CircleChange11

...Frank Thomas retired last week. Good. Now go away.

The only thing I'll add about Hurt is that for 5-6 years he was, hands down, the "Best Hitter in Baseball". I hope folks remember that. Before there was 'El Hombre', there 'The Big Hurt'. Not bad for Tight End (Auburn).

With the imminent release of this year;s games, I remembered while reading Y4L's post about the PS3 that I totally forgot about buying The Show '09 for the PS2. I had thought about it last year and decided I'd give 2K9 a chance. I didn't expect The Show '10 to be released on PS2 as well, but it looks like it will be. Looks like this will be a good year for baseball gaming - 2K10 looks much better than last year (and the My Pitcher feature looks awesome, time will tell if it is or not), and as a backup, Sony are releasing The Show '10 on PS2 as well. Props to Sony for that one, not forgetting their old customers.

We have mlb08 and mlb09 on PS2. IMO, it's not worth playing on that console. We did just trade in the 360 and maybe 10 games for $200, and the PS3 and MLB10 cost us $300 (plus some PS2 games for my son). For me, I'm just tired of fooling around with 2k. If 2k10 is great, then it also plays on the PS3. I don;t play too many other video games, so it's an easy choice for me.

This winter seems to have went awfully quickly. Usually, by December I'm fiending for some baseball, and by February I can't wait, but it seems like I'm saying "already?" to the news that pitchers and Molina's report this week. Of course, it's not a bad thing. I guess I've had too much other stuff going on.

I've missed baseball since about the 2nd day after the WS. Baseball has become a year-round sport for me. In the off-season, it's all about projections and stats analysis, as well as, player moves. All other sports have become just casual viewing for me. Illinois might be the best team in the Big 10, and I just noticed last week.

I really need to get back into sports this year. With spring training fast approaching, what better time to start? Just wish the weather would hurry up and heat up. There's a reason they hold spring training in Florida and not in Glasgow, Scotland.

This is going to be a fun spring for me. The team that my buddy and I coached to a Junior High state title are now HS sophs. We were able to get back into coaching (Administrators had been forbidden from coaching before this year), and it looks like our team is a legit contender for the state title (and should be for the next few years). As a pitching coach I'm just thrilled with our 7 (yes, 7 guys) 6'2 and taller. They pick up on tips quickly and all have very good command and movement for HS pitchers. One of our guys (get this) shows up out of nowhere (did not play his 1st 3 years). He's 6'2 205, left-handed and throws 80-83. His brother will be a pro pitcher after this season and his other brother was all-conference college player now working for the FBI. This kid, as of now, is our "6th starter". Sometimes you just hit the jackpot.

Anyway, enough about me, I'm just too excited to keep it in.

I'm really looking forward to this year's season. The NYY have the potential to have one of the best regular seasons of baseball history ... and there's a fair chance that I may get to see a NYY-StL WS sometime. BOS screwed it up in '04. StL did it to themselves in '08.

SEA will be an interesting team to watch. King and Lee as 1 and 2, as probably the best defensive team in MLB. As a fan of the 80s Cardinals, SEA could be the modern version of the "All pitching, defense, and speed team". You don't often see that combo these days, but it's interesting to follow.

"Magic Mushrooms - on Sunday nights, there's nothing better!"

Endorsed by CicrleChange11™.

Heh Heh. I swear I don't see an empty Southern Comfort bottle anywhere around here ... but, maybe I'm not looking hard enough. Sometimes you try to be funny and it ends up just being weird. I accept that.

Can I get a few more pics of the bug, from some different angles. I don't quite feel as though I have a good grasp on the complete appearance. *grin*

Maybe something with a valentine's day pillow, or making a pouty face, or maybe with nothing but a fur coat? Y'know something that really displays her complex, yet fun, personality.

Man, I'm in a weird place right now.

Updated to 11-8

...Can it be? Has 2K sports released a game that a lot of these guys in here are actually enjoying? I've been reading some nice stuff about the new basketball game by 2K sports from some of the guys in the shoutbox. I'm glad that 2K finally released something that people are actually liking. My question is, will this continue on when baseball 2K10 is released? That's what I'm hoping for.

2K has been dominating the video game basketball scene for a few years now. From what I read, 2k9 is viewed as the best BKBL game ever ... and 2k10 just made it a little better.

2K has also dominated the X360 baseball game scene too ... but, only by default. *grin* I'm not optomistic that 2K basketball success translates to 2k baseball success. It would be nice, but this mess is 3 years in the making, with 2k7 being (IMO) the best atempt of the bunch.

...One thing that the MLB Network does right is those Studio 42 interviews by Bob Costas. Every one of them have been great. Like that Juan Marichal-Johnny Roseboro one when they went in detail about what happened and why when Marichal hit Roseboro over the head with a bat in a 1965 game. Turns out, both players became good friends.

Didn;t HBO used to do this with Costas? I don;t get MLB network, but Costas is as knowledgable as any baseball TV personality ... plus, he genuinely likes baseball.

I think MLB is missing out on the Joe Buck train. This guy should be involved in everything MLB does on TV. Very smart, a baseball broadcasting lifer from a great broadcasting family ... somehow baseball let him take his talent to the NFL. Actually Buck and Costas together in the booth would have endless, high quality, debates/conversations of players, issues, history, etc. Could be interesting ... but we have to (for some reason) have a former player as a color commentator ... describing the most obvious aspects of the game, often in errant fashion, so we get McCarver and Morgan on a regular basis. Baseball tonight isn;t much better with Eric Young and Chris Singleton. Kruk seems to overcome his sideshow existence and develop into a reasonable TV personality that won;t hesistate to describe situations as they are, even if it might hurt someone's feelings.

...With the exception of the World Series Highlights DVD, I'm not going to be buying any "Official" Yankee World Series souvenirs. $30 for that hat? Thanks, but no thanks.

At least we have a choice. Imagine Cub fans pondering a purchase of a $30 "NL Central Division Champions" t-shirt. Hilarious.

...I would not want to be Brian Cashman right now. He's got a lot of tough decisions to make in the coming weeks about who stays and who goes and what free agents to go after. I think we may be surprised as to what will happen during these coming months.

I think Cashman is in the most desirable position. Whereas some of the otheer teams might be under their fans wrath for letting the WS MVP walk, he can afford that luxury because it means other quality guys will get some more playing time (that has worked for so many teams over the last 15 years), and he has the star-studded core of the team back and under contract, as well as, Wang returning to health. Only injuries can keep NYY out of the post-season next year.

...I've been lucky to see my Yankees win the World Series seven times in my life. I know that's very fortunate especially if I compare myself to fans of the Indians or Giants for example, teams that haven't won anything in a long time. I think about that sometimes and after thinking about it, I really don't care. If they win, they win. I'm just not going to root for them to do so.

I find myself on the opposite side of the spectrum. I thought it was awesome that both the Cubs and Red Sox entered the season knowing they would not win the WS, even if they won 120 games in the regular season. Seeing how they'd destruct was one of the best storylines of the season/history. The agony and misery of their fans, seemed to make them more passionate and loyal, instead of 'less'. Still, how the 04 Red Sox won it all was pretty darn impressive. I cannot, ever, root for the Cubs to win a WS ... if they do they lose everything the organization is known for. Only they can turn a profit on the "Lovable Losers" situation.

...World Champion New York Yankees. To me, those five words go together perfectly. Nine long and frustrating years are finally over.

A whole 9 years? You poor fans. I don;t know you were able to get through each arduous and agonizing season, with making the playoffs every year but one. *grin* I see what you're saying, but you have to realize there are whole lot of teams, perhaps ALL of em, that are struggling to come up with empathy for NYY and their fans for what they have had to endure over this decade ... you know, most wins, most division titles, most times in the playoffs, and now tied for most WS titles in the last 10 years. I'm not mocking you in any way, but I feel as bad for NYY and I did ATL for *only* winning one title over 13 straight division titles. I will say it was exciting to have NYY back in the WS. Love em or hate em, everyone watches.

...It's frustrating during this recovery time after surgery because you don't know if you are making progress or not. The healing is extremely slow, so slow that you sometimes think nothing is happening. Without these pain pills, I'd never make it.

Hang in there, buddy. It eventually gets better. At least you have a Championship to help take your mind off of it.

Well, that's good to know.

JUst in case I order a used one in very god condition as well. It was $7.

Either I'll give it to my son to play with on our other (older) desktop, or give it to someone.

On amazon, they have new NHL04's for $5. Some are full price, but some sellers have it for much less. Not used, but new.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00...p;condition=new

Hold up, after reading that I'm wondering if I just bought the registration key oonly, and not the CDs? Is that possible?

I just bought this off amazon for $5.

I can remember modding NHL94 and making all minor league teams, unis, and players, and having a blast.

Looking through my old games book, my last NHL game was 2000 ... so, this is going to play as a "brand new game" for me. awesome.

What's even better is the Blackhawks have a team worth playing with.

Downloading all the files now ... and hoping I can folow step-by-step installation instructions. *grin*

...I've been spending a lot of time on Youtube the past few days ever since I found out that some guy was posting an old cartoon called Underdog. I really doubt if anyone here would remember this show.

I remember Underdog. Wasn't he a stimulant using superhero? *grin* When I go to youtube, it's to watch boxing.

...Let's see if the Raiders can score more than three points today. Nothing changes with this team.

OAK sealed their fate when they drafted a big arm instead of a QB that can read defenses. Serioius, with all his natural ability, how dense does Russell have to be to be this bad? Al Davis basically makes his own mess. Strangely enough, their 82 Super Bowl opponents, The Skins, have an owner running that team into the ground also.

How does Matt Millen get an analyst job? Isn't he regarded as pretty much the worst GM in NFL history?

- The Ultimate Fighter 10 has been great so far. Waiting to see what Kimbo does next week.

That fight was pretty much a letdown. Although it was kind of shocking to see a guy overpower Kimbo and use his knee to hold Kimbo's arm down and render him helpless. Kimbo didn;t try a kick out or anything, he just sorta laid there and took it.

- The prospect of the Yankees in the play-offs, bores me. Same with the Red Sox. Time to expand the play-off format.

IMO, the only way the playoffs should be expanded is if the reg season is significantly reduced. Baseball has a long season, so less playoffs are needed. I would actually prefer to go back to the 2 division system and do away with the WC altogether. Compared to NFL, NBA, and NHL ... baseball is the only one whose reg season REALLY matters.

- The Pats look like a team, whose at the beginning of the end. The Giants are looking like a team who is going to be a powerhouse for a long, long time.

The Pats are suffering the same thing all dynasties have ... teams cherry-pick their coaching staffs and rosters, and they've had some key players retire (high roster/staff turnover). Still, they'll likely make the playoffs. I don't think they'll endure the failures of SF, DAL, etc. I think they are still a threat.

this is kind of a silly question, but if anyone can help me thanks in advance.. i already tried to search a thread, but didn't find it, so i'll ask it here.

is there any way to update my dinasty with these rosters? i'm in the 65th game, playing all of them and want to update the rosters in my dinasty to the 7.31 version , but i dont know if that's possible.... if it is, please let me know

Using twiggins export/import program ...

[1] Open the export/import program.

[2] Start the game and load your dynasty.

[3] Alt-Tab to the desktop and run the export program; exporting the files to a folder (preferably on your desktop, titled "My dynasty" --- you'll need to make one)

[4] This should export all of the files from your dynasty into that folder.

[5] Go back into MVP.

[6] Exit out of your dynasty and start a new dynasty with the 7.31 files.

[7] Alt-Tab back out of MVP to desktop.

[8] Run the exporter and export these new dynasty files to a new folder titled something like "new dynasty")

[9] Select and copy the current stats files from your 'my dynasty folder' into the 'new dynasty folder', overwriting the files in the 'new dynasty folder'.

[10] Go back into MVP and load your old dynasty (the one you want to keep playing).

[11] Alt-Tab back out of MVP and use the import feature to import the 'new dynasty files' into your current mvp dynasty.

[12] You should now have a dynasty with the 7.31 rosters AND your current dynasty stats (through 65 gamnes or whatever you said you played).

That's what I did (I think, going from memory).

I just followed the instructions from the readme in Ty's import/export (assorted tools) program.

This is one of the collest programs ever made, IMO.

...I'm watching Sportscenter the other day and I see that they just launched a new website called ESPN.Boston.com. I almost threw the remote at the TV but then I remembered the hospital owned it and not myself. How do you like this? ESPN finally comes out and admits to the entire world they they favor Boston and they give them their own private website that concentrates on Boston sports. BULL FU**ING SH**. The MLB Network grovels to that city. ESPN grovels to them. Tell me why?

Chicago also has their own ESPN channel. It's called "Disappointment TV".

Hope you recover well from your surgery. None of that sounds very pleasant.

I've tried almost everything, and I still get the 'enabled' message at the bottom left, but no players will show up in the white box, but I can change teams and project stats ... just not actually edit any of the guys in my dynasty.

Are you like me and hit better with lefties?

I ask because I am doing awesome with Stephen Drew and Josh Whitesell, but cannot do anything with Justin Upton and Conor Jackson.

Give me Adam Dunn and he'll win the MVP every year. *grin*

Biggest Disappointment

LA Angels - Carried a strong team into the beginning of the season but haven't managed to put a string of victories together and seize control of the division.

The Angels just get no love on this game.

Neither do the Cardinals.

IMO, this could be viewed as an indicator of just how well these teams are managed/prepared in MLB. Particularly the Cardinals, Dave Duncan gets more out of "average pitchers" than anyone, and the Cards success often is the result of the play of their role players.

I had a discussion the other day about how a lot of managers can manage a 1st place team to a 1st place finish ... but LaRussa/Duncan seem to do it quite often with what should be a 2nd or 3rd place team ... as compared to how Pinella is managing a 1st place team into 2nd, and maybe even 3rd place.

Torre and Girardi, have I view as "easy jobs". Fill out the lineup card and then sit down and watch.

Poor Jerry Manuel has what started as a 1st place team and is now a 4A team due to all of the injuries. That HAS to be very frustrating.

...How about those Pirates? Too bad for them the trade deadline didn't extend another day or so. Then they would have had time to trade the rest of their farm system.

You tend to exagerrate. *grin*

They did trade away pretty much every 'veteran'. Strange thing about PIT ... they're 28-19 at home.

...Yesterday, Andrew McCutchen of Pittsburgh hit three home runs in a 11-6 victory over Washington. Watch for this guy to be traded in the off season.

... or test positive. j/k If it were any other franchise, I'd say "these guys might be worth watching in 2-3 years" ... but they're the Pirates they'll come up with a new way to screw it up and extend their streak of "losing seasons" to 17-18, whtever it will be by then.

...Yeah Indians, I'm talking about you.

The Tribe essentially doubled the number of top 100 prospects in their farm system with the trades they made. I guess that's what you do when you're rebuilding. The A's did the same thing last year, acumulating 11 of the top 100.

IMO, the 'Fall of Carmona' and Hafner's decreased production via injury started this whole process. If Carmona and Lee are a solid 1-2 and Hafner is hitting like he did, Cleveland is right back near the top of the division.

...Whatever happened to Ben Sheets?

Season ending surgery. The doctor supervising his surgery/recovery is the team doctor for the Texas Rangers, causing some to think that he'll sign with Texas whe he's ready to pitch.

...Still waiting for Matt Garza to be suspended for admitting he hit Mark Teixeira of the Yankees in a game last week.

He was fined. I don't agree with the suspension for retaliation, while nothing happens to the guy that started it. IMO, that's a way to develop horseshit tactics, where one team gets a free shot and the other get in trouble when they return the favor.

Don't want your guys thrown at? Don't throw at the other teams players. 'Baseball sense' ... players generally have a decent idea of when a player is intentionally drilled.

...David Ortiz made news back in February saying that if a player gets caught doing steroids he should be banned for a year. Now, he should eat his own words and ask for an indefinite leave of absence.

Naw, he'll be like the Olympic track star a while back that said it must have been "something in his toothpaste".

...The smartest thing pitchers can do right now when facing Matt Holliday of St. Louis is to walk him.

It is nice not to have a 1-man offense anymore. MH is playing for a contract and I hope StL is the one that gives it to him.

In 2000, StL got Will Clark and he had the same effect ... and then retired.

51 games, .345-12-42.

Stupid New York 'Meths' ruined a World Series showdown between the the two franchises with the most titles (NYY-StL). I was looking forward to that, Subway Series ... not so much.

Bad idea since the site is then obligated to provide those paid members a roster update, uniform updates, cyberface updates, and the other mods that you have listed every year. People who work on these mods do so on their spare time (or so I assume) and it would just foolish to ask them to provide an update each year. And if they just don't feel like providing that update, it's only going to come back and bite Trues and this site in the ***.

That's certainly a possibility. But, in the same vein, there's always new stuff to download, as well as, old stuff such as total conversion mods for people to try for the first time. I would imagine that "someone" will always make a roster update for themselves, and be willing to share with others. I would not expect someone to make a mod that they would not enjoy making. This stuff, should be fun ... not work.

My basis for my comments is that I was unaware (until recently) that Trues was funding the site out of his own pocket when the donation goals are not met. That bothers me.

I agree with the 10 bucks a year. 10 bucks for a repeat customer likely gets you a roster update, uniform updates, minor league uni and logo updates, portrait updates, some cyberfaces, etc. $10 for up to date gameplay is well worth it, and with unlimited access to total conversion mods, audio files, and everything else ... that's a bargain.

If a person just wanted a one year subscription, they could download a whole lot of quality stuff in that year ... much more than $10 worth, IMO.

I would seriously look at a one year membership, unlimited access. I would imagine most of us regulars, and a quite a few new members would re-up every year, and relieve the cost to the admin.

It will never happen -- Too many bridges have been burned.

As for the demise of MVPMods, to quote Mark Twain, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.....

[1] I understand.

[2] I understand.

With all of my 'brainstorms' or 'brain farts', I'm am thinking a year or so down the line. The new subscriptions will likely have momentum for a few monthes .. and possibly a resurgence next March when the baseball itch starts up. I'm thinking more of the "offseason" when the $150 bill still comes up, but people's attention is on other sports, and people start to put their money into holiday stuff.

I don't know past history or what has occurred previously, but a merge between mvpmods and eamods could also take place. *ducks quickly*.

Fellas,

I have A LOT of respect for everyone here, especially the talented modders and the generous site owner.

But, let's try to keep things in perspective. In the big picture, we're a small eccentric group of baseball geeks that enjoy making and playing a game that has been greatly enhanced by mods.

As time goes by there will be fewer and fewer of us. Within a couple of years, there will be a whole new generation that has NO experience with MVP and will have no desire to. It will just be a group of us old timers keeping it alive ... like even smaller groups do with HH and BBPRO ... and even EWB.

We can't start pulling away from each other now, or we'll just start to divide into smaller groups, with none being able to survive.

What we need are effective long-term solutions on how the website can remain in existence.

I have noticed that many of the sites that contained HighHeat files are no longer in existence, and that game only predates MVP by 2 years. Most of those files are only obtainable via rapidshare or some other file hosting site.

We could also look into reducing the number of files that are present by eliminating some of the ones that are no longer doanloaded, or combining some of the files into one (if that would in fact help).

Fracturing the grop or reduction by removal of popular downloaded files will only speed up the death of the site, IMO.

I think we all can agree that the site/files are worth preserving, and just need to arrive at an effective, amicable solution.

But, let's make a concentrated effort to "stay together". We all have the same goal here ... survival.

I will donate as well (as soon as I can get my paypal issues resolved, I don't know my password, and I registered with an e-mail that is no longer in service, and I cannot sign up with a new account using the same credit card). I share the same concern as others that the new subscriptions are not going to be a long-term solution.

Are there other out of production games that have been modded and continue with a strong community? How do they survive? What do they do, that we might be able to mimic (I ask because I pretty much only play baseball games).

I'm not sure that this would be work. For example, is it fair that someone who downloads one Total Classics mod (average size about 400 Mb), pays more than someone who downloads 15 stadiums (size 10 Mb) or 50 individual uniforms (size 3 Mb each)?

The guy who downloads one large mod would pay more that the guy who downloads 50 smaller mods. If this then discourages people from downloading the larger mods (like the TC single season mods), it might discourage those modders (like me) from creating those mods. And what happens if your download of a large mod dies 3/4 of the way through (loss of connection, etc.). Do you then have to pay to download it again? How many people will be contacting Trues for refunds when they run into problems? This would be a bookkeeping nighmare for him.

To me, the simple "one fee for unlimited downloads" is the easiest solution here. You pay once and you are set for life. No muss, no fuss.......

Jim,

I was thinking in small monetary terms, such as something big like a conversion mod would be $2-3, and uniform files would be like '50 cents'. Chances are a "uniform downloader" would spend more since they'd likely download many uniform files. It was just a brainstorm, maybe more like a "brainsprinkle".

A flat fee is the simplest way. My concern is that people have already downloaded what they wanted.

The behavior, demands/requests, complaints of some of the posters here have me convinced that for a decent amount of people, the purpose of everyone else's existence is to "serve them" ... for free, no less. You see the same thing in real life on occassion, but much less in "face-to-face" encounters.

What's the other option? Trues pays money each month so that others can have free downloads for a video game?

Does that sound fair to anyone? I'm sure no one will say that it is fair, but then simultaneously, they'll be like me and others and download lots of files while making little to no donations.

I would prefer a "pay as you use" feature, where you register an account, using paypal or credit card, and every time you download, a certain amount (50 cents, $1, etc) is withdrawn/transferred from your account. It would be like downloading music or an iphone app, etc.

Those that download the most, pay the most. Those that do not utilize the services that cost money, don't pay anything. I wish we could pay taxes like this. *grin*

Have the amount/fee based on the size of the file or something. I'm not sure how this would affect the "profit off trademarked items", but I would view it as "paying for the bandwith/service".

I also don't know how this could be set up, or if it is even possible ... but I do feel a "pay for what you use" system is best.

So, instead of charging someone $5 for a uniform set or an 09 conversion mod, the downloader would pay $5 for the cost of hosting the file and/or bandwith.

Again, I'm just brainstorming, not demanding or even suggesting.

Trues,

Is having a charge for new members going to be enough to be a long term solution or would it just stave off the inevitable for a few monthes?

What would be some ideas to reduce overhead of maintaining the site for a long time?

RR,

Have you considered tweaking your (user) contact sliders a bit? (or handicapping the AI pitching a bit more)

I only bring that up because you've played a lot of games, and likely have good MVP skill, but you have 3 or 4 star players batting 40 or so points below where they should/could be, and I'm wondering if your sliders are slanted a tad too much against your offense?

I'm all for challenging sliders, but I'm just wondering if your sliders are just a bit too challenging.