Methodology

I imported the players from the Bill James Baseball Encyclopedia (1995 edition) using APBA Baseball for Windows 5.5 running on a Windows 98 SE virtual machine. I configured the starting lineups vs. RHP and LHP, starting rotations, and the adjustments outlined below before migrating the organization files into version 5.75.

• DH is used for all teams
• 25-man active roster, 15 players in the “farm” organization per team
• must have 2 active catchers
• active rosters consist of 15 batters/10 pitchers or 14 batters/11 pitchers
• vsRHP, vsLHP and starting rotations are generally based on the highest Win Shares single-season totals for each position
• schedules generated using the format utilized during that timeframe
• Season Factor and Max. Batters Faced are adjusted using (162/110) for SF and MaxBF for all players from strike-shortened seasons

Why is this organization called the “Actuals”? When I wrote my first book, “Hardball Retrospective”, I placed every player on the first team which they signed a professional MLB contract with. I called those teams the “Originals” while calling their real-life counterparts the “Actuals”. I sometimes refer to the “Actuals” as the “Franchise Best Players”. There will be instances where the same player appears on multiple teams, such as Tom Seaver ’75 (Mets) and Tom Seaver ’78 (Reds), or Rod Carew ’77 (Twins) and Rod Carew ’79 (Angels) . However, you will only find one player-season for a given team on a half-decade roster (i.e. Joe Morgan’s best season from 1975 through 1979 based on Win Shares is his 1975 campaign, so that is the version of Morgan that appears on the 1975-1979 Reds roster.)

The following videos include a recap of the regular season standings and league leaders, American and National League playoff recap, and individual World Series game videos with Ernie Harwell narrating the play-by-play!

Regular Season Recap

Playoff Recap

World Series

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Season Recap

1975-1979 Actuals – Final Regular Season Standings

1975-1979 Actuals – Individual Statistics

1975-1979 Actuals – League Leaderboards

1975-1979 Actuals – Team Totals

Reference

Retro Computer Baseball Game Review – APBA Baseball

APBA Baseball for Windows – tutorial – create/edit teams

SABR Stay at Home – Kenneth and Roswell Miller

Methodology

I imported the players from the Bill James Baseball Encyclopedia (1995 edition) using APBA Baseball for Windows 5.5 running on a Windows 98 SE virtual machine. I configured the starting lineups vs. RHP and LHP, starting rotations, and the adjustments outlined below before migrating the organization files into version 5.75.

• DH is used for all teams
• 25-man active roster, 15 players in the “farm” organization per team
• must have 2 active catchers
• active rosters consist of 15 batters/10 pitchers or 14 batters/11 pitchers
• vsRHP, vsLHP and starting rotations are generally based on the highest Win Shares single-season totals for each position
• schedules generated using the format utilized during that timeframe
• Season Factor and Max. Batters Faced are adjusted in strike-shortened seasons

Why is this organization called the “Actuals”? When I wrote my first book, “Hardball Retrospective”, I placed every player on the first team which they signed a professional MLB contract with. I called those teams the “Originals” while calling their real-life counterparts the “Actuals”. I sometimes refer to the “Actuals” as the “Franchise Best Players”. There will be instances where the same player appears on multiple teams, such as Jack Clark ’87 (Cardinals), Jack Clark ’88 (Yankees) and Jack Clark ’89 (Padres). However, you will only find one player-season for a given team on a half-decade roster (i.e. Alan Trammell’s best season from 1985 through 1989 based on Win Shares is his 1987 campaign, so that is the version of Trammell that appears on the 1985-1989 Tigers roster.)

The following videos include a recap of the regular season standings and league leaders, American and National League playoff recap, and individual World Series game videos with Ernie Harwell narrating the play-by-play!

Regular Season Recap

Playoff Recap

World Series

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5

Game 6

Game 7

Season Recap

1985-1989 Actuals – Final Regular Season Standings

1985-1989 Actuals – Individual Statistics

1985-1989 Actuals – League Leaderboards

1985-1989 Actuals – Team Totals

Season Disk

Hardball Retro 1985-1989 Actuals (APBA BBW 5.5)

Reference

Retro Computer Baseball Game Review – APBA Baseball

APBA Baseball for Windows – tutorial – create/edit teams

SABR Stay at Home – Kenneth and Roswell Miller

Methodology

I imported the players from the Bill James Baseball Encyclopedia (1995 edition) using APBA Baseball for Windows 5.5 running on a Windows 98 SE virtual machine. I configured the starting lineups vs. RHP and LHP, starting rotations, and the adjustments outlined below before migrating the organization files into version 5.75.

• DH is used for all teams
• 25-man active roster, 15 players in the “farm” organization per team
• must have 2 active catchers
• active rosters consist of 15 batters/10 pitchers or 14 batters/11 pitchers
• vsRHP, vsLHP and starting rotations are generally based on the highest Win Shares single-season totals for each position
• schedules generated using the format utilized during that timeframe
• Season Factor and Max. Batters Faced are adjusted using (162/110) for SF and MaxBF for all players from 1981

Why is this organization called the “Actuals”? When I wrote my first book, “Hardball Retrospective”, I placed every player on the first team which they signed a professional MLB contract with. I called those teams the “Originals” while calling their real-life counterparts the “Actuals”. I sometimes refer to the “Actuals” as the “Franchise Best Players”. There will be instances where the same player appears on multiple teams, such as Tom Seaver ’81 (Reds), Tom Seaver ’83 (Mets) and Tom Seaver ’84 (White Sox). However, you will only find one player-season for a given team on a half-decade roster (i.e. George Brett’s best season from 1980 through 1984 based on Win Shares is his 1980 campaign, so that is the version of Brett that appears on the 1980-1984 Royals roster.)

The following videos include a recap of the regular season standings and league leaders, American and National League playoff recap, and individual World Series game videos with Ernie Harwell narrating the play-by-play!

Regular Season Recap

Playoff Recap

World Series

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Season Recap

1980-1984 Actuals – Final Regular Season Standings

1980-1984 Actuals – Individual Statistics

1980-1984 Actuals – League Leaderboards

1980-1984 Actuals – Team Totals

Reference

Retro Computer Baseball Game Review – APBA Baseball

APBA Baseball for Windows – tutorial – create/edit teams

SABR Stay at Home – Kenneth and Roswell Miller

Here’s a rundown of the requirements:

• Front Page Sports Baseball ’94 (’96 or ’98 editions will also work) – Game Disk

• optional, but recommended: Front Page Sports Baseball – Season Disk(s)

Front Page Sports Baseball ’94 was developed by Dynamix and published in 1994 by Sierra for the IBM PC personal computer. Please note that while the tutorial utilizes Front Page Sports Baseball ’94, you can perform the same steps in Front Page Sports Baseball ’96 or ’98 editions.

View the tutorial video here:

Season Disk Downloads:

coming soon

References:

Front Page Sports Baseball ’94:

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Front_Page_Sports_Baseball_94_1994

Retro Computer Baseball Game Review – Front Page Sports: Baseball ’94 – ’96 – ‘98

SABR Stay at Home – Glen Wolfram

Here’s a rundown of the requirements:

• Front Page Sports Baseball ’94 (’96 or ’98 editions will also work) – Game Disk
• optional, but recommended: Front Page Sports Baseball – Season Disk(s)

Front Page Sports Baseball ’94 was developed by Dynamix and published in 1994 by Sierra for the IBM PC personal computer. Please note that while the tutorial utilizes Front Page Sports Baseball ’94, you can perform the same steps in Front Page Sports Baseball ’96 or ’98 editions. Alternatively, you can create / edit teams and conduct a draft using the players that you create.

View the tutorial video here:

Season Disk Downloads:

coming soon

References:

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Front_Page_Sports_Baseball_94_1994

Retro Computer Baseball Game Review – Front Page Sports: Baseball ’94 – ’96 – ‘98

SABR Stay at Home – Glen Wolfram

Here’s a rundown of the requirements:

• APBA Baseball for Windows (version 5.0 or higher) – Game Disk
• optional, but recommended: APBA Baseball for Windows – Season Disk(s)
• optional, but recommended: Baseball Wizard (Windows Edition)
• optional, but recommended: Fanpark / Bill James Baseball Encyclopedia (Windows Edition)

APBA Baseball for Windows was developed and published by Miller Associates for the IBM PC personal computer. Several iterations were released for Windows 3.1 and subsequent editions were built to run on the Windows 95 operating system between 1993 and 1999. I’m utilizing version 5.75 in my tutorial but this feature was implemented in version 5.0.

I divided the tutorial into three sections: Advanced Draft (selecting the player pool, draft rules, conducting the draft), League Manager (setting lineups/rotations, scheduling and injury management rules, simulating a complete season) and StatMaster (reviewing the simulated season standings, league leaders and team-by-team batting and pitching results).

View the tutorial videos here:

Part 1 – Advanced Draft

Part 2 – League Manager

Part 3 – StatMaster

Season Disk Downloads:

coming soon

References:

Miller Associates 1993 catalog:

https://apbagames.com/wp-content/uploads/baseball/Miller_Assoc_1993.pdf

Retro Computer Baseball Game Review – APBA Baseball

Based on the research for my book “Hardball Retrospective“, I assigned every Major League ballplayer to the first team that signed them to a professional MLB contract. Each player remains on their assigned “Original” team for the duration of their careers. For comparison purposes, I also compiled “Actual” teams using the individuals that actually played for each franchise. In both cases, I created half-decade leagues for the “Originals” and “Actuals”.

To determine the rosters for my “Actual” half-decade leagues, I utilized the following criteria:

• Half-decades were designated as 1900-1904, 1905-1909, 1910-1914, 1915-1919, etc. up to 2015-2019. For the older National League franchises, I am not including any 19th Century player-seasons.
• I take the top 40 players for each roster based on Win Shares using each player’s best season in the five-year period. For example, Mike Trout registered 42, 36, 30, 38 and 34 Win Shares from 2015 to 2019. On the Angels 2015-2019 “Actuals” roster, Mike Trout’s 2015 season will be represented.
• I manually entered the team information into Earl Weaver Baseball 1.5 for the IBM PC. I selected this version of EWB for several reasons – personal preference (I’ve a huge fan of EWB since the game was released!), challenge (I had the Amiga and Apple ][ versions back in the day, but only recently acquired the IBM PC version), aesthetics (the physics modeling, animations, sounds were all top-notch for a game produced in the late 1980’s). Another determining factor – the IBM PC edition allows the user to ‘fast-play’ a series of games without any user intervention. For example, I created the schedule and saved it to disk. Then I can reference the schedule after I launch the game using the command, “WEAVER p d %” and enter the first game number along with the number of days to play. I usually play ten days at a time then back up the EWB files. I can also increase the amount of CPU cycles in the DOSbox emulator to speed things up a bit. Here is an excellent FAQ for EWB by Demystifier which explains the various command-line parameters and other interesting information about the game.
• Earl Weaver Baseball has a roster limitation of 25 players, so each roster will consist of either 14 batters / 11 pitchers or 15 batters / 10 pitchers.
• One of the few omissions in the original Earl Weaver Baseball computer game is the inability to save lineups and designate pitching roles for a computer-managed team. The teams that are managed by “Earl” use algorithms to generate lineups before every game, substituting players as needed based on injuries and fatigue.
• Another minor flaw is the lack of “reserves” so the user is limited to a 25-man roster for each team.
• Playoffs / World Series – I will manage a series of games between the top two teams in the simulation and livestream the results to my Twitch and YouTube channels.

Angels “Actuals” – Playoffs & World Series Videos

Championship Series – 2010-2014 Angels vs. 1975-1979 Angels – view videos here!

Championship Series – 2005-2009 Angels vs. 2000-2004 Angels – view videos here!

World Series – 1975-1979 Angels @ 2000-2004 Angels – Game 1

World Series – 1975-1979 Angels @ 2000-2004 Angels – Game 2

World Series – 2000-2004 Angels @ 1975-1979 Angels – Game 3

World Series – 2000-2004 Angels @ 1975-1979 Angels – Game 4

World Series – 2000-2004 Angels @ 1975-1979 Angels – Game 5

World Series – 1975-1979 Angels @ 2000-2004 Angels – Game 6

World Series – 1975-1979 Angels @ 2000-2004 Angels – Game 7

Angels “Actuals” – Statistics, Standings & Leader Boards

Angels “Actuals” – Final Regular Season Standings

Angels “Actuals” – Team Totals

Angels “Actuals” – League Leaders – Batting

Angels “Actuals” – League Leaders – Pitching

Angels “Actuals” – Team Rosters with Individual Batting & Pitching Statistics

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