson...

[LansdowneSt]

Pat Leahy

[LansdowneSt]

Jason Tidwell

His smile was a challenge. Did the best I could to close it up, smooth it out and make it work.

[LansdowneSt]

This update took a week longer to post than I'd planned but better late than never.

Here's the link for the latest facegen supplemental pack of all my facegens to-date.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ox6gx..._Pack.zip/file

It's the same link as in the past - I just swap out the zip file. It's up to 2,286 MLB'ers and the minor leaguers and assorted prospects stand at 74. There are many in here that are not yet in the Complete Universe Facepack - hence the monthly supplements. Eventually as the CU Facepack gets updated, my zip file will of course be available for FancySkunk to do with as he likes, adding or not the individual fgs.

Here's the table from my checklist to give those who care an idea of how I'm progressing. The table shows players by their debut year (with 2022 in its own row until the year ends). So, of every player that has ever appeared in the bigs, I've hit precisely 10% of all the MLB'ers. That feels like an accomplishment esp. given the fact around 95% of them were redone and those that weren't got significant makeovers.

Thanks for the support. I started this project for my own enjoyment of the game but as always am happy to share. There's a readme.txt in the event you have the FastSpring version and need directions on how to add the files to you fg_files folder. I promise I'll get around to making a Steam Workshop version soon and post here when it is up.

[luckymann]

The legend grows! Congrats on the 10% milestone.

Thanks so much for all you do in this and various other regards my friend.

G

[LansdowneSt]

Bruce Tanner, the son of former White Sox manager Chuck Tanner, spent his entire major league career with the White Sox during the 1985 season. He was the team’s 4th round draft pick in 1983 and made his major league debut nearly 2 years later, subbing for an injured Richard Dotson, on June 12, 1985, picking up the victory against the Mariners in Seattle. Tanner appeared in 9 more games for the big-league club over the year, finishing with a 5.33 ERA.

Tanner spent the entire 1986 season back in Triple A Buffalo, where he finished with a losing record. Following the season, he was sent to Oakland as the player to be named later to complete the earlier trade that brought Donnie Hill to the White Sox in exchange for Gene Nelson. - learningturkey.com blog

I did 200 facegens this month without blurbs. Without burbs! ... I missed some of the blurbs... and besides this will show some of the before and afters for those that like to inspect the work. This one, anything would have been better. I figure if you only want this one, you can fish it out of the supplement pack. So, for the next week or two, I'll post some of the ones done for this most recent upload as examples.

Thanks, luckymann!!

[LansdowneSt]

New York Post, April 26, 2001

MILWAUKEE – The Mets starter today, Brett Hinchliffe, only has four fingers on his left hand and the two middle fingers are the size of pinkies.

“They look like a duck’s feet,” said Hinchliffe, who throws right-handed. “They aren’t the greatest looking.” The 26-year-old Hinchliffe was born with Syndactyly, a condition in which fingers are joined. In Hinchliffe’s case, it was the ring and the middle fingers so after five surgeries, Hinchliffe had the ring finger removed in the seventh grade.

The 6-foot-5, 180-pound Hinchliffe only remembers being teased about the condition at a very young age, because when he became older he always excelled in baseball and basketball and was respected. “He never complained about that,” his father Richard said via phone yesterday morning. “He never wanted to be looked at as different.”

Hinchliffe was 2-0 with a 3.78 ERA at Triple-A Norfolk before being called up before last night’s game. Hinchliffe is not new to the majors. In ’99 with Seattle, he was 0-4 with an 8.80 ERA in 11 games; four of which he started. Last season with Anaheim, he had a 5.40 ERA in two appearances. The Mets picked him up as a six-year free agent.

See the stuff you miss when I don't blurb 'em out. Brett's in the pack, which I finally added to my signature block.

[LansdowneSt]

A few more blurbs I missed writing by putting the new fg's directly in my pack...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Amid the lights, video boards, shooting sparklers and other elaborate props that are commonplace on stage at a rock concert stands a quiet and very tall figure, dressed in blue jeans and an unassuming T-shirt, holding a camera. He needs to be close to action, but he also has to stay out of the way of the main attraction, all the while capturing the poignant moments that will eventually document this particular moment in the band's history.

He slithers on the ground like a snake, looking for the perfect shot. He does this while remaining relatively unnoticed by more than 13,000 fans who have gathered at this Austin amphitheater, site of yet another performance by the legendary band Rush, currently on tour and celebrating its 40th year together.

Why are we talking about the band's photographer? Well, for one, he's about a foot taller than an average-sized man, making it a little extra challenging to be invisible.

And he happens to be one of the greatest left-handed pitchers in Major League history. He's Randy Johnson, a veteran of 22 Major League seasons, winner of five Cy Young Awards, member of the newest Hall of Fame class that will be inducted into Cooperstown on July 26 … and a professional photographer.

"I've learned how to be a 6-foot-10 ninja," Johnson said a couple hours before Rush began its nearly three-hour set. - mlb.com, by Alyson Footer, May 22, 2015

The facegen wasn't bad but I'm going through all of them and figured I could redo it as he seemed a bit on the yellow side on my monitor... He's in the pack so don't think I do only cup o'coffee guys (though they need the most attention) ... I didn't smooth him out any. ... and I really wanted to write the narrative blurb...

[LansdowneSt]

A reserve outfielder and first baseman, the sixth-round pick of the 1985 draft debuted with the Astros in 1990, where he hit .308 in 12 games. Simms played six seasons with Houston, compiling a .219 average with 15 homers. Despite limited playing time, he was involved in turning two triple plays while an Astro, both in 1991.

He signed with the Rangers after the 1996 season and played three years there. For his overall career, Simms hit .257 with 36 homers over nine seasons.

He popped up in my Random Debut game which is driving me to a lot of fg-making still. The deep orange/red of the old fg drove me nuts as he was on my team, so I redid him. He too is already in the pack

[LansdowneSt]

Juan Beniquez was one of many great position prospects for the Red Sox in the early 1970s, beginning his career as an infielder. After switching to the outfield, he was faced with a logjam of star talent, necessitating that he leave Boston to finding regular playing time. In November he was dealt, along with Steve Barr and a player to be named later (which proved to be Craig Skok), to the Texas Rangers for future Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins. For Texas, he was the biggest part of the deal, despite being a prototypical “all glove, no hit” player and he became the regular centerfielder in 1976.

Through it all, he managed to play parts of 17 seasons for eight American League teams. He played in a World Series, won a Gold Glove, and hit three home runs in one game. - SABR

I always enjoy finding a Red Sox to make an fg for. This was a dramatic improvement over the "before" picture. Again, already did him as part of the 200+ additional ones placed in my pack last month.

[Baby Ruth]

Are the recent ones without file attachments included in your latest pack? They look great, so I don't want to lose them.

[LansdowneSt]

Originally Posted by Baby Ruth

Are the recent ones without file attachments included in your latest pack? They look great, so I don't want to lose them.

Yup, those were part of the 200+ that I did last month and put straight in my facegen supplement pack. I didn't have time to do 200 write-ups - esp. because if I get on a roll doing them, sometimes I just want to keep making more and not stop to post.

But for those that need to be reminded why I'm on this upgrade push, I thought it might be good to show some of the 200 fg's that were in the most recent update. All the fg's I've done and am happy with (10% of all MLB'ers) are in the pack in my signature block. They come in an MLB folder and a Minors folder so you need to pull them out of there and paste them into the games fg_files folder. You'll see what I mean after you download it and besides, I know you know how to do it as you've followed along since I started revamping the fgs.

[LansdowneSt]

On June 1, 1986, 31-year-old pitcher Chris Welsh made his debut in relief for the Cincinnati Reds, the hometown team he grew up rooting for. “I had my family and my friends there,” Welsh said years later. But trouble started right away. He walked the leadoff man, and not just any leadoff man. He then proceeded to throw to first base. Seventeen times. The most in the history of major-league baseball. What had Welsh so spooked? Baiting him off first base, a long lead, arms dangling, ready to bolt the moment Welsh blinked to home plate was … Vince Coleman. At that moment, Coleman was arguably the most exciting player in the game. After pickoff attempt 17, Welsh threw a pitch to batter Andy Van Slyke and Coleman rushed full throttle to second base. He was safe. Of course he was. It was his second steal of the game; his 27th of the season. Before the year was done, he would snag 80 more.

From the moment he made the majors, Coleman hit the ground running (quite literally). With a chip on his shoulder and blinding speed, nobody could stop him once he got on first. He could change the entire dynamic of an at-bat, if not a game, by scaring pitchers into focusing on his huge leads, grabbing an extra base off an errant throw and, naturally, stealing almost at will. But immaturity and recklessness off the field led to troubling allegations and derailed his career in the middle of his prime. The lesson Coleman has learned from his unprecedented, and at times tumultuous, career is that “the grass isn’t always greener.” “Happiness is everything,” Coleman said. “I wasn’t happy in New York. I wasn’t happy the rest of my career. What made me happy was being in St. Louis.”

Coleman went from a baseball walk-on whose greatest talent was his ability to punt a football, to trying out as a wide receiver in the NFL, to becoming for a brief moment the most electrifying player in major-league baseball. His legacy is marred by poor decisions on and off the field, but he will forever have a place in the hearts of St. Louis Cardinals fans because he was a catalyst for a team that slashed and ran their way to two exciting World Series. Nobody captures the era of 1980s baseball quite like Vince Coleman. - SABR

Starting with this one, are facegens that are not yet in my pack but will be in the next one which will post sometime mid to late October. I just traded for SB leader Vince in my post-1970 Random Debut and he's on fire. The cheeks on the old one bothered me, so I took a stab at making a new one.