[rasnell]

OK, here are the final tinkers in advanced mode. You get there by going to the Game menu and choosing Game Setup at the top menu.

See how the "Global Setup" tab is highlighted. Unclick the check marks in coaches and scouts. I want to turn these off. These great features add tremendous depth to your game, but it also adds lots of complexity, variability, and a learning curve. Try these later when you're more comfortable with the basics of the game. One important note to remember: SISA scouting reports are accurate for every team when scouts are turned off; they are unreliable (on purpose) when scouts are turned on, forcing you to depend on the varied opinions of your scouts instead of one master league news report that SISA represents.

Under injuries, turn them OFF. I don't want you to have to fuss with roster moves and adjustments because of injuries. However, for future use, this adds a lot of interest and variability. I would recommend low injuries and low fatigue in your future play for more realistic results. But for now, turn it OFF.

Everything else is up to your own taste on settings. You might want to keep news logs, transaction news, etc. That's a matter of personal taste. It won't slow the game down much, simply adds to the hard drive space needed, but if you've got the room, I'd change it to save it for 10 years.

Now let's just go from left to right with the tabs at the top. To the right of global setup is "player picture and options." Click that tab and look around. It's nice to see all the changes that you can make in the future. I only recommend one change for this first-time basic sim. Click the box to delete players who don't make it to the majors. No need to save these stats because I only care about those who make The Show.

Next tab: AI options. No changes here but look at what you can tinker with in the future.

Almanac options tab: No changes. A lot to tinker with here, but beware that it takes lots and lots of time to generate the full history and depth. I'm frankly so satisfied with what history the game keeps by default that I don't even use the almanac. But it's there for you to play with in future use.

Online options tab: It's there. A whole new dimension of play. Even I have not ventured past my safe world of solo play, but some day I'd like to get into this. No changes for this basic start.

League setup tab: This jumps you to a whole new series of tabs that allow you to get into every detail about your current selected league. Take a look around and click all of the new tabs that are displayed to see just how much you can adjust.

Recognize that with recalc and financials on (by default), expansion and all the other automatic historical features, your league will progress with inflating salaries, cash, ticket prices, attendance and more. There can also be declining factors (such as after the 1929 season) based on history.

I want you to change just one setting in League Setup. Go to the Rules tab and look down the middle of the page where it says "Amateur Draft Date." I want you to change this to November 1 instead of June 15. Why? Because the game immediately pulls the player in from the Lahman database on that date in history, one season before the player actually made his debut. So, if you move the draft back to November, the offseason, the game properly pulls him in for the year he was a rookie.

Look at the extremely rich number of options you can change. That's the fun of tinkering and starting new leagues. But these are the basics that I would suggest for a fun start.

All the rest can be found in the manual and by simply tinkering. (By the way, the manual is just as deep and wonderful as the game, topping more than 400 pages, and represents two years of very hard work by Steve Battists.)

So now you're ready to begin making history with this first setup for a historical sim.

Can you do better than the real managers that you had to suffer with through your childhood? (In my case, how could I top the beloved Sparky Anderson?)