Complete Universe Facegen Pack

[LansdowneSt]

Like most local Puerto Rican youths in his day, Henry grew up playing baseball. The Los Angeles Dodgers signed the outfielder in 1970, but it was in the local amateur league where Cuban scout Corito Varona spotted the prospect. “A lot of scouts saw me and invited me to workouts. But Corito was the one who said, ‘I’ll sign you.’ I said, ‘OK, if you’ve got the money!’ It was $15,000. Cruz was called up after Juan Marichal [the Dodger! I forgot that - Ed.] retired and two Dodger outfielders got hurt. Although Cruz generally performed well in backup duty, the Dodgers were desperate for more power. In 1976, Cruz made the Opening Day roster. Overall, though, Henry was still relegated to spot duty and his hitting suffered. In 1977 he was claimed by the White Sox.

His last major-league appearance came on July 30, 1978 leaving him with career totals of 8 homers, 34 RBI, and a .229 average in 280 at-bats over 171 games. He drew 25 walks, lifting his on-base average to .291, and stole just one base while getting caught four times. “‘I didn’t have the chance I was looking for,’ Cruz said softly as he departed. ‘I had no chance at all with the Dodgers, I thought I’d have one here.’ He was the victim of a numbers game in the outfield. ‘Too many lefthanders here,’ he said. ‘I thought I did my job very well. But I just couldn’t do it enough. I need to work. When you sit on the bench, you get down.’”

In his later years, he enjoyed working with young ballplayers as a coach. “The Dodgers, they teach me how to play this game. The Dodger Way, that’s what I’ve been carrying with me all these years. I can develop the kids this way. Everything I own right now; I owe to baseball. And having the opportunity to teach the kids, what else could I ask for?”” ... Also in his retirement, he still wore sunglasses everywhere. - SABR

The before is the current CU Facepack one because it needs to be seen to be appreciated. Nearly all the pics out there have him in sunglasses. I found a pair that had him without them and used the White Sox one for the fg. It had a lot of green tint in the original that I tried to remove from the source file before making the fg but it still made it tough to get a decent complexion. Did the best I could with that.

[AESP_pres]

joe mcintosh

Another one I didn't see in the database, so I share what is in my personal database... not the best but that guy didn't had a lot of pictures taken.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mcinto001jos

Thanks for reworking my FGs LansdowneSt it sure make my game better

[AESP_pres]

John Scott

Another missing one (at least I didn't find him)... forgot what I used when I did it.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=scott-003joh

[AESP_pres]

Lee May

I found it hard to believe, but I haven't found him in the project database under any of the three way we can enter a name (unless he is there with a typo), so I share the one I have and this time it's a real card from my current league and not a fake to show the player.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=may---002lee

edit: I'm the one who did a typo I forgot one "-"... anyway I prefer mine to the one included.

[AESP_pres]

I post that one more to see it tweeked... I like the detail I get with that picture of Royle Stillman, but this isn't the easiest one to work with.

This is the picture link: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...1&d=1438037109

Before / After

[AESP_pres]

Dave Johnson
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=johnso003dav

Before / After

[percolaten]

Has anyone done a Trea Turner that isn't widely smiling?

[LansdowneSt]

Trea Turner is wired for the next pitch, the next at-bat, his next chance to take any distance on a field — the 90 feet from first to second, the dash to a sinking liner — and shrink it to his will. That’s his only version of the future. But ask him to look five years ahead, and he relents. Ask about his perfect baseball day, and, wait, is that a grin? Turner pictures where he goes from here, how he gets there, how his life looks past the thousands of little tasks that fill his brain. He is at Nationals Park playing shortstop for the home team. It’s a summer night, not too humid, and his son, Beckham, has spent the afternoon running through the clubhouse.

His family and friends are sitting somewhere behind home plate. He can see their faces if he squints. They are, after all, the only people he cares about impressing. That is true in 2021, and he expects it to be true in 2026. His imagination, however mundane, is his way of sharing a tiny piece of his head space: He is not in this for fame or recognition. He rejects the word “star.” Outside the chalk lines, on busy streets in Washington, in the quiet of his house, he actually would prefer that no one talks about him.

He is set on this in the same way he is set on quietly stacking one honest minute on another. He has goals, sure, but is sometimes afraid that making them, that speaking them aloud, could keep him from thinking bigger. How big? He won’t say. He may not know the answer. He has just one real ask for who Trea Turner is in a half-decade. He wants nothing to change. - March 29, 2021, Washington Post

Trea Turner would be traded four months later to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Redid the fg as requested That was a very Tim Burton's The Joker smile he had there...

[AESP_pres]

Found a zombie working on 1975 and I have a black and white picture of him, but as people know I'm awful with those so if LansdowneSt feels like giving it a try...

Art James
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=james-001art

This picture can't be used but it's in color...
https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...1&d=1588635511

[LansdowneSt]

Hugh Bradley played sparingly for the Boston Red Sox from 1910-12. He was well-regarded, however, with the Boston Post writing of him, “Bradley is one of the most earnest players in the game and his heart and soul is always in his work.” Most importantly, Bradley made his mark in history by hitting the first homer ever hit at Boston’s new Fenway Park. The date was April 26. It was only the fifth game played at Fenway.

The dominating feature of the brand-new ballpark was the high left-field wall, just 310 feet or so from home plate, but with an imposing height of 31 feet. The original rendition of the wall was a 25-foot wooden barrier set atop the six-foot berm or earthen incline which took on the name Duffy’s Cliff for the Red Sox left fielder who learned how to play this original version of the warning track in front of the fence – and when roped off could also serve as overflow seating. Some analysts, scoping out the new park, wondered if anyone would ever hit one over the wall. It didn’t take that long, and came off the bat of the unlikely Hugh Bradley, he of the one career home run to date. It was, as it played out, the last homer he ever hit in major-league ball.

The moment the bat struck the ball, reported the Boston Globe: “The scene that followed was indescribable. Players came bolting from the dugout to take a look at the mighty blast. They could not believe their eyes.” Neither could many of the fans, apparently. The Post’s game notes declared, “Few of the fans who have been out to Fenway Park believed it possible to knock a ball over the left field fence, but Hugh Bradley hit one that not only cleared the barrier but also the building on the opposite side of the street.” Brad had five RBIs for the game and had scored twice. His homer, wrote Shannon, was “a feat that may never be duplicated.”

It was. On May 24, Rube Oldring of the Athletics hit one that the Globe described as clearing the wall “at almost the same spot that Bradley sent it to beat the Athletics four weeks ago today.” - SABR

Since then, many a ball has cleared the Green Monster and landed upon... Lansdowne Street.

Catching up on luckymann;s requests. Redid the facegen.

[percolaten]

Thanx Lans! Cool article find too!

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Trea Turner is wired for the next pitch, the next at-bat, his next chance to take any distance on a field — the 90 feet from first to second, the dash to a sinking liner — and shrink it to his will. That’s his only version of the future. But ask him to look five years ahead, and he relents. Ask about his perfect baseball day, and, wait, is that a grin? Turner pictures where he goes from here, how he gets there, how his life looks past the thousands of little tasks that fill his brain. He is at Nationals Park playing shortstop for the home team. It’s a summer night, not too humid, and his son, Beckham, has spent the afternoon running through the clubhouse.

His family and friends are sitting somewhere behind home plate. He can see their faces if he squints. They are, after all, the only people he cares about impressing. That is true in 2021, and he expects it to be true in 2026. His imagination, however mundane, is his way of sharing a tiny piece of his head space: He is not in this for fame or recognition. He rejects the word “star.” Outside the chalk lines, on busy streets in Washington, in the quiet of his house, he actually would prefer that no one talks about him.

He is set on this in the same way he is set on quietly stacking one honest minute on another. He has goals, sure, but is sometimes afraid that making them, that speaking them aloud, could keep him from thinking bigger. How big? He won’t say. He may not know the answer. He has just one real ask for who Trea Turner is in a half-decade. He wants nothing to change. - March 29, 2021, Washington Post

Trea Turner would be traded four months later to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Redid the fg as requested That was a very Tim Burton's The Joker smile he had there...

[LansdowneSt]

A hard-throwing, fast-living left-hander, Rube Benton pitched professionally for 24 years, compiling a 150-144 record and 3.09 ERA in his 15 seasons in the National League. Benton had a reputation for drinking, gambling, and driving too fast, all three of which combined in various ways to interrupt his major-league career. He eventually died at age 47 from injuries suffered in a car crash.

Over his 15 years in the bigs, Benton went 150-144 with a 3.09 ERA. Off the field, he was known for having been subpoenaed by a grand jury investigating the Black Sox Scandal. He admitted knowing that the 1919 World Series was fixed. Though he denied betting on the Series himself, Rube testified that Hal Chase won $40,000 on the Reds, and he also named four of the Chicago players who were in on the fix. Benton’s testimony was a vital link in a chain of events that led several of the Black Sox to admit their guilt.

Redid the facegen. The old one shown as the CU Facepack's "before" had an outdated naming convention.

[LansdowneSt]

Art James was a local boy, born in Detroit, MI, who came up for one season with the Detroit Tigers in 1975. He appeared in 11 games, four in center and seven in right field.

Used the bRef B&W photo for the new fg. The "before" is the one that was in the CU Facepack already.

[LansdowneSt]

Although no more than that of a journeyman, the six-year major-league playing career of Bert Niehoff was not without its highlights. In 1915 he combined with future Hall of Fame shortstop Dave Bancroft to form the middle infield of the pennant-winning Philadelphia Phillies. The following year, Niehoff led the National League in doubles and was second in extra-base hits. While he was with the New York Giants two seasons later, a pop-fly collision with outfielder Ross Youngs brought the big-league tenure of Bert Niehoff to an abrupt end. His right leg broken just below the knee, the 34-year-old infielder would never play another major-league game. But while his major-league days were over by June 1918, Niehoff’s association with professional baseball had almost another 50 years to run. First as a minor-league player and then as a longtime manager, he remained in uniform into the 1950s. Thereafter, Bert began scouting for major-league clubs, finally retiring from the game in 1967 at the age of 83.

As manager of the Chattanooga Lookouts, his tenure as field leader got off on a storied note. Two batters into the first inning of an April 2, 1931, exhibition game against the fearsome New York Yankees, Niehoff pulled his starter and brought in a replacement to face Babe Ruth: Virne Beatrice “Jackie” Mitchell, a 17-year-old lefty and Organized Baseball’s first female pitcher. The consummate ham, Ruth swung mightily but missed Mitchell’s first two offerings and then loudly demanded that umpire Brick Owens inspect the baseball. The Bambino then took a called third strike and trudged glumly back to the bench, much to the delight of the hometown crowd. Sans the theatrics, next batter Lou Gehrig then went down swinging. After slugger Tony Lazzeri had tried to bunt, Mitchell was lifted and the Yanks went back to work in earnest, demolishing the Lookouts, 14-4. Several days later, Commissioner Kenesaw M. Landis voided the Mitchell contract on the ground that professional baseball was “too strenuous” for women.

Redid the facegen. The "before" was an fg that had the old naming convention and should be deleted. It had -ber as the suffix.

[percolaten]

A couple of classic Yankees that could use a touch up. First, Joe Gordon:

[percolaten]

...and Earle Combs:

[LansdowneSt]

The Chicago White Sox won its only two championships of the 20th century in 1906 and 1917. In between those two glorious seasons, the team fell back to the middle of the pack in the American League, but were always competitive, due in large part to the unheralded and hard luck hurling of a burly right-handed pitcher from Wyoming, Jim “Death Valley” Scott. Although more often than not ending up on the wrong end of the score, Scott spent 25 years working in major and minor league baseball as a pitcher and umpire and remains as one of the leading pitchers in franchise history.

Redid the facegen. This is one of those that the in-game weight plumps up (esp. in the jowls) no matter how much you try to make a thinner fg.

[AESP_pres]

Herb Washington

https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...ashihe01.shtml

Obviously an improvement... for some reason the player is listed in the database with a minorsID even if he isn't at BBRef so I kept it that way.

edit: in case you're curious, he never played one game with Oakland in my simulation... guess the AI doesn't care about pinch runner.

Before / After

[LansdowneSt]

Modesty and mental and physical toughness embodied the spirit of Earle Combs. His ego never outgrew those values during his baseball career and the remainder of his life. The ultimate team player, he was kind, a gentle man whose life was guided by the Bible. In those still rough and tumble times of baseball he stood out as an anomaly and as a beacon of light in a sport that was still under the pall of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. That he was a baseball player and a good one was only the surface of a man who lived his life as purely as he knew how.

Combs was the man in center field between Bob Meusel in left and Babe Ruth in right, a respected ballplayer though eclipsed by his flamboyant teammates. Fred Lieb wrote of Combs, “If a vote were taken of the sportswriters as to who their favorite ballplayer on the Yankees would be, Combs would have been their choice.” Quiet, modest, and intelligent, Combs said upon his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1970, he said, “I thought the Hall of Fame was for superstars, not just average players like me.”

This modest, quiet intelligent man from the hill country in Kentucky started out to be a teacher, only to find he had the ability to be a fine professional baseball player. When he gained the respect of his baseball peers, he did not change as a person. He remained the ultimate team player, avoiding the self-indulgent ego he might have embraced. Ruth, Gehrig and the rest of Murders Row may have delivered the fatal blows, but Earle Combs set up the scenes of the crimes. He was the rare individual willing to stand up for himself when the occasion called for it and intelligent enough to be the team player if it meant the success of the whole. - SABR

Redid the facegen. We probably used the same starting point but mine's narrower in the cheekbones and not as orange as the one currently in the CU Facepack. I still smoothed it quite a bit overall but not as much.

[LansdowneSt]

Win Noyes was one of several ballplayers for whom service in World War I interrupted a promising big-league career. His brief stint with the 1919 White Sox was merely a footnote in a long, if not especially distinguished, baseball career.

Noyes signed with the Boston Braves in February 1913. At the time he was studying pharmacy at Northwestern University and cut short his studies to join the Braves prior to the season, but his absence from spring training evidently didn’t find favor with Boston’s management and he relegated Noyes to mop-up roles. The Braves didn’t see enough promise in Noyes to keep him for 1914. the next year in the PCL, he learned to throw a spitball which gave new life to his career. The Athletics snapped him up in 1917. Labeled Philadelphia’s “star recruit pitcher,” he started 22 games, going 10-10 for Mack’s last-place team. His 2.95 ERA was better than the team ERA of 3.27 but higher than the league average.

When drafted for the First World War, he served with the 342nd Field Artillery, making it over to France in 1918, and rising to the rank of sergeant major. Claimed off waivers by the 1919 White Sox upon his return, he pitched but once and wasn't eligible for the World Series - but he did have thoughts upon the scandal that unfolded. In later years Noyes proclaimed to one-and-all that the “ ‘skinflint”’ Comiskeys who owned the Black Sox — and not Shoeless Joe Jackson — should have been banned from baseball. With the spitball banned heading into the 1920 season, Noyes went west and played minor league ball until settling in his native Washington and running a drugstore for many years. - SABR

Redid the facegen. Not many pics to work from for Win... As always, shot for something close, something better than before and as best I could.