DMB-Blog
1923 Classic Past Season with transaction and lineups available now!
1923: The Legacy That Ruth Built
by Steve Ehresman
In 1923, the first issue of Time magazine was published, Roy and Walt Disney founded The Walt Disney Company, Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President of the United States, and Jacob Ruppert opened a new 2.4-million-dollar baseball stadium in the Bronx. Known as “The Big Ballpark in the Bronx,” “The Cathedral of Baseball,” or simply “The Stadium,” this iconic edifice would stand 85 years and host 6.581 regular season baseball games, as well as numerous historic World Series contests. Christened with a home run by its most famous resident on April 18, 1923, Colonel Ruppert’s ballpark became known as “The House that Ruth Built.” The rest, as they say, is history.
The 1923 baseball season saw the New York Yankees emerge as the Big Apple’s premier baseball team, eclipsing John McGraw’s New York Giants. Led by MVP George Herman “Babe” Ruth (45 doubles, 13 triples, 41 home runs, 130 RBI, 170 Walks, 17 stolen bases, .393), the Yankees overwhelmed the American League, winning the pennant by 16 games and knocking out the Giants in a six-game World Series. Ruth’s first season at “The Stadium” is one of the greatest performances in the history of Major League Baseball. Babe was not alone, however, as the Yankees also featured a superb pitching staff of Sad Sam Jones (21-8), Herb Pennock, Bullet Joe Bush, Waite Hoyt, and Bob Shawkey to record a 98-54 record and leave the second-place Detroit Tigers in the dust, 16 games off the pace. A powerful 20-year-old first baseman, Lou Gehrig, made his major-league debut, blasting a home run and posting a.423 average in 26 at bats.
The Yankees were not alone in their boasting of all-star players in 1923. The Detroit Tigers’ Harry Heilmann smacked 44 doubles, 11 triples, 18 home runs, while driving in 115 runs and leading the league with a blistering .403 average. Aging Ty Cobb assisted Heilmann with 40 doubles and a .340 average, and ace pitcher Hooks Dauss posted a 21-13 record. Tris Speaker put a monster year on the board for the third-place Cleveland Indians, blasting 59 doubles, 11 triples, and 17 home runs, as he drove in 130 runs and batted .380. Speaker’s teammate George Uhle led the American League with a 26-16 record, while appearing in 54 games (44 starts), tossing 29 complete games, and logging 378 innings—all of which set the pace in the Junior Circuit. Stan Coveleski, Uhle’s teammate on the Indians, recorded a 2.76 ERA to lead the league.
Beyond the achievements of these superlative performers, Heine Manush (.334), Joe Sewell (.353), Charlie Jamieson (.345), Goose Goslin (18 triples, .300), Sam Rice (18 triples, 20 stolen bases, .316), Ken Williams (37 doubles, 12 triples, 29 home runs, 18 stolen bases, .357), Eddie Collins (49 stolen bases, .360), Urban Shocker (20-12), and Howard Ehmke (20-17) all contributed excellent performances.
Over in the National League, John McGraw’s Giants still reigned supreme, pushing past the Cincinnati Reds to capture the pennant with a 95-58 record. With George “High Pockets” Kelly (32 doubles, 10 triples, 16 home runs, 103 RBI, 14 stolen bases, .307), Frankie “The Fordham Flash” Frisch (43 doubles, 10 triples, 12 home runs, 111 RBI, 20 stolen bases, .348), Ross Youngs (33 doubles, 12 triples, 13 stolen bases, .336), and Irish Meusel (22 doubles, 14 triples, 19 home runs, 125 RBI) doing the heavy-hitting, the Giants set themselves up for third consecutive World Series against the Yankees.
Cincinnati stayed in the pennant race, thanks primarily to their pitching staff of Dolf Luque, Eppa Rixey, and Pete Donohue. Whereas Rixey (20-5, 2.80) and Donohue (21-15) were more than creditable starters, Luque was other-worldly, appearing in 41 games (37 starts), twirling 37 complete game, and chalking-up 322 innings, on his way to a 27-8 record and a microscopic 1.93 ERA. At the plate, Ed Roush (41 doubles, 18 triples, .351) stood out for the Reds.
Pittsburgh finished third, with Pie Traynor (19 doubles, 19 triples, 101 RBI, 28 stolen bases, .338), Charlie “Jolly Cholly Grimm (29 doubles, 13 triples, .345), Clyde Barnhart (25 doubles, 13 triples, .324), and speedster Max Carey (32 doubles, 18 triples, 51 stolen bases, .308) leading the charge with their bats. On the mound, Johnny Morrison had a phenomenal year, appearing in 42 games (37 starts), recording 27 complete games, pitching 302 innings, and posting a 25-13 record.
The rest of the Senior Circuit featured great seasons from a host of stars: Rogers “The Rajah” Hornsby (32 doubles, 10 triples, 17 home runs, .384), Jim Bottomley (.371), Jack Fournier (30 doubles, 13 triples, 22 home runs, .351), Cy Williams (41 home runs, 114 RBI), Jesse Haines (20-13), Burleigh “Ol’ Stubblebeard” Grimes, and Grover Cleveland “ Old Pete” Alexander (22-12).
In 1923, the New York Yankees, playing in “The House That Ruth Built,” began to forge an indelible legacy, making Pinstripes the height of sartorial fashion in the sporting world, as they epitomized excellence for the better part of four decades.
Diamond Mind Baseball has a brand-new version of the 1923 baseball season with everything you need to visit Yankee Stadium and be there when “The Golden Age of Sports” began in America.
The 1923 Classic Past Season database contains everything you need to play games using teams and players from the 1923 season -- a full set of ratings and statistics for every player who appeared in the big leagues that year, plus team rosters, manager profiles, ballpark ratings, transactions, and league schedules. Statistics include official batting, pitching and fielding totals for all batters and pitchers.
(The Diamond Mind Baseball game is required to use this product)
2017 Postseason Teams database is now available!
The 2017 Postseason Teams database includes all of the rosters, stats, ratings, manager profiles, park factors and other details that you need to play along with the 2017 MLB Playoffs. This release completes the trio of 2017 ZiPS Projection Database editions.
For this release, all players have been updated with their actual regular season stats (as of the end of play on Friday, September 29, 2017) and the player ratings have been carried over from the mid-season update of the projection database. In most cases, the 25-man rosters are our best guess since most teams had not announced their playoff rosters at the time of release.
Teams included in this database are the 2017 editions of the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals. Here's your chance to manage all these teams in postseason play to determine the 2017 World Series Champion!
If you have already purchased the 2017 ZiPS Projection Season, you should be receiving an email notifying you that an update is available that includes the link to download the postseason teams file. Remember to check your spam/junk folder, but if you do not receive the update email, contact us at dmb_info@imaginesports.com.
The 2017 Postseason Teams set can also be purchased separately for $9.95.
Note: We have added two new DMB style ballpark diagrams for the 2017 season, Minute Maid Park (removal of Tal's Hill in center field) and SunTrust Park (opened in 2017). These image files are available for free download from our Park Images page.
2017 ZiPS Projection Database Mid-season Update Now Available!
The 2017 ZiPS Projection Database mid-season update is now available. All customers who have purchased the 2017 ZiPS Projection Database so far have been sent a notification email that includes information about the update and a new link to allow you to download a copy of the updated database. If you have not received the update notification please contact us at dmb_info@imaginesports.com to request the new database file.
In addition, we have released an update tool that will allow you to update your already installed copy of the 2017 ZiPS Projection database. Instructions on using the projections update tool and the link to download it can be found here.
Team rosters are up to date as of the beginning of play on Sunday, August 27, 2017.
2017 ZiPS Projection Database Update Tool
We realize that many of you have been using the initial projections to play along with the real-life season or have set up draft leagues. Some of you have asked for a way to continue to play out your season with the newly updated player event tables and ratings AND keep your existing league structure, team rosters, and simulated game results. The update tool will enable you to do that.
In the unlikely event that something were to go wrong while running the update tool, you'll be able to start DMB back up, go to the File menu, choose the Restore option, select the backup file you just created, and click on Open. After you confirm that you want to replace the database with the backup, you'll be back to exactly where you were in your season when you made the backup.
Make sure that Diamond Mind Baseball is shut down before using the update tool!
To use the update tool properly, in step two (shown in the image below) you need to select the season database folder for your league that you've been playing using the first release of the ZiPS Projections database (for example proj2017a_v11).
Next, at step three (shown in the image below), select the season database folder where you installed the new, mid-season update database (for example proj2017b_v11). (The updated projections database must be installed in DMB for the update tool to find it.)
After you have selected the two projection database folders, click on the 'Copy new player ratings' button. The update tool will then copy all new ratings, projections, and event tables from the new player project season folder to the players in the the first release of the player projections. In addition, all new players in the mid-season release will get added to the initial release of the player projections as free agents. No statistics or game results will be lost. You will then be able to continue your league exactly where it was left off.
After the update tool reports that the operation was successful, you can continue to update another first release, ZiPS Projections database by selecting a different folder or if you're done, click on the 'Finished' button.
Download link
UpdateProjections2017.exe (posted 9/1/2017)
1944 Deluxe Past Season with transaction and lineups available now!
1944: Show Me an Exciting Season
by Steve Ehresman
In January of 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent a “Green Light Letter” to Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, expressing his desire “to keep baseball going.” With that, Our National Pastime continued for the duration of the War, despite the absence of many star players. Gone were Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, and Ted Williams, to name but a few of the luminaries who defended our nation. In their place were players, ineligible for military service, who carried on baseball’s legacy. In 1944, the third season of baseball during the War, Missouri found itself home to not one, but two pennant-winners--the perennially powerful St. Louis Cardinals and the improbably successful St. Louis Browns--producing a “Show Me State” World Series that would never be duplicated.
Wartime baseball has assumed a niche in sports history, an extraordinary period in which those who were unable to serve abroad were given an opportunity to serve at home. Suddenly, the sports pages were filled with new names. Among position players, batting average leaders Lou Boudreau (.327) and Dixie Walker (.357), home run champs Nick Etten (22) and Bill Nicholson (33), runs batted in winners Vern Stephens (109) and Bill Nicholson (122) all emerged to set the pace in offense. On the mound, the one-two punch of Detroit Tigers Hal Newhouser (29 Wins and 187 Ks) and Dizzy Trout (2.12 ERA) paced the Junior Circuit, while Bucky Walters (23 Wins), Ed Heusser (2.38 ERA), and Bill Voiselle (141 Ks) led the way in the Senior Circuit.
The story of the year, however, was the St. Louis Browns, capturing their one and only pennant before their move to Baltimore. With shortstop Vern Stephens leading the way, the Browns edged out the Detroit Tigers by a single game. The Browns were steadied all year by a staff of colorful characters--Nels Potter, Jack Kramer, Bob Muncrief, Sig Jakucki, and Denny Galehouse--who won big games throughout the season, until after forty-four years, the American League’s St. Louis franchise found itself in the World Series.
The other occupants of Sportsman’s Park, the St. Louis Cardinals, won their third pennant in a row, establishing themselves as the best team of the World War II era. Led by their incomparable young star, Stan Musial (197 Hits, 51 2B, 14 3B, 94 RBI, .347), the Cards annihilated their National League rivals on their way to a 105-49 season record. With Mort Cooper (22-7, 2.46 ERA), Ted Wilks (17-4, 2.64 ERA), Max Lanier (17-12, 2.65 ERA), and Harry Brecheen (16-5, 2.86 ERA) buzzing through hitters like P-51 Mustangs, St. Louis was never tested, spending only four days out of first place all season and recording the most one-sided National League pennant race in forty years.
Dispatching the overmatched Browns in a six-game World Series, the Cardinals stood atop the baseball world, until outfielder par excellence Musial became Seaman First Class Musial and missed the 1945 season. Musial credited his time at the Bainbridge Training Center in Maryland with helping him become a power-hitter. It was there that Musial altered his batting stance and developed the skills that would make him a Hall of Famer who pummeled National League pitching until his retirement in 1963.
Diamond Mind Baseball is pleased to pay homage to these Wartime ballplayers, many of whom have been forgotten in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the 1944 season was a different world that offered a unique, but exciting, brand of baseball. With our new 1944 season, Diamond Mind allows our customers to travel back to the era of Rosie the Riveter, Victory Gardens, War Bonds, Big Bands, and—most of all--the heroism and sacrifice of America’s Greatest Generation.
The 1944 Deluxe Past Season database contains everything you need to play games using teams and players from the 1944 season -- a full set of ratings and statistics for every player who appeared in the big leagues that year, plus team rosters, manager profiles, ballpark ratings, transactions, and league schedules. Statistics include official batting, pitching and fielding totals with left/right splits for all batters and pitchers.
(The Diamond Mind Baseball - Version 11 game is required to use this product)
