OOTP 6.0/6.5 to OOTP Baseball 2006 Schedule Converter

[jnshmoo]

Originally Posted by LeafsFan2005NC

I've posted a new version of the converter that I've been working on (up in the first post, as always). I'm not replacing the current version out there yet, but I'd like to get some feedback on the new one.

Basically I've expanded on what can be converted by including a button to convert a Stickware Schedule file. Now, while it will convert the stickware schedule to a comma delimited text file (such as used in OOTP 6), you'll have to edit the abbreviations to numbers by hand. Fortunately I've added this functionality as well. As soon as the stickware file is converted, an Excel type window opens allowing you to manually edit the file. Basic find/replace functions have been included here to facilitate this editing.

Then, just save, close the Excel window and fill in the rest of your information and press Convert and that should be all.

As always, feedback is welcome.

I've got a question about the stickware conversion. I was able to do this with a little trial and error a week or two ago. I went in and decided to make a new schedule for another one of my leagues in Stickware (to avoid having to convert the abbreviations, I just entered the team abbreviations as numbers in the stickware creation process) and then tried to convert it.

However, all the converter seems to do is create a blank "temp.txt" file and the conversion complete box doesn't come up. Are there restrictions on what sort of schedule you have to create in stickware in order for the converter to work?

[LeafsFan2005NC]

That's odd. I thought I'd managed to quash all the bugs.

I do have another version sitting on my computer. The thing is, it's written in VB 2005 (which has a better DatePicker than VB6) and I'm pretty sure everyone would have to have the .NET framework for it to work. The upside is, this version converts Retrosheet gamelogs and schedules, without having to manually edit the numbers (there's a separate file listing the team number of every team by year, the downside being your league would have to match the structures in the file, though those could be edited) and converts a Stickware schedule without having to manually edit the numbers (it parses the Schedule.txt file generated by Stickware and assigns numbers based on the structure of the league on the Stickware main screen).

For those interested, here's the zip file containing this version. If anyone wants to test it who doesn't have the .NET framework installed to see if it'll actually work, feel free to do so. If it does turn out that you don't have to have the framework, I'll release it as a full replacement for the previous version.

Be sure to place the TeamIndex.txt file in the same directory as the .exe file.

Thanks in advance.

Leafsfan

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by LeafsFan2005NC

The upside is, this version converts Retrosheet gamelogs and schedules...

Can you expand upon exactly what happens when converting the game logs (these contain the schedule as it was actually played each season)?

Note that game logs will contain tie games, and for use in the game, those tie games need to be removed or else teams will sometimes be playing too many games.

As for converting the schedule files at Retrosheet, this is no doubt a handy addition, but I must warn everyone that the schedule files there are quite out-of-date and some errors arising out of problems converting my original schedule files into the format used by Retrosheet. (Some day... some day... I'm going to get updated files to Retrosheet for conversion and posting.)

So for historical schedules the best bet are the files included with the game or the OOTP6/6.5 format historical schedule files posted in the OOTP6 Mods forum.

[LeafsFan2005NC]

What happens is, the *.txt file is parsed and the date, visiting team and home team are all extracted. This is done on a line by line basis so it doesn't matter if it's a schedule file or a game log since the relevant information is all in the first few fields.

Unfortunately, it will include the tie games in the game logs.

I've been waiting for two years now for Retrosheet to update their schedule page. Unfortunately they haven't done so. So I went looking on my own. I managed to find schedules for 1889, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896 and 1897. I also found partial schedules for 1890, 1891 and 1888 (though that last one might be complete, but I won't know until I convert it into the Retrosheet format). I actually found the 1889, '94 and '95 on the Library of Congress Memory Project website (they have scans of old Spalding annuals). I found 1893 on some site that sells old stuff from the 1800's. It had a few problems (they had Chicago slated to play about six extra games that year for some reason), but I compared the dates on it to the dates in the actual game logs to resolve any issues. 1896, '97 and the partial schedules for 1888, '91 and '90 ('90 and '91 being NL schedules) I found on the Brooklyn Daily Eagle website.

I'm pretty good at converting these schedules over to Retrosheet format, usually taking about a day or two, depending on my work. If you need someone to convert these over for you, LGO, I'm willing to help out.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by LeafsFan2005NC

What happens is, the *.txt file is parsed and the date, visiting team and home team are all extracted. This is done on a line by line basis so it doesn't matter if it's a schedule file or a game log since the relevant information is all in the first few fields.

Unfortunately, it will include the tie games in the game logs.

Any chance you could get your utility to look at the scores in the game log? A tie game will naturally have the same number of runs for the visiting and home teams, so if your utility could see such situations it could then drop that game from the list. There is also a column in the game logs containing information about forfeits and protested games. That column would need to be looked at as well because there are a few cases where a team won or lost a game which was then later declared a tie due to a successful protest.

Originally Posted by LeafsFan2005NC

I've been waiting for two years now for Retrosheet to update their schedule page. Unfortunately they haven't done so.

That's mostly my fault. I haven't sent over any more schedule files for proofing in a very long time. I got interested in the minor league schedules and ended up becoming so engrossed in those that I just can't tear myself away from them to get back to the MLB schedules for Retrosheet.

As for the major league schedules, I've got 'em all, from 1878-2006 (the 1901-2006 seasons of which ended up as part of OOTP2006). This includes the original schedules for the third major leagues (UA, PL, and FL). The entire collection is sitting on my hard drive and contains the most up-to-date versions, superceeding anything on Retrosheet.

As for the minor leagues, I have well over 200 in text form at the moment, mostly AAA leagues but with some AA and a handful of A.

I have a paper version of the 1877 NL schedule but haven't typed it up into digital form yet. I also have to finish up fixing the 1899 NL schedule, which is a real mess because of all the revisions the league made to it before and even during the season. For 1876, it only exists in as played format; someday I plan on making an extrapolated version of what the original version of the schedule likely was. I'll eventually do something similar for the 1871-75 NA though for those years will require a lot of extrapolation to account for how teams came in and dropped out during the seasons.

[LeafsFan2005NC]

It shouldn't be too much trouble getting the program to check a game log for a tie game, though I'd probably have to add a button to convert a Retrosheet gamelog, which would probably confuse people, which isn't a good thing. I can look into it, though.

The good thing, though, is it will convert a schedule prior to 1901, unlike the Retrosheet schedule converter released for OOTP6.

I had an extrapolated 1876NL schedule somewhere (might still have it, but it might have been erased also). Basically what I did was start with April 22, 1876 (when the season started) and had teams playing on Tuesday's Thursdays and Saturdays, which is about how it was back then. Of course I just went straight with every team playing on the same days. A little more research would be in order as certain teams (Boston and Cincinnati spring to mind) where given certain local holidays as playing dates (I know of Decoration Day in Boston, can't remember the day in Cincinnati).

But, well, I look forward to seeing the 19th century schedules. It's always nice to look back on history and see how they played back then.