When and how did you start playing Out Of The Park Baseball?

[rworth88]

Version 9, just kind of stumbled upon it after growing up using notepads and flipping playing cards to get the scores in games, wrote down everything, needless to say if I had known about ootp earlier could have saved a lot of trees...

[jpeters1734]

Originally Posted by Sweed

I'll try to keep this shorter than a book

Started with Strat O Matic and the 1969 season. Played Strat throughout the 70's into the early 80's keeping stats by hand. C-64 comes out and I end up buying Pure Stat baseball and played for a couple of years.

Got my first PC and found Lance Haffners Full Count Baseball and also the standings and league leaders disk. Yeah baby no more keeping stats by hand! First game I ever played with LH was the '91 season disk and had Maddux starting for my Cubs. Up 1-0 going into the 9th and Maddux gives up 3 singles to start the inning and has the bases loaded with nobody out. He gets a ground-ball triple play to win the game! Played that until '98 or '99.

High Heat was next (it's so reeeeeal). Liked the game a lot and was finding mods and stuff at baseballsimcentral.com where I read about a game called OOTP. The year was 2002 and the version was #4. Bought OOTP4 for $19.99 and couldn't wait to start. Played a couple of games and really wasn't impressed just seemed like another Lance Haffner game. It was a good game but nothing special. Then as I played a bit more my players started to come to life and change, grow, regress, age, mature before my eyes. Wow was I wrong about OOTP not being anything special. I've bought every version since v4 and imported my on-going game into each new version while playing out every inning of every game.

Lots of great improvements over the years but probably the one with the most impact for me is the roster rules (FA, time of service, rule 5, minor league FA, waivers, options, etc.). Anything that makes it harder for the human player to hoard talent. Versions 6.5 and before was easy to win the championship and keep a dynasty going. v2006 (the first SI version and total rewrite of the code) and after things started to become harder due to the roster rules. Maybe around v9? it stared to become hard to win a title or even a division (no, I don't spend hours trying to fleece the AI but I also don't have any "house rules"). Championships are no longer a given but are something you are proud of, treasure, and certainly don't take for granted.

OOTP is the greatest game I have ever played be it "bang for the buck" or the content of the game. It is something I never even dreamed could exist back in the Strat days of my childhood.

You have a game going on for 10 years? Do you write about it?

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by Dr.K

Ootp 2 for me, still have CD, was a front page sports baseball fanatic before that and a mogul player. FPS I feel is the spiritual father of ootp with graphics and Camera angles way back then, there were so many leagues back then. Can't remember how I found out about ootp but vaguely remember seeing a screen shot somewhere. Was fascinated that I could recreate history and loved reading the scouting reports, the financial model and customization. Mogul soon was shelved and been playing ootp since. Strangely I never played ootp 5 or 6 which if I remember I think 6 was a classic version. Ootp 2 still stands the test of time now, though the historical model made a star out of George Zeber and Duster Mails. Fell back in love with the game since 13, around the time I started getting Espn in the UK and following baseball like I did in the 80s as a kid. Ootp only exceeded by football manager as a text SIM in the world.

I miss Front Page Football. Front Page baseball had some quirks but the lead developer was a great guy. We got to be email friends over discussing the game.Its initial 'physics based' idea had some issues with a lot of balls being hit foul to the catcher - but after a lot of tweaks it was a playable and fun game... Front Page Football seemed to go downhill with every release ???

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by jpeters1734

You have a game going on for 10 years? Do you write about it?

I average right at 2 seasons per version so 12 years and 25 seasons but who's counting?

No but I wish I had. When I got v4 my son was a jr in high school and my daughter was in 6th grade. Lots of family things to do and that was the priority in where I spent my time. After family my spare time went into playing the game.

I was still very new to the net and just learning that there was a community of people that liked sports simulations as much as I did and that they even wrote about their leagues. I remember after my first season thinking I should, if nothing else, just write a brief recap but I just didn't do it (brief recap? as you can see when I write something it is rarely brief). I guess I was thinking any time I spent writing was time I wasn't playing. In retrospect a mistake but unless dementia sets in I can still look back at my history, standings, league leaders, drafts etc. and much like "real life" baseball memories flood back in. Never ceases to amaze me how my OOTP world became so real!

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by swoboda

Started with Micro league Baseball, Graduated to Tony LaRussa Old time baseball, Now earning my postgraduate degree in OOTP.
I think I started with version 4.

Micro League, High Heat. TL2 and TL Old Time baseball was a lot of fun. It sounds like we are on the same school path -

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by manooly

I've been around since OOTP2. I still actually have that disk. I think I've played almost every baseball game available. When I was a kid, my brother and I would play All Star Baseball (the board game) with the player disks until they wore out. We would spin the spinners for hours and hours keeping track of stats on pieces of paper. I remember then trying out Earl Weaver Baseball on my friends IBM computer. Once I saw what a computer could do with the game of baseball I was hooked. I loved the idea of something keeping track of and actually saving my game data. When I eventually ran into OOTP that was it for me. I have purchased every version since. I do try other baseball games occasionally. I love just watching MLB The Show games instead of actually playing. I can't tell you how many CPU vs CPU leagues I've setup with every sports game out there. Yep, I'm that guy!

- manooly

I am that guy too as far as CPU vs CPU. We had the old All Star baseball as kids. When we got stratomatic it was a quantum leap. I wish I could find all my old spiral notebooks of the games I scored and stats by hand I kept.

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by Sweed

I'll try to keep this shorter than a book

Started with Strat O Matic and the 1969 season. Played Strat throughout the 70's into the early 80's keeping stats by hand. C-64 comes out and I end up buying Pure Stat baseball and played for a couple of years.

Got my first PC and found Lance Haffners Full Count Baseball and also the standings and league leaders disk. Yeah baby no more keeping stats by hand! First game I ever played with LH was the '91 season disk and had Maddux starting for my Cubs. Up 1-0 going into the 9th and Maddux gives up 3 singles to start the inning and has the bases loaded with nobody out. He gets a ground-ball triple play to win the game! Played that until '98 or '99.

High Heat was next (it's so reeeeeal). Liked the game a lot and was finding mods and stuff at baseballsimcentral.com where I read about a game called OOTP. The year was 2002 and the version was #4. Bought OOTP4 for $19.99 and couldn't wait to start. Played a couple of games and really wasn't impressed just seemed like another Lance Haffner game. It was a good game but nothing special. Then as I played a bit more my players started to come to life and change, grow, regress, age, mature before my eyes. Wow was I wrong about OOTP not being anything special. I've bought every version since v4 and imported my on-going game into each new version while playing out every inning of every game.

Lots of great improvements over the years but probably the one with the most impact for me is the roster rules (FA, time of service, rule 5, minor league FA, waivers, options, etc.). Anything that makes it harder for the human player to hoard talent. Versions 6.5 and before was easy to win the championship and keep a dynasty going. v2006 (the first SI version and total rewrite of the code) and after things started to become harder due to the roster rules. Maybe around v9? it stared to become hard to win a title or even a division (no, I don't spend hours trying to fleece the AI but I also don't have any "house rules"). Championships are no longer a given but are something you are proud of, treasure, and certainly don't take for granted.

OOTP is the greatest game I have ever played be it "bang for the buck" or the content of the game. It is something I never even dreamed could exist back in the Strat days of my childhood.

We must be about the same age - My first strat-o-matic was the 1968 card sets. I was 9.
I can remember ordering card sets.... Lahman database and OOTP saves us that money now....

[david limbaugh]

have used OOTP since version 4 to mimic what I did as a kid with Strato-0-Matic (I still some of my old Strato-o-matic games and several card sets - I miss putting my rosters in rubber bands - LOL!)

How do ya play? Here is how I have been playing for years.

When I played Strat-O-Matic, to make my league smaller, I combined a National league and American league team into one National League team.

I would then use fictional team names.

I then would have a draft. I would do it by position. I put starting pitchers into a pile, relief pitchers, first baseman, etc....

I then shuffled each pile. I then dealt out each position to each team. I then kept 5 starters, 5 relievers, 3 catchers, and 2 of ever other position. If a better player was cut and a team had two bad players at a position I would swap them out.

I then played a season, keeping score of each game as I played it in college-ruled spiral notebooks. On the right side of the game I would update the ABs, Hs, HRs, RBIs and Avg of each player and on the facing page I would update the pitching stats.

I developed schedules and everything.

This is how I filled my winters and rainy days when I wasn't outside playing baseball myself.

As others have said here, if a baseball game existed I have owned and played it.

I have bought every version of OOTP since version 4.

Here is how I play now, just like I played as a kid... Commissioner Mode! :-)

Every time a new release comes out, I create a historical league in 1871. I start with just 4 teams, 2 in each league. I use fictional team names but real players. I try to mimic college/high school. (I have asked Markus for about a decade now to let me have 7 inning games - LOL!!!) I play 3 game series, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. My roster is 4 SP,5 RP, 3 C and 2 of everything else. 3 man rotation. 42 games in a season. 2-of-3 post season series.

To make sure only 'good' players make the league, just like my old strat-o-matic days, I expand my league when the number of free agents is over twice as many players as the league has. SO with my 4 teams of 26 players, when I have over 208 free agents I add two teams to each league.

I 'weight' my draft. I list my teams from what I want to be the best to worse teams year in and year out. No financials. I didn't have financials in strat-o-matic - LOL!

I do a straight draft each season of incoming rookies this way. To mimic high school/college I don't draft by scout ratings (Did I mention I make sure the good teams get the better scouts, coaches, etc...?) but OOTP scouting service and just take the best available by overall rating with no concern of any team's needs.

Here is a year in my OOTP:

Pre-Season - Create and load the schedule. I have a quick basic program that creates an even and odd schedule (team that is home one season for a particular series is on the road the next season and vice versa) from a data file. After every two year cycle I modify the data file to change when each series takes place. I import my schedule and validate it. I change the AI to 3-man rotation and NOT let starters pitch in relief. The code is also changed if league expands.

I then go to opening day. I 'act-as' each team. I go through each roster in one pass to get them to 4 SP, 5 RP, 3 C, 2 1B, etc...) Each fall I have 5 rounds of draft so if enough is in draft pool 5 players may be 'trying out' for the team. I use that team's scout to compare overall ratings. To hold down turnover, the new player must be more than 5 more in overall rating than current player. If current player had a good season, like 10 wins or .340 average or 4 HRs, then new player has to be 10 or more better. Sometimes players change positions so I may have 4 second baseman. I cut the worse 2 by overall rating if their previous season stats aren't that much different). At this stage, it is only going through the players the team has on hand. After I go through every team's cuts, I then have a 'competitive draft' of all the free agents. But to save time, here is how I do it. I make a list of teams from worse to best by previous season record. I then 'act as' that team and go through the list and go to free agents with a filter of overall rating of 26 or more, using that team's scout, and sign all of them.

I go through each position and get the team the best, still using the must be 5 or more better rule or previous season good 10+ rule. If that team is still short a CF or a SP, I then go to free agents and change filter to that position and take the best available. I do this for each team from worse to best.

I then go through each team and have their manager set their pitching rotation and line up and depth charts. I go through retired players and un-retire players 30 years old and less. After 1900 I put a retired pitcher and hitter into the HOF (I have auto HOF off) each season at this time (Thank You Markus for color-coding inductees!!!!)

I then real-time sim each day (speed = 300), watching the line scores and look at boxes and logs that catch my eye. I have scouting set for once a month and when a month and series ends I go through each team and have the manager set the rotation and lineups again. If an injury takes place I put that player on DL and have manager update lineup or rotation. If in a series, I don't update the rotation until that series is over. If someone is eligible to come off the DL I put them on roster and have manager update the lineup or rotation.

I edit the post-season to have the 2-of-3 series start on Friday, with a format of home-away-home for higher seed. When season ends I see what teams have retiring staff members and go from my 'best to worse' teams and add new personnel. I look at any retired players. I look at the different awards. I hold my draft, again 5 rounds, from what I want to be the best teams to the worse teams (same order every year basically). I fast forward to January 1. I make sure almanac has box scores and game logs.

My backup plan. I quit the game and make a copy of my .lg the day the season ends and before the post-season begins in case I mess that up. I also quit the game and copy my .lg game each January 1 and each opening day after I have the rotations and lineups set. I do these on a different drive than my game drive. basically, think of OOTP15\1902-Jan-1 and then 1902-Opening-Day and then 1902-Post-Season-Begins

I do this because if something goes bump I have milestones I can pick up and start over from.Before 1960 I don't allow night games (I know Crosley added lights before this but I am mimicing poor teams - LOL!) I add DH in 1973 to both leagues.

Whenever the number of free agents gets to be more than twice the number of teams in the league I expand the league.

This is how I have been playing OOTP4 since version 4.

[jpeters1734]

Originally Posted by Sweed

I average right at 2 seasons per version so 12 years and 25 seasons but who's counting?

No but I wish I had. When I got v4 my son was a jr in high school and my daughter was in 6th grade. Lots of family things to do and that was the priority in where I spent my time. After family my spare time went into playing the game.

I was still very new to the net and just learning that there was a community of people that liked sports simulations as much as I did and that they even wrote about their leagues. I remember after my first season thinking I should, if nothing else, just write a brief recap but I just didn't do it (brief recap? as you can see when I write something it is rarely brief). I guess I was thinking any time I spent writing was time I wasn't playing. In retrospect a mistake but unless dementia sets in I can still look back at my history, standings, league leaders, drafts etc. and much like "real life" baseball memories flood back in. Never ceases to amaze me how my OOTP world became so real!

Well, if you ever get the itch to write, I would be very interested to read about your league. I'm sure others too. It's not too late. You could approach it like if someone were to write about the last 25 years of the MLB.

[jpeters1734]

Originally Posted by david limbaugh

This is how I have been playing OOTP4 since version 4.

That is incredibly detailed!

[Habsfan18]

Thanks for all the stories, fellas!

[glenmere14]

I have been a forum member since 2003 but I believe my first version of the game was OOTP2, which I bought after reading a rave review by William Abner.

I pre-order every new version, and even buy iOOTP even though I never use it, just to support Markus.

In reading this forum, I would describe myself as a much more "macro" player than the typical poster here, less interested in the day to day (or pitch by pitch) and more concerned with season, career, and era results of teams I've attempted to build. As often cited, one of the best aspects of OOTP is that players can play the game in a variety of ways.

[glenmere14]

By the way, started with Be a Manager (cards and dice) progressed to Sher-Co (a board game), then to Earl Weaver on the Amiga (absolutely amazing). Also loved High Heat and played MicroLeague, Front Page, and Tony LaRussa along the way.

[yougo1000]

I started playing the free version of 8 when I was around 10 and just getting into baseball. I got frustrated when I had 3 players DFA'd with 0 days left but had 3 waiver days left. So I quit for a bit but decided to play again. I released the players and then it was history from then on (although I didn't really know what I was doing). I think my best moment was when I lost a waiver claim to a 1-star reliever for the 3rd straight time and I ended up releasing every player on the team that got the player.

[grimjaw]

I realize this is a very old thread, but I thought I'd contribute. I can't remember the version since it's been so long, but I first played OOTP in 2003-2004. I can't remember why I stopped playing it, but I really enjoyed it at the time. When I noticed OOTP9 on Steam a few years ago, I picked up, and just recently (like, 15 minutes ago) got OOTP15.

[Michael Xavier]

OOTP 3. A friend from PBEM (play by e-mail) Diplomacy told me about it.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by yougo1000

I think my best moment was when I lost a waiver claim to a 1-star reliever for the 3rd straight time and I ended up releasing every player on the team that got the player.

[Padreman]

Came across it on a forum when someone mentioned it. I was actually looking for a wrestling simulator and someone just mentioned several good simulators and I love baseball, so I checked out. I purchased OOTP13 then when 14 and 15 came out I bought those too. I had to admit it had me hooked from day one. And still have not played a wrestling simulator. Still looking for one actually.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by GMLoophole

Me too, I went from HardBall to High Heat 2k1, and although I loved HH its roster management was really terrible (and frankly I was more interested in that part of the game than the thumb jockey part). People at the High Heat board (High Heat Central? baseballsimcentral was a bit later) mentioned OOTP so I tried it.

I am quite sure OOTP 3 was the first version I messed with, but I think it was a free download version at the time (probably the OOTP5 era). It was so basic I think I just couldn't make it useful for High Heat and therefore I just dropped it. OOTP8 was where I came back in for good.

High Heat Central on the old EZboards. A weird glitch actually left part of the original OT up until just a few years ago.

[themonk]

The free version -- OOTP 8. In addition, had to learn baseball since I had almost zero knowledge about the game...