League game results
League batting leaders
League pitching leaders
League fielding leaders
League team batting totals
League team pitching totals
League team fielding totals
2003 Detroit |
1962 New York |
Top level season batting leaders
Top level season pitching leaders
Top level season fielding leaders
Top level career batting leaders
Top level career pitching leaders
Top level career fielding leaders
This is the top-level page for this league web site. From here, you can follow the links to the multi-season leaderboard reports, to an index page listing all of the league-level reports for each season, and from there to a page for each team-season that lists the reports for that team.
The information in the reports is the result of simulating the 1927-1931 seasons using our Classic Past Seasons. After the seasons were simulated, it took only a few minutes to import them into the encyclopedia and a few seconds to generate the 352 files that make up this web site.
All of these pages are based on standard reports that are included with Diamond Mind Baseball version 9. You can, however, customize these reports in a variety of ways -- add/remove sections, add/remove columns in any section, change options, change sort sequences, and so on. You can also customize the report groups that determine which of these reports are generated in the first place. In other words, you have almost complete control over the contents of a generated web site.
This web site, which includes all of the available reports for five seasons of an 8-team league, uses approximately 16 MB of disk space. Your space needs will vary based on how you customize the reports and the report groups, how many seasons you include, the size of your league, and whether you choose to include all of the boxscores. We chose to leave the boxscores out of this sample, but if we had included them, they'd be linked into the various game results reports.
]]>We've heard from hundreds of our customers by mail, email and fax about their experiences with Diamond Mind Baseball:
"I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for your excellent service. In addition, my thanks for not only developing the best baseball simulation/game on the market, but also for your collective efforts at continuously working to improve the game. I've been in and out of the hospital this past year and DMB has been an excellent companion and a reminder that baseball is still the greatest game in the world." -- August 2006
"I have been dealing with DMB for over 12 years and have always been extremely pleased with the product, customer and technical service I have received from this company. Software companies are notorious for poor customer and technical service..........DMB is the exception, and in my experience the ONLY company I have ever dealt with that absolutely puts the customer, and their needs, first! Keep up the OUTSTANDING work!" -- March 2006
"I've been dealing with Diamond Mind since the early days of the company. In all those years, I cant recall a transaction that didn't go smoothly. Each of the people there has been consistently knowledgeable, pleasant, and efficient. The Diamond Mind baseball game is, by far, the most realistic game on the market. It has captured the intricacies of a complex game, and made it extremely easy to play. Each player is re-created in every phase of the game. Great product. Great people. What more can I say?" -- November 2005
"The best simulated baseball game I`ve played. The realism is incredible. The total control with every pitch is outstanding.I never imagined a game with every pitch would be so easy. That the time taken to play a game is also impressive. I can tell you that I will be a Diamond Mind player forever,this game is something I`ve been waiting for nearly 30 years. Thank you so much. I`m very happy!" -- May 2005
"Diamond Mind is an outstanding company in all respects. I have been a customer for nearly 20 years and I am always impressed by their sensitivity to individual customer needs. When I have a question, I get a warm and prompt response from their customer service representatives, and I am always made to feel that I am their only customer. The quality of the Diamond Mind products is without equal in their area, and they constantly seek customer input as they develop and improve their offerings. The information that they provide for customers both in print and online is extremely helpful and attractively packaged. I will continue to give Diamond Mind baseball the loyalty that it has earned from me over 20 years of impeccable service." -- April 2005
"They are simply the best at what they do. There is no doubt that they are emotionally invested in providing the best baseball simulation of its kind. They are fans themselves. There are few merchants or companies with which I deal that I would rate this highly." -- April 2005
"Outstanding. I have never had anything less than an excellent buying experience with this company. In addition, their customer service and support might well be the best with which I have ever dealt. A lot of other companies could take lessons from Diamond Mind on how to treat their customers." -- January 2005
"I just feel compelled to let DMB know this game is just too good. The more I play, the more immersed I get. Finally a pitch by pitch representation of the true game of baseball. And a CM that understands baseball and makes logical strategic moves. Add that to a user friendly screen that contains all of the information I need and information easily within reach. This game is miles ahead of any other on the market. With the emphasis on arcade games, I feared sims would disappear the way of the dinosaur. No arcade game can replicate baseball because the emphasis is on presentation and not a sim-like experience. DMB is the most realistic game to date, bar none." -- January 2005
"Diamond Mind is perhaps one of the best companies to deal with, especially when it comes to customer service and products. Diamond Mind, I give you my props." -- December 2004
"I have been playing Diamond Mind Baseball for nine years. I find the game to be very realistic in its depiction of baseball game events based on very specific skill sets of the players involved in any particular play. What it lacks in graphic action is more than adequately compensated for in terms of intellectual stimulation." -- December 2004
"Wow....just unbelievable....this is a perfect computer game for anyone who wants to manage or general manage or just watch seasons being replayed to see the results!! I have thoroughly enjoyed this game and would pay multiple times what I have been charged in order to play Diamond Mind Baseball. They were great with the delivery, great with the options for delivery and great with the actual software. Long live Diamond Mind Baseball." -- November 2004
"My friends and I have been playing PTP for 16 years, but until recently we were in a major drought. We found Diamond Mind and are just concluding our first season. We are all blown away by how much fun it is. We haven’t had any technical issues at all and are having the time of our lives with this. Thank you so much!" -- November 2004
"Diamond Mind Baseball is a great application, simulating baseball way above anything like I've ever seen. DMB is highly accurate and allows you to strategize at basic, intermediate and advanced levels. DMB is EXACTLY what I was looking for." -- November 2004
"As always, Diamond Mind continues to be a class act. They are always a pleasure to deal with and supply a quality product without an attitude." -- November 2004
"Love this game! If you are a die-hard baseball fan who eats statistics for lunch, this game is for you. The customer service has been superb so far." -- November 2004
"Diamond Mind Baseball has to be the best statistics-driven computer baseball simulation going. The feature I like the most is the ability to create players yourself from almost any time in baseball history -- not that you have to, since DMB offers so many season disks plus my favorite, the All-time Greatest Players Disk. Online ordering and very rapid shipping make this company tops in my book!" -- November 2004
"I just received my copy of DMB 9 and love it. I have been away from baseball sims for some time and wanted to return. I think that Diamond Mind has the best product on the market by a huge margin."--November 2004
"Can't get over how you guys have made a game that feels so much like the real thing. I find myself stopping and thinking real hard about pitching decisions, pitch hitting and defensive subs like no other game."-- October 2004
"I would also like to add that it will be difficult to improve on version 9 but I am sure DMB will find a way. Thank you for allowing this old man to still feel like a part of America's favorite pastime."-- September 2004
"First played Pursue the Pennant in 1993 for my current league, the USBL, and I haven’t played anything else since. DMB is the best game I’ve played, board OR computer, and its consistency can’t be beaten."-- September 2004
"I do not believe I have played another online game that was so easy and intuitive." -- May 2004
"I have been into baseball simulation games for forty years, and Diamond Mind is the most statistically accurate game ever marketed. It plays easily at various levels and offers almost unlimited options as to strategy and league play." -- May 2004
"I am running your wonderful game on a Powerbook under Virtual PC and it works great. Thanks for the game. I enjoy it very much and that it runs on my Mac is all the better." -- April 2004
"You've really created a feeling of being in the dugout or in the stands with your play-by-play." -- April 2004
"I am so happy to be playing this game, every other baseball sim fails to compare." -- March 2004
"When V8 came out I said "it can't get any better than this." Then, you released V9. I have to admit, I was very wrong. This is a spectacular upgrade. Just for the PBP alone it was worth it, but, everything else is icing on the proverbial cake." -- March 2004
"Thanks again for providing an engrossing and near-perfect product. There are not many companies that deliver on their promises to the degree that Diamond Mind Baseball does." -- April 2004
"Just played my 1st series over the new DMB 9 Net Play. What a joy it is. Easy, easy hookup. Quick Play! No mistakes on sequence…bottom line.. AWESOME!" --April 2004
"Its an awesome product from a classy company." -- March 2004
"To let you know, I started playing [another game] when I was 13 years old. It was only available in a board version then. I've played [three DMB competitors]. Your product is, by far, the best baseball sim I've ever seen. You deserve a pat on the back!" -- March 2004
"I have dealt with them since 1986 or thereabouts. In every instance they have been helpful above and beyond. For my money they have the most fun to play and interesting game on the market. Any concern or question I've ever raised has been dealt with quickly and professionally. I couldn't be happier with the product or the friendly service." -- March 2004
"Diamond Mind Baseball remains the finest product of it's kind, the best shopping experience available, and the most supportive software company I've ever come across. Keep it up… you get better every year." -- February 2004
"The greatest players disk is the best baseball game I have ever played. Thank you!!" -- February 2004
"Your game is the best of it's kind by a mile." -- February 2004
"Thanks for the great products. I really enjoy the All-Time Great Disks (Players and Teams)." -- January 2004
"Great software and a great idea. They've done all the leg work to make the system as easy as possible, or as complex and as detailed as you want to make it. I know guys who walk away from a team after the draft and let the computer manager handle all the games and the owners may get involved for trades; I know other guys who are scouting the other team and trying to put together line ups based on the opposing pitcher and their players history against them, and then sit through each game and watch every pitch." -- January 2004
"In a world of poor customer sevice, Diamond Mind is a company with the old school approach that every order, regardless of size, is worthy of the best possible effort." --January 2004
"I have used DMB products for 15 years, and I continue to be impressed with both the playability and the sophistication of its games. The real rules of actual baseball apply here, and they don't take a back seat to sound effects or visual gimmicks." -- January 2004
"I've just recently bought and began playing your game, and I absolutely LOVE IT!!! I was a long time user of [another game], but this is so much better." -- Jan 04
"I play in [a league]. Your game is excellent and I am glad we have switched to it after countless searches through endless games." -- Dec 03
"Diamond Mind is the best baseball simulation game that I have so far encountered. It is good to do business with a company that has been around long enough to know what is important to the customer, including getting info from customers and tailoring its products to what those customers want." -- Dec 03
"I started my 1969 replay on February 24, 2002 with DMB8. After almost two years, I finally finished it last Sunday. I just wanted to thank you very much for your product. I used to [use other games] and it was only DMB that gave me the satisfying results and reporting tools to keep me interested in my replay." -- Dec 03
"My experience with Diamond Mind Baseball was beyond excellent. The product is the best and all the service was exceptional. I will buy from Diamond Mind Baseball again." -- Dec 03
"I think your DMB product is a wonderful game and just continues to get better each year. Thank you for continuing to make a fun and realistic game time and again." -- Nov 03
"Diamond Mind Baseball is the best baseball simulation product on the market. The statistical realism is mind-blowing!!!" -- Nov 03
"Best baseball simulation I've ever seen. Fun to play, too. The company goes out of their way to provide excellent service, and answers email questions quickly." -- Nov 03
"DMB is the best and forget the rest." -- Oct 03
"Simply the best computer baseball sim, bar none." -- Oct 03
"DMB is by far and away the best baseball simulation on the market. The company has terrific support and is there for you - even for dumb stuff - all the time. The package has everything and works like a charm. Its real baseball on a PC with a backup staff that is second to none." -- Oct 03
"Diamond Mind is a great product. It accurately simulates Major League Baseball. The Classic Seasons of the 1950's are my favorites. The game lets you participate as manager, coach, and/or GM. It is well worth the money." -- Sep 03
"The game is everything a strategic player could want. Their service is great. They are always improving and upgrading their product. Diamond Mind Baseball is the real deal." -- Sep 03
"If you really know baseball and are looking for a computer game to match wits with, Diamond Mind is the game for you! It is easy to learn and flexible enough to play any variety of ways. The drafting feature vs. the computer is fantastic! Creating or editing players is a snap. The people of Diamnd Mind are very helpful and a pleasure to deal with (either on-line or on the phone). I highly recommend this company and this game!" -- Sep 03
"Best baseball sim game period." -- Aug 03
"Just want to congratulate (and thank) you on a great effort with [the All-time Greatest Players disk]. I think your choice of using a series of peak seasons was right on. It strikes a good balance between the "one year wonders" and the vagaries of career stats." -- Jul 03
"I expected excellence from DMB because I've gotten it every time over the years --season after season and improvement after improvement. The rare error is always miniscule and corrected immediately when found. You won't find a better text game; their research is as good as it gets." -- Jul 03
"Best PC baseball game ever! Great customer service!" -- Jun 03
"I love Diamond Mind!!! They are the BEST company I have ever dealt with!" -- Jun 03
"I run a league along with a friend and we are finishing up our first season and think Diamond Mind Baseball is the best thing that ever came along for die-hard baseball fans like ourselves. Our league runs year round, so DMB helps us make it through the winter and still have baseball." -- May 03
"Your game, service, website and now web log = THE BEST! Many Thanks!" -- May 03
"Greatest ball game out there, hands down." -- Apr 03
"I've just switched from [a different game] to your game, and I am highly impressed so far. Thanks very much for a great product!" -- Apr 03
"I have played [another game] since 1965, both with cards and from the old DOS days of the first computer version…. comparing the two products is like matching the 1927 Yankees against the original Mets. You have set the standard - put it in the Hall of Fame." -- Mar 03
"Diamond Mind Baseball is the best overall statistical re-creation of baseball seasons you can find." -- Feb 03
"Diamond Mind baseball is the best computer sim game on the market today! Thanks for creating a fun and exciting game!!!" -- Feb 03
"Just wanted to thank you for putting out a fantastic game. I have not found a simulation game anywhere near as satisfying as this one - lets's face it, when an announcer suggests an athlete is putting up video game numbers, that's a reflection of the lack of realistic baseball games on the market. Your game really fills a void." -- Jan 03
"Diamond Mind Baseball's website is excellent and comprehensive. They describe their product in depth and honestly. I got exactly what I expected and I got it quickly, honestly and at a fair price." -- Jan 03
"It's a great store and the best computer baseball game by far… the next best game finishes 3rd!! -- Dec 02
"I am always impressed with both the game and your company…as long as you keep making DMB I'll keep buying." -- Dec 02
"Diamond Mind baseball is the best computer baseball game I've ever seen…and I've seen them all!" -- Nov 02
"Thanks for the amazing amount of work you've put into making this game statistically accurate. As statistics are a big part of my life, I couldn't live with another baseball game." -- Nov 02
"Diamond Mind Baseball (the finest baseball game on the market) has consistently had the best customer service and technical support in the market." -- Oct 02
Your product is great and I can't live without it." -- Oct 02
"Always delivers the product as advertised - product is excellent - they still look for little ways to enhance the season disks and game for our enjoyment." -- Sep 02
"This is an awesome game that I have been playing since 1998. It's not ruled by salaries, egos, or bad attitudes, only the game that's played between the lines." -- Aug 02
"The Team Status Report that shows the playing time of players as a percent of their real-life total is just fantastic. Very helpful in keeping all the players on track during the replay." -- Jul 02
"Diamond Mind Baseball is an awesome product!.. I have nothing but great things to say about this company!.. If you have questions they help you.. I just really appreciate everything about them." -- Jun 02
"Thank you folks for really making an excellent product. After 2-3 years with this game I continue to be impressed (even when I lose) with the realism." -- Jun 02
"Diamond Mind Baseball is one of the most professional small businesses I've dealt with. Excellent customer service!! Top notch people and a top notch product." -- May 02
"The amount of detail and effort that has gone into this product is mind blowing! It's also appealing that historical teams are available which really complements the modern game. Keep up the good work!" -- May 02
"Excellent product. I've been wanting to try Diamond Mind for a couple years and I was very happy I finally decided to give it a try. Definitely, a game for baseball fans." -- Apr 02
"I've been a DMB owner since the first PC version in '87 when it was PTP (and a board game owner before that). It is the best simulation baseball game on the planet… period." --Apr 02
"This computer game is totally amazing. The ease of play and the amount of past seasons available make this the most enjoyable baseball game I have ever owned. As a former baseball board game player there is no comparison between these games and Diamond Mind Baseball. All I can say is keep up the good work." --Apr 02
"I ordered the 2002 Projection disk on-line and received it in 3 days!!!! I couldn't believe the speed of service. Keep up the good work! Oh and by the way you have the best statistical simulation game I've ever seen or played. Thanks again." --Apr 02
"The game is the best available anywhere. I have played tabletop games since 1962 and nothing comes close to this game." --Mar 02
"You guys make the best baseball game out there. The new versions are getting more and more user friendly. I love all of the information available on screen as you play w/o needing to click into different windows. You can play a fast game, but have it still be detailed, exciting and full of strategy. Keep up the great work! Please never sacrifice your attention to detail with regards to realism and statistics, that is what sets you apart from the others." --Mar 02
"I received Diamond Mind for Christmas and wanted to pass along high praise to what is a wonderful, almost perfect product. It is an incredible---well I scarcely can call it a "game"; it is more properly defined as a simulation/modeling tool, albeit the most entertaining, most cool such tool I've ever had the pleasure to use! The AI is very good, the "play-by-play" impressive, the various data, input, and output screens very well organized and intuitive. This the game I've always wanted! Thank you!" --Mar 02
"You market a GREAT product. I enjoy this game and it is a GREAT value!" --Mar 02
"Diamond Mind is the best baseball game out there, and their service is equally stellar." --Mar 02
"Thanks for all the attention to detail and realism. The fact that any given result is a combination of both the batter's and pitcher's ability certainly rises above the board games. Anything that can happen in baseball happens in DMB. You certainly have earned this fan's loyalty. This is a baseball fan's dream come true." --Jan/02
"If you enjoy simulation baseball, you will enjoy playing Diamond Mind! It is the best product out there, period!" --Jan/02
"Not only does Diamond Mind produce a tremendous product, they provide a great shopping experience, and the best software support I've ever encountered." --Dec/01
"DMB's service record is the best in the business. A Class act which stands behind its own work, which is nice to see in this day and age" --Dec/01
"DMB is a great product, best non arcade type baseball simulation available." --Dec/01
"The scope of players, the stadiums, and the stats, both real and replay, are incredible. It's everything I've looked for in a sim for years, and so much more. You have yourself a fan for life. My wife may suffer, but baseball was here first." --Dec/01
"I'm a repeat customer and this is a superb product. The best non arcade style baseball simulation of all time." --Dec/01
"Good product, promptly shipped, with good support. You can't ask for much more." --Nov/01
"Great product, helpful customer support. Would recommend to anyone interested in baseball simulations as the best in the industry." --Nov/01
"Awesome game." --Nov/01
"I really find Diamond Mind Baseball's service and support to be the best in the sports sim industry. I played lots of sports games before Diamond Mind, but their product is head and shoulders the best." --Nov/01
"Diamond Mind Baseball is the BEST statistical simulation on the market. I've been a satisfied customer for nearly a decade and still counting!!!" --Nov/01
"Diamond Mind is the most realistic baseball simulation of any kind that I have ever had the pleasure of playing (based on about 27 years of experience). The game is not only a fantastic gaming experience, but the value, variety of accessories and customer service are Number One!" --Oct/01
"Without a doubt, the BEST baseball simulation (computer or board game) I've ever played. It's like I'm not even playing a game but am really there in the dugout." --Oct/01
"Yours is by far the best statistical sports game on the market." --Sep/01
"Finally, I want to thank you and tell you what a terrific job all of you did on Version 8. It really is fantastic, and the top of the line in these games. I am an editor at The Boston Globe and I tell all my friends here about it. Easy to play, very, very realistic, and loads of stats. But nothing beats the pitch-by-pitch." --Sep/01
"I expected you to have the usual features most other people put into their games: righty/lefty, parks, weather, etc. What I can't believe is how you've packed in every single significant feature I've ever seen anywhere else, plus several others. Moreover, you do a great job of implementing these items without effecting accuracy. I really like your computer manager set up; it's powerful enough while being extremely easy to use. Your scheduler is the best I've seen (it allows the use of templates). Your reporting facility is outstanding (don't know another game that enables day by day reporting). I love the fact that your game is centered around the concept of cross era play, as you actually create the player on an era neutral, park neutral (not seen before) basis. I also don't know of another game that includes fielding in cross era normalization." --Aug/01
"Simply the best baseball simulation out there, and has been since I first ordered it in 1997. I now use Diamond Mind exclusively; it just keeps getting better!" --Aug/01
"The product itself is awesome; I've never found a game that so closely matches the strategy and outcomes of the real game." --Jul/01
"Not only do the folks at Diamond Mind have a very fine product, they service and support it with a top notch website." --Jul/01
"I've owned and played lots of sports games, but I keep coming back to Diamond Mind, simply because it's the most realistic, the most playable, and the most fun." --Jun/01
"Your baseball game rocks. I've been frustrated with arcade games that produce great graphics but soon become tiresome. They lack realism and play more like a pinball game with fancy bells and whistles. Your game does many things well and I just wanted to compliment you. This is what baseball is all about." --Jun/01
"This product is, by far, the best computer baseball game on the market." --Jun/01
"I have started my replay of the 1955 AL season…what a BLAST! …in 1955 I was a 12-year old kid just beginning to develop my life-long passion for baseball. This game "feels" so much like that great era. Thanks for making a middle-aged man feel like a kid again!" --May/01
"Game is great. Realism and players perform exactly like real life. With this game I can recreate games and players from my youth!!" --May/01
"Diamond Mind is the best baseball game going. The attention to detail is incredible. And the customer support was outstanding." --May/01
"This is an excellent product and an excellent company. Questions are answered promptly and thoroughly, and it's apparent from the folks I've dealt with that they care about their customers and actually enjoy what they are doing." --Apr/01
"Your game is unreal!! I thought version 7 could not be beat but you did it." --Apr/01
"Just started playing around with customizing of reports…this is an astonishing feature! I really like the way I am able to place real-life stats right next to simulated stats on one report. The staggering array of choices and combinations is most gratifying." --Mar/01
"The play-by-play is excellent. It reads like baseball. Sounds like baseball. It feels like baseball…The pitch-by-pitch feature is unique, and there are times when it adds so much to the game…of all the baseball simulations out there, I rate DMB as the most professional, trusted & highest quality of them all." --Mar/01
"The BEST Baseball simulation ever. Amazingly, it keeps getting better every year." --Mar/01
"This is the most customer-service oriented company I've ever dealt with. I wish they sold other things like insurance or garage-door openers because I know I'd feel a lot more comfortable dealing with them than those I've been dealing with." --Mar/01
"Just when you think it can't get any better, DMB releases ver 8. Thank you for a GREAT game. I never send companies letters about their products but this in an exception. Version 8 is the best statistical simulation of a sport I have ever played." --Feb/01
"To say I enjoy the game is an understatement, addiction is more like it. Congratulations on far and away the best baseball sim out there. I've played all of them that I know about, and nothing comes close." --Feb/01
"Diamond Mind is a great company ... always willing to help if you have questions" -- Feb/01
"Your version 8 game is really great. But your customer service is just as great as your game. I don't know how you do it, but EVERYBODY I've ever spoken to at Diamond Mind, either on the phone or via email, has been kind, efficient, gracious, and a pleasure to do business with. It's the best, most polite customer service I've ever experienced." Jan/01
"My compliments on version 8, a slick, welcomed addition to the series." -- Jan/01
"I love version 8. It's the most realistic strategy baseball game around." -- Jan/01
"I received version 8 last week ... what an outstanding job you did!! I just love the whole new interface, atmosphere, convenience" -- Jan/01
"Let me congratulate you on a SUPER game. I have played just about every brand of computer baseball game ... and version 8 is the ONLY game that I've played that is actually better than DMB version 7" -- Jan/01
"The game is absolutely terrific. The graphical user interface is awesome and it brings a new level of enjoyment and excitement to the best baseball game on the market." -- Jan/01
"This is a first class organization" -- Jan/01
"Great job on version 8. I am glad you waited and took the extra time to add all of the cool features and new ideas ... it was well worth the wait." -- Jan/01
"I just received version 8 and am just thrilled with it! I was amazed at how easy it is to install, play, view and print reports. My hat's off to your staff for the fantastic job they have done." -- Jan/01
"You have an absolutely wonderful baseball game. It's very easy to use, very easy to trade, create players, etc., and the layout is great." -- Jan/01
"Version 8 rocks!!" -- Jan/01
"DMB is great. Most realistic simulation game I've ever been involved with." -- Sep/00
"I currently have 7 different computer baseball games and Diamond Mind is, without question, the best." -- Aug/00
"Diamond Mind Baseball just rocks!!!! I love it so much, and play it everyday. Best simulation game there is. Thanks for the hours of endless fun!!!" -- Aug/00
"Diamond Mind Baseball offers great products and GREAT service." -- Aug/00
"I got your game last week and I only have one thing to say about it…AWESOME!" -- May/00
"I have thoroughly enjoyed the game since my first experience in year 1 of your creation many moons ago. I have spent countless hours playing, planning my various organizations strategies, and basically savoring the game. Each upgrade has left me thinking it has evolved into the perfect game, only to be bested by the next release." -- May/00
"I was truly amazed when I played (simulated) my first game with DMB. I've got to say that your simulation is the next best thing to being there." -- Apr/00
"The realism is fantastic, but nothing on the market can touch your pitch-by-pitch system. It was the reason I bought the game, and I have not been disappointed. I find the game very easy to play, the information easy to access, and that the game contains just about everything that happens in real-life with the same frequency or infrequency of major league baseball." -- Apr/00
"…After playing (competing games) for decades, nothing comes close to the stats, realism, playability and play-by-play of DMB." -- Mar/00
"Thank you for your commitment to reality and strategy. And thank you for customer service that is far away the best in the industry." -- Feb/00
"By the way, after playing (one competitor's game) for 30+ years and (another competitor's) game for the last five, graphics or not, windows or not, DMB is far and away the best - stats, playability, pure fun and recreation of baseball." -- Feb/00
"You have a terrific game. Tried several of the graphics and sound variety, but they can't match yours." -- Feb/00
"It's outstanding that not only is DMB the best baseball game available, but your customer service is the best I've received from anyone." -- Jan/00
"I can't tell you how happy I am that I bought your game. From a computer stand point, the user interface is simple and its rock solid in that I haven't run into any bugs. From a baseball standpoint, the game is UN-BE-LIEVABLE! You guys/gals have thought of EVERYTHING. It's hard to imagine a better simulation game on the market. You blow the competition that I've played with out of the water. And I'm giving up making my own game. This was the best money I spent this holiday season." -- Jan/00
"I am extremely happy with the game and amazed by the accuracy of your model. I am consistently amazed at the critical impact my managerial decisions have on the results." -- Jan/00
"I just wanted to let you know that I just purchased DMB7 and it is the first experience I've ever had with a text based baseball simulation. Well, I will NEVER play a graphics based simulation again… The product itself is amazingly detailed and enormously fun! I am so impressed with the game that I'm recommending it to every baseball fan I know with a computer. The play by play is riveting. The statistical accuracy is unmatched, and the customizable options are endless. Plus, you can play a game in less than 20 minutes!! I've found myself staying up way too late saying, "I can play ONE more game."" -- Dec/99
"Diamond Mind is a computer simulation that's been around for more than 20 years, and its intricate engine is used by ESPN and other media to simulate seasons. It's considered the best simulator out there". About Sports (http://baseball.about.com/od/onlinegames/tp/bbsimulations.htm), April 2015
Diamond Mind Baseball version 7 began shipping in July, 1997, and a number of print and online publications have put it through the wringer. Here's what they've had to say:
"the finest computer baseball simulation available...great gameplay...statistically precise simulation...excellent reports...nearly completely customizable"
PC Sportsgames (www.pcsportsgames.com), December/98
"the most realistic simulation of baseball available on the PC... incredibly flexible... for those who truly love baseball the way it is played in the big leagues, this product is simply unparalleled."
Digital Sportspage (www.digitalsports.com), August/98
"a treat for those of you who have been itching for a stunningly accurate baseball simulation"
Computer Game Strategy Plus (www.cdmag.com), May/98
"highly accurate and a lot of fun... a bargain"
Hartford Courant, May 17, 1998
"Widely recognized as the best statistical baseball game available"
Inside Games web site (www.insidegames.com), March/98
"For my money, Diamond Mind is simply the best major league simulation in existence -- especially for those who appreciate the rich statistical tradition of the game."
Toronto Star, February 26, 1998
"All in all, Diamond Mind is the premier baseball simulator on the market today. It provides all the tools you need to produce realistic, competitive leagues. There's a schedule generator and the ability to create your own players, teams, and ballparks. You won't find bitmaps of players' faces, pretty ballpark backgrounds, or animation of any sort. But you will find a rare understanding of baseball and its numbers."
Computer Gaming World, December/97
"This is the most accurate, playable and intelligent baseball sim you can play on your PC."
Inside Games web site (www.insidegames.com), Oct/97
"Diamond Mind serves as an excellent example that a quality sports simulation doesn't require spectacular sound and graphics to make for an enjoyable game. While there are other titles that feature super sound and graphics (and super hardware requirements to run effectively), I'm aware of none that can compete with Diamond Mind for accuracy, realism, or player disk support . . . The entire game design is well thought out, and actually helps you to do what you want . . . Diamond Mind is destined for the baseball simulation Hall of Fame."
Online Gaming Review (www.ogr.com), Sept/97
]]>
Our All-time Greatest Teams sets are very similar to our Classic Past Seasons, in part because many of those great teams are from the period covered by our CPS collection. Because of these similarities, we won't repeat all of the features here. If you're not already familiar with them, please review the information on the Classic Past Season page.
We currently offer eight collections of great teams, and those collections are numbered sets one through eight.
Set #1 was created in 1993, when the editors of Baseball Weekly chose our game for their greatest teams tournament. The 32 teams were selected by a panel of experts, we put together those teams, and a freelance writer named Bruce Herman played the games and wrote the stories that appeared in Baseball Weekly.
Set #2 has been included with versions 9, 10 and 11 of Diamond Mind Baseball, so most customers already own this set. Set #3 and Set #4 were introduced in the fall of 2001. With those sets, we were NOT trying to choose the best teams that hadn't already been included on Set #1 and Set #2. If we had done that, we might as well have called it the all-time New York teams set, because those sets would have been dominated by teams from the New York area.
Instead, we set a goal of making sure that every franchise (with the exception of a couple of recent expansion teams) was represented at least once in our collection of greatest teams sets. So we're not saying that the 92 teams comprising these four sets are the 92 best teams of all time. But they're all among the top 200 teams of all time, and we think the diversity makes these sets more interesting.
Set #5-#8 were released in August of 2003. With this series, our goal was to make sure every league champion since 1927 was represented in the AGT series. Of the 96 teams comprising these sets, 92 are league champions who were drawn from existing DMB season disks, and the other four are brand new teams who were league champions prior to 1927.
Set
|
Price
|
Teams |
#1
|
$24.95
|
(32 teams) Pittsburgh (1902, 1909); Boston A (1912, 1946); New York N (1904, 1912, 1923); Chicago N (1906); Philadelphia A (1911, 1931); Chicago A (1917); New York A (1921, 1927, 1932, 1936, 1939, 1942, 1953, 1961, 1977); St. Louis N (1931, 1942); Detroit (1934, 1968, 1984); Brooklyn (1953); Cleveland (1954); Baltimore (1969); Los Angeles (1974); Cincinnati (1975); New York N (1986); Oakland (1988) |
#2
|
$9.95
|
(12 teams) 1919 Chicago A, 1935 Detroit, 1955 Brooklyn, 1965 Los Angeles N, 1967 St. Louis N, 1969 New York N, 1970 Baltimore, 1971 Pittsburgh, 1975 Boston, 1978 New York A, 1980 Philadelphia, 1980 Kansas City |
#3
|
$19.95
|
(24 teams) 1915 Boston A, 1919 Cincinnati, 1933 Washington, 1935 Chicago N, 1946 St. Louis N, 1957 Milwaukee, 1960 Pittsburgh, 1962 Los Angeles N, 1962 San Francisco, 1965 Minnesota, 1972 Oakland, 1977 Kansas City, 1979 Montreal, 1982 California, 1982 Milwaukee, 1983 Baltimore, 1992 Toronto, 1995 Cleveland, 1995 Seattle, 1996 Texas, 1997 Florida, 1998 Atlanta, 1998 Houston, 1998 San Diego |
#4
|
$19.95
|
(24 teams) 1922 St. Louis A, 1925 Washington, 1929 Philadelphia A, 1940 Cincinnati, 1941 Brooklyn, 1948 Boston N, 1948 Cleveland, 1949 Boston A, 1954 New York N, 1961 Detroit, 1971 Baltimore, 1976 Philadelphia, 1983 Chicago A, 1985 St. Louis, 1985 Toronto, 1988 New York N, 1990 Oakland, 1991 Minnesota, 1991 Pittsburgh, 1993 Atlanta, 1993 San Francisco, 1994 Montreal, 1998 New York A, 1999 Arizona |
#5
|
$19.95
|
(24 teams) 1908 Chicago N, 1928 New York A, 1928 St. Louis N, 1939 Cincinnati, 1947 Brooklyn, 1947 New York A, 1951 New York A, 1951 New York N, 1957 New York A, 1963 New York A, 1963 Los Angeles N, 1966 Baltimore, 1966 Los Angeles, 1968 St. Louis, 1984 San Diego, 1987 Minnesota, 1987 St. Louis, 1989 Oakland, 1989 San Francisco, 1990 Cincinnati, 1991 Atlanta, 1997 Cleveland, 1999 Atlanta, 1999 New York A |
#6
|
$19.95
|
(24 teams) 1914 Philadelphia A, 1927 Pittsburgh, 1932 Chicago N, 1933 New York N, 1937 New York A, 1937 New York N, 1940 Detroit, 1943 New York A, 1943 St. Louis N, 1952 Brooklyn, 1952 New York A, 1958 Milwaukee, 1958 New York A, 1964 New York A, 1964 St. Louis, 1967 Boston, 1972 Cincinnati, 1974 Oakland, 1977 Los Angeles, 1992 Atlanta, 1993 Philadelphia, 1993 Toronto, 2001 Arizona, 2001 New York A |
#7
|
$19.95
|
(24 teams) 1918 Boston A, 1934 St. Louis N, 1936 New York N, 1938 Chicago N, 1938 New York A, 1944 St. Louis A, 1944 St. Louis N, 1949 Brooklyn, 1949 New York A, 1955 New York A, 1959 Chicago A, 1959 Los Angeles, 1960 New York A, 1961 Cincinnati, 1976 Cincinnati, 1976 New York A, 1978 Los Angeles, 1979 Baltimore, 1979 Pittsburgh, 1983 Philadelphia, 1985 Kansas City, 1995 Atlanta, 2000 New York A, 2000 New York N |
#8
|
$19.95
|
(24 teams) 1924 New York N, 1929 Chicago N, 1930 Philadelphia A, 1930 St. Louis N, 1941 New York A, 1945 Chicago N, 1945 Detroit, 1950 New York A, 1950 Philadelphia N, 1956 Brooklyn, 1956 New York A, 1962 New York A, 1970 Cincinnati, 1973 New York N, 1973 Oakland, 1981 Los Angeles, 1981 New York A, 1982 St. Louis, 1986 Boston, 1988 Los Angeles, 1996 Atlanta, 1996 New York A, 2002 Anaheim, 2002 San Francisco |
All of these sets come with the teams organized into a fictional league and a schedule for that league, so you can begin playing a season involving these teams within minutes.
In 2007, we added the Worst of the Worst Teams set to our collection. Baseball Prospectus asked us to put together the worst 12 teams by decade, starting with the 1890’s. The teams are: 1899 Cleveland, 1904 Washington, 1916 Philadelphia A, 1925 Boston A, 1939 St. Louis A, 1948 Chicago A, 1952 Pittsburgh, 1962 New York N, 1979 Oakland, 1988 Baltimore, 1998 Florida, 2003 Detroit. The price of this set is $14.95.
]]>The All-time Greatest Players set gives you a great way to play games using more than 4500 of the best players in baseball history.
All of the players have been selected and rated based on their best series of peak seasons (more on this below), with each season evaluated relative to the norms for that era and adjusted for park effects. The players are organized into two separate databases of 48 teams each based on the real-life franchises they were most closely affiliated with during their peak periods.
Everything is in place to allow you to start playing games the moment you install the set, but remember that there's almost no limit to the ways you can use these players and teams. You can also run a draft, restructure the league, generate a new schedule, change the manager profiles, and move players and teams to/from other Diamond Mind seasons.
The All-time Greatest Players set is priced at $29.95 per volume or buy the All-time Greatest Players 2015 Volume 1 database together with the All-time Greatest Players 2015 Volume 2 database and get the All-time Greatest Players 2015 Volume 2 database for 35% off the regular price. Add both items to your cart and use shopping code AGP2015BUN to apply the discount at checkout.
The players are organized into teams based primarily on real-life franchises. Certain franchises (e.g. New York, Boston, Chicago) have too many stars for one team, so we split them into two or three. Other franchises are too young to have accumulated a full and balanced roster, so we combined them.
Every team has a manager profile with starting rotations, bullpen assignments, starting lineups against left- and right-handed pitchers for both DH and non-DH games, and depth charts for each of those starting lineups.
During our testing, we autoplayed a number of seasons and found these teams to be remarkably balanced. Some are better than others, of course, but it was rare to see a team with a winning percentage above .600 or below .400. Most of the divisional races were hotly contested, often decided during the season's final series.
We rated the players based on their best series of consecutive peak years that met a minimum playing time threshold. Let's take a moment to go over what that means.
To select each player's best series of seasons, we began with his rookie year, collected enough future seasons to meet or exceed our minimum playing time threshold, and evaluated that group of seasons. We repeated the process for the seasons beginning with his second year, then his third year, and so on. The group of seasons that provided the highest level of league- and park-adjusted performance became the basis for that player's ratings.
We used consecutive peak seasons rather than unconnected peak seasons because players change with age. A player may start out as a superior fielder with great speed and enough hitting skills to be an asset at the top of the order. As he matures, adds muscle, or recovers from a serious injury, he might move to a less demanding fielding position, run less, take more walks, and add power. If we rated such a player based on a mix of early, middle, and later years, we might end up creating a power hitter who could also play great defense and steal bases, even if that player never did all of those things at the same time at any point in his career.
We chose to use peak years rather than entire careers because some all-time greats had mediocre-to-poor seasons at the start or end of their careers because they were called up at a very young age and/or they kept their jobs after they had lost much of their ability. If we used entire careers, these stars would not stand out from the crowd as much as they should.
We felt it was important to include a lot of playing time. That way, lesser players with one or two really good seasons wouldn't rank as highly as others who sustained their success over a much longer period.
If a position player had a short career -- less than 4000 plate appearances -- he was not eligible for this set. If he reached that threshold but fell short of 6000 PA, we used his entire career. If he exceeded 6000 PA, we used his best run of consecutive seasons that include at least 6000 PA.
Similarly, we had two thresholds for pitchers. To qualify for the set, a pitcher needed at least 200 career starts, 400 career relief appearances, or a suitable combination of the two. To qualify for the peak-years treatment, those limits were raised to 250 starts or 500 relief appearances.
This approach favors players with longer careers because their weaker seasons are excluded. We feel that's appropriate. The best players start sooner and last longer than everyone else.
This set also includes over 100 players from the Negro Leagues who didn't also play in the majors along with some of the All Time Great Japanese League Baseball Players.
]]>The newest addition to our range of seasons, team and player sets is a collection of all AL and NL All-Star teams from 1933, the year the first All-Star Game was played, to 2008. The collection comprises five sets, each covering 15 years: 1933-48, 1949-63, 1964-78, 1979-93, 1994-2008.
Roster sizes will vary from year to year, showing a gradual increase in size as time passed. Reserve roster players are those players who were chosen to play in that season’s game but were replaced due to injury or other reasons. All teams have been set up with strict, computer-generated, three-man pitching rotations. If the actual starter was included in the rotation, he was moved to the number one spot on the list. If he was not, he replaced the third pitcher on the list and then was slid to the number one spot. Two sources (The Midsummer Classic, baseball-almanac.com) indicate that in 1971 the AL roster was 29 while the NL was 28. So be it.
The DH has only been used in nine of the actual all-star games that these disks encompass: 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005. In seasons in which the DH was not used in the actual all-star game, the first two lineups in the Manager Profile, vs LHP and vs RHP, are the same. They are the lineup that was used in the actual game. DH lineups are also provided, and are computer-generated. In seasons in which the DH was used in the actual game, the first two lineups are computer-generated. The two DH lineups, vs LHP (DH) and vs RHP (DH), are identical, and are the starting lineup that was used in that year’s game.
Four times in the history of the all-star game there have been two games in one season: 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962. For all four years, the starting lineup given in the Manager Profile is that used in the first game for that particular season. In 1960, the games were played with only one day in between (July 11th and 13th). Identical 30-man rosters were used. In 1959, 1961, and 1962, the two games were played weeks apart and there were some roster changes. Those players who played in the actual first game are active on the DMB roster. Players who were on the rosters for the second game but not the first game are also on the DMB roster, but are farmed out. Actual game two rosters for these years can be found at http://baseball-almanac.com/
The price of each database is $14.95, or buy any two All-Star Teams databases and get the third for free! Add three All-Star Teams databases to your cart and use shopping code ALLSTARBUN to apply the discount at checkout.
]]>Our Classic Past Seasons share most of the features of our Current and Deluxe Past Seasons. They include leagues, schedules, complete team rosters (in almost all cases), extensive batting/pitching/fielding statistics, detailed ballpark information, complete player ratings, and manager profiles tailored for the rosters of each team. In short, you get everything you need to start playing highly-realistic games the moment you install a Classic Past Season.
For modern seasons, we have the advantage of working with play-by-play data that enables us to compile and use certain modern statistics that are not available in baseball's historical records.
For older seasons, we have access to various encyclopedias that provide the batting, pitching and fielding statistics that are set out in the official rules of baseball. And, for some seasons, we have augmented those official statistics by going through every boxscore.
The lack of play-by-play data does not affect your ability to play highly-realistic games, but it does lead to some differences between our Classic Past Seasons and Deluxe Past Seasons.
Deluxe Past Seasons | Classic Past Seasons |
Include all batting, pitching and fielding statistics, including modern stats | Include official batting, pitching, and fielding stats, but not modern stats like holds, blown saves, and defensive innings |
Include left/right splits for all batters and pitchers | Do not display left/right splits |
Batting/pitching performance is based on left/right splits | Batting/pitching performance is based on overall statistics with a standard left/right adjustment for all players (see note below) |
Includes games started by position for all seasons | Includes games started by position only for some seasons. |
All Deluxe seasons include real-life transactions and game-by-game starting lineups | Some Classic seasons include real-life transactions and game-by-game starting lineups |
Some people feel that the lack of left/right splits inevitably leads to a less-realistic experience than they would get using any of our season disks that include those splits. In some ways that is true, but we contend that there are plenty of good arguments in favor of using standard splits, too.
The use of left/right splits is a plus when you have a player who has established a consistent pattern of succeeding with the platoon advantage and failing when at a disadvantage. For example, some left-handed batters hit righties quite well but are at a complete loss against lefties. And some left-handed pitchers are very effective against lefty hitters but are pounded by righties. Those players tend to be relegated to platooning on offense or being used only in a specialized bullpen role.
On the other hand, every season produces a significant number of players who happened to compile very good or excellent stats against one side or the other in a limited amount of playing time. It's not hard to show that many of these extreme performances are due to chance, not some talent of the players. And many DMB managers are more than happy to take advantage of these fluky performances to give these players a much more important role on their teams than those players would ever get in real life.
The use of standard left/right adjustments for our Classic Past Seasons has the virtue of dramatically reducing the number of players who fall into this category.
Suppose a right-handed batter was 10-for-30 (.333) against lefties and 10-for-60 (.167) against righties. Overall, he was 20-for-90, good for an overall average of only .222. And let's suppose this pattern was not representative of the player's long-term performance but rather a one-year anomaly.
On a Deluxe Past Season, a manager might look at that player and get very excited about the idea of using him only as a pinch hitter against lefties and saving those 30 atbats for critical late-inning situations.
On a Classic Past Season, a manager would look at him as a .222 hitter who could reasonably be expected to bat something like .235 against lefties and something like .215 against righties. For many players, this is a much more reasonable view of that player's ability to contribute.
So there are some good arguments on both sides. The standard splits skew our outlook of certain players who have not shown that they can hold their own when the left/right matchup is unfavorable. But they eliminate a large number of situations where a DMB manager might be able to use 20/20 hindsight to give a mediocre player an important role.
There's no simple answer to the question of which is better.
Classic Past Seasons with transactions and lineups are $19.95 each. Classic Past Seasons without transactions and lineups are $14.95.
]]>Our Deluxe Past Seasons share all of the features of our Current Seasons.
All of our Deluxe Past Seasons were developed with the help of pitch-by-pitch and/or play-by-play data from various sources, including STATS, Inc., Total Sports, The Baseball Workshop, and Retrosheet. Using that information and a growing collection of sophisticated computer programs that we have developed, we compile modern statistics and analyze player performance in all areas of the game.
Because these seasons are so similar to our annual Current Seasons, we won't repeat all of the features here. If you're not already familiar with this list of features, please review the information on the Current Seasons page.
All Deluxe Past Seasons include a full set of real-life transactions and game-by-game starting lineups and are priced at $24.95.
]]>Since 1987, we have been releasing the just-completed season in December of the same year.
Each Current Season includes:
- basic information about every player who appeared in the big leagues that season: names, birthdates, batting and throwing hands, primary positions, and real-life salaries
- two versions of the inter-league schedule (as-scheduled and as-played)
- updated ballpark information, including physical characteristics, weather patterns, and statistical park factors
- a complete set of batting, pitching and fielding statistics, including many modern statistics such as holds, inherited runners, run support, and defensive innings
- full left/right splits for all batters and pitchers
- games started at each position versus left- and right-handed pitchers
- detailed ratings for all players
- manager profiles for every team
- a complete set of real-life player transactions
- actual starting lineups used for every game that season
We are able to provide all of this information and develop highly-accurate player ratings because we license pitch-by-pitch and play-by-play data from Major League Baseball. Using that information, a growing collection of sophisticated computer programs that we have developed, and an extensive database of player notes that we compile during the season, we analyze player performance in all areas of the game.
The 2021 Season is priced at $29.95 and was released December 16th, 2021.
]]>All Diamond Mind Baseball season include everything you need to begin playing highly-realistic games and/or organizing fantasy leagues the moment you install them -- team rosters, a large pool of players with detailed ratings and statistics, league schedules, ballpark ratings, and so on.
Complete team rosters. With the exception of a few players on a few of our Classic Past Seasons, all season include everyone who appeared in a big-league game. Those exceptions involve a small number of players who rarely played and had almost no impact on their teams.
Combined players. If a player appeared on more than one real-life team, we generally create one player record for each of his teams and one combined record. The team-specific records are used for detailed season replays using real-life rosters; the combined record is used for leagues that draft new rosters. With the exception of a few players on a few of our Classic Past Seasons, all of our season include combined records for all multi-team players.
Leagues. Every season is set up with one or more leagues. In most cases, that means putting the teams into their real-life leagues. For greatest teams sets, we use a fictional league.
Schedules. Every season includes at least one set of league schedules. In most cases, we include the real-life "as-played" schedules for the two leagues. An as-played schedule shows all games on the dates they were actually played, reflecting rainouts and other changes.
Current Seasons and some recent Deluxe Past Seasons also include an "as-scheduled" version to the real-life "as played" schedule as an alternative that you can install.
With greatest teams sets, we supply a fictional schedule involving those teams.
Parks. Every season contains detailed information about the home parks for the teams included. The park information includes physical details (such as wall distances and heights, size of foul territory, playing surface), weather information (temperature, rain frequency, wind strength and direction), and statistical park factors.
Real-life batting statistics. All seasons include a full set of real-life batting statistics, including all of the categories set out in the official rule book.
Real-life pitching statistics. All seasons include an extensive set of real-life pitching statistics, including all of the categories set out in the official rule book. Current Season and Deluxe Past Seasons also include a number of modern pitching statistics such as holds, blown saves, opposition stolen bases, inherited runners, and run support.
Real-life fielding statistics. All seasons include real-life fielding statistics, broken down by position. For the Current Season and Deluxe Past Seasons, these statistics include games, games started, defensive innings, putouts, assists, errors, double plays, fielding percentage, and passed balls, plus three modern stats for catchers, passed balls, stolen bases allowed, caught stealing, and pickoffs.
Some Classic Past Seasons and Greatest Teams sets are missing the data for games, games started, and double plays. None of the classic seasons include defensive innings or the catcher stealing and pickoff information.
Real-life left/right splits. The Current Season, and Deluxe Past Seasons include complete left/right splits for all batters and pitchers. Performance in DMB games is based on these splits.
For Classic Past Seasons, left/right splits are not available in the historical record, so we give each player a standard left/right advantage based on the results of a multi-year study we conducted. This way, left/right strategy remains a very important factor in your games even if you are playing with a season disk that doesn't have left/right stats.
Because many of the Greatest Teams come from the classic era, the players are rated based on standard left/right differentials rather than actual left/right stats.
Games started by position. The Current Season, and Deluxe Past Seasons include games started at each position versus left- and right-handed pitchers. These values are quite interesting but do not affect player performance in the game. They are included mainly to help generate manager profiles that reflect how each player was used in real life.
Ratings. All seasons include a full set of batting, pitching and defensive ratings for every player. Offensively, players are rated for skills such as sacrifice bunting, bunting for a hit, stealing frequency and success rate, and taking extra bases on hits and fly balls. Pitchers are rated for such talents as their ability to hold runners close, their tendency to balk and throw wild pitches, and their durability as starters or relievers or both. Defensive ratings cover range, error rates, passed ball rates, and throwing.
Event tables. All batters and pitchers have an event table, a hidden set of ratings that play a large part in resolving the outcome of the batter-pitcher confrontations that make up a game. These ratings interact to determine how often a pitcher throws strikes, how often a batter swings, how often those swings result in a swinging strike, a foul ball or a ball put in play, and what events take place when the ball is put in play.
These event tables are adjusted for the context in which each player compiled his statistics -- the era, league rules, and effects of his home park.
They play a fundamental role in providing you with very high levels of statistical accuracy and the flexibility to do such things as (a) play games pitch-by-pitch or batter-by-batter, (b) draft new rosters and have player performances automatically adapt to the new level of competition and new home parks, and (c) play meaningful games between teams from very different eras.
Salaries. We began compiling salary information with the introduction of our 1999 Season and plan to continue including salaries on newly-developed Current Seasons. Because this information is not used by the game in any way, and because historical salary data is not widely available, we have no plans to add salaries to any other seasons.
Real-life transactions and game-by-game lineups. All of our Current and Deluxe seasons, and some of our Classic seasons, include a complete set of player transactions (including trades, disabled-list moves, promotions, demotions, and suspensions) and the actual starting lineups for every game played that year.
If you choose to play the season using real-life rosters and the transaction feature turned on, Diamond Mind Baseball ensures that the right players are active on each day of the season. And if you turn on the use of real-life lineups, DMB automatically loads those lineups when you start each game.
These features are optional. You can still play the season with any lineups you want, making transactions as you see fit, or even with a totally new set of team rosters. But for folks who enjoy recreating past seasons, the transactions and lineups enable you to achieve higher levels of realism with no additional effort.
Manager profiles. The Diamond Mind Baseball computer manager uses a manager profile to guide its decision-making. A manager profile contains starting lineups versus left- and right-handed pitching; depth charts that are used to set up platoons, defensive replacements, and utility players at every position; the starting rotation; relief pitching assignments (mopup, long relief, setup, closer); and tactical preferences such as bunting, using relievers, pinch hitting, and positioning the defense.
Every season includes a manager profile for every team. Whether you want to autoplay entire seasons, play games with the computer manager handling the other team, or just quick play a few innings a game, the profiles are already set up and ready to go.
Summing up. It should be clear by now that there's a ton of information in every one of these season disks, regardless of the category they fall into. But there are a few differences, and here's a table comparing the different categories of season disks:
Feature |
Current
|
Deluxe
|
Classic
|
AGT
|
AGP
|
Projection
|
League structure |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
League schedules |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Full park details |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Complete rosters |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Most
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Projected
|
Official batting stats |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Projected
|
Official pitching stats |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Projected
|
Modern pitching stats |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Projected
|
Official fielding stats |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Varies
|
Varies
|
No
|
No
|
Modern fielding stats |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Left/right splits |
Specific
|
Specific
|
General
|
General
|
General
|
Projected
|
Games started by pos |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Varies
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Birthdates / ages |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Salaries |
Yes
|
Varies
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Full ratings |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Real-life transactions |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Varies
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Real-life lineups |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Varies
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
In the above table, an entry of "Most" or "Varies" indicates that some season disks in that category include the information and some don't. The details are provided on the pages that describe each category of season disk in more detail.
]]>If you are a member of a Diamond Mind Baseball league in which games are played on more than one computer, you can use the stats transfer functions to consolidate the results of those games on one computer and periodically issue updates that can easily be installed on the various computers used in the league.
NOTE: Please be sure you are not using these features to illegally distribute copies of our season disks. Each member of a league who is going to be playing games on his/her own computer must own a copy of the game and the season disk being used for the league. It is a violation of copyright law to send a DMB database to a league member who does not own a copy of the season disk upon which the league is based.
Here's how the process works:
]]>
When you're playing a game, choosing lineups, thinking about making roster moves, setting up a manager profile, or participating in a draft, you often want to know more about the players you're working with. How does he do against left-handed pitching? How many positions is he rated at and what are those ratings? Is he healthy right now? How many pitches did he throw yesterday?
That's why we give you access to the player profile window from most places in the product where player names are displayed.
The batting tab provides two blocks of batting stats (on tabs labelled primary and secondary), full left/right splits, and a summary of the player's most important ratings.
The pitching tab shows five blocks of pitching stats, plus full left/right splits, and key pitching ratings.
The fielding tab provides a full set of fielding statistics broken down by position.
The status tab summarizes fatigue information (pitches thrown in the past five days, batters faced as a catcher over the past ten days), injury status, and other usage information.
And the starts tab shows how often each player was in the starting lineup at each defensive position against left- and right-handed pitchers.
This information provides a very complete picture of each player, but we know that sometimes you wish to look at more than one player at a time. That's why the player profile window has a list of players in the upper left corner with two arrow buttons that allow you to cycle through a relevant group of players. If you've called up the profile window from a team roster, that group includes the players on the team. If you've called up the profile window from the game window, that group may consist of the current batting order for the team. Call it up from a list of free agents and it includes all of those free agents.
For players who appeared on more than one team in your DMB season, the 'Show combined stats' checkbox allows you to toggle between showing that player's stats for one team and his combined stats for all teams that he played for.
Finally, to the right of that checkbox is a drop-down list of the stages of the season. If you're in the midst of a post-season series, you can choose to look back at this player's performance during any previous stage of the season (the regular season or a previous playoff series).
]]>The Organizer window enables you to quickly find and work with any item in your active database. Click on the tabs at the bottom to display lists that show important information about the teams, parks, players, leagues and other contents of your database. On the player list, for example, you can see each player's position, batting and throwing hand, and his current team affiliation or free agent status.
The toolbar buttons provide access to the tools you need to create, copy, modify, delete and import any of these items, giving you the flexibility to create just about any type of league you want. You can do this using teams, players, parks and eras that you create yourself or import from different Diamond Mind season disks.
You can organize teams into leagues of up to four divisions of 16 teams each, and you have the option to create an organization that combines two leagues for inter-league and/or post-season play.
And, if you're running a league that uses Diamond Mind Baseball, you can organize notes (with bylaws, newsletters, or anything else you want) that will be distributed among members of your league using the new league management tools.
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As you move through your season, you can use the roster management and manager profile window to send players to the farm and call them up, move them on and off the disabled list, release players, sign free agents, and make other moves.
The roster window uses color to distinguish the players who are on the active roster, the reserve roster and the disabled list. To make a move, simply right-click on the name of the player, then choose from the commands on the popup menu that appears.
The other tabs make it easy for you to set up the manager profile that guides the computer manager in games that you do not play yourself. Using these tabs, you can set your starting rotation, relief roles, starting lineups versus left- and right-handed pitchers, platoons, defensive replacements, utility roles, manager tendencies, and player-specific tendencies. These can be updated at any time during the season.
Selected DMB seasons come with every real-life roster move and an option to play or autoplay those seasons using the actual game-by-game starting lineups and day-to-day rosters. When you use one of these seasons, and when you choose the option (one of the settings for a league) to use the real-life transactions, the status of each player changes automatically as you move through the season.
]]>Computer drafting is an important capability, but there's a lot more to the new drafting system than just that. We've created a drafting environment that allows you to:
Before we get into a more detailed description of the drafting process, it's worth noting that you can sign free agents individually without setting up a formal draft, simply by choosing the 'Sign' command from the roster window. But if you want to set up a formal draft, here's how you go about it.
First, create a draft, specifying the league or leagues that are to participate, how many rounds you want it to last, and whether the teams draft in the same order each round (1, 2, 3, ... 1, 2, 3, ...) or in reverse order every other round (1, 2, 3, ... 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, ...).
When you do this, DMB generates the full list of picks that will be made in the draft (the players to be picked aren't yet known, of course). At this point, you can delete picks, add supplemental picks, and trade picks. If you change your mind about the number of rounds, you can add or delete rounds as well. You can designate which teams will use a human general manager to make its picks and which teams will have the computer GM make the decisions. And you can manually change the order in which the teams will draft or ask to have a random draft order selected for you.
Figure 1. Draft control panel (after five rounds)
The draft control panel (see Figure 1) shows the draft order, whether each team needs to draft a designated hitter, whether the team has a Human or Computer general manager to make the picks, and the number of batters, pitchers and total players on each team's roster. The team due to pick next is highlighted.
Once you're happy with these things, you can freeze the draft order and get ready to start choosing players. At this point, you can still add, delete and trade picks (though you cannot delete or trade a pick that has already been made) to reflect events that occur during the draft.
Figure 2. List of free agent batters.
A human general manager selects a player from the lists of free agent batters and pitchers. These lists use our new reporting system to provide a powerful sorting and filtering capability that makes it easy to focus your search on the types of players you're most interested in. Figure 2 shows a list of the free agent batters with at least 300 plate appearances, sorted by slugging percentage. In short, there's a ton of data at your fingertips to help you make your decisions.
But you can also invoke the computer drafting feature to make one pick, make all picks up until the next team that has a human GM, make all picks through the end of a round, or make all picks through the end of the draft. As each pick is made, the name of the player is immediately added to the draft pick report, allowing you to follow along.
When evaluating the available free agents, the computer GM looks at the needs of the team to make sure that it fills all of the roles (starting pitchers, relievers, players rated at each defensive position, and so on). And it looks at the ability of each player to help the team win in ways that go beyond hitting and pitching to include things like defense (range, error rates, throwing, holding runners), speed and bunting.
All hitters and pitchers are judged on a park- and league-neutral basis so the true ability of the player comes through. This is appropriate because Diamond Mind Baseball makes these adjustments when you play the games, and it doesn't make sense to ignore them when choosing talent in the first place.
If, for instance, a pitcher was effective despite facing the DH and/or playing in a hitters' park in real life, he may well be chosen higher in the draft than someone whose stats look better but who had a more favorable real-life environment in which to do his work.
And you might see a slugging first baseman drop lower in the draft that you might expect. Why? Because first basemen are expected to produce more offense than players at other positions, so it's harder to stand out, and because some first basemen don't supply other things -- defense, speed, bunting, the ability to play more than one position -- that make a player more valuable to a team.
We believe we have come up with a pretty comprehensive way to evaluate the overall contribution that these players make to a team, and for that reason, we think the computer GM will provide a worthy companion in your drafts, whether you're trying to out-think it or whether you're asking for its help in choosing players for your team.
Figure 3. Draft pick report.
As each pick is made by the computer manager, it also generates a new manager profile that includes this player. That way, when you view the roster for this team (which you can do at any time during or after the draft), the manager profile is already there to give you an idea of what role the computer has assigned to each player on the roster.
As part of our work on the drafting system, we've also overhauled the manager profile generator. Those of you who have played previous version of Diamond Mind Baseball know that the manager profile generator was designed to match real-life playing time as closely as possible. This doesn't make as much sense for newly-drafted rosters, since you may draft a player who played more than one position with the idea of using him in a different way than he was used in real life. The new manager profile generator looks at the talent on your roster, considers a variety of ways those players can be combined, and chooses the arrangement that produces the best chance to win.
As with any system that attempts to emulate the process that human GMs go through in something as complex as building a baseball team, there's more we can do in the future to make the computer GM even more sophisticated. At present, it has no way to know which players are considered to be future stars despite mediocre-to-awful stats in the current season. Some way to assess future value is one of several ideas that are on our list of future enhancements, but even without these improvements, we think the current version will give you a run for your money.
]]>Two of the major features in DMB, are the ability to generate groups of reports in a single command and the ability to generate a league web site with a single command. These two capabilities are related because you can use report groups to tell the web site generator what you want to see on the site.
Before we describe how these new features work, let's take a moment to review the reporting capabilities in the current version of the game. Those capabilities form the foundation upon which the new features are built.
Diamond Mind Baseball includes a large number of standard reports, including league standings, game results, leaderboards, registers, injury reports, and more. There are 46 of them in version 11, and many customers find that these reports meet most or all of their needs.
Virtually all DMB reports are customizable. You can start with any standard report, change its structure (add columns, delete columns, reorganize the columns into sections) and save it as a custom report. When you do that, the custom report can be used just like a standard report.
When you generate a standard report or a custom report, DMB pops up an options window that allows you to specify the content of the report -- what leagues or teams or players you'd like to see in the report along with any options supported by that type of report. For example, for a leaderboard report, you choose which league to report on, how many players you'd like to see listed in each category, the minimum playing time needed to qualify, and so on.
In the current edition of Diamond Mind Baseball, you can also create memorized reports. A memorized report defines both the structure and the content. In other words, you can save the settings you would ordinarily specify in the options window. When you generate a memorize report, DMB doesn't need to ask you for the options, so it produces the report immediately.
When you generate a large group of reports with a single command, you don't want to be asked to enter the options for each report. That would almost defeat the purpose of generating a group of reports at once. Memorized reports, therefore, are the logical foundation for a report group because they already contain all of the options information needed to generate the report immediately.
As a result, the process of defining a group of reports begins with the creation of the memorized reports you wish to include in the group. Creating a memorized report is very easy. Begin with either a standard or custom report, choose the options, and when the report appears on the screen, click on the Memorize button and supply a name for this memorized report. You can do this in a matter of seconds.
When your memorized reports have been created, you can choose the "Report groups" command, create a new group, and add these memorized reports to that group. You choose which reports are in the group and the sequence in which they appear.
When the report group is generated, you choose whether to send the reports directly to a printer or save them in one or more files on your hard disk. The files can be in plain-text format or HTML format. And you have complete control over how many files are created, which reports go into which files, and where on your hard disk the files are stored.
Add it all up and you have almost complete control over your report groups. Because the memorized reports in the group can be based on standard reports or custom reports, and because every report has a set of options specific to that type of report, you control the structure and content of every report in the group. And you have a lot of control over how the group is organized and generated.
The web site generator also provides you with a lot of flexibility. You specify whether you want to generate a site for an organization (two related leagues) or a single league. You specify up to three report groups, one for any organization reports you wish to generate, one for league reports, and one for team reports.
We've already created a standard set of memorized reports and report groups for each of these three levels, so you'll be able to generate a comprehensive league web site without having to set anything up first.
However, if you want to have some control over the content of your site, you can do that by substituting your own report groups for the standard ones. In this way, you can remove any reports you're not interested in and add memorized versions of your own custom reports.
The web site generator optionally includes any boxscore files that have been saved for your league.
To tie everything together, the generator produces an index page for the organization (if applicable), each league, and each team. Each of these index pages includes links to the others and links to every report that was generated for that organization, league or team. In addition, if your report groups include game results reports, those reports contains links to the boxscore/scoresheet/gamelog file for each completed game.
The generation process is fast, too. As part of our testing, we generated a web site for an organization (two leagues, thirty teams) that had played a few weeks of the season. The web site, which consisted of approximately 250 reports and 300 boxscore files, was generated in about 40 seconds on a computer with a 1.6 MHz processor.
In version 8, HTML support was very basic. The game took the plain-text version of the report and wrapped the HTML page header and page footer tags around it. It worked, it was fast, and it produced small files that loaded quickly, but it wasn't the most attractive presentation.
In version 9, we present all of the statistical reports as formatted HTML tables instead of plain text. (The boxscore files remain as plain text.) This approach allows us to use color and more attractive fonts to make the reports easier to work with. These colors and fonts are specified in a cascading style sheet that we are providing with version 11 and which will automatically be generated when you generate DMB reports in HTML format.
We don't plan to provide any tools within the game that would allow you to customize this style sheet, but if you have the requisite HTML knowledge, you can let DMB generate the standard one and then replace it with one of your own. In that way, you'll be able to choose fonts and colors that suit your tastes.
To make it easier to work with reports of all types, we've combined the three report selection windows into one. In version 8, there were three separate menu commands, one for standard reports, one for custom reports, and one for memorized reports. To generate a report, you first had to remember which type it was, choose the relevant command, and then browse a list of reports of that type.
In version 9, all three types of reports are combined into a single selection window so you can work with all of them in one place. The version 11 edition of the selection window, and the new selection windows for report groups and web site generator options, also remember what you did the last time you interacted with them, and default your selections accordingly the next time in. This saves time and promotes consistency.
We used these tools to generate a league web site with the results of the series between the 1962 Mets and the 2003 Tigers that we simulated (in August, 2003) for ESPN.com. This site shows how the league and team pages are linked to each other and to the reports and boxscores on the site.
As we noted above, we provide a standard set of report groups to control the web site generation process. Those groups contain more reports than you'll see on this sample site, but some of those standard reports (current injuries, batting and pitching registers) didn't apply to a simulation like this one, so we left them out.
]]>With a wide range of standard reports, the ability to customize reports to suit your needs, a huge set of traditional and modern statistics to choose from, and several output options (display, printer, plain text file, HTML file), Diamond Mind's version 11 report generator set a new standard for baseball games.
Since version 9, we have expanded upon that foundation to include the ability to generate groups of reports and entire web sites with a single command.
When you choose the menu item for generating reports, a window pops up with a list of the reports that are available, grouped by the type of report:
As you can see in the list box on the left side of this window, you can choose from a variety of reports that display league standings, schedules and game scores, league leaders, team totals, the statistics for players on a team, game-by-game statistics for players, injury reports, transactions, and more.
Choose the report you want, select a destination (display, printer, or file), and click on OK to proceed.
At this point, an options dialog appears. This dialog usually has three tabs, one for options specific to this type of report, one for choosing the time period on which you wish to report, and one for choosing the sections that you'd like to see on the report.
With the first tab, you can choose the data that you want to see on the report and set any options that apply to this report. For example, if you're generating a team batting report, you can choose which team you'd like to see, whether to show pitchers individually or as a group, whether to include players with no stats, and whether to show players who are no longer on this team's roster. The specific choices vary from report to report, but you can always find these options on the first tab.
The second tab allows you to choose the season stage and the time period. The DMB database stores separate statistics for different stages of the season (regular season, divisional series, league championship series, final series), and you can choose which of these season stages to use for the report you're about to generate.
Second, you can choose to generate the report based on the season-to-date totals or using any date interval. We've provided some standard date intervals (one for each of the six months and, to see who's hot and who's not, the last 7/14/21/28 days). Or you can choose a custom date range, with a little popup calandar to help you enter the start and end dates. Using these tools, it's easy to see who the league leaders were in the month of June, what the team standings look like for the second half of the season, and what your players have done for you lately, among many other things. (These date interval options are disabled for reports based on real-life stats.)
The third tab allows you to choose the sections you would like to see. Many reports are divided into several sections in order to accommodate all of the statistics. When it comes time to print the report or save it to a file, you may want to suppress sections you're not interested in, and this third tab on the report options window allows you to do just that.
In most cases, you'll be happy with the default choices on all three tabs, so you'll be able to click on OK and see the report on the screen right away. But it's nice to be able to change the options anytime you want to.
When you display a report on the screen, it looks very much like a spreadsheet. Each section is on a separate sheet, and there's a row of tabs in the bottom left corner that lets you switch among sections with a single click of the mouse. When you scroll the report, the headings remain visible, making it easy to interpret the data. The column on which the report is sorted is shown in a different color from the rest of the columns.
Double-click on the heading for any column and the report is immediately re-sorted on that column. Double-click on the same column again and the report is re-sorted on the same column, but in the opposite sort direction (lowest instead of highest, for example).
You can change the options without having to close the report. The report window has a toolbar across the top. On that toolbar is a series of controls that allow you to change the scope of the report (the teams or players that are included) and to access the options dialog (plus two other important buttons that we'll get to later.)
For example, if you are displaying the team pitching report, you can easily cycle through all the teams in your league simply by clicking on one of three controls -- a button with a left-arrow icon (to show the previous team), a drop-down list with all teams (to show the team of your choice), or a button with a right-arrow icon (to show the next team).
And if you want to change the date interval or any of the report-specific options, just click on the Options button and the options dialog reappears. Make any changes you want, click OK, and presto, the display is immediately updated to reflect your new choices.
When you display a report to the screen, you can choose Print Preview to see how the report would appear on the printed page, and you can choose Print to send the report to the printer.
As we mentioned above, you have the option to suppress report sections to conserve paper. In addition, we put a lot of energy into the pagination logic for our reporting system. We don't like to waste paper, so we took the time to make sure that we could put multiple report sections on the same printed page if there was room. (We've seen a lot of report generators that automatically go to the next page whenever a new section is encountered.)
By the way, since we're using standard Windows features for printing, you'll be able to select which printer you want to send the report to (including printers on a network), which pages you want to print, and the number of copies. The print jobs are routed through the standard Windows Print Manager, so you can delete them before they are printed if you made a mistake and realize it soon enough.
For team-oriented reports, the ones that show the stats for all players on a team, you have the option of printing the report for just one team or for every team in your league or organization.
Finally, many Windows products force you to display your document or report on the screen before you can print it. We know there are times when you don't want to be bothered with those extra steps -- displaying the report, clicking on the File menu and then on Print, then closing the window. So we designed our system so you can send the report directly to the printer in one step.
As with printed reports, you can send any report directly to a disk file without displaying it first, you can suppress sections you don't want, and (for team-oriented reports) you can include one team or all teams in your league.
In addition to saving the reports in a plain-text format that makes them easy to load into a text editor or word processing program, you can generate reports in HTML format.
All of the statistical reports are created as formatted HTML tables, not plain text. (Boxscore files remain as plain text.) This approach allows us to use color and more attractive fonts to make the reports easier to work with. These colors and fonts are specified in a cascading style sheet that we are providing with version 9 and which is automatically generated when you create DMB reports in HTML format.
If you have the requisite HTML knowledge, you can let DMB generate the standard style sheet and then replace it with one of your own. In that way, you'll be able to choose fonts and colors that suit your tastes.
HTML output is available for all of the reports in DMB, but we've also added the ability to generate an entire family of linked reports with one command.
One of our most ambitious goals was to give you the power to customize all of the reports that we offer, and we're happy to report that you can do just that. When you display a report on the screen, the toolbar in the report window includes a Customize button. Click on this button and you are presented with a dialog that lists the sections in the report and the columns in each section.
Using these dialogs you can:
- add, remove, and rename any section, or put the sections in a different order
- remove or resequence the columns in any section
- manipulate a second row of headings to a section to help clarify the data that is displayed in the columns below
- add a column, or change the data displayed in an existing column, choosing from virtually any piece of information in the database, including real-life and simulated stats and the splits (left/right and others)
- change the heading that appears above a column
- choose whether a column is left-justified, centered or right-justified
- choose the width of the column (most useful for printer and file output)
- choose the default sort sequence for the column
In addition to giving you control over the section/column layout of the report, this new reporting architecture gives you the flexibility to do things that have never been possible in earlier versions. If you wish, you can design a report that includes real-life and simulated stats in the same report, even in the same section; a team pitching report that includes pitcher-hitting stats; a team batting report that includes fielding stats; a league leaders report that includes batting, pitching and fielding categories on the same report, or one that includes the best and worst players in the same category.
Once you have customized a report, you can save it and run it as if it was a standard report designed by Diamond Mind and supplied with the game.
The last button on the report window's toolbar is the Memorize button. What's the difference between a custom report and a memorized report? A custom report defines the structure (sections and columns), while a memorized report defines the content (which teams and players to include, which date interval to use, how to sort the report, and which options to use).
Memorized reports give you the ability to say things like "I want to be able to run the team batting report for every team in my league, with pitchers shown as a group, and the players sorted by slugging percentage." More precisely, they give you the ability to save those settings for future use.
You may recall that generating a standard report involves two steps -- choosing the report and choosing the options -- before the report is displayed. When you generate a memorized report, only the first step is required, since the options have been stored as part of the memorized report.
This can save you a mouse-click or two when you generate a report to the screen (and you can still change the options via the Options button when you do this), but the real value is when you're generating reports to the printer or a file. Suppose you're running a league and you have a dozen reports (standard or customized) that you like to produce for your league members at regular intervals. By memorizing these reports and creating a report group containing these memorized reports, you can generate all of them with a single command, saving yourself the trouble of entering the options each time.
In the process of rebuilding the game around a new database technology, we took the time to give you access to more of the information in the database, and to give you more ways to display it. We knew we wanted to make the reports customizable, and we knew that some of you would want to display information that isn't available on our standard reports. Examples include:
- for reports that list players, we've given you several name formats to choose from:
Format Example --------------------------- ----------------------------- First name Ted Last name Kluszewski Short name Kluszewski Full name Ted Kluszewski Full name, bats Ted Kluszewski, L Full name, bats (symbol) Ted Kluszewski* Full name, throws Ted Kluszewski, L Full name, throws (symbol) Ted Kluszewski* Last name, first name Kluszewski, Ted Short name, bats Kluszewski, L Short name, bats (symbol) Kluszewski* Short name, throws Kluszewski, L Short name, throws (symbol) Kluszewski*
- for reports that list teams, we've given you several options for identifying the team:
Format Example -------------------------- -------------------------------- Abbreviation Was Abbreviation plus year Was69 City name Washington Nickname Senators Short name (nickname, if it exists, or city)
- for reports that include batting stats and batting splits, we've included things like on-base-plus-slugging, extra-base hits, steal percentage, secondary average, runs per game, homers (and other stats) per atbat and per plate appearance, and atbats per homer (and other stats)
- for reports that include pitching stats and opposing batter stats/splits, we've included things like holds, pitch count information, and virtually any of the batting statistics, including on-base-plus-slugging, on an opposing-batter basis
- for reports that include fielding statistics, we've included opposition stolen base stats for catchers and pitchers, pickoffs for pitchers and catchers, defensive innings, range factors, and totals for all outfield positions combined
When a designer sets out to produce a customizable tool such as our new reporting system, it's easy to make the mistake of coming up with something that is too generic. You may have seen other baseball games that offer customizable reports but no intelligence -- no options, no totals, no attempt to paginate the reports in any reasonable way. Such a reporting system is flexible but doesn't have a high baseball IQ.
Our approach is to give you the power of customization without sacrificing baseball intelligence. For example:
- we want you to have the ability to set some preferences for the reports, so our reports have a set of options (how to sort them, whether to show pitchers individually on the team batting report, which set of players to show on the register reports, qualifications for leader boards, and so on).
- we want the reports to have meaningful totals, so we took the time to add logic that computes correct team and league totals for things (like games played and shutouts) that cannot be figured just by adding up the numbers for the players on that team
- we want you to be able to set these options once and use them again and again, so we provide memorized reports.
You get all of these things without having to use the customization feature. And if you decide you want to customize a report, you can do it using a simple point and click user interface.
Results | ||||||||||
Date | # | Inn | Away | Runs | Home | Runs | Win | Loss | Save | GWRBI |
9/30/2003 | NYN | 5 | Det | 7 | Maroth | Hook | Patterson | Higginson | ||
10/1/2003 | 11 | NYN | 3 | Det | 4 | Spurling | Jackson | Pena | ||
10/3/2003 | Det | 1 | NYN | 5 | Craig | Cornejo | Hickman | |||
10/4/2003 | Det | 4 | NYN | 7 | Miller,BL | Roney | MacKenzie | Throneberry | ||
10/5/2003 | Det | 3 | NYN | 5 | Hook | Maroth | MacKenzie | Thomas | ||
10/7/2003 | NYN | 5 | Det | 6 | Mears | MacKenzie | Halter | |||
10/8/2003 | NYN | 3 | Det | 2 | Craig | Cornejo | MacKenzie | Throneberry |
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When designing our new NetPlay capability, we wanted to achieve high levels of speed and flexibility, and we have succeeded on both counts.
The first step in using NetPlay is to establish a connection between two computers running DMB version 11. One owner (the "host") chooses a menu command to put his copy of the game in host mode, meaning that he is ready to accept a connection from the other owner. The other owner (the "remote" participant) chooses a menu command to initiate the connection, entering the hosts IP address to indicate which computer to contact. When the connection has been established, the participants can chat and/or start a game.
The host can (a) start an exhibition game, (b) start a league game, or (c) resume any game that was previously saved while in progress.
NOTE: The ability to restart a previously saved game is is an important safety net. Whenever you are using the internet for any purpose, you run the risk of losing a connection, and it would be very frustrating to have that happen in the middle of your game. Because DMB automatically saves the state of the game after each play and can resume a saved game from that point, you won't have to start over if your connection is dropped for any reason.
After the game has been started by the host, all of the necessary information about the teams, players, ballpark and other game elements is sent to the remote participant. This transfer is instantaneous on a local area network, very fast on a DSL line, and may take 20-30 seconds on a slower dial-up line.
This is the only time a large amount of information is transferred between the participants, so it's the only time you might need to wait a little while before proceeding.
During the remainder of the game, it's almost as if the other person is sitting right next to you, the response is so quick. (It's actually better than having the other person next to you, for reasons we'll get to in a moment.) That's because DMB is not sending large chunks of information, such as screen images, back and forth. Instead, it transmits only what it needs to keep the two copies in synch.
After the initial transfer of information, each participant is presented with the starting pitcher selection window. Both can interact with this window at the same time and in any way they like -- scrolling lists of pitchers, looking at player profiles, checking out the opposing team's roster of hitters, asking the computer manager to nominate a starter, and so on -- before choosing a starting pitcher and pressing OK.
That's because they aren't looking at the same screen image. They are working independently. When a pitcher is selected, the ID of that pitcher is sent to the other manager. It doesn't matter who finishes that process first; DMB knows when both pitchers have been selected and it's time to move on to the starting lineups.
After the starting lineups have been selected by both managers, the game window is displayed on both computers. This is another way in which the independent operation of the two copies of DMB is a big plus. It doesn't matter whether the two monitors are using the same resolution, the same color scheme, or the same play-by-play font. The two managers can even have different settings for the speed of the play-by-play messages.
During a game, the managers take turns making their decisions, just as they do when playing someone who is sitting right next to them. On each play, the offensive manager cannot choose tactics until after the pitching and defensive tactics have been received from the other manager. When baserunning and throwing decisions are needed during a play, each manager must wait until the other has made a decision.
But DMB doesn't impose any unnecessary limitations here, either. While trying to decide what to do, or while waiting for the other manager to make a decision, each manager can be sending a chat message, looking at the boxscore, flipping to the replay of the last event, or calling up a player profile. In other words, DMB won't let you get ahead of the other manager in the flow of the game, but it won't stop you from thinking and browsing independently, either.
After both managers have entered their tactics, the host's computer executes the play and sends the play-by-play commentary and a coded description of the event to the remote machine. The remote machine uses that information to update the state of the game and all relevant statistics. The result is that both managers have independent access to the stats and everything else about the game.
If time is short, the participants have the option to quick play a portion of the game. If one manager chooses a quick play command, the other is asked if he agrees, and if so, the game is autoplayed to that point. (NetPlay is fast, though, so you'll be able to use quick play when you want to, not because you have to.)
A few paragraphs ago, we said it was just like playing someone who is sitting next to you, only better. It's better because:
After the game is over, the database is updated on the host's computer, and the participants have the option of playing another game during the same session.
One potential complication is the presence of a firewall. A firewall is a piece of software that runs on your computer or on the router that connects your internal network to the internet. The job of a firewall is to protect your computer and/or your internal network from intruders.
If you have a firewall installed, you may have trouble receiving connections from remote managers. In some cases, it may be necessary to adjust your firewall settings to allow NetPlay connections.
So far, we have had success connecting over our office LAN when both computers were behind the firewall, over a dial-up connection where no firewall was installed, over a DSL line with the firewall disabled before the session and then restored after the session, and over a DSL line where the firewall was left up but a specific port was opened to allow DMB traffic to get through.
It's quite possible that you won't be able to use NetPlay from your office if your company's network is protected by a firewall and your network staff won't permit a port to be opened for this purpose. In other situations, such as those where firewalls are not present or where you control the firewall settings, we expect you will have no trouble using our new NetPlay feature.
]]>The game window brings together all of the tools you need to play games and all of the information you
need to make good tactical decisions during the game.
At the top is the main menu for game play. We don't expect you'll use this menu very much, since just
about everything you'll need to do can be more easily accessed with the mouse and the keyboard. But it's
handy to have the menu there for commands you won't use all that often, such as printing (for boxscores
and scoresheets) and generating reports.
Directly beneath the menu bar is a series of four tabs. You can use these tabs to quickly move back
and forth between playing the game and viewing the boxscore, the scoresheet and the game log.
The boxscore can be displayed in one of two formats. This example shows the traditional newspaper-style
format:
The scoresheet is a compact play-by-play account of a game that often fits on a single page. Each plate appearance has a unique code. The first time through the order is A, the second time is B, and so on. Together with the batting order position, you can identify any plate appearance quite easily.
For example, C4 represents the fourth hitter on the third trip through the lineup.
At the bottom of the scoresheet (not shown), the pitcher summary uses this notation to indicate
when a pitcher entered and left the game. For example, if you see that a relief pitcher entered at
D7 and left after E4, you know that he faced the last three hitters in the lineup and then the first
four.
The game log contains the information that appears in the scoresheet (plus the sequence of pitches
for each plate appearance) but in a much more descriptive (though less compact) fashion:
Now let's go through the elements of the main game view. In the upper-left corner, a tabbed window
shows the current lineups for both teams. As you move through the game, the batting team is
automatically displayed, but you can click on the other tab to view the defensive team's lineup at
any time. The lineup window also provides you with a mini-boxscore that shows the performance of
each player in this game.
Anyone who's watched a lot of baseball on television has probably seen the camera zoom in on
the lineup card that each manager keeps taped to the dugout wall. Managers use this card to keep
track of which players on the opposing team are still available to enter the game as pinch hitters,
pinch runners or defensive replacements. In the lower left corner of the game screen, we provide
you with a similar tool, one that shows all of the bench players for each team, with the left-handed
hitters in column one, the right-handed hitters in column two, and the switch hitters at the bottom.
Before we settled on a design for the game window, we looked at a number of other computer
baseball games to see how tactics are entered. Almost all of them display a series of icons and ask
you to click on one or more of them to make your choices. We weren't crazy about that approach,
mostly because it's not easy to come up with icons that are easy to understand, easy to remember,
and make sense in a baseball context. (One game, for instance, used a police car to depict a steal
attempt.)
We chose to use words for three reasons. First, it makes it easier for first-time users to
understand the choices. Second, we plan to add more tactical options in future releases, and it's
easier to distinguish similar tactics (run and hit versus hit and run) with words than with pictures.
And it gives us a natural way to let you know which keys are used to enter the various commands from
the keyboard.
We've made sure that you can enter all commands from the keyboard. This is essential to maintaining
secrecy if you're playing head-to-head with someone who's sitting next to you.
After you have selected the tactics for a play, the game automatically brings the play-by-play tab
to the top so you can read the play result. You can control the speed with which these messages display
and the length of the pause at the completion of each play. If any baserunning or throwing decisions
are needed, colored buttons pop up in the play-by-play window, and you can click on those buttons
(or use the keyboard) to enter your decisions.
After the commentary has been displayed and a few moments pass (to give you time to read it), the
tactics tab automatically brings itself to the top so you can enter your decisions for the next play.
At any time until the next play begins, you can click on the Replay tab to read the commentary for
the last play, then click on the Tactics tab again when you are ready to initiate the next play.
(If you prefer, you can press the 'R' key for a replay and 'T' to get back to the tactics window.)
In the lower middle portion of the screen is a ballpark diagram that shows the current state of
the game. We have created scale drawings that show the size and shape of each of the parks in use
today and many historical parks, and we also provide a pair of generic diagrams (one for natural grass
and one for artificial turf) that you can use with old-time parks and any parks you create yourself.
Over time, we will continued to add diagrams for older stadiums and make them available for free
download from our web site.
NOTE: We experimented with displaying
ballpark photos, either in a portion of the game window (as shown above) or as a backdrop that
filled the entire game window. We decided that both of those approaches would reduce the usefulness
of this game screen. In a lot of ballpark photos, much of the space is taken up with seats and sky.
In many cases, the playing field fills only about a third of the image, and the infield is smaller
still. Many, if not most, photos don't provide enough territory in the infield upon which to display
the names and ratings of the fielders and the baserunners.Our goal has always been to provide you with as much information as we can to
help you make your tactical decisions during the game. We concluded that ballpark drawings, done
to scale and with a consistent viewpoint (directly overhead), provided the best combination of
giving you a feel for the size and shape of the park and providing enough room (in the right
places) to display the information you need.Nevertheless, if you have access to ballpark photos and wish to use them in
place of our scale diagrams, you can do so. If those photos are in JPEG format, or if you can
use a paint or photo editing program to convert them into JPEG format, you can copy them into
DMB's parks folder and use them for your games.
Overlaying the ballpark diagram are several windows that provide important information. In
the upper-left corner is the ball-strike count and the number of outs. The wall distances and
heights are shown in the upper middle. The number of pitches and strikes thrown by the current
pitcher is in the upper right corner. The box in the upper right below the pitch count shows the
tactics chosen for this play (making sure not to give away anything that should remain secret).
The lower left picture shows the current pitcher, while the lower right picture shows the current
hitter (if you have picture files properly loaded). And, of course, the fielders, baserunners
and hitter are also shown in the appropriate places, along with their most relevant ratings.
In the upper-right corner of the main game view is a tabbed window that displays important
information about the current hitter -- his performance in this game, in the Diamond Mind season
to date, and in real life. You can click on the #2 and #3 tabs to see the same information for
the next two hitters as well. As a defensive manager, this gives you an easy way to evaluate the upcoming hitters as you think about changing pitchers.
Finally, the box in the lower-right corner shows you some important information about the
current pitcher, including his performance in the current game, season to date, and real life.
Even with all of this information on the game window, sometimes you want to know even more
about a certain player or players. You're never more than a couple of mouse clicks away from
a full-screen stats and ratings display for any player. Double-clicking on any player -- in
the lineup window, the bench window, the park diagram, or the batter/pitcher boxes -- displays
the Player Profile window for the selected player.
The title bar of the player profile shows the full name of the player with his age, primary
position, and batting and throwing hands.
Just below that is a toolbar that allows you to cycle through a list of players, choose
whether show the player's stats for this team or his combined stats for all teams he has
played for, and choose whether to display statistics from the regular season, the divisional
series, or some other category.
The profile is divided into four sections -- batting, pitching, fielding and status -- that
can be chosen by clicking on the tabs across the top. Within the batting and pitching sections
are a tabbed window with several pages of overall stats, two grids showing the player's performance
versus left- and right-handed opponents, and a box with the player's ratings.
When we were designing the game window, we wanted to make it easy for you to see what you need
to see without moving your eyes all over the place. So the tactics selection buttons are near
the center of the display, and the play-by-play commentary appears in the same location. As a
result, you don't need to move your eyes to see the outcome of the play after selecting your tactics.
A glance to the left lets you size up the current batting order, and a quick look to the right
provides more information on the current hitter. And the scoreboard, ball-strike count, pitch counts,
and baserunners are also a short distance from where your eyes are focused most of the time.
We believe this is the best way to give you the information you need to make good decisions as
the game progresses.
When you choose to play one or more scheduled games, the control panel (shown below) gives you quick
access to the schedule and current standings (including the wildcard standings), plus the details of
completed games (scores, starting pitchers, winning and losing pitchers, and so on) and any boxscores
and scoresheets that you have saved.
From this control panel, you can choose a single game to be played interactively, with you handling the
decisions for one or both teams. And you can choose to autoplay all or part of the schedule, with the
computer manager handling the decisions for both teams. As each of those autoplayed games is completed,
the standings are immediately updated.
The post-season tab shows the current status of the post season:
When your regular season has ended, you can use DMB's Organizer to select the teams that qualify for
post-season play and match those teams up in the first round series.
You don't need to have eight teams making the post season. If you have two divisions and no wildcard
teams, just leave the first-round slots empty and enter the division winners into the championship series.
If you have one division and no wildcards, go straight to the organization and enter the league champions
there.
The image above shows how you set up the teams for post-season play. The various controls on this
form are greyed out because you cannot make changes to the setup for a post-season round once the
games for that round has started. Before the series starts, however, you can choose the teams and
how they match up, including which team gets the home field advantage in each round.
You can also specify the format for the series using a series of zeroes, ones and twos, where a
zero represents a travel day, a one indicates that the team with the home-field advantage is at home,
and a two indicates that the other team is at home. This tells the new post-season schedule generator
how many games to generate for each series and what pattern of home and road games is to be used.
If, for example, you have four first-round series to schedule, choose the command once and all of the
games for all four series are added to the schedule.
As each game is played or auto-played, DMB updates the display, saves the stats to the database,
and checks to see if the series has been clinched. If it has, any remaining series games are cancelled
and the winning team is automatically advanced to the next round.
Team and player stats are compiled separately for each round, so you can generate reports (team
stats, team totals, leader boards, game results and so on) for any round of the post-season.
Welcome to the Guided Tour of Diamond Mind Baseball. The links on this page take you through the major features of the game and give you a good look at the user interface.
Although this Guided Tour describes the most important features of Diamond Mind Baseball, there's still more to the story. If you want to learn about the top-rated game engine that's under the covers, check out our Inside Diamond Mind Baseball page.
Let's begin...
When you choose to play one or more scheduled games, the control panel gives you quick access to the schedule and current standings (including the new wildcard standings), plus the details of completed games (scores, starting pitchers, winning and losing pitchers, and so on) and any boxscores and scoresheets that you have saved. We have also added several useful new tools for playing the post-season.
The game window brings together all of the tools you need to play games and all of the information you need to make good tactical decisions during the game.
With our NetPlay feature, two owners with the same game version and internet access can play games head-to-head over the internet. It's fast, smooth, and lots of fun.
Using the flexible and customizable report generator, you can choose from a wide variety of standard reports; interact with them on the screen or send them to a printer, text file or HTML file; customize them by adding/moving/deleting sections and columns using hundreds of statistics from real-life and your DMB games; and memorize report options for future use.
If you have a collection of standard and/or customized reports that you like to generate on a regular basis, either for your own use or for the members of a league that you run, DMB allows you to organize these reports using report groups. Create a set of memorized reports with the structure and settings you want, add them to a group, and generate the entire group with a single command.
And if that's not enough, you can generate an entire league web site consisting of a family of linked reports in HTML format. Because the web site generator is based on report groups, which are in turn based on customizable reports, you control the web pages that are produced and the contents of each page.
Before your season starts, you can use the advanced drafting system to sift through the available free agents and build your roster. The customizable lists of free agent batters and pitchers are packed with vital stats and ratings to help you make your choices. And the computer manager can help draft your team or draft for all of the other teams while you hand-pick your own players.
As you move through your season, you can use the roster management to send players to the farm and call them up, move them on and off the disabled list, release players, sign free agents, and make other moves. This is also the place where you can set up a manager profile with your starting rotation, bullpen assignments, starting lineups against left- and right-handed pitchers, and depth charts.
The organizer window enables you to quickly find and work with any item in your active database. This provides all of the tools you need to create new leagues using teams, players, parks, and eras from one or more DMB season databases. You can even create, modify or delete any of the items in your database, including players, giving you almost unlimited flexibility to create any type of league.
Whether you're choosing lineups, playing a game, drafting free agents, or working with your roster or manager profile, you can get detailed information on any player simply by double-clicking on his name and viewing the player profile window.
And if you run a Diamond Mind league or play in one, the stats transfer tools will make your life a whole lot easier. Simple menu commands enable the commissioner to distribute league databases and for league managers to install those databases, play games, and export the resulting game accounts and transactions back to the commissioner.
Many Diamond Mind customers like to play a series of big-league seasons. They may be part of a league that carries rosters forward from year to year, or perhaps they enjoy recreating a period of baseball history using our Classic and Deluxe Past Seasons. You can import completed DMB seasons into an encyclopedia. When those seasons have been loaded, you can generate a wide variety of reports, include a full set of DMB single-season reports and several new multi-season options such as career batting and pitching registers and career leaderboards.
With Diamond Mind Baseball, you get all of these features plus tools to install new season database, player photos, migrate leagues from one season to the next, convert season databases from earlier versions of the game, and a game engine that has been hailed by reviewers and customers as the leader in realism and statistical accuracy.