[BMW]

Originally Posted by Gambo

I don't know if this has been mentioned previously but in terms of historicals I think implementing the transaction database from retrosheet.org.

This of course would be a user option but this would allow players the ability to coach their favorite teams through their history and have the real historical players join and leave their team accurately.

DMB already does something like this, although I don't know that it uses Retrosheet data.

I think it's dangerous to create parts of OOTP that require outside people/organizations to keep running.

I understand that there's a lot of data out there, but OOTP isn't a baseball data company, it's a baseball game company. DMB is as much a data company, because its business model is built around selling season disks that they produce themselves.

Undoubtably, Lahman and Retrosheet feel like they will be around for eternity and hopefully they will be.

But if OOTP starts needing fresh data from multiple sources, once a source dries up or radically changes their format (i.e. they publish it with x,y,z columns right now, and they want to change the format to a,b,c,d,e,f... these people/orgs have no vested interest in OOTP and no reason to keep the data the same for OOTP's sake) then that means that it will leave OOTP high and dry. Or it will force them to become more of a data company, or force them to rely on the generosity of fans.

You should know as much as anyone that these sources aren't permanent and cannot be taken for granted. If you made your Gambo DB way back when and OOTP decided that it would build the game around your data and over that time it morphed into a wholly unique structure (i.e. significantly different than Lahman schema). At this point OOTP would have three choices: 1. Convince you not to retire, 2. Find someone else in the community to continue your work or 3. Take over maintenance of the database themselves.

Even though you can play the game without the pseudo-Lahman DB, and indeed build MLB rostersets without it, as much as it's technically optional, it's now expected by the customer.

It's the same thing with historical pitches, and it would be the same thing with L/R data and Transactions. Markus can provide the functionality, but users will expect the functionality and data.