I just mentioned this in another thread just a few days ago.
It takes a little work and a lot of creativity, but a fun alternative to the random quotes/trivia is to replace them with info about players from your league. Here's how I did it, if anyone's interested.
1. Backup the hints.txt file in the "misc" folder
2. Export your league's .csv files
3. Open up a new blank MS Excel spreadsheet
4. Open the players.csv file located in your "saved_games/???.lg/import_export" folder
5. Copy the "position" column (should be Column BF) from the players.csv and paste it into Column A in the new spreadsheet
6. Using the REPLACE function, change all numbers in Column A to their abbreviations,
being sure to leave a space at the end of each In other words, place "1" in the FIND WHAT field and "P " in the REPLACE WITH field, then place "2" in the FIND WHAT field and "C " in the REPLACE FIELD, and so on
7. Copy the "first_name" column (should be Column D) from the players.csv and paste it into Column B in the new spreadsheet
8. In Column C, Line 1 of the new spreadsheet, enter a single space, then copy the single space to all cells in Column C to the end of your players
9. Copy the "last_name" column (should be Column E) from the players.csv and paste it into Column D in the new spreadsheet
10. Repeat Step #8 for Column E of the new spreadsheet
11a. Now comes the creative part. In Column F of the new spreadsheet, enter information for each of the players in your league, ending the statement with a period. This can be whatever you want: stats, history, biographical info, a made up back story or trivia. (Just make sure it doesn't conflict with other data. For example, don't say "was born in Minneapolis, MN" if the game indicates his city of birth is Atlanta.)
11b. If you want to use the same info for each player, copy the corresponding column in the players.csv (or any other player csv file) and paste it into Column F of the new spreadsheet. Then, insert new columns before and/or after to create context. For instance, if you want to give each players' weight, you would copy Column L from the players.csv file into Column F of the new spreadsheet, then insert a new column
before Column F, type in "weighs " (include a space at the end) into the top cell, and copy it all the way down the column to the last player. Finally, add another column
after the weight column, type " lbs." (include a space at the beginning), and copy it all the way down the column to the last player.
11c. If you'd rather not enter info for every player in the game, you can always leave some cells blank and just mass-select and add in something generic later like "plays in the (your league name)."
12. Delete the Header row (Line 1) in the new spreadsheet
13. Open up MS Notepad or any basic text editor
14. Select the entire contents of your new spreadsheet, copy them, and paste them into your blank Notepad file
15. Save the new Notepad file into your "misc" folder as the new "hints.txt"
You should now have new random trivia for each player in your game popping up as pages load. If done correctly, they should look like this: "3B Anthony King is from Nashville, TN." or "CF Steve Williams weighs 206 lbs."
Like I said, it takes a little work, and yes, it will become outdaded as your players cycle through (You may want to re-do this every 5 seasons or so), but it does add a unique personal touch to your game and should grab your attention more than the same old Jerry Coleman quotes over and over.
