Importing Historical Players

Georgia Peach · 07-07-2012, 11:26 PM

I'm trying to create a league with historical players from various eras (Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, etc.) From what I've read on here and in the manuel, the best way for me to do this would be to set up a "fictional league" and import historical players. I set up my league, set up my inaugeral draft, but then I couldn't figure out how to import historical players into the draft. I know that I'm supposed to enter their baseball reference number, but what I'm not sure about is how to clear away all the fictional players that were created for the draft and import real historical players of my choosing. Could someone help me with this? Thanks!

1998 Yankees · 07-08-2012, 04:11 PM

Well, you know about this procedure, it seems. You may also want to read about this.

This is what I do to make a fictional MLB-style league:

Start with a new historical game; choose the year closest to the structure and style of MLB play that you want.
Continue with the new game wizard all the way through, selecting appropriate options. You probably don't want Real Historical Transactions or Historical Progressing and Rookies Options (those are for strict historical simulations).
Then, as commissioner, go to League Setup and Clear Rosters.
Go to Free Agents, mass select them all, and delete.

Now, at this point, I myself would go back to League Setup and Fill Teams with Fictional Players. You don't want that. Instead, you want to:

Import historical players and teams, per online manual instructions.
Continue editing League Structure as necessary (if you imported historical teams; for example, if you brought in the 1923 Boston Red Sox, you will want to delete the existing version of the Boston Red Sox).
Decide whether you want these teams intact or not.
If so, remember to Edit League Schedule and Generate Fictional Schedule! Then proceed with play.
If not, Generate Fictional Schedule anyway (it's a must), then Schedule Fantasy Draft (which releases all players and schedules an inaugural draft for the next day).

I have glossed over and greatly simplified everything. You have a lot of research to do and much trial and error to go through. Hopefully, though, I have pointed you in the right direction.

Georgia Peach · 07-08-2012, 07:33 PM

1998 Yankees, thank you, you have pointed me in the right direction. Part of the problem that I'm having is that I went through the whole fictional league process and at the end I checked that I wanted to be in comish mode but then when I got to the draft (or free agent part) and it wasnt' giving me the "Import historical players" option or "delete players" option that it shows I should have at the bottom in the online manuel. Is it possible that I'm not in Commissioner mode or something? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

JS

Georgia Peach · 07-08-2012, 07:49 PM

1998 Yanks, one more question if I could. I followed your plan and everything was good, until I got to the Free Agents part. I don't know how to get to that page. I see an "Upcoming Free Agents" link under league set-up, but that took me to a blank screen of sorts that didn't have any players listed for me to delete. Could you tell me how to get to the Free Agents part to delete all the players? Thanks again for your help!

1998 Yankees · 07-08-2012, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Georgia Peach

1998 Yankees, thank you, you have pointed me in the right direction. Part of the problem that I'm having is that I went through the whole fictional league process and at the end I checked that I wanted to be in comish mode but then when I got to the draft (or free agent part) and it wasnt' giving me the "Import historical players" option or "delete players" option that it shows I should have at the bottom in the online manuel. Is it possible that I'm not in Commissioner mode or something? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

JS

Quote:

Originally Posted by Georgia Peach

1998 Yanks, one more question if I could. I followed your plan and everything was good, until I got to the Free Agents part. I don't know how to get to that page. I see an "Upcoming Free Agents" link under league set-up, but that took me to a blank screen of sorts that didn't have any players listed for me to delete. Could you tell me how to get to the Free Agents part to delete all the players? Thanks again for your help!

You've got to be sure the Commissioner box is checked in Manager Options or you won't see any of those functions. These screen prints may help:

1998 Yankees · 07-08-2012, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Georgia Peach

1998 Yankees, thank you, you have pointed me in the right direction. Part of the problem that I'm having is that I went through the whole fictional league process and at the end I checked that I wanted to be in comish mode but then when I got to the draft (or free agent part) and it wasnt' giving me the "Import historical players" option or "delete players" option that it shows I should have at the bottom in the online manuel. Is it possible that I'm not in Commissioner mode or something? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

JS

Quote:

Originally Posted by Georgia Peach

1998 Yanks, one more question if I could. I followed your plan and everything was good, until I got to the Free Agents part. I don't know how to get to that page. I see an "Upcoming Free Agents" link under league set-up, but that took me to a blank screen of sorts that didn't have any players listed for me to delete. Could you tell me how to get to the Free Agents part to delete all the players? Thanks again for your help!

Here's where you go to Import Historical Teams. Notice I imported the 1923 Red Sox into the NL East for some reason; I can always move it around, delete other teams, etc. in this screen. The last screen print shows you where you Generate Fictional Schedule.

Georgia Peach · 07-08-2012, 10:59 PM

Thank you! That worked. The pictures helped a ton. Could I be a total pain and ask you one more question? I got to the "import historical players" part and I read the online manuel about it. It says that I need to choose a database and that by default I should use the file historical_database.odb I can't find that file anywhere. What I see on my screen is choices of: "data, default_data, uninstall, etc." Down the line is "ootp13.exe." I chose that one and it took me to the correct screen. However, when I entered ruthba01 (1921 for the year) and clicked "import" it said, "Error!". "The historical player import failed" and that was it. Any idea as to what I'm doing wrong?

The Game · 07-08-2012, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Notice I imported the 1923 Red Sox into the NL East for some reason

You are secretly a Boston Red Sox fan 1923 to be specific.

The Game · 07-09-2012, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Georgia Peach

Thank you! That worked. The pictures helped a ton. Could I be a total pain and ask you one more question? I got to the "import historical players" part and I read the online manuel about it. It says that I need to choose a database and that by default I should use the file historical_database.odb I can't find that file anywhere. What I see on my screen is choices of: "data, default_data, uninstall, etc." Down the line is "ootp13.exe." I chose that one and it took me to the correct screen. However, when I entered ruthba01 (1921 for the year) and clicked "import" it said, "Error!". "The historical player import failed" and that was it. Any idea as to what I'm doing wrong?

You will find the Historical Database.odb in your OOTP 13 Stats folder. When you click the import hist player you will need to use the up down etc to navigate your way to My documents (provided you are on a PC, it's my Library something for MAC) OOTP 13 / stats select the H_D.ODB

1998 Yankees · 07-09-2012, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Game

You are secretly a Boston Red Sox fan 1923 to be specific.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Game

You will find the Historical Database.odb in your OOTP 13 Stats folder. When you click the import hist player you will need to use the up down etc to navigate your way to My documents (provided you are on a PC, it's my Library something for MAC) OOTP 13 / stats select the H_D.ODB

What he ^^^ said. It takes some navigating (or, if you're lucky, it might be under Favorites). I'll just add a screen print.

Georgia Peach · 07-09-2012, 07:28 PM

Ok. Thank you so much guys. We're almost there

I did find the historical stats file under "stats" and "my documents". But, when I tried to open it, it asked me what program it wanted me to open it in. I guessed "Adobe Reader" and that didn't work. Is there another program I should try? I have,a PC. It didn't take me to the screen where I can enter the baseball reference number. Thanks for walking me through this, I really appreciate it.

1998 Yankees · 07-09-2012, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Georgia Peach

Ok. Thank you so much guys. We're almost there

I did find the historical stats file under "stats" and "my documents". But, when I tried to open it, it asked me what program it wanted me to open it in. I guessed "Adobe Reader" and that didn't work. Is there another program I should try? I have,a PC. It didn't take me to the screen where I can enter the baseball reference number. Thanks for walking me through this, I really appreciate it.

No! You don't go there with Windows Explorer. You go there through the game. See posts #6 (second screen print) and #10 above. Uh-oh.

Georgia Peach · 07-09-2012, 10:08 PM

I'm sorry for being so slow with this

But, when I click on import historical players, the screen that I see says, "Select Master CSV" or "historical_database.odb from database folder...." Then below that I have several options, they are: "data", "default_data", "uninstall", "changes.txt", "Gameuxinstallhelper.dll", "GDF.Install.exe", libmySQL.dll", "license.txt", "msvcr90.dll", "ootp13.exe" and "readme.txt".

Of those options, I tried "ootp.13.ex" and that took me to the right screen, except when I entered Babe Ruth's ruthba01 number it said action failed.

I looked under favorites and what I saw was, "data folder", "program folder", "Saved Game", "quickstartgames", "schedules", "logos", logo templates", "Caps", "jersey's", League images...caps...jerseys". That's all.

The only way I got to the historical_database.odb folder was to click on "open" and then go to "documents" and then "outofparkdevelopments" and then "OOTP 13" and then "stats". That's what took me to the historical database file, but then it asked me what program I wanted to open it in and that's where I chose Adobe reader.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm not seeing the same screens as you posted. Based on what I'm seeing on those two screens: the first one and the favorites one, do you know what will take me to the historical file I want? Thanks for walking me through this.

Georgia Peach · 07-09-2012, 10:11 PM

Never mind. Two seconds after I sent the last message I went back and stumbled onto it. I think I got it. Thanks for sticking with me! I may need help in the future, but I think I've got it for now. Thanks again.

Georgia Peach · 07-09-2012, 10:37 PM

Never mind again. I got it to work once and then it stopped. I'm starting to wonder if this is the game for me.

Now, I'm seeing the file "C:/Users/my name/documents/outofparkdevelpments/OOTB13/stats

and under that I can choose historical__database.odb but when I do it says "Import failed" and there's no reason why or suggestions on what I'm doing wrong. Can you offer any help?

Georgia Peach · 07-09-2012, 10:51 PM

Ok, this is embarrasing, but I did figure it out, I had just forgot to add the "01" at the end of ruthba. I do have just one more question, if you could help. How do I turn the financials off so that I can put any player on the team and not have to worry if they're over budget, etc. and how do I move players from the FA list onto teams? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The Game · 07-10-2012, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Georgia Peach

Ok, this is embarrasing, but I did figure it out, I had just forgot to add the "01" at the end of ruthba. I do have just one more question, if you could help. How do I turn the financials off so that I can put any player on the team and not have to worry if they're over budget, etc. and how do I move players from the FA list onto teams? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Use the Shtml from baseball-reference.com for any player you want to input. Thought 1998 said that ruth was ruthba01.
Babe Ruth Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com

Baseball Players with Last Names Starting with R - Baseball-Reference.comruthba01.shtml
All players will be the 1st 5 letters of their last name (unless all they have is 4) the 1st 2 letters of their 1st name and then a # after that usually 01 unless its a common 1 like say jonesch05 which is Chipper Jones.

To turn off financials go to. Read this - You can;t turn Financials off while in season, which i am.
Out of the Park Baseball Manual

To move a player from FA, or another team to FA or another team. Be in Commish Mode. select the player you wish to move. Select Editor. Go to Team Information/Select New Team (right below Height, weight, bats, throws)
Select the league you want him to go to and the team. You'll see from my screenshots, I selected Matt Garza and I am putting him onto the Cubs.

Now for your league once you turn off financials you won't have to do the next part, but I pulled up Garza on baseball-reference.com to see what he mad 2011 and beyond. ( It's near the bottom on BBref) To give a player a contract, go farther down on the left side until you see Salary Data, select the type of contract you want. If you select ML contract you can then enter how much you want a player to make, how long the deal is and other options.

You'll see the game put Garza at AAA since he still has minor league options available.

Georgia Peach · 07-10-2012, 09:25 PM

The Game. Thank you! That worked great. I think I'm starting to figure this whole thing out. I just have one question and then I think I may be ready to launch in. I'm planning on running a league with a few friends and although I'll be in commissioner mode and run the league, they will want to go on and set their line-ups. I noticed that you can go in and change another team's line-up when you are in commissioner mode, but I wasn't sure if it saved that way or if it just stayed that way for one game. I'm sure they're going to want to change their own line-ups/set the strategy for their team. If they go in under the League home page and just make those changes from my computer will those changes save? Thanks!

The Game · 07-11-2012, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Georgia Peach

The Game. Thank you! That worked great. I think I'm starting to figure this whole thing out. I just have one question and then I think I may be ready to launch in. I'm planning on running a league with a few friends and although I'll be in commissioner mode and run the league, they will want to go on and set their line-ups. I noticed that you can go in and change another team's line-up when you are in commissioner mode, but I wasn't sure if it saved that way or if it just stayed that way for one game. I'm sure they're going to want to change their own line-ups/set the strategy for their team. If they go in under the League home page and just make those changes from my computer will those changes save? Thanks!

Could you clarify this more for me?
Are you all playing on the same PC - if this is the case you can Act As the GM of any team you want, then return it to Act As the team you manage. The AI to my knowledge will then make new changes after you sim a day.
( I took control of a teams i was playing because they had 2 Jim Unknowns in their pitching staff, I deleted the 2 Unknowns and called up 2 SP from AAA/AA and put them into their rotations, played the game that day vs them and the next at least 1 SP Sergio Mitre was back down at AAA)
IF you have multiple people playing on 1 PC then you can add them as GM's to their teams and only them or you as Commish can make changes to their team
Are you playing online vs them? for that they should be setup as GM of their teams and they and you would be able to make changes

07-08-2012, 04:11 PM	#2
1998 Yankees Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Yankee Stadium, back in 1998. Posts: 8,645	Well, you know about this procedure, it seems. You may also want to read about this. This is what I do to make a fictional MLB-style league: Start with a new historical game; choose the year closest to the structure and style of MLB play that you want. Continue with the new game wizard all the way through, selecting appropriate options. You probably don't want Real Historical Transactions or Historical Progressing and Rookies Options (those are for strict historical simulations). Then, as commissioner, go to League Setup and Clear Rosters. Go to Free Agents, mass select them all, and delete. Now, at this point, I myself would go back to League Setup and Fill Teams with Fictional Players. You don't want that. Instead, you want to: Import historical players and teams, per online manual instructions. Continue editing League Structure as necessary (if you imported historical teams; for example, if you brought in the 1923 Boston Red Sox, you will want to delete the existing version of the Boston Red Sox). Decide whether you want these teams intact or not. If so, remember to Edit League Schedule and Generate Fictional Schedule! Then proceed with play. If not, Generate Fictional Schedule anyway (it's a must), then Schedule Fantasy Draft (which releases all players and schedules an inaugural draft for the next day). I have glossed over and greatly simplified everything. You have a lot of research to do and much trial and error to go through. Hopefully, though, I have pointed you in the right direction. Last edited by 1998 Yankees; 07-08-2012 at 04:21 PM.

07-07-2012, 11:26 PM	#1
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	Importing Historical Players I'm trying to create a league with historical players from various eras (Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, etc.) From what I've read on here and in the manuel, the best way for me to do this would be to set up a "fictional league" and import historical players. I set up my league, set up my inaugeral draft, but then I couldn't figure out how to import historical players into the draft. I know that I'm supposed to enter their baseball reference number, but what I'm not sure about is how to clear away all the fictional players that were created for the draft and import real historical players of my choosing. Could someone help me with this? Thanks!

07-08-2012, 07:33 PM	#3
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	1998 Yankees, thank you, you have pointed me in the right direction. Part of the problem that I'm having is that I went through the whole fictional league process and at the end I checked that I wanted to be in comish mode but then when I got to the draft (or free agent part) and it wasnt' giving me the "Import historical players" option or "delete players" option that it shows I should have at the bottom in the online manuel. Is it possible that I'm not in Commissioner mode or something? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks! JS

07-08-2012, 07:49 PM	#4
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	1998 Yanks, one more question if I could. I followed your plan and everything was good, until I got to the Free Agents part. I don't know how to get to that page. I see an "Upcoming Free Agents" link under league set-up, but that took me to a blank screen of sorts that didn't have any players listed for me to delete. Could you tell me how to get to the Free Agents part to delete all the players? Thanks again for your help!

07-08-2012, 10:59 PM	#7
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	Thank you! That worked. The pictures helped a ton. Could I be a total pain and ask you one more question? I got to the "import historical players" part and I read the online manuel about it. It says that I need to choose a database and that by default I should use the file historical_database.odb I can't find that file anywhere. What I see on my screen is choices of: "data, default_data, uninstall, etc." Down the line is "ootp13.exe." I chose that one and it took me to the correct screen. However, when I entered ruthba01 (1921 for the year) and clicked "import" it said, "Error!". "The historical player import failed" and that was it. Any idea as to what I'm doing wrong?

07-09-2012, 07:28 PM	#11
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	Ok. Thank you so much guys. We're almost there I did find the historical stats file under "stats" and "my documents". But, when I tried to open it, it asked me what program it wanted me to open it in. I guessed "Adobe Reader" and that didn't work. Is there another program I should try? I have,a PC. It didn't take me to the screen where I can enter the baseball reference number. Thanks for walking me through this, I really appreciate it.

07-09-2012, 10:08 PM	#13
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	I'm sorry for being so slow with this But, when I click on import historical players, the screen that I see says, "Select Master CSV" or "historical_database.odb from database folder...." Then below that I have several options, they are: "data", "default_data", "uninstall", "changes.txt", "Gameuxinstallhelper.dll", "GDF.Install.exe", libmySQL.dll", "license.txt", "msvcr90.dll", "ootp13.exe" and "readme.txt". Of those options, I tried "ootp.13.ex" and that took me to the right screen, except when I entered Babe Ruth's ruthba01 number it said action failed. I looked under favorites and what I saw was, "data folder", "program folder", "Saved Game", "quickstartgames", "schedules", "logos", logo templates", "Caps", "jersey's", League images...caps...jerseys". That's all. The only way I got to the historical_database.odb folder was to click on "open" and then go to "documents" and then "outofparkdevelopments" and then "OOTP 13" and then "stats". That's what took me to the historical database file, but then it asked me what program I wanted to open it in and that's where I chose Adobe reader. Sorry for the long post, but I'm not seeing the same screens as you posted. Based on what I'm seeing on those two screens: the first one and the favorites one, do you know what will take me to the historical file I want? Thanks for walking me through this.

07-09-2012, 10:11 PM	#14
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	Never mind. Two seconds after I sent the last message I went back and stumbled onto it. I think I got it. Thanks for sticking with me! I may need help in the future, but I think I've got it for now. Thanks again.

07-09-2012, 10:37 PM	#15
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	Never mind again. I got it to work once and then it stopped. I'm starting to wonder if this is the game for me. Now, I'm seeing the file "C:/Users/my name/documents/outofparkdevelpments/OOTB13/stats and under that I can choose historical__database.odb but when I do it says "Import failed" and there's no reason why or suggestions on what I'm doing wrong. Can you offer any help?

07-09-2012, 10:51 PM	#16
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	Ok, this is embarrasing, but I did figure it out, I had just forgot to add the "01" at the end of ruthba. I do have just one more question, if you could help. How do I turn the financials off so that I can put any player on the team and not have to worry if they're over budget, etc. and how do I move players from the FA list onto teams? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

07-10-2012, 09:25 PM	#18
Georgia Peach Bat Boy Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 17	The Game. Thank you! That worked great. I think I'm starting to figure this whole thing out. I just have one question and then I think I may be ready to launch in. I'm planning on running a league with a few friends and although I'll be in commissioner mode and run the league, they will want to go on and set their line-ups. I noticed that you can go in and change another team's line-up when you are in commissioner mode, but I wasn't sure if it saved that way or if it just stayed that way for one game. I'm sure they're going to want to change their own line-ups/set the strategy for their team. If they go in under the League home page and just make those changes from my computer will those changes save? Thanks!