1. Each line has the team's 3-letter code, followed by 10 other codes, all separated by one space.
2. The first nine codes are the starting players, the last is the pitcher.
3. Each code has six characters.
4. The first two are the player's initials. The computer will search the appropriate team for someone with those initials.
5. The next three characters are the ABs/IPs of the player, to be used in case there are two players with the same initials.
6. The last character is the position that the player will play, utilizing standard scorekeeping numerology (0 for DH). A pitcher doesn't have a sixth character.

1. Each line has a date, a player code, what the transaction was, and what team the player was on. If it's a trade, also the player the team went to.
2. The code in this case is the same as for Lineups, but the sixth character is a "B" for Batter and "P" for Pitcher instead of the position.
3. After the code, there's a space, then a character signifying what the transaction was: "T"=Trade, "U"=Player brought Up from Minors, "D"=Player sent Down to Minors.
4. Then comes the team or teams involved.

So, if you replaced nameless player Z A on Boston with the appropriate Ron Mahay, you'll have to go into the Auto-Lineup function and use a search to find all instances of "ZA159" and replace it with "RM159". Note you must also demote a day before the season starts all players starting a season in the minor leagues or they will be considered an active part of the major league's team roster. Back to Table of Contents

Reproduced Results Bug. Q: One of my buddies said he pooled all players, autoplayed a season, printed out the stats, and reset that league. He autoplayed it again and he says it gave him the some exact stats the second time. Is that possible? Ans: In short, yes. SOM doesn't appear to use chaotic random seeds. If you cold boot, restart a league, and then play it, you can get the same exact results over and over again. Doing something strange like playing one inning of a non-scheduled game will be enough to move along the static pseudo-random sequence and thus get different replay results. Rebuttal Ans: I usually "pre-play" my Face-to-Face league 25 times using autoplay before the season starts and the results vary greatly. For every one of those teams the range between each teams best and worst season was a minimum of 20 wins. I kept track of and tabulated each team's win, runs, HR SB, Ave, E and runs allowed. The differences from pre-play to pre-play are significant. I used the same computer manager settings for all pre-plays. Back to Table of Contents

Problems with Unscheduled Games. Q: When setting up for an unscheduled league game, the computer gives me a warning message that it can't find a particular team's stats. After about 20 games of this I got fed up and restarted the league. The problem disappeared for about 6-7 games before resurfacing. Subset stats are being created, even with this quirk. However, I have to manually update my team's total stats. How can I solve this? Ans: Have you tried synchronizing your stat files to fix the unscheduled game problem? I got a similar error a few times, synched the stat file, and haven't seen the error since. Technically, it's not the new stats that you're synchronizing, it's the roster file for the team and the stat file for the team. My guess is that the files have an internal index that links the right player with the right stats, and that this index has to be generated through the synchronization process. Back to Table of Contents

Scoresheet Symbols. Q: What do the scoresheet symbols (A1, D2, etc) mean? Ans: Just think of your scoresheet being divided up like a spreadsheet. Column A (horizontal grid on a spreadsheet) refers to a team's batting position through that batting slot's first plate appearance. Column B, the 2^nd trip through, Column C is the 3^rd trip through, etc. Of course the numbers following the column letter indicate which batter in the lineup is up (vertical grid on a spreadsheet). So, A1 means the first batter in the lineup and it is this batting spots 1^st plate appearance. Why use these notations? Well, it actually makes a scorecard easier to read (once you get the hang of it). How many times have you either run out of space for name space for a particular batting slot or worse yet, not remembers exactly when a batter or defensive replacement entered the ball game. Also, it makes it easier to track defensive stats. Since each plate appearance can be mapped out, one can determine exactly when defensive changes were made and what a particular player's defensive stats are. You can even get more specific. Lets say the pitcher threw 3 pitches to a batter , in the current plate appearance, and then the manager inserted a new right fielder. Well, all you would do would be to indicate on the right fielder's defensive grid designation a C64, meaning that this particular difensive replacement was made at the offense's C6 grid point and it happened on the 4^th pitch. For the pitchers, they represent the point on the play by play that the pitcher entered and left the game. Back to Table of Contents

Pie Chart Bug. Q: How come the pie chart doesn't change after making a defensive substitution? Ans: If you make a defensive substitution, the pie chart won't update even though the odds will have changes. To prove it, do this: Start a game and roll for the first batter. When the second batter appears, write down the OBP the pie chart generates. Now go back to the first batter (the dreaded Delete Last Play), and pick somebody off the bench to be a 5e88 at shortstop. When you get back tot he main screen, note that the OBP hasn't changed for the first batter. Roll the dice for the first batter again, and then note that the odds for the second batter have changed. Back to Table of Contents

Exported CM not maintaining Player Tendencies. Q: Every time I get my new league files from a certain league, my Computer Manager is set, but all of my tendencies (individual players), are gone. What gives? Ans: This is a known bug that started occurring when SOM released the v3 service patch. Whoever is maintaining your league files, in their copy of your roster file it does not have any player tendencies entered. So whenever they send out the new files, there are no tendencies. Even if you set all the tendencies, export the CM file, send it to him, and he imports it, the tendencies will not be imported. Thus every time you get the new league files, you will lose your tendencies. There are two work-arounds. The first is to have the importing manager manually set the individual player tendencies. The second is to export the "T" file. This file holds the data within your computer manager. Update your manager, check the date-time stamp of the "T" files in the rosters directory. The one that matches the date and time you made your changes is yours. Send it along with the CM file. The importing manager then only has to overwrite the corresponding "T" file for your team in his rosters directory.  Alt Ans: Another work-around which is particularly useful for post-season use is to run the Duplicate League function. The Duplicate League function makes an exact copy of the league, only with no stats. After doing that, you can go in and delete all the teams that aren't in the playoffs. The playoff teams that are left have all their computer managers and SuperHals copied right into the playoff league. Alt Ans: Another error message you may get is that the league structure does not match, can't import computer manager. This means that your opponent (or you) have modified the "structure" of their team. This can occur if any changes (and I mean "any") were made on one version, but not the other. Alt Ans: Note that restarting a league will render previous CMs useless. Make sure to always restart the league before sending out the preseason rosters. Alt Ans: Version 9 computer managers import into version 8, so there is some compatibility for exporting/importing computer managers. Back to Table of Contents

Changing Ballpark Background. Q: Is there a way to eliminate the picture of the ballpark displaying but keep the players in their positions against a gray background? Ans: Note that this won't help with NetMeeting because it doesn't reduce the file size. Copy both the day and night views of the same stadium from your cdrombb\data folder to your cdrombb\color folder. This will allow you, if you ever wish to do so, to completely undo what you're about to do. You don't want to edit these stadium views until you've safely stored a copy of them somewhere. The color folder is as good a place as any. The day view of a stadium will have a name like BP000d, while the night view is call BP000n. These are the files you're copying into the color folder. You can use any stadium you want, but be sure you do this procedure for both the day and night views. And remember the stadium number of each view so you can call it up during any game. Go back into the data folder and double-click on the original stadium view that you just backed up. If you have Windows 95, this double-click will open up a bitmap of the stadium, using the paint program that comes with Windows 95. Within this bitmap, pull down the edit menu and click select all. Pull down the edit menu again, and select clear selection. This will give you a white stadium background. If you want to see what that looks like for an SOM backdrop, pull down the file menu (still within the bitmap window) and select save. However, I highly recommend a black stadium background. I find it much easier on the eyes. In order to get a different color than white for your background, just click on one of these colored little boxes at the bottom of this bitmap screen. Then click on that icon that looks like a little can of paint being dumped. That will make the entire stadium background the color you've chosen. After getting the backdrop into the color you want, pull down the file menu and click on save. Close the Paint window. Go play SOM, and make sure you make the stadium number the same as the one you just "painted". Alt Ans: When you hit Program/SOM CDROMBB V7/NET PLAY-Home Team, you may get the following message:

ERROR. Failed to find file

Category: Correctly requested

Operation failed (Failed to find)

Function: xvt_image_read

xvt_app_create

File: vimage.c line: 822"

It means that game couldn't find the ballpark image. Try reinstalling the home ballpark. Alt Ans: You may get the v10 color code authorization box if you try something like adding color to a B&W bitmap. If so, try a graphic program with a B&W conversion feature to change and additions to the bitmaps to ensure it remains in a B&W state. Back to Table of Contents

Card Errors. Q: There seems to be a problem with the 1985 Hough, Blyleven and McGaffigan cards. What gives? Ans: There is an unusual double split reading on those three cards. Instead of having the traditional open triangle reading with a straight single followed by a single split/out split, these readings had five results. They had two separate splits in them. The temporary correction would be to use the second split and make it like a traditional open triangle reading. In other words, take out all open triangle readings from those three players. Stay tuned to the SOM web site for a download. BTW - you will find the same problem with the Jeff Burroughs 1985 card. Alt Ans: For a complete list of all computer and card errors, go to Card Corrections. Back to Table of Contents

DH Injury Bug. Q: In the bottom of the third inning, Boston's DH, Cecil Cooper, was injured for two games. When the side was retired, the computer prompted me to adjust my lineup to fill the lineup spot left open by Cooper's absence. Since Cooper did not reach base during the at bat that took him out of the game, I believe that I should not have to make a substitution for him until his position in the lineup comes back around. Ans: You shouldn't have to, but you do anyway when playing SOM. This one drives me nuts, because this is one of those neat little rules that the program used to handle correctly. I was never forced to choose my new DH until the injured guy's turn to bat cam up again. But according to SOM, some folks were complaining about errors made in the program. It was either that the DH rule would sometimes get cancelled for the team whose DH got hurt, or it was that the program was allowing the team to move its DH to a different spot in the batting order. Because of these errors, they changed the program back to its original configuration, where you have to name your new DH the minute the old one gets hurt. I guess they saw that as the lesser of two evils. A work around is to bring in the previous game's starting pitcher until the spot comes around. If you use a pitcher, this does not show up as either a game played or as a pitching appearance. Also, on team stats/primary stats, the "pitchers" always total 162 games (if you play 162 games), so this is not affected. Individual pitchers' hitting stats do not have games played in SOM, as far as I can tell. Now, if I use a non-pitcher (e.g. some marginal scrub player), it would show up as a game played. Back to Table of Contents

Recalling archived files. Q: I moved the roster and stats files for an old season for our league from the Strat directories into another directory. I wanted to look at the stats from that season so I copied the files back to the appropriate folders. When I try to view them in the game, however, all the individual player stats are there but it won't let me view any team or league stats. I restarted the league, and it did not reset the player stats. Does anyone have any ideas how I can get the stats to display correctly? Ans: The stats are out of sync with the league file. Keep them in your backup stats directory, restart the league in Strat and have it autoplay a few games. After a few games, then recopy the stats back into the SOM stats folder. The player stats and various reports should read normally. The only reliable way to view subsets created under a previous version of the game is to reload that version of the game and then view them. Back to Table of Contents

Installing Colour Stadiums. Q: I have the CD and the color disk. In my cdrombb\data directory I have files like the following: Bp000.bmp, Bp000.loc, Bp000d.bmp and Bp000n.bmp. The Bp000.bmp is B/W, the d and n files are color. Whenever I start a game I always get the B/W stadium. What do I have to do to get color stadiums both day and night?. Ans: Every file for ballparks must have a *.LOC file associated with it. The *.LOC file is the security file. Go to Explorer and look in your Data directory folder listed under Strat directory. Make sure all the ballparks have a *.LOC file. Example: BP005.LOC, BP005d.LOC, BP005n.LOC and, of course, a bitmap image for each in like manner. In the color directory there is a series of 06? Ballpark *.LOC files which may need to be copied to your data directory if not present in the data directory. To see the file extensions requires Details to be selected under View on the menu in Windows Explorer. For re-installation purposes: from color ballpark disk (floppy) at DOS prompt: COPY A:\DATA\.*.* C:\CDROMBB\DATA then, from the directory on the harddrive where SOM is installed (Note: this is the location of the ballpark 06? Series *.LOC files) COPY C:\CDROMBB\COLOR\*.* C:\CDROMBB\DATA. You may require a one-time color ballpark (floppy key-disk request). Make sure you installed the ballparks correctly from the game CD. Remember to copy the ballparks in the DATA directory of the CD into the DATA directory of the hard drive if you haven't already. Alt Ans: When you install 6.0, choose the option to install the color ballparks. After installation is complete, follow the directions under "If you purchased the optional Color Stadiums disk…". Basically, you need to install the color ballparks option when you install the upgrade, just as if you had never owned the color ballparks in the past. You shouldn't need to transfer the ballparks if you've transferred them in previous seasons, just re-install. Alt Ans: You can write over a ballpark bitmap and the new ballpark will work if using a ballpark with a similar look (infield/outfield look the same on screen). However, if using say the Cubs BP***d.loc file for the older version of New Comiskey park you can see the Wrigley dimension's in the notebook. As well, you will get a ballpark location fatal error alteration message and the game completely shuts down. Alt Ans: You can use the Color Ballpark Upgrade disk to upgrade your current V6.0 ballparks even though the disc is from previous seasons. Simply reinstall CDROMBB and select color ballparks during installation. This won't blow away any key files you already have which means that your Copy Protected season will continue to work. Alt Ans: If the past season color ballpark key disk doesn't work when placed in the floppy drive when prompted for the key disk, go back and install the color ballparks only from the current year install.  Then place one of the past season disks in the floppy drive when prompted again. If that doesn't work, you may have a bad key disk. Alt Ans: If you have DOS version ballparks, they are in the *.pcx format and won't work with the new type color ballpark keydisk. SOM will exchange your old disks for new ones. Alt Ans: If you try to install the color ballparks, but don't have the color ballpark disk, you won't be able to play the game because the SOM software will ask you to insert the color ballparks disk when you're ready to start a game.  In this case, you will have to re-install the game and only put a check mark in the install black and white parks only.  This shouldn't affect any copy protection issues since the CD-ROM baseball version of the game isn't installed during this re-installation of the black and white parks. Alt Ans: There are SOM ballpark files available for download over the internet. A good source is Len and Gary's Super Deluxe Strat-O-Matic Color Ballparks Alt Ans: In the game the stadiums numbers for the colour ballparks can be found in the help file in the section "search for help on" under ballpark codes. Alt Ans: For version 10, if you own a working color ballpark disk during the install select color instead of B/W and also select color old time parks if you have them. Then, when you first start a game you will be asked to authorize color ballpark. Insert the floppy and hit diskette transfer. Alt Ans: If you have the colour ballparks and are hosting an opponent in Netplay that doesn't have the colour ballparks, you can still play by simply hitting the ignore button or such that the install option for the colour BP disk isn't selected. Alt Ans: To reset the game to use Black & White instead of Colour ballparks, you need to manually goin into the CDROMBB game folder and open up the DATA folder. This is where the ballpark files are installed. You will see a bunch of files with BP then anumber like BP000. These are the black and white files - leave them alone. You will also see the colour files which will have a D or an N after the name, for example BP000D or BP000N. These D and N files need to be deleted. Once they are gone you will not get the colour stadium disk request and the game will use the default black and white ballparks. Alt Ans: After installing V11.02c, the B&W Yankee Stadium may appear and no option to do a diskette transfer. Yankee Stadium (00) is the default ballpark backdrop. For many season you have to edit the code associated with the team (highlight team, Team/Update Ballpark Info. There's a list of ballpark codes in Help/Search: Ballpark Codes). Those season use 00 when the actual code hasn't been applied. Once you plug in the corresponding code and attempt to play a game in that park for the first time with a colour (or old) ballpark, you'll be asked for your authorization. If the authorization takes then you won't be prompted for it again. Installing the ballparks during the game installation does not create the association within the game to the ballparks. What installing them does is place the files in your Data folder from where, once associated, the game can make use of them. Back to Table of Contents

Trivia Question Bug. Q: In Baseball CDROM v3.0, does anyone else have the problem of intermittently having the trivia question come up empty on them and then have gibberish come up for the answer? The answers that come up seem to be the second line of some unknown answer. Ans: This is a known bug. The play-by-play problem with the dice/car mode stems from the uncertainty of the result. Back to Table of Contents

Using IRC for on-line play. Q: Can a chat room be used for on-line play?. Ans: There is a great IRC site that belongs to the IBL: marauders.ibl.org. It comes with a rollbot, which makes playing a snap. If you have your own IRC client (like mIRC), use marauders.ibl.org as the server address. If you don't have your own IRC client, telnet to marauders.ibl.org. Userid: irc. Password: IBLirc. It will prompt you for a terminal type (usually vt100) and a nickname. You can then use IRC commands like: /names - lists the channels and who is on what channel; /sr6 - rolls 3 6-sided dice; /sr20 - rolls 1 20-sided die; /msg <nickname> - send a private message to <nickname>; /join #nabl - join a channel; /quit - leave the site.. Important: we are guests on this machine. Misuse will end the privilege. Back to Table of Contents

Model League Function. Q: How do go about asking the game to include searching for non-carded players? Do I have to create a "new league" with the Major Leaguers and the non-carded players together?. Are the ballpark effects changed automatically? How do you create a Model League from seasons that have separate AL and NL leagues? Ans: The new league has to have all of the players in one league so you will have to create a league with both sets of players. Warning: The Model League Function misses a lot of players because the names have to be exactly what they are on the 1998 disk as they were on the 1997 disk. With regards to the ballpark effects, the created league will have the exact same ballpark effects as the previous season's league did. If your ballparks change from year to year with the real ballparks, you will have to manually update each team's ballpark after doing the Model League Function. In other words, the Model League Function eliminates most, but not all the work. Alt Ans: In version 5, click on "League" and then click on "Model New League Based on Old". You will be prompted with a form to select the league to model (Your league from last year) and the league with the data (the 1999 Major Leagues - if you use the extra players, be sure to merge them in before doing the model league function). Also, you will need to put the new league name (eg. 1999AZ). It is also a good idea to edit the names of all the players who only have initials. One you do the model league function, you will get a list of all players that the game was unable to find in the new rosters. You'll have to find those players yourself, if they player last year. Sometimes the problem is as simple as 1998's Bob Abreu becoming 1999's Bobby Abreu. The game looks for exact matches, so you should be able to find the players whose names are slightly different. Alt Ans: You have to be careful not to reuse the same year for the draft league you are modeling. For example, if you have modeled 2001 NABL using 2000 major leagues you won't be able to create another 2001 NABL using 2001 major leagues. Ans: The easiest way to create next season's league from seasons that have a separate AL and NL is to create a new league and then drag the whole AL into it and then drag the whole NL into it. The use that as you "league containing players" when you run the Model League function. To drag an entire league, highlight the first team in the league. Hold down your Shift key and click on the bottom team in the list. That should highlight all the teams at once, and you can then drag them all at once into your newly created league. Back to Table of Contents

Adjusting Pitcher Rest. Q: On some seasons, it is difficult to get pitchers to have the same number of appearances as in real life. How can I adjust the pitcher rest setting? Ans: On the Manager Screen, choose highlight appropriate league and team, then click Statistics pull down menu. Click Update Statistics. Upper left pull down menu, select player. For a starting pitcher, find box labeled "Days to Next" and edit the number. The number represents the number of games until the pitcher can start at full strength. Editing it from 3 to 2 after some of this starts should do the trick. For a reliever, you would put 0 in the "Consec.Games" field, which will tell the computer the reliever did not pitch in the previous game. Alt Ans: Another way is to add some "days off" in your schedule or manually give then a day off when required. You could also program HAL to use a smaller pitching rotation by leaving the #5 (or even #4) slot in the rotation blank. The issue of allowing extra GS for certain pitchers is fixed in later versions of the game. Back to Table of Contents

Trading with HAL. Q: I have always found HAL difficult to get along with and make deals. Any thoughts?. Ans: Swap-O-Matic won't accept any offers where it doesn't think it's ripping you off. There is, however, the Detailed Info option in Swap-O-Matic by which you can enter a player's age, experience and career totals and Swap-O-Matic considers this in judging offers. Double click on the player's name once it is entered in the list of potential tradees and the experience screen comes up. Back to Table of Contents

Installing Old Schedule Disk. Q: I found an old schedule disk (ver 6.xx) and am having a difficult time installing the disk into my CD-ROM V3 game for seasons 1986 to 1993. Once installed all I have to do is go back and change the starting dates for the season. Does anyone remember how to install this disk?. Ans: The schedule disk simply contains a self-extracting file that contained schedule files for all those old seasons. In other words, once you ran that program, it would unpack the contents (i.e. every schedule) into the directory you specified. A good idea is to create a directory called 'schedules' where you can keep them all on the hard drive until such time as you want to install one. To install, if the season you wish to replay exists in your cdrombb/rosters directory, just drag the appropriate season schedule into the cdrombb/rosters directory. You also need to ensure that the name of the SCH file agrees with your 6 letter league name. For example, if your league name is 1974AL, then you must rename the AL74.SCH file to 1974AL.SCH. From there, when you open the game you can adjust the starting date in schedule maintenance. Alt Ans: The schedule disk and the season disks have nothing to do with each other.  If the schedule disk is not installed properly then no schedule will appear for the seasons. The season disks have nothing to do with that.  Make sure to copy the Schedule program from the schedule disk into the Rosters folder of the game.  Once it is there simply double click on it to run the schedule program and create all of your schedules that are missing. Back to Table of Contents

Superhal Setup Bug. Q: I setup my entire draft league, and selected all eligible and ineligibles for each team. I then went to my team in the league and into Superhal setup. I dragged my relievers into order on my first three lists only. Listed in my relievers on these lists was a starter/reliever, since he will be used as a starter I clicked ok and then save, then went into update player and removed his relief rating. Here's where the problem occurred. Now when I went back into my teams Superhal setup, the first three lists which I had dragged into order previously no longer contain that starter/reliever, and they still do contain another ineligible reliever on my team, who is shown in blue. When I click on list D the fourth one which I had not touched prior to this, the starter/reliever I had changed is still listed among the relievers even though now his relief rating is gone, and now the other ineligible reliever isn't listed at all. If in the future I wanted to use this reliever, I have no way of getting him onto lists D-O. Ans: The game making changes to list D sounds like a bug, albeit not that serious. Back to Table of Contents

Editing Stats before First Game. Q: In the past I have gotten around the "having to play a game first problem" by playing a quick game then going back in and zeroing out each players stats (thru the update statistics). Is there an easier way? Ans: Start to play a league game (i.e. get both teams on the field ready for the first pitch). Close the game, disregarding the results. Click on the appropriate league. Then click Statistics - Syncronize Stat Files. All players and teams in the league now have data. This data will be zeros for all categories except for least hits, which will be 255. The 255 will be overwritten with the correct information the first time either of those two teams play a game or have a game file imported for them. This works well for commissioners to send stats files to members at the beginning of the season. Back to Table of Contents

Scoreboard bug. Q: I was playing an unscheduled game between the 1964 Card and the 1965 Dodgers and I clicked on the scoreboard on the visiting 1964 Cards and the notebook showed their 1965 data. I switched the two teams and then clicked on the visiting Dodgers and got their 1964 data. It seems when mixing league teams in an unscheduled game this happens. I tried in Large & Out of Town Scoreboard - same results. Anyone else notice this, or is this an old problem? Ans: You're right - clicking the visiting team's name on the scoreboard when playing a game with teams from different leagues appears to pull up the notebook on a totally different team in the home teams league. The home team notebook does function properly. Back to Table of Contents

Changing Nameless Players. Q: The instructions that come with v4.0 say that if you change the no-name players to reflect their real life name that you must also make changes in the *.trn and *.lup files. The question is, I can't find them. I did a search on the entire hard drive and they aren't there. Do they get created when you run the asplayed.bat file? Ans: They're on the CD - not automatically loaded to the computer. Alt Ans: You have to go into DOS mode and look in the rosters directory. Back to Table of Contents

Wave Sounds. Q: I'm having a problem with nearly all the sound waves on ver 4.0. In fact the only ones that are functioning are crowd1, crowd6 and shake.wav. At the start of each game, a message appears stating error, mmsystem 281, this file could not be played. Check file name or install a driver that supports opening sound split.wave, hotdogs.wav, bat.wav, etc. These wave sounds do play when tested from the data folder. Ans: There are a few things that could be tried. Check the Windows 95 start/settings/control panel/system/sound to see if they're any yellow or red flags on any of the menu items. If the sound devices are written to another system folder of their own, check it for these flags also. If any of these flags appear you may have to reinstall your sound drivers. If the results are ok, then go to the data folder and right click on a wave file that is not working. A menu should appear giving the option to play the file. If the file doesn't play it is probably a driver problem. As a last resort, you could reinstall the game. Alt Ans: Your computer may not have a compatible sound driver for version 4.0.Back to Table of Contents

Importing/Exporting Custom Schedules. Q: Our league has the schedule we want, the same one we have used for years. But now, reading that it is easier to import desired *.skd files using "comma delimited files", I wonder if someone can explain it to me? Ans: Click on the league in question. Pull down League menu and choose Schedule Maintenance. Click on the Export button at the bottom of the window. It automatically exports your schedule to one of these comma delimited files (you will find the schedule in the EXPORT directory). After doing this, I opened that file with my word processing software. Then I could "Find and Replace" a team's 3-letter abbreviation with that of another. Then import the edited schedule into the league that will use it, using the same procedure as above (choosing Import in the last step this time). That allows me to use one league's schedule for another league without having to re-enter the whole thing by hand. Of course, this assumes that the two leagues have the exact same setup (# of teams, # of divisions, etc.). Even if a league uses the same schedule format every year, this setup lets you "mix it up" a little. This feature lets you scramble them around by making it a lot easier to re-arrange your schedule. Alt Ans: To clarify the above answer, the comma delimited version of your schedule will have lines that look something like this: 1,BRS,PLG,D. The first digit is the Day Number from the League schedule. The next abbreviation is the visiting team's 3-letter code. The next abbreviation is the home team's 3-letter code. The letter at the end is either a D (for day game) or an N (for night game). If your league uses divisions, you can only swap a team's abbreviation with that of another team from the same division. Otherwise, the balance between your interdivisional games and your intradivisional games will get screwed up. Alt Ans: Don't use Word or other word processing software. Just use a text editor like Notepad when creating your schedule. If you want to use excel to modify your schedule, you need to select Comma for the delimiter. Back to Table of Contents

Force Daily Injuries. Q: Can anybody explain to me the logic behind this setting. Does the actual playing time a player had or where their injury is located have anything to do with how often a player gets hurt? Ans: It's based upon actual playing time and should be used in conjunction with lineups "with rest" in order to generate realistic playing time. Alt Ans: When this option is selected, the injuries are based on use percentage. A guy at 200%, regardless of whether he pitched 200 innings or 2 innings will get hurt for longer than a guy at 75. Also, the injury roll doesn't really have to vary as much on pitchers since they are self regulating to a large degree since they can only pitch every 4 or 5 days (starters), 2 or 3 days (relievers) and have POW which will limit them further. Remember that, under Super Advanced Rules, pitchers can get injured against any batter they face, but most of the time you'll see him shake the injury off because the odds that he actually gets injured are greatly reduced. Hitters can play every inning of every game, pitchers cannot, hence the injury rolls don't need to be as severe. Alt Ans: Remember that Force Daily Injuries will override the Ignore Overusage and Use Primary Lineups settings. Force Daily Injuries will sometimes give HAL different groups of healthy players to work with, but it's only the healthy players that HAL considers when he's trying to figure out who to rest and who to play. So, if you want to avoid HAL resting players, you need to make sure Force Daily Injuries or Primary with rest aren't selected. Back to Table of Contents

Pulling Pitchers with Superhal. Q: Although Superhal brings the setup guy in according to my settings in the 8^th inning, he sometimes keeps him in the ninth, ignoring my other settings. Ans: Avoid Lefties, Avoid Righties, etc settings have nothing to do with taking a pitcher out of a game. Their function is to tell the computer manager not to insert him into a game if the next batter falls under an Avoid setting. Alt Ans: In version 6.0, all three of the new pitcher functions (Don't let HAL remove, Remove if allow x number of runs, Remove if reaching Fatigue) do not export/import with the Computer Manager. That is, importing a CM does not overwrite what is there (no, 0, 0 respectively). SOM has been made aware of the problem and will fix as part of a patch to version 6.0. Back to Table of Contents

Computer Draft Speed. Q: Is there a way to slow down the computer draft speed? I like to watch who goes where in leagues I draft and play against the computer. Ans: The only way to do it is use a manual draft and use best recommended player to place each player on a team.. Doesn't really take all that much longer and is enjoyable to watch how draft-o-matic recommends the players for each team. Here is an enhancement you might want to consider: copy all the free agents into their own league (SP, RP, 1B, etc). Draft the best recommended player from the free agent league. If a SP comes up in the draft-o-matic league you're creating, then go to the SP only free agent league and draft the best recommended pitcher. There will be different results because draft-o-matic makes decisions based on what a team's AB/IP needs. Back to Table of Contents

Career Stats in Player Notebook. Q: After "assigning an encyclopedia for notebook", whatever year you happen to be in appears twice in the career stats section. Is this supposed to happen? Ans: The reason that it displays twice is because the "assign an encyclopedia for notebook" function is only meant for use with an in-progress league that has not already been included in the actual encyclopedia. As you play the season you can use the notebook to view the career stats that are in the encyclopedia along with his current stats in the league in-progress. You don't actually load the current league stats until after the season is over. Alt Ans: With the introduction of the new encyclopedia function, you just need to go to Statistics - assign Encyclopedia to notebook - highlight the encyclopedia file - click cancel. After all teams in your league have played a game, you can then assign an encyclopedia to the season in progress. Back to Table of Contents

Players with same names in Encyclopedia. Q: I tried to create an encyclopedia for a custom league. The problem is that both Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonds were on teams. In the game they are listed as just B.Bonds. When I created the encyclopedia, every player had played only one season, except for B.Bonds who had played two. The stats for both Barry and Bobby were combined into one player. How can I fix? Ans: You go to the search for batters, put Bonds in there, then you hit the keys button, and you will see both players listed. After Bobby Bonds put a * and each player have their own page. Alt Ans: The need for asterisks was eliminated with the assignment of unique IDs as part of the new v9 encyclopedia. Alt Ans: Note that the player's photo file does not accept asterisks. If the name has an asterisk, the photo will not appear.  Back to Table of Contents

Saves in Historical Replays. Q: While playing an historical replay, I noticed that relievers were getting many more saves that they had in real-life. This was despite having most of the managers set to conservative bullpen and closer use. Also, I am using them in a manner that their real life counterparts were used. Is this a bug? Ans: Hal awards saves based on today ML rules for saves. The rules for saves today are stricter not easier, and Hal uses the modern rules for saves no matter what era it applies to. For example, a relief pitcher in 1964 with a 5 run lead finishing a game for the starter always got credited with the save. Back to Table of Contents

Career Historical Disk. Q: The Career Historical Disk installed smoothly and all of the icons come up on the screen. However, all of the words are garbled and not readable. Any suggestions? Ans: In DOS type in chum.exe-1 to give you the large print version. This won't work, however, unless you are on the DOS version of SOM. SOM reports it's due to a compatibility problem with the windows video driver. Try getting an updated driver, or ignoring the CHUM program altogether (which you don't really need for the CD version of the game). Back to Table of Contents

Closing Program Bug. Q: Whenever I close the program I get an error message "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down…". Is it the game, or my machine? Ans: According to SOM, this has appeared over various versions in the past but is far from widespread. It is usually associated with a machine or windows conflict which is interfering with the game's shutdown procedure. Windows is shutting down the program for whatever reason it deems necessary. Something like a cable modem, which is not really standard equipment yet, will cause this to happen. Back to Table of Contents

Short Season Injuries. Q: Is there a way to modify the injuries in the computer game? I play an 80 game season using injuries. I really don't want the players getting injured for 15 games at a clip. Instead, I would like to have the computer "half" the injuries based upon my schedule Ans: After the game you select the team the injured player is on and go to the statistics menu and choose Update Statistics. Select the injured player from the list. Scroll down to the last two fields. One is the number of games left to be injured. Just modify that value. The second is total games missed to injury for that player. Back to Table of Contents

Compare Function. Q: Does the Compare Function take the ballpark into consideration? Ans: The Compare Function takes into consideration defense, ballpark, weather, clutch and whether a pitcher is tired. Back to Table of Contents

Checking Overusage. Q: Is there a fast way to check overusage for a league without going through every player? Ans: Highlight the league, go to Team Stats, pick All Teams on the right-side menu, then Usage Display on left-side menu. All players will be listed by team with their percentage of usage on a pro-rated basis. Back to Table of Contents

Font Problems. Q: I've found I can adjust the font size to fit my screen. Is there anything I can do? Ans: This is a known limitation of the game. Make sure you've got the latest video drivers for your card. Beyond that, SOM Tech Support advises there's nothing you can do. Back to Table of Contents

FAT32 Environment. Q: Does SOM version 2.0 and up work with the FAT32 file system? Ans: Some DOS games will not operate in a FAT32 environment. Version 4.0 will open in a DOS-prompt environment but not a strictly DOS operating system environment. If Version 2.0 will open in a strictly DOS operating environment, then it could be effected by a FAT32 problem. Back to Table of Contents

Pitch Count Fatigue. Q: What is the difference between the Endurance Inning System and the Pitch Count System for pitcher fatigue? Ans: Under the Endurance Inning System, when the endurance inning is reached any combination of hits/walks equaling 3 or equaling 4 in back-to-back innings makes a pitcher fully fatigues. There are no gradations and it will only happen under these circumstances. SADV rules say 5 runs in any inning also sets off full fatigue. Under the Pitch Count System, once a pitcher passes his pitch target he is subject to gradual fatigue in increments of 1 (F9 -> F8, etc) no matter how well he is pitching or what innings. Also, when a pitcher gives up any combination of hits/walks equaling 3 or 4 in back-to-back innings, he drops from an F9 to F6. The trigger mechanism may be the same on this point, but the result is not. F6 is not total fatigue and does not result in every point of weakness bullet generating a single**. Five runs in an inning will also ignite fatigue, but you will notice that this might mean an F8 occurring in the 1^st inning or an F6 in later innings. Alt Ans: Watch the Pitch Count Targets of your relievers after you bring them in. When the Closer Rule kicks in during the ninth inning, you'll suddenly see your pitcher's Pitch Count Target change. It'll drop way down if the guy has no closer rating. It'll go way up if he has a high closer rating. Alt Ans: Using Pitch Count Fatigue Rules without using the Closer Rule will cause the Pitch Count targets for relievers to be calculated differently.  They'll be based much more heavily on their advanced game POWs. The tradeoff, of course, is that you can turn any reliever with a good card into a closer god. That's basically what the Closer Rule was designed to stop. Alt Ans: In version 8 you can't use the PCF unless you use the max rules.  The problem is that older season don't have the bk/pb/wp ratings. Alt Ans: Note that you can't use manual dice rolls or splits with PCF. As documented in the game's help file, an internal adjustment is made to fatigued pitchers before the dice roll is displayed.  Back to Table of Contents

Triple Switch. Q: I want the computer manager to remember to do a triple switch for my road games, but HAL doesn't seem to recognize the Defensive Replacements. How can I make this happen? Ans: The computer manager doesn't recognize a triple switch. You have to do it manually, bringing in the new player only after you've changed positions for players currently in your lineup. Back to Table of Contents

League Stats Not Found on Disk. Q: I just got the 1993 season disk and had problems importing it. I simply copied all the files in the roster folder and pasted them into the roster folder in the CDROMBB folder. Then I go to the game and I get the message "ERROR League Stats Not Found On Disk". If I click on one of the teams I get the message "ERROR opening Team Stats file". The 1993 AL and extra files work fine. I got the same message when I tried to import the 1915 Fed Season from a download site. Ans: Try using the option of duplicating a league from the league menu. This should work. Alt Ans: The error message simply means that the game thinks there are games played but no stats exist. Simply reset you league and all will be well. Alt Ans: You might also want to double check that there's a Stats folder (cdrombb\stats). You might be missing that folder if you had a bad install. Back to Table of Contents

Quick Spectator Bug. Q: I have gotten fatal errors in my game after playing a practice scheduled game in Quick Spectator mode. The error occurs after the game is completed and I ask for the box score. After I get that error, the game just played is wiped out, and the game locks up It's fatal error 222 Is it just me?. Ans: It's obviously a programming bug. I ran several games after this first happened, to see if it was just a fluke, and found that the game would crash about 50% of the time when using "Quick Spectator" mode. Back to Table of Contents

LOG File. Q: In the stats folder, what is the *.LOG file and is it needed when sending files for league use? It is the largest file and would save lots of space in an attachment if not required. Ans: When you double click on a player's stats to view his game by game stats and the graph showing the average/era as it changes over the course of the season, that comes out of the LOG, as does the individual performance in the league record book (most rbi in a game, etc). It is not a necessary file, but it will be recreated by the game if you delete it. I have had problems with the game writing stats to file when the LOG is corrupted - the solution then is to delete it, and then after the game is played a new one is created and on the season goes. The team stats, player stats and and league stats up to that point are intact, but you cannot look up the player's game by game performance and results in the league record book are lost. No one need to send a log file to anyone for player, team or league stats to be kept. Back to Table of Contents

Duplicate Players. Q: When setting up SuperHal Bullpen on my team, I see Jeff Shaw listed twice. Has anyone else seen this problem?. Ans: I have. Release Shaw to free agency and then add him back to your team. Alt Ans: I saw Roberto Kelly listed twice although there was only one card for him. It seems the problem went away when I replaced Roberto Kelly for Roberto Kelly. Back to Table of Contents

Catcher Blocking the Plate. Q: How do I know if this rule is turned on?. Ans: This option is not part of the maximum rules. It is part of the super-advanced rules. If you use the super-advanced rules, or the super-advanced rules with bk/wp/pb, you automatically use this new feature. That is true even if you don't use any of the maximum rules. I think the only way not use to use the catcher blocking the plate feature is to use the advanced, rather than the super-advanced rules. Back to Table of Contents

Holds Reports. Q: I can't find the holds reports on team or league reports. Where is it?. Ans: It's in the player detail reports for each player. Highlight a player on the team, then click on statistics-player, select detail report and then the player and you'll see holds. This is where the fielding stats are as well as the situational hitting/pitching stats. Back to Table of Contents

Pitch Around Option. Q: I set the league rules to super-advanced without wp/bk/pb rules, but with two out in a late inning situation suddenly the words "pitch around" appear. How do I avoid this situation?. Ans: When pitch around comes on the screen that merely indicates that you could use the pitch around option for that batter. It does not mean that the batter in question is being pitched around. To use the pitch around option, you still have to click on the intentional-walk icon or select it form the menu to activate. If you don't want to use it, turn it off in the Max rules. Back to Table of Contents

Card Image Option and Max Rules. Q: Can the card image option be used when one or more of the max rules are in effect?. Ans: Some of the Max rules like clutch pitching improve statistical accuracy change card readings. So, if you use the image viewer you might get a result of the play that is different than the card result. Since some people might find that odd, SOM recommends just not viewing the cards. Back to Table of Contents

Starter Schedule. Q: What is the Starter Schedule option used for? Every week each team in our league plays two sets of games, one at home and one on the road. We fill out our Starter Schedules and exchange computer managers, and naturally HAL manages team team half the time. The Starter Schedule helps us keep our rotations straight, but the problem is this: A pitcher can start in Game Three of a seven game series at my house while at the same time he pitches in relief in Games 4,5, and 7 at my opponent's house. HAL pays no attention to the rotation in the Starter Schedule. All he seems to use the Starter Schedule for is to figure out who today's starter is supposed to be Ans: The Starter Schedule is meant to give you a way to specify your starters without having to list them in your e-mail. It isn't meant to babysit your rotation for you. The Starter Schedule only does one thing: it lets you override HAL's choice of starting pitchers. The program will always check the Starter Schedule before making a recommendation of its own. If you name a guy in the Starter Schedule, HAL will start him, whether he's fatigued or not. The only serious adjustment that Superhal makes is that it won't use tomorrow's starter (according to the Starter Schedule) as today's reliever. This feature accomplishes two important things: it saves your foe the trouble of juggling your rotation and it allows you to set up your rotation so that your opponent can't see it in advance. With or without the Starter Schedule, you have to know how often and how soon a guy can start. You needed to know that stuff before we had the Starter Schedule, and you still have to know it. If you play a game and decide to use a different starter other than the one listed in the Starter Schedule, you will have to go back into the Starter Schedule and update it manually. Alt Ans: To use the Starter Schedule in a play-by-email league, you must have a previously created League Schedule. Use the Schedule Batch Change function to update the schedule so your team's games are set to manual and the others are set to hold. You should always play scheduled game sin a league because that will give you the full benefit of all the stats capabilities of the systems. Alt Ans: Try setting your starters ineligible, but if a pitcher is the scheduled starter for that game, HAL will make him eligible for that game only. That way, he will never get used in relief but he will still make his starts as scheduled. What won't work is setting your starting pitchers to "Never" reliever - HAL will bring them in anyway when nobody else is available. Back to Table of Contents

Double Headers. Q: How do you add a doubleheader using the import function? I have a schedule in the proper text format and the only way I can add one is to have two entries for the two teams on the day that a doubleheader is scheduled. Ans: Try creating the schedule using notepad. Plus, anytime you use the schedule maintenance function always click OK at the bottom "first" the use the upper corner X to close the program. BTW, the double header starter scheduler definitely has a bug. Using autoplay, it is possible to have a starter play in back to back games of a double header. This will apparently be fixed in version 6. Back to Table of Contents

Creating Balanced Schedules. Q: I'm having trouble creating a balanced schedule in a 28-team league of four divisions using the schedule generator. Is there a work-around?. Ans: Update the league to make it a two-division league, with 14 teams in each division. Generate a schedule with 50% of the games in the division. After the schedule is generated, update the league to break into the desired four divisions. Changing the divisional alignment will not alter the balanced schedule previously obtained. Alt Ans: To create a balanced schedule with no inter-league play, split the teams into two entirely separate leagues. For example, Create League, name it AL (or whatever), do same again for NL. Copy the AL rosters into the new AL and same for the NL. Split each league into your divisions (League/Update League). You can then either generate schedules which will only create play within the separate leagues or if you can find a text importable of a season prior to interleague play you can edit it to your new setup. Before it generates the schedule, a grid should come up that shows how many games each team will play against all others. You can edit the values by just clicking on them. Set game against other league teams to zero. Alt Ans: The schedule generator will not schedule interleague games. The work around is to take your two leagues and put all teams into two divisions into one league. Figure out which percentage you want the team to play each other, and generate the schedule. It will result in the teams for the same 'League' playing each other the same amount regardless of their divisions but if you can live with that you'll have interleague play. Then simply update the League and divisions to your liking. Back to Table of Contents

Lost Stats Files. Q: I played 2 league game son Tuesday, then on Thursday I played the 3 remaining games in the series. In between I downloaded the updated stats for my league from the league website. After finishing the series I noticed that the stat files for the first 2 games were not in the Export directory. Any ideas why?. Ans: The game keeps track of your games played against opponents. When you play an opponent it makes a *.ho1 and *.v01 for the first game played. Then *.v02 and *.h02 for the next game played. You then downloaded from you stats website. This roster and stats set didn't know you had played any game swith that opponent. Therefore when you played game 3 it actually thought it was game 1 and overwrote the first game played. You shouldn't download in the middle of any series. You can if you download and then import your first two games before playing game 3. Back to Table of Contents

As Played Feature. Q: While trying to play the 1999 season using the As Played Feature, I'm running into a little problem. After reinstalling a fresh copy of the rosters as the instruction called for, I went to the dos prompt, C:\cdrombb\rosters and typed in 'asplayed 1999al'. I keep getting a message "file not found - 1999al.dat\bad command or file name. What is the problem? Ans: The proper command should be: asplayed 1999ml. Back to Table of Contents

SOM On-Line Visitor Connect. Q: I'm having problems connecting as a visitor because I don't have the network client. What do I do? Ans: This is a Windows Set-up Problem. Go to 'Control Panel'. Double-click the 'Network' icon. From the 'Configuration' tab, click the 'Add' button. Highlight 'Client' and click the 'Add' button. Highlight 'Microsoft' under Manufacturers, then highlight 'Client for Microsoft Networks' and click 'OK'. If prompted, insert Windows CD. Click 'OK' to exit 'Network'. When asked if you'd like to restart your computer, click 'Yes'. That's it. You should now be able to successfully connect to another player as visitor. Back to Table of Contents

SOM On-Line Stats. Q: If we use the SOM Interactive site to play games will we be able to get game result files of those games and maintain the stats on our own computers? Ans: Yes. After completing an on-line league game, you MUST highlight your league and make sure that the game was recorded as being played. Sometime you'll complete a league game, but it was not saved as being played (the game doesn't record the last out, even though you get the end of game message). If this happens, use your regular CD-ROM game, load the Pickup.sav file from the game that was just played, and manually record the last out. Your game (and Game Result Files) will now be saved. Back to Table of Contents

Viewing Card Images. Q: I have a new computer in which I installed versions 4 and 5 with the card image option. When I installed version 6 on top of these versions and transferred the copy protection to the hard drive I seem to have lost the card image option. How can I get this option back? Ans: Your key disk for V6 has to have "With Card Image" printed right on the label. If it doesn't, you got a copy of the game that doesn't include the Card Image Option. If you have a disk with the card image option, you have to pull down your OPTIONS menu and choose Dice/Cards/Splits. Make sure that under Card Image Options, you have both boxes checked. If you check just one of those two boxes, you'll only see your card images part of the time. Also, on your OPTIONS menu, and still working under the Game Preferences sub-menu, you need to set your Entry Mode on DICE MODE. Further, under the Results & Options menu on that same screen, you have to check Show Board Game Information. Back to Table of Contents

Installing Old Time Ballparks. Q: I am having a problem getting my old time ballparks to show up since installing Version 6. I installed them again from the CD at the time I installed the new version and the 2000 player files, but now when I go to my 1954 replay the old parks don't show up and I was not asked for the "Key" disk as expected. What's wrong? Ans: Place the Old Ballparks key disk in your diskette drive. Go to the MS-DOS or COMMAND prompt. Type the following (this example assumes your diskette is in drive A and your game is installed in C:\CDROMBB): COPY A:\DATA\*.* C:\CDROMBB\DATA. Alt Ans: Check in your DATA folder and make sure you have both the daytime and nighttime ballpark folders (e.g. bp034d.bmp and bp034n.bmp, and bp034d.loc and bp034n.loc). The old time ballparks don't have the black and white ballparks (e.g. bp034.bmp). Back to Table of Contents

Installing Multiple Versions of the Game. Q: A fall/winter league is using Version 5, and the league commissioner wants to finish up the season using Version 5. The commissioner assumed that the league members who were ready to install Version 6 would do so by putting Version 6 in a different directory. Some members, however, inadvertently installed Version 6 to the same directory. Is it possible for those managers to simply reinstall Version 5 to another directory and then reinstall the Version 5 league stats and league roster files? Ans: It should be possible for the league members who installed Version 6 over Version 5 to just rename their current Version 6 CDROMBB directory to something else (eg CDROMBB6) by right-clicking on the folder and selecting the Rename option. Then, they would reinstall Version 5, allowing the game to use the default C:\CDROMBB, and then import the rosters and stats and finish the season. They would, of course, have to use their key disk for copy protection access. When the season is done, they copy the league's stats and rosters to the CDROMBB6 folders respective stats and rosters folders, then delete the old Version 5 CDROMBB folder Finally, rename the Version 6 CDROMBB6 folder back to CDROMBB. Alt Ans: Load the Version 5.0 CD and install the game to a new directory. Be sure to patch to version 5.01 after reinstalling the game. Launch the Version 6.0 game. Select the league. Go to the League menu, pull it down, and select Backup League. A dialogue box will ask if you want to backup the league; punch Yes. The rosters, stats, subsets, etc will be place in separate folders inside the Backup folder. One by one, open the relevant folders. Select all (control-A). Drag them to the folders with the same names inside the Version 5 directory. Back to Table of Contents

Help File Bug. Q: Say you want an explanation for the new features in Version 6. You go to the Help menu and choose index. If you do so you will get the following message: "No index available, use search function". So you use the search function. Under Search items a long list appears, and you select "New Features". Here is the message you will get: "What were New Features in CD Version 2.0" Is there a work around? Ans: I don't get this error message using Win98. I suspect the problem is only with MAC OS. Back to Table of Contents

Removing an Imported Series. Q: In a league I commish, I just imported a series which should not have been played. Outside of removing the statistics on each player manually, is there a way that I can provide the same import files import files and tell SOM to remove those import files form the league and team statistics? Ans: One way to do it is to "rebuild the league from game files". If you still have all of the game files form the previous series, you can delete the game files you don't want and then rebuild the league. There is a feature under the LEAGUE menu to do this. Alt Ans: Another way is to use the "undo" function. This only works, however, immediately after you've incorrectly imported the series. Back to Table of Contents

Restart League Lockup. Q: Everytime I've restarted a league in v6.0, the program has locked up and I've had to reboot. Anyone else had this problem? Ans: Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del once shows that the SOM program is not responding. Ending the task gets me out of the game without having to reboot. Note than when it does lock up it leaves a ton of s3v*.* files in the root folder. So, if this happens to you, you'd better go in and clean them out so you can regain all those megabytes. Alt Ans: You can use an Autoexec.bat file tip to keep these files cleaned automatically. In you Autoexec.bat file, have the computer clean these files on boot-up. You can put this line in your Autoexec.bat file at the bottom of the file: Deltree /Y C:s3v*****.* The files all start with s3v and the 5 asterisks represent wildcards plus the .* represents the wildcard for the file extension. The file names are all 8 characters long. If you game is installed on another drive besides C:, substitute that drive letter for C in the command. Warning: the command is a very powerful tool and should be used cautiously. If the wrong path is used you can delete data in the wrong folder but, it will only delete the file with the name I provided. The /Y is an automatic answer to a prompt with the answer of Yes. If you leave it off it will prompt you for a Y for Yes or N for No. Back to Table of Contents

Exporting Card Information. Q: Is there any way to export the percentages on the cards to a text report of some kind? The roster report isn't nearly as useful as percentages would be. Ans: Open the players notebook and hit the Print Screen key, open a word document, and paste the screen into the Word Document. Of course, you would have to print screen every player in the league and then insert the files into a database or spreadsheet - very tedious. One other note, click on the picture once it is pasted in the word document and you can size it the way you want it. Plus, you can print screen the update player area to put your favorite player in a word document. Back to Table of Contents

Exporting an Encyclopedia. Q: Is there a way to export/import an encyclopedia? Is there an easy way to turn it into an html report and display on a website? Ans: Simply save the *.enc file, that you receive from someone else to your Stats folder. When you choose "Display Encyclopedia" from the "Statistics" menu, the encyclopedia will be there for you to open. As for turning an Encyclopedia report into an HTML page, choose "Miscellaneous" from the "Options" menu. Check the box next to "Also save print files as HTML". Now, whenever you save an Encyclopedia as a *.prt file, it will also be saved as an HTML file with the same name as the *.prt file you saved. Alt Ans: With Version 9, you now just send out the *.mdb file (database file) to the league and then they can use that database to create their own Encyclopedia reports. Once you have the *.mdb file, the underlying SOM stats files that were used to create it are no longer accessed. The *.mdb is imported into the MDB subdirectory. Then, when the encyclopedia is launched, the new *.mdb file will be available in the Databases window (top left). Then they can create an encyclopedia based on the new *.mdb file and create their own custom reports. If you try to attach an encyclopedia using the earlier *.enc method, You will get the following message "Runtime Error!...abnormal program termination" and the game will shut down. To detach the encyclopedia, highlight the league in question, go to the "Statistics" pull-down menu, open "Assign Encyclopedia Database to Notebook", and then click "cancel" in the dialogue window that opens (simply deleting the *.enc file won't work, and this procedure will work regardless of whether or not the *.enc is actually there). Alt Ans: With Version 10, you may get this error message after restoring league files sent out by the league office "Microsoft Visual C++Runtime Library" "Runtime Error" "Program C:\CDROMBB\Baseball.exe". To deal with this, after restoring the backup file that's giving you trouble, highlight the league, pull down the Stats menu, and click on Assign Encyclopedia Database to Notebook. Then click on Cancel. Them try looking at your card images, etc. You get this message because the commish assigns a database to the Team Notebooks. But, since the database he assigns is probably on his computer but not yours, you get this error because his action is somehow included in the Backup League function. Back to Table of Contents

Creating a Playoff League. Q: I just finished a season and wanted to start the playoffs, however, the Playoff League Option isn't available. Does anyone know a solution for this? Ans: Check that there are no teams tied for the top spot in any of the division. The Playoff option won't be available if there are teams tied for a division lead at the conclusion of your regular schedule. Alt Ans: I don't believe the option is available until you highlight the playoff teams (using Ctrl-Click). Alt Ans:  If you are creating a playoff league for an "as played" regular season, remember that you need to change your lineups options to primary instead of automatic. If you don't, you will get the message "error opening transaction file". Back to Table of Contents

Adjusting Fence Heights. Q: How can I adjust the fence heights so that the homer-robbing rule is disabled? Ans: Double-click on your team and see the fence height. Go into Update Ballpark info and change the ballpark code using the ballpark code of any of the ballparks where the wall are too high to rob all round the OF. Then double-clock on you team and see the fence heights change. Note that you will be stuck with the image of that ballpark (see the FAQ for installing colour ballparks). Back to Table of Contents

Unlocking a League. Q: I wanted to unlock a league and restarted the league, however, the game still says "league is already locked". Is there a way to unlock a league without restarting the league? Ans: If you lock the league, and then restart it without having played any games, it will not unlock. It will only unlock if you restart it after having played a game. Alt Ans: All the Lock League function does is prevent you from using manual entry and undo. It doesn't stop you from changing league settings, roster changes, etc.  Back to Table of Contents

Bullpen Pitchers. Q: Why doesn't SuperHal show all the pitchers when you are trying to set up bullpen logic? Ans: He doesn't show any pitcher who is strictly a starter according to his actual usage. You can get around this for league play by giving all pitchers a relief endurance rating so they will show up in SuperHal. Alt Ans: Also, make sure the league in question has selected "Use SuperHAL Bullpen" checked under the Options menu, select Lineups and Usage. Back to Table of Contents

NetPlay Help. Q: I can't get NetPlay to work. It crashes every time I try to set up as the visitor. Is there a solution? Ans: Visit the Net Alliance Baseball League website at http://somnetplay.com and check out the Troubleshooting links. Alt Ans: NetPlay is not written by SOM.  It is a C++ component made by another company, designed to take non-Internet ready software and make it "shareable". Having said that, there are a few things you can do to speed up play and make the game more stable. Do a fresh reboot of each machine and use Internet Meeting to communicate, if possible, rather than the NetPlay chat screen. Set the Base delay for animation at 5 (or less), for play by set the delay at 2 (or less). Minimal play by play seems sufficient and entry mode is "None". Turn off things like Show Board Game Information and flight of the ball to speed up the game. Alt Ans: Both the home and visiting teams must be using the same version of the game (including patches). If they are not, the home team may get a Runtime Error and the program will close. Alt Ans: It may be that the home PC may not be routing through the correct port (508). Try reconfiguring the setup of the home team through http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/5min/5min-204.mspx which should allow him to forward the port he needs to use. Alt Ans: Also, if you make a change to the system (e.g. router adjustments) you then, regardless of whether you're the home or visiting team, have to close the program and re-open. Alt Ans: One of the common problems is when you are the visitor and the home team is connecting with a wireless network. In that case, the home team tends to give you their masked IP address 192.168.0.x. If people go to http://www.whatismyip.com, they can get their real IP address. As well, I always advise people to put the address they give you into both spaces (Host Name/Address and Host Application). Back to Table of Contents

Ballpark Effects. Q: When I turn off the ballpark effects when playing with Chevy disks, it seems that it has the same effect as playing all of your games in a SI* 1-8, HR 1-8 park with the ball park effects turned on. Anyone else notice this? Ans: SOM says that 1-8 is average for the ballpark effects. This is not completely neutral, however, if you're doing replays because a player who is designed to hit 30 HRs in a 1-18 park will not hit them in a 1-8 park. Alt Ans: Note that the clutch hitting rule and the ballpark effects rule are designed to be used in conjunction with each other. However, the computer version allows you to use one with the other. Back to Table of Contents

Robbing a Homer. Q: On two separate occasions, a batter was robbed of a homer with a man on third and less than 2 out, but the runner on third did not score. In the PC game, the rule just says flyout with no indication if it is a fly()A, fly()B, or fly()C. Should this be a fly()B? Ans: It should be a fly B because it's a ballpark homer chance. You need to undo the play an manually enter a fly B result. Alt Ans: Note that in version 7 you have the option of turning off the HR Robbing option. Back to Table of Contents

Custom Ballparks. Q: I have downloaded a few ballpark photos and created some custom ballpark files. For example, an Old Comiskey file might be ballpark number 83 and West Side Park is number 80. The problem I run into from time to time is I sometimes get an error "ballpark .loc file has been modified" and the game crashes. This problem is not 100% consistent with all files I have changed. Some of the old park photos work just fine. Are the .loc files corrupt, or is the ballpark number I use a factor? Ans: Each original ballpark has it's own .loc file. For example: Bp027.loc and Bp027.bmp for black and white; Bp027d.loc and Bp027d.bmp for color day park; Bp027n.loc and Bp027n.bmp for color night park. If you download a ballpark called Bp083 you should rename the file to Bp033 (Old Comiskey) to use the Bp033.loc file you need. Always rename your original before doing this. Just any old .loc will not always work with a park. The player names, flight path of the ball, etc sometimes will appear in the wrong places. The .loc files also contain park dimension effects for the original park you are replacing. If the dimensions are different for the park you copy to the data folder the game will use the dimensions for the original park you replace. Alt Ans: If the name and defensive ratings of your pitchers and batters appear in the wrong locations, this could also be a problem with the ballpark code you are using. Back to Table of Contents

Forced Steal. Q: One of the managers in my league reported the following unusual result: The Aces attempted a hit & run with the result of 'batter misses pitch, Kendall throws to first trying to pick off the runner, O'Neill dives back safely'. I can only assume that this was a missed pitch, attempted steal, and pickoff try. The batter was still in there for the next pitch with the H&R now off. Has anyone else ever seen this play text before? Any explanations? Ans: Actually, this is a 'bug' in the board game instructions. SOM fails to clearly illustrate that rule 29.2(b) applies to the steal attempt check when the "batter misses pitch…" result occurs on a Hit & Run. Furthermore, they failed to address the result of the play if a pick-off attempt should occur, which should be "catcher throws to first trying to pick-off runner, apply rule 29.2(b). If the runner is not picked-off, he returns to his base and the H&R cannot be attempted again for the current At Bat. Back to Table of Contents

Bunt with Two Strikes. Q: If you bunt and then get two strikes with the "take bunt off" or "stay with bunt" option, does SOM take into account that a hitter is much weaker with two strikes on him? Ans: No, the two strikes are not taken into account if you decide to take the bunt off. Back to Table of Contents

Netplay Substitutions. Q: How do I do a quick substitution? Ans: On the back page of the Net Play Version 6.01 Release Notes, under The Lineup Screen, it says: The Quick Sub feature can be used by typing the character '9' on the keyboard when your team has control. The Quick sub feature is 1-for-1 substitutions only (for making double switches your will have to use the lineup screen). Alt Ans: You can not drag and drop in Netplay. To insert a player or pitcher in your lineup, you highlight him on your bench, then press the number of the lineup spot you want to put him in. To change the fielding position of a player in your lineup, use alt-#, with # representing the scoring code for the fielding position you want to move him to.  Back to Table of Contents

Netplay Player Positions. Q: What are the keystrokes for entering a player's position when in the lineup screen during the game? Ans: On the back page of the Net Play Version 6.01 Release Notes, it says: To change a player's position click on him with the mouse and then select his positions by using the Alt key with the new position number : Alt-0 = DH, Alt-1 = Pitcher, Alt-2 = Catcher, etc. Back to Table of Contents

Printing Boxscore Files. Q: How do I get rid of the [1] and [2] that pop up in the boxscores when viewed in wordpad or word? Ans: Go to Options - Miscellaneous and uncheck Save Formatting to Print Files. If you want to use Notepad to view Boxscore Files, you need to make sure that you associate *.rtf file types with Notepad. Alt Ans: The boxscores are stored in the PRINT subfolder. They're actually plain text files but they have the extension *.prt. There is a sub-subfolder in the PRINT subfolder for each league that's installed in the game. If you also save them as HTML files there's another subfolder called HTML. To see the files click on File then view print files. It will open the sub-subfolder for the league that you're working with and you can browse from there to anywhere else. Alt Ans: Of note, if you go to the print folder and highlight a file like BOXxxxx.prt and right click to open up a list and select/highlight properties and click on it in the general tab you can set open with and choose whatever program you wish to use. For example, I have notepad set to open *.prt files. Then you just click on the file and it automatically will open in notepad. Alt Ans: To save a report, go to the "File" drop-down menu and click "Print to file". You can name the file anything you like. Game defaults to saving the file at c:\cdrombb\print\[league abbreviation] - assuming you have the game in "c:\cdrombb". Gave save the files in *.prt format. So you could save a 2004 Phillies' roster report, say, as "Phil-roster". Then, from Word, you would open the file visa <Control-O>, c:\cdrombb\print\2004nl\Phil-roster.prt. You can then save the file as a *.doc or plain-text file. Back to Table of Contents

Installing Roster Disks. Q: A while ago I bought the Hall of Fame Disk and several other seasons and discovered I forgot how to install them. I used to do it "backdoor" through the Duplicate League function. Any suggestions? Ans: Click on Duplicate League…browse to a: drive and through it the folders till you find the AL and NL. One by one click on each and each gets get installed. Alt Ans: You should be able to use your season floppies to activate them in V10. There is a separate drop down window for loading authorizations other than the game itself. You must be sure to withdraw these season authorization before you remove the game authorization should you plan to play on another computer. See the Help Menu or Check the Blue Question mark Icon in the cdrombb folder for actual procedure. If your Roster disks should in the course of time fail, you many exchange them for the newer Product Code Authorization Card for a nominal fee. The Authorization window box will have an option to "Remove All" or you many remove individual season as needed. Plus, the numbers of the codes are still retained (as you might notice when you re-authorize the game product code itself). On the question of the actual floppies, I have seen instances where my Colour Ballparks Disk would ask you to Insert floppy or enter the Product Code to activate. Authorization has no affect on your own SOM leagues, just the SOM Season disks. Alt Ans: Note that v10 won't duplicate Free Agents when using the Duplicate League option under the League menu. The teams are duplicated, but Free Agents won't copy. The work around is to drag and drop the free agents from the old league to the new league. Alt Ans: For projects such as recreating stats for past seasons and importing into v10, you may get the following message: XVT-power++error: #2606, File: cwindow.cpp, line:617. This means that v10 can't read the stuff you copied into the v10 folders. You will need the key disks for the appropriate version/season or you will have to delete those files from the v10 folders. Back to Table of Contents

All Star Voting Bug. Q: Sometimes the all star votes don't make sense. Any ideas? Ans: There is a known bug which appears when the league year is too low. It seems to happen on years prior to 1780s or so. Back to Table of Contents

Copy Protection and NTFS. Q: Installed Windows 2000 on my laptop, and then installed SOM. I then called SOM Tech Support to reset the copy protection. This worked until I had to reboot. Now, every time I reboot all of my copy protection is reset. So, even if I feed it the key disk, when I go play a game from, say, 1905, I get asked for the 1905 disk. If I reboot, next time I go into the game I have to feed it the key disk and the 1905 disk all over again. This is a major hassle, especially when I'm playing cross-era teams. The key disk files are being written to the hard drive, just no seen by the game. Any suggestions? Ans: Windows 2000 and NT use an operating system known as NTFS. Every time something updates the registry, you lose all of the installed copy protection (key disk, ballpark, rosters). Problems have also been periodically reported on Windows XP. The easiest remedy is to go to a Win98 or Win ME structure. This could be done by either converting you entire hard drive to a different Operating System, or using Partition Magic and creating a different Operating System in each partition. Having said that, if you have ZIP250 you could try installing your game on the zip. It will keep the password on the ZIPdisks, separated from the machine. Alt Ans: One solution does exist, but it isn't for the faint of heart. Software like PowerQuest's Partition Magic can be used to resize/format partitions on a hard drive, even one that has data on it. As a solution to my issues with SOM and an NTFS drive, I used Partition Magic to carve a 1 GB partition out of the unused space on my hard drive. Formatted it FAT32, and then installed SOM to what is now my D:\. I haven't gotten the key disk protection moved, just because of an inability to connect with SOM, but the copy protection for seasons remains across reboots, which never happened with NTFS. One warning: if your are using Win2K or XP, make sure you use the latest version of Partition Magic. Alt Ans: SOM sent me a new baseball.exe file that seems to have the problem solved.  It is reported that SOM has resolved this in Version 7.0. Back to Table of Contents

Playoff League Importing Files. Q: I'm having trouble importing files for a playoff league. They import fine, but the subsets for the individual series are not right. We use game results files. Two of the games were on my PC using Netmeeting (couldn't get Netplay to work that night), and another game was played on my opponents PC using Netplay. He sent me the files after the game so I could import them and that's when I noticed the problem. I don't think it's those files though. I deleted the subsets and recreated the league and when I import only the files created on my machine the problem still occurs. Any ideas? Ans: In order to keep accurate subsets stats in our league we had one game runner for each series generate subsets as well as game result files. The game runner would then send the subset files along with the game result files to the commissioner after the series has been played. The commish would import the game results files and then move the subset files into the subset folder. So our league did not rely on the game result files to update subset files. From what I can tell I believe this is the only way to keep accurate subset stats. If you Playoff League has more than one round, then you should generate subset stats for each round.  If you don't then you will only be able to see the Total Stats for the entire playoffs. Back to Table of Contents

Copy Protection and Netplay. Q: Is there difference between the copy protection for the game and the copy protection for Netplay? Ans: This is a bit of a loophole in SOM's copy protection scheme. Both of my key disks for the game and Netplay had the copy protection moved to the hard drive, each to different computers. Recently, I lost the partition that SOM was sitting on, so since I reloaded it I've had to load the CP from the floppy. The other day I reinstalled Net Play and after putting in the Netplay keydisk, which had been moved previously to a hard drive on another computer, I no longer needed my keydisk for the main game or for Netplay. In essence, I could use my game CD to load the game for someone, then install and run Netplay and use my Netplay key disk to get in and from then on they could access the whole game. Back to Table of Contents

MVP Points. Q: How are the MVP points calculated? Ans: The following formula is fairly close: hits + (hr*4) + (3b*2) + 2b + (rbi*.33) + streak + (sb*.2) + (bb*.8).  Alt Ans: There have been reported of catchers not appearing in any of the relevant categories where sub-leagues are using dead ball era or 1957 players. This is a suspected bug. Back to Table of Contents

NetPlay/Network Conflict. Q: I can't host games via Netplay, although I can be the visiting team just fine. I think it is because I have a home network and each of my machines was using a local IP are are connected to a linksys router which goes to the external IP from the cable modem. Is there anything I can do? Ans: The guy with the router needs to create a "virtual server" and forward the IP address to PORT 508. Here's a step by step on what to do:

1.    Log in to your router's admin page (Default for Linksys is no username and a password of 'admin').

2.    Go to the setup tab and note the current external IP (this is the IP you will give to the visiting team). You can also check your current external IP address by visiting http://www.ipchicken.com or http://www.myipaddress.com.

3.    Click the advance tab, which will give you a new set of choice tabs.

4.    Click on IP Forwarding.

5.    The port number Strat uses is 508.  So on the first line put in an app name of Baseball (or whatever) make the range from port 508 to 508 and in the destination IP input the local IP address of whatever machine you plan to use. This is the local IP that pops up when you start Net Play Home Team.

6.    Exit out, give your opponent the external IP and play ball.

Alt Ans: The above procedure basically worked, but with one change. In the last step, you said to give the visiting team the external IP and that did not work. Instead, click on the "Status" tab on the Linksys admin page.  It gives you the LAN address (which is the external IP you referred to) and a WAN address. The WAN address is the one the visiting team connects with. Alt Ans: Of course, adjusting router settings can get quite complicated. You could always disconnect the router and simply connect your PC to the internet. Be aware, however, that bypassing the router will likely remove the NAT Firewall many routers have which is the actual reason the game has a problem. This will leave you exposed to hackers. Alt Ans: The usual reason if the visitor gets the others IP and can not connect to the home team is the home team manager is running a firewall. Firewalls will allow connections "out" but will block in-coming.   Back to Table of Contents

Daylight Savings Time Bug. Q: I transferred the key disk to the hard drive on my laptop about 1 month ago.  Today, the first day of DST, when I tried to open up the game on my laptop I got the following message: "Error 6: The diskette you inserted is not the original SOM diskette!". After I hit the "OK" button, it asked me for my key disk. I can open the game using the key disk, but I had already transferred this stuff to my hard drive.  What gives? Ans: If you disable the daylight savings time feature and turn the clock to Standard Time the game will open with no problem. SOM reports that turning daylight savings time on or off should in no way affect the functionality of the copy protection code. It doesn't on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT or 2000. This appears to be a bug in Windows XP. The problem is with the NTFS file system.  The problem could affect anyone with NT, XP or 2000, but only if they use the NTFS file system. It is believed that Microsoft will take care of it with the release of Service Pack 1. Note that Windows XP also has an option to "Automatically Synchronize with an Internet Time Server" which you need to disable in order to eliminate the roster key disk prompt which occurs when accessing a protected season for the first time following the DST change. Back to Table of Contents

Exporting Report Writer. Q: Is there a way to get Report Writer to export a report to a spreadsheet or to some sort of file that I can import into a spreadsheet? Ans: After you generate the Report, click on the little blank box to the left of your category headings.  That will highlight your entire report.  Then pull down the Edit menu and click on Copy To Clipboard.  Then open a blank spreadsheet and hit the paste icon. you'll have to adjust column widths, and type in all the column headings, but one you've done that you can perform any normal spreadsheet functions with it. Remember that you still have to go back and manually enter stats for the multi-team players (see FAQ on Report Writer multi-team players).  Back to Table of Contents

Report Writer Multi-Team Players. Q: I noticed that Hoyt Wilhelm didn't appear in Report Writer, even though his pitched 49 games for one team and then 11 for the other. Why isn't he listed? Ans: The "export stats to text file" function combines all multi-team players' records into one. Unfortunately, only the stats a player accumulated while with his final team of the year are shown. If the number you selected for Games Pitched In Relief is greater than 11, then Wilhelm won't be listed at all. Back to Table of Contents

Report Writer Team Names. Q: I noticed that when you include TEAM as a field, it lists the player's real life team instead of your league's team. Is there a work around? Ans: There is no known work around other than exporting Report Writer and making the changes manually. This problem is likely related to webbuilder and copy protection. I've always noticed once a player is created that the team name is no longer assessable for change after the initial creation.  We also can't change the team name on the computer player cards created by SOM. Back to Table of Contents

Net Play Bug. Q: While using Net Play, a player gets HBP plus injury. When the manager tried to put in a pinch runner Net Play wouldn't let him. Yet, he couldn't get out of the lineup page either with a message saying "replace the runner". We ended up just bailing out and restarting the game. The instant save game feature picked up with Bordick at bat so it didn't register the HBP. Anyone else had this problem? Ans: It is some kind of injury bug with Net Play. It appears in a couple of ways: When a player become injured, and is replaced in the lineup, the player that replaced the injured player simply "disappears" when his spot in the batting order next comes up, and a pinch-hitter must be inserted into the lineup.  Or, if that spot in the batting order doesn't come up in the next inning, the replacement player "disappears" when taking the field in the next inning, and a defensive replacement needs to be made for the player that originally replaced the injured player.  I've also seen twice now where a player becomes injured, but the game assigns the injury to a different player on that team. Here's a work-around: Anytime you have an injury HBP + etc and pinch run, before the next play, click on your H or V and see if the pinch runner is there or if the space is empty.  It will likely be empty even with no further play. Solutions: Pinch Run first with a tired starting pitcher or someone you won't use then you can pinch run again with a real sub and it will take hold. You would do this before you click away the first time. Another way is to do the substitution the legit way and get burned. Then, before the next play simply eliminate the last play and switch to manual mode to redo the play and make the substitution. This way wipes out the injury and you'll have to reattach the injury after the game through Update Stats.   Alt Ans: Another, cosmetic, bug is that when changing pitchers the new pitcher is listed twice in the Play-By-Play account and the Scoresheet.  Back to Table of Contents

Modifying Web Builder. Q: I want to modify the banners created by Web Builder. How do I do it? Ans: The banner and header is created in the STATS.JS file.  In Web Builder, the top on is the banner. About 2/3 of the way into the file is the function DisplayBanner( ).  I modified the 4th line as such:

document.write('<A href="http://home.attbi.com/~~kombatkarl/fabl/"><IMG alt="Return to FABL Website" src="' + toplogo + '" border=0 ></A></td>');

I put a hyperlink tag around the image and changed the tooltip text (the alt= property of the IMG) to say something other than "Strat-o-matic logo".  Alt Ans: Want to change what and how many of the leaders to display on the main page? In the index.html file, there are currently 6 calls to the function BoxLeaders( ). You can change the arguments passed to the function and take out or add more BoxLeaders( ) calls to customize how many categories will be displayed.  The first argument is simply how many, up to a max of 10 (this max limit appears to be hard-wired into the game itself since only 10 leaders per category are ouput to the LEADERS.JS file), to display in that category.  The second argument represents the category.  The categories are defined in an array called headLeaders at the very beg9inning of the STATS.JS file.  The index starts at 0, so batting average would be number 0.  To display the top 10 in walks on the main page, add a line that calls BoxLeaders (10,8) in your index.html file. Alt Ans: Since Web Builder is creating the same template every time, the stat files are the only ones that would change.  So, if you want to customize you have to move everything to another folder before running it again.  Then copy just the stat files, or copy everything except the files you made changes to. Alt Ans: Another way to avoid having the use the Back Button to return to your league's main web page is to modify the Strat logo in the top left into a hyperlink that goes straight back to you league's home page.  The graphic for this is named my_logo.gif.  It is, naturally enough, a GIF file, 200x40 pixels in size. Alt Ans: There's a file called custom.JS.  A few variables are set in there.  The two of most interest probably would be MyLeague, which sets the league name that will be displayed in various headings throughout the site, and Top Text, which sets what is displayed in the top right corners.  The default is something like "Makers of quality Games for 40 years". Alt Ans:  For these and additional tips, visit http://home.attbi.com/~kombatkarl/wb/. Back to Table of Contents

Web Builder Bug. Q: I've noticed that in the league leaders, Web builder always gets the 10th person in each category wrong.  If you cross-reference, the web builder output with the league leaders report in the game, you'll notice that in web builder at #10 is the #11 or #12 in the league leaders report. Ans: Yep, this appears to be an internal program bug that writes the leader java script file. There also appears to be a bug in the hitting streaks section.  It only accounts for current streaks, and not the longest streaks for the whole year. Back to Table of Contents

Standings for Tied Teams. Q: How does the game order tied teams in the  standings? . Ans: It isn't alphabetically or by head-to-head record. It seems to go by the team code number (lowest listed first). The team code numbers are based on the order the teams were initially entered into the league. The code number for each team can be easily found by viewing the *.B## files with Notepad.  The only thing legible is the ballpark name. Back to Table of Contents

NetPlay Player Matchups. Q: Is there a way of checking player matchups during NetPlay? Ans: A work around for this limitation is to open up a regular non-Netplay game and start the first inning of a non-league game. Leave the screen open while connecting for a regular NetPlay game. Alt Ans:  For version 11, the balance display and Pie Chart can be see "on screen" in a box during NetPlay so you don't even have to go to the notebook.  Back to Table of Contents

Backup League. Q: When you backup a league, does the files include more than just the roster files and stat files? Ans: The *.lzp files that is created includes everything, including print files. The size of the file makes it too cumbersome to use this feature for sending updated roster and stat files. The *.lzp files is a regular zipped file and can be unzipped using Winzip. Alt Ans: If a commish uses the backup league function to send out updated league files, there will probably be errors in the stats. You have to delete the league before you can restore it, and there have been reports of some errors trying to import game files from games that were played before the update was received. Alt Ans: You might get the following error when restoring a league: Dynazip Unzip Error (Error creating output file (Problem existing files(s)) Error Opening Zip File. These are probably phantom errors, which you can confirm by checking to see if the number of games played is correct for each team. Back to Table of Contents

Installing Patches. Q: I was able to download and install the patch without any problem, but I read that the patch only works if your Version 8 directory is named CDROMBB. Is this true? Ans: A workaround is: with SOM closed, rename the directory to CDROMBB; install the patch; rename the directory however you previously had it named; open SOM and go to HELP/ABOUT and verify that it reads 8.01a. Alt Ans: SOM has provided the following info to this problem: The installation of the patch will search your system registry to see the Path where the game is installed and then install the patch there.  If there were changes to the game after it was installed (renaming of folders, moving to a different hard drive, installing/uninstalling previous versions after the current version, manually editing your registry...) this could possibly affect where and how the patch will install. Our recommended approach to solve the problem is to reinstall version 8 and then reapply the 8.01 patch.  If you are familiar with using Regedit, you can follow these directions: Click on Start, Run. Type in REGEDIT from the Run command and click OK. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Go to SOFTWARE. Find Strat-O-Matic on the list and open the folder.  You should find a registry entry referring to 7.00.000 and this will show you your Path where the game is registered to.  If this is no longer correct simply right click on Path and choose Modify to change the install path. If your folder path matches the registry path that should clear up any patch install problems. Both Version 7.0, version 8.0 and all future versions of the game will be using the registry entry of 7.00.000.  This number does not refer to the release version of the product, it is an internal version code that we use for the system registry. Back to Table of Contents

Power Failure During Game. Q: I was in the middle of an exciting game when the power goes out in the whole house. I don't recall enough of the stats from the game to manually recover the game. Is there any way of dealing with a power failure? Ans: You may be out of luck, but have a look in your CDROMBB directory for a Badgame.sav file. From the Main menu, click on File, then click Open Game. A window will open showing the contents of your CDROMBB directory. The Badgame.sav file should be there. If you were playing a league game, it might be named after the league, like 1996nl.sav or whatever. Double-click on the Badgame.sav file and it should restore you to the point at which you lost power. Back to Table of Contents

 MVP and Cy Young Awards. Q: Does anyone know the formula that SOM uses for the MVP and Cy Young Awards? Ans: Prior to V8, the MVP and Cy Young formulas were exactly the same as the formulas used to calculate All Star Votes, at least in terms of how the rankings came out. The following formulas still do apply as far as All Star votes, but now SOM takes a team's record into account for the other awards. The relative weights for batters are: Single - 1, double - 2, triple - 3, home run - 5, walk - .75, rbi - .3, stolen base - .25, x-out - .8, x-chance - (-.4). Therefore a successful x-play is weighted at .4 (.8-.4) since it is both an x-out and and x-chance For pitchers: innings pitched - 1, hits allowed - (-1), win - 10, loss - (-5), save - 10, save opportunity - (-5), strikeout - .25. A successful save is weighted at 5(10-5) since it is both a save and a save opportunity.  Back to Table of Contents

CM Not Holding Runners at Second. Q: I can't seem to get my team ho hold runners on second. How do I set my CM to do that? Ans: Go to Update Computer Manager, Manager Tendencies. Set "Hold - min steal %" to some reasonably low number - say 65% or 70%. Then set "Hold min. lead %" fairly low - say 15% or 20%. Save your changes. Then, whenever an opponent gets a runner on second with a good back number and a decent chance of getting the lead, HAL should hold him.  Back to Table of Contents

Exporting Player Detail Report. Q: Is there a way to get the information in the Player Detail report into a form that can be used by a spreadsheet? Ans: All the stats you see on the Player Detail Report can be set up in a report under the Report Writer function. Be careful, though, because some of the names of the stat headings change and can be hard to find. Once the report is set up, highlight the whole thing (click on the little box in the upper left corner of the Report) and then save it to your clipboard (Edit menu in Report Writer). The you can open it as spreadsheet. One last hassle - when you save the whole report to the clipboard, the column heading aren't saved. You have to enter them into your spreadsheet by hand. Back to Table of Contents

Pitchers with Hitting Cards. Q: Brook Kieschnick played as both a pitcher and outfielder, and has his own hitting card. How do I get the game to use his hitting card whenever he is pitching? Ans: This is a limitation with the SOM computer programming. There are two possible workarounds. Use the DH rule for teams who start these double-carded pitchers, and have the "real" hitting card be the DH. It doesn't cover relief pitchers very well, but it's better than nothing. Another workaround is to keep the hitting card available on the bench, and open its Card Image whenever the pitcher is up. Manually roll three dice to generate the play results, and enter it through the game's Manual Entry mode. Back to Table of Contents

Sac Fly Calculation Bug . Q: In the pitcher's notebook, it appears that the sac flies rolled as a result of a split are not added into that percentage, even though all other split results are added. Is this a bug? Ans: This is a bug in the program. Back to Table of Contents

Team Notes Bug . Q: Is there some way to type the letters W and E into the "Team Notes" pages? With the addition of team E-mails and Web Pages links, the game won't let me type the names of uncarded players onto team pages. Ans: SOM hot coded keys W and E, so typing W or E in there causes it to go to the web page or email info. Open Word or Notepad and type whatever you want in there, then cut and paste into the team notebook. Paste doesn't work inside team notebooks, so you have to used ctrl-v to do the paste. Back to Table of Contents

Internal Application Error. Q: Does anyone else get an "internal application error" when you try to run the new encyclopedia option?. Ans: This is addressed in the V9 help file. You must install DAO, as per the help file. Be aware that installing DAO for SOM's CDROM will undo a recent critical security patch for Microsoft XP. Use Windows Update to check and re-apply if needed. Alt Ans: There are some reports that, if you have DAO v3.60 or later, the encyclopedia won't work. If you have an older computer with DAO 3.50 or earlier, the encyclopedia works fine. A work around involves getting rid of the DAO 3.60 files on your hard drive (including the one in a cache directory, which causes your PC to reload 3.60 when you try to delete it). Alt Ans: SOM also suggests that, if you are running an earlier version of Windows or some other platform, go to the microsoft web site then download and install MDAC 2.8 SP1. Back to Table of Contents

Encyclopedia Leaders Report. Q: We played the 1958 season and Roy Sievers had 51 HRs (10 with DEA and 41 with WAA). When I run the report it only recognizes the totals for each team and not the total in the league. If I run the HR totals for that season it will list Sievers with 41 in WAA and lower on the list 10 with Sievers on DEA. Is this a bug?. Ans: This is a bug in all single season reports. They should be combined. Back to Table of Contents

Netplay Fatigue and Injuries Bug. Q: As the file manager of an all-Netplay league, I'm sent all the game files, but they never seem to have any injuries or pitcher fatigue. Is this a bug?. Ans: This is a suspected bug. Pitching fatigue and injuries are not being carried over with the game files. Back to Table of Contents

Runtime Error. Q: Our league is having some problems with our player notebooks. I am the league commish and we are in a GM only league so all games are played on my PC. I have the league encyclopedia assigned to the player notebooks. I have no problem opening player notebooks to look at career stats. Unfortunately, when the other GMs try to open the player notebooks, the game crashes. I zipped and sent the encyclopedia to all of the league members but there are a number of them still experiencing the problem. Anyone else having this problem?. Ans: I had the exact same problem. When I double clicked on a player the game got a 'runtime error' and crashed. It turns out I had not installed the patch correctly. I didn't realize that I had to get the DAO file off the CD-ROM and copy it to the cdrombb folder and then install it. You have to open the DAO folder and then open one of the subfolders until you come across an installation icon. I bet some of your league members didn't do it right. Back to Table of Contents

Card Calculation Error. Q: For position player and pitchers, on the open triangle readings, if the card lists no split, the reading after the split is ignored in the calculations. I checked this by changing an open triangle reading to a 1-19 split with an out at 20. The percentage for that result increases when it should go down. Anyone else found this?. Ans: This is a program bug. It is not recommended that this type of edit be done at home because there are reports that it triggers another related bug that caused the program to think this is a bad code. Back to Table of Contents

Draft-O-Matic Results. Q: How does one view the results (i.e. get the list of the picks made in order of a Draft-O-Matic session?. Ans: Select File, View Print Files, and then open the DRAFTxx.PRT document where xx is the league suffix. Back to Table of Contents

Scheduled League Games Bug. Q: Has anyone else had problems with scheduled league games disappearing mid-season and games being played twice in one day with the same starters?  Ans: I have had the same problem. I find that by saving the exports, I can reimport the games form the last good league restore and get the proper schedule back. So, in essence, full backups and saving all exports may help. Alt Ans: This bug has been around for quite some time. I've noticed this apparently comes up only on dates with scheduled doubleheaders set on manual replay. I've learned that when the schedule "disappears" I can do a schedule batch change to "hold" and the last played game reappears as unplayed. I keep this on hold then autoplay one game and the schedule resumes so I can usually avoid the duplicate game problem. Back to Table of Contents

Deleting Games. Q: Does anyone know an easy way to delete games? In our league, we have a case where a game was loaded in twice and the database considers them both played game.  Ans: You can't delete games. Another way to do it is to just go back to the last set of saved files and then import the game files from there, rather than redoing the entire league. Alt Ans: Similarly, you can use the "rebuilt league" feature. Put all the game files in the Import directory (you will probably find some of them in Export, some in Imported). Make sure you have all the game files - you should have 2 game files for each game played. After you have moved all the game files to the Import directory, delete the invalid game files then run the rebuild feature.  Back to Table of Contents

Free Agent Stats. Q: I'm having a strange problem with my league files. All players in the Free Agent list show No usage, despite the fact that many of the players were used and released at some point during the season. I ran the Synchronize Files thing, but no luck. The stats for players on actual teams works fine. Is there a fix?  Ans: I've experienced the same thing. When a player is moved from a team to the Free Agents poll, his stats with the team he just left are still maintained. So if you review the Primary or Secondary team stats of the team the release player was on, you'll see his numbers are still there. As for being able to see a guy's individual stats once he's in the Free Agents poll, I've found is that when I move him back onto a team (and even a different team than the one he left originally), his stats reappear. So, clearly, his stats went with him to the Free Agents pool. Therefore, the problem seems to be limited to one of being able to see them when highlighting the guy while he's in the Free Agents pool.   Back to Table of Contents

Using Tired Relievers. Q: Just to pursue an academic point, how does HAL incorporate knowledge that a reliever is already tired?  Ans: If you don't check off the "Can Relieve When Tired" box in the pitcher's individual settings, HAL will skip the tired guys every time unless he's totally out of options.   Back to Table of Contents

Viewing Player Cards. Q: I am getting an error message when I try to view someone's card by double clicking from the roster screen, But it is only with the teams in a draft historical league. Anyone else had this problem? The error message I get is: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime library - runtime error - Program C:\CDROMBB\baseball.exe - abnormal program termination. Ans: SOM advises that this is a conflict in the notebook. It sounds like someone has created or assigned encyclopedias into the notebook and not everyone has the same data and it is causing a corruption issue in the notebook data. If you select the league, go to Statistics, then select Assign Encyclopedia to Notebook, when the window pops up click cancel. This should clear out and reset the notebook and allow you to access it. Alt Ans: It happened in my league too. The problem was that the person whose game is crashing did not do the extra Encyclopdia install step that comes with the game installation instructions. As a result the Encyclopedia is not functioning property on their PC. I believe that you need to re-install the DAO file from the CD. I think you need to do this again after you install the patches. Check the installation sheet from Version 9.  Back to Table of Contents

Scheduled Days Off in Netplay. Q: I am running a league playoff (post-season, 7 game series, day off between games 2-3 and day off between 5-6. The options are set for Give Scheduled Days Off. When all the games are played on one computer, the rest works fine and an asterisk starter in game 1 is rested for game 4. In Netplay, games 1 and 2 are played on one computer and e-mailed to the opponent for games 3,4, and5. The second manager then imports the GRF files (before importing he shows 0 games played, after importing he shows 2 games played). Unfortunately, when he gets to game 4, even though his game 1 start (an asterisk starter) has rested for three days, the day off doesn't appear to take place. The starter who started game 1 is not rested for game 4. In other words, the Give Scheduled Days Off works if GRFs aren't exchanged, but doesn't work if GRFs are exchanged. Ans: I believe that if you 'play' the off day, the day will be recorded correctly. Click on the off day (the third day of the schedule) then click 'Play Day'. That will dump you back to the main screen where you'll again click 'play scheduled game'. Alt Ans: Instead of exchanging game files, you could try sending the complete league files (*.lzp). However, be wary of using the *.lzp files for that purpose. When you send those files, you're sending everything pertaining to the league, not just the roster and stat files you really need. It's much faster to send one zip file containing the league's roster files and another containing its stat files. Alt Ans: I've run into this exact problem before. When you import Game Result Files, there is a check box at the top of the import screen. This box is labeled "Update injury and rest info". This box must be checked when the files are imported. If it is, all the rest info is updated correctly on the computer importing the GRF files. If it's not checked, the rest info isn't.  Back to Table of Contents

Encyclopedia Web Pages. Q: With previous version of SOM, I used to be able to create webpages that listed the career stats of players for 10 years of my league. It was a pretty easy function and took just a few minutes. Now the Version 9 encyclopedia function doesn't appear to be able to save off the information as a web page. Am I missing something? Also, every time I want to view the encyclopedia, the game takes upwards of half hour to go through the whole process of creating it because of the 10 years of data. What gives?  Ans: Reports are saved at html files on your hard drive in the MDB/PEDIAxxx folder. What you can do is crate a shortcut to the main page, the one that has the list of the reports in the encyclopedia you created. That way you don't have to go into the game to view them and wait 30 minutes while it recreates the reports again. The game has to re-create the reports every time because the encyclopedia doesn't know whether you've played games that require the reports to be updated since you last viewed them.   Back to Table of Contents

Improve Statistical Accuracy. Q: What exactly are we bargaining here when we toggle these settings for league play? How are the outcomes affected by what mechanism?  Ans: According to SOM, ISA does not "normalize" numbers so that simulated stats converge on real-life stats so that under (or over) performing players do not get a boost. ISA does not alter dice rolls based upon how a guy has performed "so far" in a replay. It simply adds a "secondary rating" which is required in order to draw a result. For example, a walk off a super-low-walks pitcher, etc. ISA affects fewer than five per cent of players in any given card set.  Back to Table of Contents

Authorization Code after Hard Drive Crash. Q: I loaded the game on my computer and that night the hard drive crashed. Once I fix the problem, will I still be able to play the game on the same computer or will I need to get a new authorization code?  Ans: It will depend on how much was affected. I'd note before and after Installing and Authorizing my game I created restore points in XP, also after installed and authorized I rebooted more then once to Fix the "last good". If you have to re-install the Operating System, then you will have to call tech support. If the hard drive crash was only your software crashing then you might be able to at least recover enough to run the game and de-activate the game authorization and any installed roster product codes. You can re-install if you need to get a new hard drive or re-format and fresh install the old hard drive. Alt Ans: After installing the game to your hard drive, open the CDROMBB file and look for the Blue Question Mark icon marked Base 95. Detailed instructions on the Authorization procedure will be found there. Back to Table of Contents

Version 10 Copy Protection. Q: I have the game installed on Computer A and Computer B. I get on Computer A and have to connect to the internet to get the Authorization Code approved. I can then play on Computer A whether or not I'm actually on-line at the time. Then, if you want to use Computer B, you have to go on-line and plug in the Authorization Code to activate the game on Computer B. Do you have to be on-line to play the game, or just go on-line to activate the game each time you want to play?  Ans: Go on-line with Computer A and activate the game. Play as many games as you want on Computer A without having to go on-line again. You can not play any games with Computer B. To switch computers, go on-line with Computer A and remove the authorization of any rosters you want the use, then remove the game authorization using the "Transfer Authorization" function. Click on "File" to find the authorization menu (it's called 'Remove other authorizations'. If you've lost the piece of cardboard with the codes, you can still find out the number on the deauthorize screen. A successful transfer will result in a window saying "Transfer Successful. Attempts Remaining: (1)". Go on-line with Computer B and install authorization on it. Play all the games you want on Computer B without having to go on-line again. Now you can not play any games on Computer A Only the game's Copy Protection is internet based. The individual season are not and you can use Key Disks for previous seasons to authorize. Rebuttal Ans: There isn't an authorization code for the 2004 season because the only way you could have it is to own the v10 disk. Authorizing v10 automatically authorized the 2004 season as well. The card with v10's auth code also contains a 2004 auth code because you could need it in the future once v11 or higher is installed. Alt Ans: This is where the beauty of remote desktop software such as VPN or Netmeeting comes into play. Currently if I want to play on my laptop I just Netmeeting to my desktop over the wireless network and play that way. I don't need SOM installed anywhere else. When I'm at work, I VPN to my home machine and Netmeeting in as usual and I'm play SOM. Alt Ans: If you get an error message saying: "(52) Selected authorization allows no more activations!", then you probably didn't remove the authorization off the PC or you may have a corrupt version of v10 installed. If you can access the game, the instructions for manually removing the authorization came with the game or try looking through the instructions, which can be found under "Files, and then choose "Manual". Alternatively, SOM's server didn't get updated for some reason and you'll probably need to call them to get it straightened out. Back to Table of Contents

V10 Networking. Q: Has anyone tried to network multiple PCs together to feed off the one disk so that you could have multiple games going at the same time?  Ans: If you mean sharing a network drive and running the executable, I have tried that and it failed. If you mean using a remote desktop sharing program like Netmeeting, I have tried that with V9 and it works. I don't know if the new authorization would allow running the executable remotely - I doubt it. Remote desktop sharing is just like you are sitting at the computer, but a little slower. The problem is that even if the executable is on a network drive, the local PC needs the supporting files and the proper registry entries. You could install it on all the PCs to the same network drive and only authorize it on one PC. The question is where the authorization gets sent - if it would be set on the network drive then you might be able to run it from the other PCs, but if it's set somewhere locally, then only that PC would be authorized. Back to Table of Contents

Pitcher Fatigue Ratings. Q: I don't use the pitch count fatigue rules, but what is meant by fatigue ratings such as S2, S2, R1, R5, etc.  Ans: It refers to how many games until that pitcher can start (S) or relieve (R) without being fatigued. So S4 would mean that a pitcher started the last game, assuming a five man rotation, and can start without being fatigued in four more games. The closest thing I can find in the help file to an explanation is to do a search for "pitch count" then "condition". Alt Ans: Note that the computer game has an incremental method of gauging fatigue for starters pitching on short rest, but that in the board game they are considered fatigued from the start of the game, no matter whether they are pitching on two or three days' rest. Back to Table of Contents

Random Game Crash. Q: Twice this evening, during the middle of two different games, the game crashes. I'm running Windows ME with nothing running in the background, and no other programs are giving me problems. I'm playing the 1979 season, and I'm not using the encyclopedia. The error message says: "Baseball has caused an error in baseball.exe. Baseball will now close. If you continue to experience problems, try restarting your computer." So I click the close button for the above message soI can restart my computer and another box popped up with the message: "Baseball has caused an error in XNMBA500.dll. Baseball will now close. If you continue to experience problems, try restarting your computer. So I click the close button so I can restart my computer, the message box disappears and I'm back to my desk top with the system working fine. Any idea on what's going on?    Ans: I used to get *.dll errors on my old PC running Windows 95 and the game would crash frequently but Windows still operating just fine. I believe the problem began happening when I downloaded Yahoo messenger or some other program off the Net. SOM support couldn't fix it and it didn't go away until I got a new PC. The game will save a copy of the game in progress (look for autosav.sav) and you can pick up the game in progress from where it crashed. Back to Table of Contents

1948 Team Information Bug. Q: The 1948 "Deluxe" version has the team play-by-play information fouled up (Lou Boudreau managing the Yankees, Lowell Crosley owning the Dodgers, etc). Any quick fixes?    Ans: You'll have to update the teams after doing some research. This link may provide the info you're looking for: http://www.stratfanforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15740.Back to Table of Contents

Autosaving Boxscores. Q: I played a game earlier tonight and forgot to save the boxscore. I ran a search for all *.prt and *.txt files created today, but couldn't find anything. To what folder do the boxscores get "autosaved"?    Ans: It all depends on how you have your league set up. There is a window that allows you to choose which files are saved. Go to Options and then autoplay/boxscore. You can choose" none, all or events only. The auto setting is to events only. The files are then saved in the Print folder. Back to Table of Contents

Importing Doubleheader Stats. Q: We have a guy that keeps getting a duplicate game imported into his stats. The duplicate occurrences have been with games scheduled as part of doubleheaders. Does anybody have a solution to this problem or is there a practical way to remove the duplicate game/stats from the league whenever this occurs?    Ans: This is definitely a bug that goes back to at least V8 and probably before. The issue is definitely associated with importing Game Result Files for doubleheaders. The problem is that, while Game Result Files are league-specific, team-specific and schedule date-specific, they are not game specific. What that means is that if, for example, team X is at team Y for a doubleheaders on a given day, an you import only the Game Result Files for only one of the two games, the software doesn't know for which of the two games the stats are for. Therefore, the software assumes they "belong" to the first unplayed game, which is game one. Now, if you were to import those exact same Game Results Files again, the software would assume they "belong" to the first unplayed game, which now is game two. I have always been extra prudent when handling Game Results Files for doubleheaders because of this bug to make sure I only import them once. This can be a challenge sometimes because league members can't always tell if they're posting the correct Game Results Files to the commish. To ensure you don't import the same Game Results Files twice, considered viewing the files before importing. Alt Ans: If you have everyone importing Game Result Files on their own you are just asking for problems. You should have them sending the files to a central place and one person importing them. Also, keep a copy of the rosters and stats files from each week so, if there is any kind of problem, I just have to reload last week's rosters and stats and re-import the current week  Back to Table of Contents

Adding Weather Effects. Q: Can anyone explain how to add weather effect to the game? I added the ballpark effects, but the message I get is Error: Jun/July/August column does not total 20.  Ans: There's Good, Average and Bad. The three numbers must add up to 20. For example, 12 Good, 5 Average 3 Bad = 20 for June/July/August. for either Day or Night the G/A/B must sum up to 20. Back to Table of Contents

Pitcher Fatigue Symbols. Q: I see these symbols along side the pitchers when viewing them in the Lineup screen. Things like "^" and "/". Can somebody tell me what these symbols mean?  Ans: Those are symbols telling you how many games until this pitcher stats again: / = starts next game, ^ = starts in two games, * = starts in three games, # = starts in four games. Alt Ans: You'll also see symbols like F8, F6, F3 etc with a number beside the pitcher (e.g. Pitcher Name F3 3). The F8, F6, F3 etc number tells you how fatigued the pitcher is (the lower the number, the more fatigued). The extra number (3 in the example) means the number of games until he is rested enough to start a game. Alt Ans: F6 is the same as the traditional Strat "fatigues" level. A pitcher will go from F9 to F6 if he gives up 3 (hits +walks) in a single inning at or beyond his fatigue inning. If you leave him in, he'll get progressively worse the long he pitches, with each hit or walk lowering his F level. If a starter gives up 5 runs in one inning, 6 in two innings, or 7 in three innings, his F rating will start dropping. If a pitcher goes far beyond his target number of innings, he will start to fatigue, even if he doesn't give up hits and/or walks. You can check your pitcher's fatigue level when you're at bat, just by checking your lineup (V or H button) - pitcher's fatigue will be displayed beside his name, below the lineups. When the opposition is batting, you can make one visit to the mound to check a pitcher's level.  Back to Table of Contents

Editing Cards. Q: I'm working on some stuff for a 1968 season and I've run across a common problem. Johnny Edwards is Hohn Edwards in 1968 and, because of that, the link to hiw website doesn't work and his player image doesn't come up. I know the solution is to copy his picture and name it John_Edwards, and I could edit the text file for the URL, too, but it seem to me that the common sense way would be to change the name on his card to Johnny. I couldn't get that function to work, so I restarted the league, Still nothing. I would also like to do some other card editing before the season gets underway. Is there a way to make this possible?  Ans: As long as the league hasn't been started, you just pull down the Player menu and choose Update Player. You may having the problem if Edwards was in the free agents. You can't alter the cards there (or insert balance rating either). To edit a free agent card, you have to move him to a team. Move him back to the free agent list once the edits are complete.  Back to Table of Contents

Create All Star Game. Q: The Create All Star Game Function doesn't seem to work properly with older seasons. Anyone else had this problem?  Ans: There are a number of known bugs with this function. For older seasons, you'll have to set up the AL and NL as sub-leagues within a single "Major League". Other issues include no team nicknames, so the boxscore looks really weird. Also, if you want to use ballpark singles and HRs, you'll need to import the ratings for whichever stadium you choose to use. Finally, the names of the manager and coaches for both teams was exactly the same. Back to Table of Contents

Number of Teams Limit. Q: I've got the 2005 set, plus the 2001 HOF set. I want to have 36 teams. Am I out of luck?  Ans: The maximum number of teams for a regular season league is 30. You can use the new tournament mode that came out in v10, although there are some issues with that as well.  Back to Table of Contents

HTML Daily Report Bug. Q: I have been playing the 1987 season for both the AL & NL. The daily reporter for the AL works fine, but since I downloaded the v11.02c patch the NL will not generate any HTML's for the day of games unless all games autoplay. Any insight or has anyone seen this happen to them?  Ans: This appears to be a bug in the v11.02c.  Back to Table of Contents

Invalid PC Fatigue Slot. Q: I was playing Giants/Padres ('85). For some reason Atlee Hammaker was listed as pitcher batting 9th but not in the pitcher slot. Lamar Hoyt of the Padres was listed in his slot, but then mysteriously wasn't. I got the message Invalid PCFATIGUE fileslot after changing pitchers. What does it mean?  Ans: I think you've mangled your initial install(s). From the V11 CD install the 1985U rosters. You want the updated rosters because those are the ones with the advanced play features. You should read the Help file before you alter any league rule settings with the updated roster. If you just want to play around with the 1985 teams w/o using the advanced play feature, then I recommend that you install the standard 1985 SOM version rather than the updated version until you're familiar with the League Options settings. Rebuttal Ans: We tried tried restarting and deleting both the '85 AL and NL leagues. Still get no pitcher in pitching slot for Giants. I know the files are fine, and all the lineups are correct. What if I remove the authorization? Rebuttal to Rebuttal Ans: The 1985 advanced play dates from the summer of 2002. It was one of the early sets and hasn't been revisited. The TRN file, while not rudimentary like many of the 1930/40s, is not to the same quality as those done since 2002. Do not remove the authorization. Instead, after installing the league, highlight the Giants and Padres then Generate a Computer Manager. From there, try the replay.  Back to Table of Contents

Blog Question. Q: Is it possible to upload a blog from the computer game to a Blogger's "draft" rather than to directly "publish" (I want to edit the uploads before publishing them?  Ans: The only way you will be able to do that is to sign on to blogger.com, log onto your account and publish the pages you want manually.  Back to Table of Contents

Netplay Game Settings. Q: Is manual dice entry and/or manual play entry accessible by the home team?  Ans: If someone uses manual entry to obtain a result there will be no ball flight or play by play text which will confirm they used that option. Since it's the home team's computer that hosts the Netplay game, it's that computer's settings that control play. However, it is readily apparent to the visiting team what those settings are. The home (host) team's settings are visible to the visiting team throughout the game.  Back to Table of Contents

Player Photos. Q: I removed the photos (and reinstalled them) from my players file when I was trying to figure out why my 1961 season photos didn't show in the game. The photos are working now, but some of them are still giving me trouble. If I click on some of the players when I am looking over a team it causes the game to shut down. If those same players come up to bat during a game I get a C:\CDROMBB\PLAYER\BATTERS\DEFAULT.JPG warning and a black space where the player's photo should be. Any ideas on how to fix this?  Ans: There is a default photo for batters who don't have a photo in the batters folder, so maybe you removed it and that is causing the error message. Rebuttal Ans: I didn't try to change the default photo image and these players have photos in the file. Their photos just don't show up in the game and I get a black space. Alt Ans: If you are using an alias file, make sure that you don't have any lines that run together. For example, the lines for Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris should look as follows:

b,Mickey Mantle,1961,NYA,Mickey Mantle 1961 Topps

b,Roger Maris,1961,NYA,Roger Maris 1961 Topps

There will be problems, including the game crashing, if the lines are combined: b,Mickey Mantle,1961,NYA,Mickey Mantle 1961 Toppsb,Roger Maris,1961,NYA,Roger Maris 1961 Topps

Also, make sure that there are no spaces between lines in the alias file.  Back to Table of Contents

Importing Team Nicknames. Q: How do I change the default team nicknames to the real MLB nicknames?  Ans: Create a comma separated file with the following format on each line: 3-letter team abbreviaiton, start year, end year, nickname. Save the comma separated file in the cdrombb folder (but not in the data subfolder). Open the game and under the League tab go down to Import Team Nicknames. Locate the comma separate file you just saved and highlight it, and select the Open button. A copy of a comma separated file is available on the NABL Web site.  Back to Table of Contents

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