new to Baseball

[Total1880]

Hellow,
As a hardcore Football Manager player, i discovered OOTP yesterday. I read about it and it sounded awesome. So clearly i bought the game.
As a Belgian, i know practically nothing about baseball so ... help?
I know the basic rules of a match but thats it. Today i'm spending my day on the forum to learn as much as i can. Also by just playing it, i will learn some things.

But maybe you can give some extra tips (maybe a whole beginnersguide? ) to the biggest OOTP-noob of this forum?

[chemkid]

hi total1880!
noob myself - nevertheless, here's my advice:
to get into the mood - watch the movie 'moneyball' and find the book with the same title!
the 'baseball for dummies'-book was a help, too...
enjoy the forum AND the game! (maybe someone's here who'll need your insights on the fm-series)
cheers!
chem!

[DFyvie]

Another great way to learn the game is to watch one. Not everyone has MLB.TV, but youtube has several old classic games you can watch online. Give it a try; crack one of those fantastic Belgian beers, put your feet up and watch some baseball!

[Total1880]

Thanks guys! After this weekend (its Tomorrowland ) i'll dig into it. Maybe at the festival i can learn something when talking to some Americans

[wuttang]

Welcome to baseball and the forums!
Personally I couldn't imagine playing ootp without knowing much about baseball.
I tried playing FM but couldn't handle it cause i knew so little about the inner dealings and managing of soccer.
and soooo many players lol
Basically, i only watch during the worldcups and a few premier league games here and there

Big props to you! And hope u have fun

[paul.m.w.]

I'm picking up football(soccer) slowly here in Japan...
They love it.
Younger generation soccer( oops football, lol)
Others Yakyu(baseball).
I love baseball!
And hope you get a lot from this experience .

[zerozero31]

Originally Posted by DFyvie

Another great way to learn the game is to watch one. Not everyone has MLB.TV, but youtube

Dag Total1180, waar in belgie kom je vandaan?

mlb.com usually has one free game you can watch without needing to buy a subscription. Right now you can watch Oakland v Houston free of charge!

In terms of learning baseball, there's lots of good posts on this forum. This one, for example, or this one (bit technical but you get the hang of the lingo!). And of course, this one - the MEGA Knowledge Thread.

above all - read the history, it's what got me even more interested. And buy a copy of "Baseball An Illustrated History" by Ken Burns and C Ward. Read it. Then read it again. It's brilliant.

Keep up posted on how you get on!

[paul.m.w.]

Great advice!

[Peregrine]

You can also find some videos online that try to explain the rules - but I definitely recommend watching a couple of games!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bKkGeROiPA

[wuttang]

link for the MLB free games if anyone needs it

Media Center | MLB.com: Multimedia

[Honorable_Pawn]

Welcome to the Boards. I'm not going to help out with your OP directly. Instead, I'll help out in another way. When you start to understand how things work and you are ready to set-up your own universe the way that you want it then you are going to want jerseys & logos.

When that happens see here

[chemkid]

@honorable pawn - for me, it was exactly the other way around.
first stop: what's there to mod the visuals that i'll feel right at home?
when all the bling is installed and the folder-structure, add-on-system and file-management is understood - i'll have a blast learning the game and everything starts to click-in and feels good! real good!!
for that matter, i'm really enjoying the japanese pro league and having player photos and the official logos is a real blast - thanks to everyone on the mod-forums for providing so much stuff!!!

[towerbooks3192]

As a complete baseball beginner. That knowledge thread (I don't have the link right now) is really a must read.It contains links to almost everything you want to know about the game and baseball.

[Total1880]

Thanks, i'm going to watch the Brewers against the Rays

[towerbooks3192]

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ge-thread.html

Check that from time to time whenever you don't know something as it contains very useful links depending on what information you need.

[jpeters1734]

Originally Posted by Total1880

Thanks, i'm going to watch the Brewers against the Rays

Don't become attached to either of those teams because they stink, lol. Instead I would begin to follow my favorite Black and Gold team, the Pirates!

I also couldn't play ootp without knowing much about baseball either but I am glad baseball has reached you. It may not be exciting all the time but when it is, it's awesome!

[Gambo]

The basics of finances should carry over from interest in other sports. Of the major sports the finances of baseball are the most similar the soccer . The concepts shoud carry over and baseball should actually be easier in many ways.

I would actually recommend picking up a book that talks about the life of a team over the course of a season or a couple of years. This way you get the idea of how a team progresses and how they're built.

Even as a yankee fan I tend to enjoy books about the 1986-1990 Mets. I think they could be considered the first typical modern team. A mix of young developing players and veteran pick ups, specialized roles on the pitching staff, making the decision between sacrificing youngsters or getting better right away, bad moves, good moves

[Total1880]

So, i gave up baseball after a couple of days. To much information for a newbie. (what is ERA, H, DA, ... ???)
Last saturday i read a tiny article in the newspaper about a victory of the Royals in the World Series. I thought: "Hoo, the finals of the hockey-season are happening." My girlfriend studied a year in Buffalo and i thought to impress her with my hockey knowledge.
Great was my suprise when i saw they played the SF Giants. "Aren't they a baseball team?"
So i followed the next two games, cheering for the Giants (I visited SF once and it was love at first sight. Also in Antwerp we have a basketball team: Antwerp Giants.)
I picked up OOTP15 and thought "I payed a lot of money for this game. I'm gonna learn the sh*t out of you!".
Last night i finally played a game (GM of a rookie-team, one step at a time) and i knew what was happening! With google by my side i knew what all those letters meant! I lost the game with great numbers but how cares. I'm now an expert of baseball in Belgium.


To get to your levels of expertise, i'm going to start a Dynasty report from my point of view. You guys can help me along the way.

In this Dynasty report, i'm going to use a Fictional Belgian League (a mix of real Belgian baseball teams and fictional teams. You have to learn new leagues, right? )

I want a league based on European competition formulas. Is it possible to implement relegation and promotion in OOTP?

[jpeters1734]

Originally Posted by Total1880

So, i gave up baseball after a couple of days. To much information for a newbie. (what is ERA, H, DA, ... ???)
Last saturday i read a tiny article in the newspaper about a victory of the Royals in the World Series. I thought: "Hoo, the finals of the hockey-season are happening." My girlfriend studied a year in Buffalo and i thought to impress her with my hockey knowledge.
Great was my suprise when i saw they played the SF Giants. "Aren't they a baseball team?"
So i followed the next two games, cheering for the Giants (I visited SF once and it was love at first sight. Also in Antwerp we have a basketball team: Antwerp Giants.)
I picked up OOTP15 and thought "I payed a lot of money for this game. I'm gonna learn the sh*t out of you!".
Last night i finally played a game (GM of a rookie-team, one step at a time) and i knew what was happening! With google by my side i knew what all those letters meant! I lost the game with great numbers but how cares. I'm now an expert of baseball in Belgium.


To get to your levels of expertise, i'm going to start a Dynasty report from my point of view. You guys can help me along the way.

In this Dynasty report, i'm going to use a Fictional Belgian League (a mix of real Belgian baseball teams and fictional teams. You have to learn new leagues, right? )

I want a league based on European competition formulas. Is it possible to implement relegation and promotion in OOTP?

Welcome back to baseball! Baseball has a funny way of calling you back when you stray too far.

It is absolutely possible to have pro/reg in OOTP. You just have to do it manually by editing league structure every season. I would love to read a dynasty report on your league. You may have a unique view on things since you are new to baseball

[eriqjaffe]

Originally Posted by Total1880

I want a league based on European competition formulas. Is it possible to implement relegation and promotion in OOTP?

Yes, but it's a manual process. After the season ends (more accurately, after the awards are handed out), you can edit the league structures and move teams between tiers.

It's also best if you assign a "prestige" rating to the leagues (this can be done during league setup), and also set the various leagues' financial settings in a tiered setup. Those settings should help keep off-season player movement somewhat realistic. There are a few threads on the forums that go into more detail on that.