I'm at home and I'm bored. I figure I could throw this up so my fellow TCers would have something to do on this Braves baseball-less day. I was undefeated in fantasy baseball this week...until the team I was facing had Liriano and Verlander. The fact that Mauer is hurt and Morneau is sucking didn't help things either. I picked up Teheran for the spot start and was rewarded with 3 whole points. Oops.

EDIT: I figured we can use this as a BS thread tomorrow afternoon too.

I figured I would put this up since we don't have a game tonight. The last time someone created an off-topic thread it seemed to work out well. Talk about whatever you want, ie how Yunel Escobar finally decided to hit a homer for the Blue Jays, or how the Mets should soon begin their stretch-run implosion, falling back with the Marlins and Nationals. Of course, it doesn't have to be baseball-related. I'm sure The Simpsons will get worked in somewhere if Beard shows up.

In OOTP11. The game came out Monday but I just got back from GA today and I'm starting a new 2010 MLB game. For those of you who don't know, OOTP11 is Out of the Ballpark Baseball 11, a text-based baseball sim and the newest in the line of the best baseball simulations out there.

To start this game I first downloaded a mod that gives me all of the teams' logos, parks, etc. This year the mods creators went all out, even including the game generated face-gen files for pretty much every player. Here is Brian McCann:

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Of course, some look better than others. Bobby looks like he just got hit by a nuclear bomb:

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These pictures come courtesy of the new baseball card generator in the sim. You can see McCann's lifetime stats there.

Another new feature is the ability to have the rules and setup of the league change automatically. Because I don't want the Red Sox to move to Alaska, I only enabled league expansion and the ability for the DH to come and go.

Also new is the addition of actual owners. Over time they will die and the team can be bought by someone else or can be inherited. The new owner will have a totally different set of expectations and tendencies. The Braves aren't owned by Liberty in the game, but a 47-year old Japanese guy named Koto Fujimoto from Tokyo. Right now he is patient and financially generous.

Onto actual gameplay. The way I have played since OOTP6 is to control the rosters of the MLB team, draft, etc and sim a month or so at a time. There are alot of guys out there that play each game all the way through and have been playing the same franchise for years, importing their save game from old game to new game. At the end of each month I look at the players' performances and make changes accordingly. I can see stat breakdowns on pretty much everything. I play with coaches on most of the time but I rarely enable scouts. To hell with those guys.

The roster that came with the game had Acosta still on our team, so I went into Commissioner (God) Mode and placed him on the Mets. Now we have a hole in the bullpen and I wanted to plug it with another lefty but we don't have anyone worth a damn in the minors, so I went to the free agent pool. As far as lefties go, the free agent pool is pretty shallow too. I decided to sign Jarrod Washburn to a 1-year 2.42 mil deal. I will use him out of the bullpen, and heaven forbid someone gets injured, as a starter.

While in the free agent section I noticed Elijah Dukes was there so I right clicked on him and wrote a note that will remind me in a pop-up in 30 days. I also set one for Mr. Glass, as I am interested to see where both of these guys end up, and in Mike Hampton's case, if he ever plays again.

I've just started so I don't really have much more. Oh yeah one thing; the ratings system I use is the scouting 20-80  scale. Jason Heyward is currently a 62 with 80 potential. We will see how it works out.

Well, I wasn't there, seeing as how I was 16 years, one month and 10 days from being born, but my dad was. He grew up in Florida but since there were no teams in the state, his closest team was, of course, the Braves. He recently gave me a couple cool pieces of Braves' history.

He wasn't able to get to many Braves games as a kid but did ride the bus to the minor league park in Jacksonville to watch young Mets players develop. He told me he spent an entire summer sitting next to Tom Seaver's wife watching he husband pitch. I can say that I'm glad his experience with the Mets minor leaguers didn't translate into supporting the New York team. I shudder to think of what I would be like as a Mets fan.

Anyway, my dad's aunt worked with Hank's mom and she was able to get him and his family tickets to the July 14th game in Atlanta against the Giants. You'll have to excuse the picture quality. I took it with my Droid.

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In the third inning of the game Aaron hit a ball deep off San Fran's Mike McCormick. History was made, as Aaron became the eighth man to reach the plateau. The Braves ended up winning the game 4-2, bolstered by Aaron's 3 RBIs and a strong pitching performance by Ron Reed.

The official attendance that night was 34,283, and as the spectators filed out of the park they were given a card to commemorate (and brag to others) the occasion.

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Man, I suck at taking pictures indoors. I can take great pictures of race cars traveling 150 MPH but trying to get a picture of a freaking card sitting on my desk is hard.

But I digress. Sure the game was over, but the night didn't end there. My father got the thrill of a lifetime. He didn't just get to meet Hank Aaron. No, he was invited to Hank's house. I'm not sure if it was a big party or if it was just Hank Aaron's family and my dad's family, but he told me that he ended up watching Bonanza with the baseball great. That makes me assume it was rather subdued. Who wants to watch TV at a big party, right?

Dad spent some time with Hank and he ended up getting a number of signed balls from Aaron and one with the entire team's autographs on it. Royhobbs's comment about Freeman signing the ball in his minor league article made me chuckle because I've got this:

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My dad always says that July 14th, 1968 was the biggest thrill of his life and that he wishes he could meet Hank again to thank him. I'd like to come along.

I was mowing the lawn yesterday and for some reason began to wonder this. I know when I joined the site however long ago it was I had no clue what most of what was said here meant. And seeing NCChopper going through the same thing made me get the idea that we should put together some kind of newbie guide/glossary so people can decipher our sometimes mostly incoherent rambling. I'm unemployed (thank you, economy) so I've got plenty of time on my hands to put it together. Thoughts?

It looks to be about his journey from being suspended because of HGH to the majors. It's a pretty good article and it tells alot about who he is and how he's changed since being drafted and being a big primadonna. I think the whole drug thing has humbled him and in a way may have made him a better person. Apparently he and Matt Diaz have become really good friends having worked out together in the offseason.

Living in Florida for the time being, I'm sad I can't see the Braves. Luckily, DIrecTV's Extra Innings package is free this week. I was interested to see that they had the Braves' feed from PTV instead of the home team's broadcast. The games are all in the 700s if you're interested. Also this weekend, DirecTV has a bunch of exclusive channels for the Masters. And no, I don't work for DirecTV, I'm just a bored sports fan.