             NOTES ON TONY LA RUSSA BASEBALL II FANTASY DRAFT

Negro League All Star Team Added to Fantasy Draft Disk

In addition to the Fantasy Manager software, this disk also contains a 
new league with one new team in it, named NEGRO'LG.  This is just one step on 
a very long road of research work, and we hope to some day simulate the 
performance of a far greater number of black stars, and to do so 
more accurately.

From 1887 until 1947, black players were excluded from major league baseball.  
Only after Jackie Robinson became the first to cross the color line did we 
have the chance to see all the best players in baseball playing together 
on a single field.  As a result, over half of the history of "modern" 
baseball has huge chapters omitted, chapters which were played out in the 
Negro Leagues, in Latin America and on the barnstorming circuits.

Until just the last few years, little research had been done on Negro League 
stats.  Players such as Cool Papa Bell and Satchel Paige were elected to the 
Hall of Fame based on the narrative history of their accomplishments 
(including their dominating play against barnstorming teams of major leaguers 
during the off-season), rather than on the basis of a complete statistical 
record.  The national media and major city papers had ignored their games.  
With a few notable exceptions, black newspaper accounts covered only a 
portion of the games played by most teams, and box scores were printed in 
a variety of formats..

Even if the coverage of Negro League games were perfect, however, they are 
far from being a complete record of the accomplishments of these players.

Financial pressures forced black players to play in a variety of venues during 
this era.  In addition to sanctioned Negro League games, there were integrated 
winter leagues in Latin America and barnstorming trips where black teams 
played major leaguers.  (As you can imagine from the accomplishments of 
players like Willie Mays and Bob Gibson, the major leaguers often came out 
on the short end of these confrontations.)  Sometimes the season and 
barnstorming games overlapped, and players often appeared in over 200 
games a year.


How These Teams Were Created

The published stats we currently have to work with reflect only the sanctioned 
Negro League games from this era, and are incomplete at that.  The most 
useful data of all, that for the head-to-head games against contemporary 
major leaguers, is not yet available.

The team you see on this disk is therefore built from a series of statistical 
compromises and assumptions.  It is important to understand what those 
assumptions are.

We wanted to build this team in such a way that it would compete on a 
reasonably equal footing with the "Classic" League teams included with the 
Tony La Russa II game.  That meant a 40-man roster, with most players having 
close to a full season of stats.  (Regular teams have starters who play the 
full season, along with reserves with far fewer at bats or innings pitched.)

Having only the partial stats mentioned above, we have pro-rated the career 
stats to a 154-game season, the major league standard during that era.  
Adding this team to the Classic League should yield the best results possible from 
the available data.

We would like to thank Howard Bryant of the Oakland (California) Tribune for 
his feedback on the creation of these teams.


Bibliography

If you'd like to learn more about the great black ballplayers of this era, 
and about the conditions under which they played, the following books and 
articles are useful.  Note that this list of sources is far from complete, 
and excludes many excellent biographies of individual players.

1.  "The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History", by Phil Dixon 
    with Patrick J. Hannigan.  (Amereon House)

2.  "Only the Ball Was White", by Robert Peterson.  (Oxford)

3.  "Blackball Stars: The Negro League Pioneers", by John B. Holway.  
    (Meckler)

4.  "Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues", by Donn Rogosin.  
    (Macmillan)

5.  "The Baseball Encyclopedia, 9th Edition."  Contains partial stats.  
    (Macmillan)

6.  "Total Baseball, 3rd Edition", Ed. by John Thorn and Pete Palmer.  
    Includes an historical article on black baseball.

7.  "My Life in the Negro Leagues", by Wilmer Fields.  (Meckler)

8.  "The Pittsburgh Crawfords: The Life and Times of Black Baseball's Most 
     Exciting Team", by James Bankes.  (Note: Kansas City, Chicago, New York 
     and Philadelphia fans, among others, may argue with the subtitle.)  
     (W.C. Brown)

                       
                       NOTES AND ERRATA ON TONY 2

The following is a list of rules errata and clarifications based on what SSI
has heard from its customers since the release of Tony 2.

Instant Replay:

The close-up replay animation sequences do not necessarily show the actual
play as it occurred on the field.  Instead, it shows a simulated replay 
based on the type of play that occurred.  For example, the home run replay,
though accurately displaying team colors and player skin tone, always
depicts a batter swinging from the right side of home plate (left-handed
batter).

Standardized Stats:

Due to the limited amount of material and the lack of credible sources,
many of the players' ratings have been standardized.  The editing of these
stats has been left up to you, so feel free to make any adjustments that you
wish.  Standardizing stats keeps the the stats from affecting the game.  The
1992 teams' disk will have a broad range of numbers for these stats.

The stats that have been standardized are:  Balks, wild pitches, 
passed balls, day/night, streaks, morale, and leadership.

Play-by-Play:

Some sound boards have Ron Barr announcing the play-by-play.  Occasionally, 
the accuracy of the announcer can be affected by an extraordinary play in the 
field.  For example, Barr may call a "line drive to centerfield," yet an 
alert and capable infielder can rob the ball before it leaves the infield.  
Remember, Ron Barr is calling approximately where the ball will go if 
unobstructed from its flight path, and not necessarily calling the player the 
ball is hit toward.

Hard Drive Compressors:

THe data files for Tony 2 are kept in compressed format to take up less space
on your hard drive.  Because of this, we do not recommend that you use this 
program with Stacker or SuperStor.  Similar problems may occur with DOS 6's 
DoubleSpace(although none have been found so far).  The game can probably 
be installed to a machine utilizing a compressor, but the game may run slowly 
and crash periodically.

The Boot Disk

To limit compatibility and memory problems, it is highly recommended that the
following boot disk be used.  These instructions are based on DOS 5.  Use of 
any other DOS, including DOS 6 should consult their DOS manuals to make a 
boot disk.  Be aware that Tony 2 came out before the release of DOS 6 
and was not tested on it.

1.  From the c: prompt, type, "format A:/s" <enter>
1a. Follow the on screen prompts.
2.  Place a blank disk in your "a" drive (it MUST be your a drive) and 
    label it, "Tony 2 Boot Disk."
3.  Go to the A: prompt by typing,"A:" <enter>
4.  Type, "edit" <enter>
5.  This brings up a blue screen where you can type.  Type in the following 
    text just as it appears below:

    Files=20
    Buffers=20
    Device=c:\DOS\himem.sys
    Device=c:\DOS\emm386.exe noems
    DOS=high,umb


5a. Now go up to File and Save this document as,"CONFIG.SYS"
6.  Go into File again and Open a New document.  Type in the following text
    exactly as it apears below:

    Path=c:\;c:\DOS;c:mouse
    prompt $p$g
    loadhigh mouse
    c:
    cd\tony2
    tony2

6a. The "cd\tony2" assumes that Tony 2 is installed to its default directory
    which is tony2.  If you install Tony 2 to another name, use the new name
    instead.  For example, if you install Tony 2 into a directory called T2,
    the line would read, "cd\t2"

6b. Now go up to File and Save this document as, "autoexec.bat"

To use your Tony 2 Boot Disk, place the disk in your A: drive (It MUST be
your a drive) and reboot your machine.  Tony 2 will automatically come up and
you'll be ready to play.

ERRATA:

Tony 2 has a huge database which is referenced with every pitch.  Given this,
Tony 2 still completes the season with a historical accuracy of about 90%.
Starting a second season using simulated stats compiled from the first season
will result in only an 81% accuracy (90% of 90).  A third season would have a 
72% (90% of 81) accuracy and so on.  The tendency is for players to hit like 
their simulated stats so there is a build up of doubles, triples, homers, etc
..., for hitters, and strikeouts and walks for pitchers.

Importing Teams:

A common problem when importing teams from Tony 1 is caused by not selecting
a league from Tony 1.  Tony 1 only allowed one league to be used at a time.
When importing a league from Tony 1 only one league will be present to 
choose from.  You must left click with the mouse on this league for it to be 
imported.

                            ABOUT STATS, INC.


It all starts with the system.  The STATS scoring method, which includes 
pitch-by-pitch information and the direction, distance, and velocity of each 
ball hit into play, yields an immense amount of information.  Sure, we have 
all the statistics you're used to seeing, but where other statistical sources 
stop, STATS is just getting started.

Then, there's the network.  Out information is timely because our game 
reporters send their information by computer as soon as the game is over.  
Statistics are checked, rechecked, updated, and are available daily.

Analysis comes next.  STATS constantly searches for new ways to use this 
wealth of information to open windows into the working of baseball.  
Accurate numbers, intelligent computer programming, and a large dose of 
imagination all help coax the most valuable information from its elusive 
cover.

Finally, distribution!

For 13 years now, STATS has served over a dozen Major League teams.  
The box scores that STATS provides to THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and USA TODAY 
have revolutionized what baseball fans expect from a box score.  BASEBALL 
WEEKLY is chock full of STATS handiwork, while ESPN's nightly baseball 
coverage is supported by a full-time STATS statistician.  We provide 
statistics for TONY LA RUSSA BASEBALL and many other baseball games and 
fantasy leagues all over the country.

For the baseball fan, STATS publishes monthly and year-end reports on each 
Major League team.  We offer a host of year-end statistical breakdowns on 
paper or disk that cover hitting, pitching, catching, baserunning, fielding, 
and more.  STATS even produces custom reports on request. 

Computer users with modems can access the STATS computer for information with 
STATS On-Line.  If you own a computer with a modem, there is no other source 
with the scope of baseball information that STATS can offer.

STATS and Bill James enjoy an on-going affiliation that has produced the book 
you are now holding.  We also administer Bill James Fantasy Baseball (BJFB), 
the ultimate baseball game, designed by Bill James himself, which allows you 
to manage your own team and compete with other team owners around the country.  
Whether you play BJFB or another fantasy game, our new STATS fax report can 
show you what your players did the previous night as soon as you can get to 
the fax machine in the morning.  STATS also offers a head-to-head fantasy 
football game STATS Fantasy Football.  BJFB The Winter Game is a brand new, 
totally unique, historically based fantasy baseball game for those who can't 
wait for spring.  

Always innovative, STATS has other exciting future projects underway for 
sports fans nationwide.  It is the purpose of STATS to make the best possible 
sports information available to all interests:  fans, play, teams, and media.  

For more information write to:

STATS, Inc.
7366 North Lincoln Ave.
Lincolnwood, IL   60646-1708

. . . or call us at 1-708-676-3322.  We can send you a STATS brochure, a free 
information kit on Bill James Fantasy Baseball, The BJFB Winter Game or STATS 
Fantasy Football, and/or information on STATS On-Line or STATS fax.

To maintain our information, STATS hires people around the country to cover 
games using the STATS scoring method.  If you are interested in applying for a 
part-time reporter's position, please write or call STATS.

For the story behind the numbers, check out STATS' other publications:  The 
STATS 1993 Baseball Scoreboard:  The first edition of this book in 1990 took 
the nation's baseball fans by storm.  This all new 1993 edition, available in 
book stores or directly from STATS, is back with the same great writing, great 
graphics and stats you won't find anywhere else.  The Major League Handbook's 
brother, the STATS 1993 Minor League Handbook, will add to your 1993 reference 
library, especially important for the coming expansion.  STATS continues a 
tradition with The Scouting Report:  1993, available in book stores in the 
Spring of 1993.  You'll find scouting reports on over 700 players, including 
team prospect reports, backed by statistical findings you can only get from 
STATS, Inc.  Last, but certainly not least, the new addition to the STATS 
Publishing family, the STATS 1993 Player Profiles Book, is full of breakdowns 
and situational stats for every Major League player, identical to the few we 
offer in this book.
