dennisjames71

If you ever need help with fixing the grass, I can help out and correct the problem fields or if you having that problem with ALL of the fields...I can take care of that too. Best of luck with everything.

Happy Birthday Trues! Thank you for this site and I hope you enjoy your day.

Great choices to showcase this week Y4L. Obviously the work from these two men had GREATLY influenced my desire to create uniforms for this game. I was so surprised to see the attention to detail that these guys put into their work and seeing all of these throughout the Total CLassics series was a great treat and planted the seed for me. Next to Jim and Don (stecropper); the uniform mods from Sandman and Fizzjob, are the biggest influences in what continues to drive me to making mods for this great game. I'd like to think that guys like bctrackboi11 and myself took the torch for uniform modding and approached it with a ton of enthusiasm for classic and modern uniforms.

HA! HA! Yeah, regarding the Polish girl...she's not the absolute worst thing I've ever seen (in the first photo); but she's really nowhere passable for me. And remember, she's probably mega-dolled up in that first photo (make-up, hair done nice, etc) so that's not how she looks like on any given day. I think the second photo begins to glean the reality of the situation. Survey says: Yes, I agree with your points about Maddon...he's an excellent communicator, he's not bi-polar about the winning/losing streaks that occur in a season, and he's strikes a great balance between being laid-back enough, yet he has definite control of the ship. I agree that he would not be a good fit at all for any of the New York teams, just because of the social climate as you mentioned.

The Human Rights Watch group that is based in New York are a good example of these kind of people. They got wind that the Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Thailand released an ad that promoted their new "Charcoal Donut" that showed a smiling woman with blackface makeup and bright pink lipstick holding up a bitten black doughnut. Yes, I read and researched this utter nonsense a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately, and especially in this country, everyone feels the innate need to be offended; and to make matters far worse, they want to be compensated for “being offended” in the form of public apologies, money, or some other manner in which the offended can pound their chests and be viewed as “right” while the alleged, offensive group is ridiculed and deemed “evil and wrong”. This fringe, so-called, “Human Rights” group thankfully represents only a small faction of idiots that want to read far too much into a harmless ad. The old adage applies to this situation in particular: “If you want to see something (offensive), you’ll certainly find it if you look long enough.” I lump these morons into the same category of people who sense conspiracy in virtually every single aspect of life. First of all, regarding the ad in question, this is NOT blackface make-up, nor is the young-lady “made-up” to portray blackface. She is “photoshopped” painted entirely in black (a la the charcoal color), her hair is styled to represent smoke, and key elements of her face contain the primary colors of the brand (pink for the lips, and orange for the eyeshadow). From a graphic arts/marketing standpoint, I think the ad is a winner; it’s very clever, creative and intriguing to the point that I am so curious to how a charcoal donut tastes, I would buy one in a New York minute. Oh, and here's one of the versions of this horribly offensive ad: Also, there have been numerous African-Americans who were asked about the “blackface” connotations of the ad and the vast majority answered that “that is not blackface, it’s just a woman painted black <along with every other item in the ad>”. It’s also funny to read some of the comments from Great Britain concerning the “controversy” of the ad…my favorite one was “Yes, the United States, the same country who ‘sees’ Hitler in a JCPenny teapot and the Virgin Mary in various food items, beverages, and trees.” http://business.time.com/2013/05/29/jcpenneys-hitler-tea-kettle-sells-out-online/ ...There's a twenty-one year old woman from Poland who has announced that she wants to have sex with more than 100,000 men from every major city in the world. Ummm, I don’t know where to begin, but if you were one of the guys who decided to “engage” in this endeavor…how would you like to be the 90,000th guy or hell, the 100th guy in the chain? I think I just threw up in my mouth. ...I really like Joe Maddon, manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. This guy recently held a party near his Long Beach, California home and he announced that anyone who came into a sports bar that he was at wearing Rays gear they would get a free beer. He called it a "Win or Weep" party because his team was going through a five game losing streak and they've been playing poorly at the worst time of the year. Nice way to loosen up the team. I agree…there are so many reason to love this guy and hands down, Maddon is the best manager in the game (IMO) and I would imagine he’s a blast to play for. The man just “gets it” and understands today’s players.

I agree Jim...Paul's stadiums are masterpieces and I think that any of the Total Classics games wouldn't be the same with out his Comiskey Park, Milwaukee County Stadium, and one of my all-time favorites, Ebbet's Field. I happen to think that the mass environment of these stadiums are the key components in "immersing" the game player into whatever era we are trying to portray. The cyber-faces and uniforms are certainly important pieces of the pie; but these wonderful stadiums literally "make" the games true classics. Thank you Paul for giving these stadiums to the community.

...An Arizona Cardinals season ticket holder took his son to a pre-season game and at one point he decided he wanted to take a picture while he was there. Before he could take his picture he had to have his fifteen-year-old son hold his beer. He then gets his picture and takes his beer back. That's it. A short time later he was approached by undercover stadium police who informed him that they saw him serve alcohol to a minor and then they escorted them out of the stadium and handed the man a a citation for trespassing. How is this trespassing when they have season tickets and since when are there undercover stadium police and how come these same undercover cops are never around when a drunk is in your section wanting to start a fight with anyone around him? And cops wonder why they have so little respect from the public these days. I would fight this nonsense…I would explain in court that they need to provide proof that he was actually “serving” alcohol to a minor and that they definitely need to explain how the hell the man was ‘trespassing’ by being a ticket holder/season ticket holder. Undercover stadium police…what a joke. You’re right where are those idiots when there are drunken mini-riots in the stands at an NFL game. There’s probably a reason these losers (stadium police) are actively working an Arizona Cardinals game in posh Glendale, AZ. They would be running for the hills if they were assigned a L.A. Raiders games at the Coliseum in the late 1980’s <or hell, any Raiders/Chargers game> ...I wonder how proud Billy Ray Cyrus is of his daughter Miley after her little show at the MTV Video Music Awards? ...I like Australians, I really do. But sometimes the things they do I don't understand at all. Take last week for example. A birthday party was held near a crocodile-infested river in the Australian Outback and two guys who must have had too many Foster's Lager decided to go swimming in the Mary River, a river known worldwide to have the greatest saturation of adult saltwater crocodiles in the world. Why have a birthday party or any kind of party there? You can guess what happened next. The cat in question is about four feet tall and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything and that includes dogs. I don't get it. These people live with crime every day and they are afraid of a cat? There's got to be someone in that neighborhood who's got a gun and is dying to use it. Hmmm…apparently someone took your advice Y4L… I guess the cat was actually only about 2 feet tall. I love how people exaggerate details. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/27/detroit-big-cat-roaming/2706217/ ...There's something about the health of pitchers these days that I can not understand. There's been so many advancements in physical training over the years but the fact is more pitchers today are getting seriously hurt as compared to the pitchers from decades ago. You know, I’ve been thinking the same thing lately…and it’s not only with baseball pitchers, but with athletes in general. How in the world are these guys getting hurt seemingly far more easy than in years past? With the advances in training technology and sports-rehab clinics; today’s athlete is bigger, faster, and stronger…I just don’t understand how so many of them are doing on the DL (or worse), especially in a non-contact position like Pitcher. Even guys like TE Dustin Keller on the Miami Dolphins got tore up on a seemingly normal looking tackle on a missed catch during a pre-season game. The guy looks like he’s in superb shape, but now he’s done for the year. ...The city of Zurich, Switzerland, like most cities all around the world, has had a problem with open street prostitution but what they have done to try to curb it is, well, very Swiss-like. These people have converted nine buildings there into "sex drive-ins" where you drive in and park your car. Once you are there you place your order and instead of ordering a cheeseburger, fries and a coke, you order a girl. Ok, not to be vulgar or juvenile here; but in these “girls-of-the evening” drive-thrus…I have to ask, you know how when you sometimes order food from a drive-thru and they ask “Will you be eating in your car?”…well….are you supposed to consummate the act while in your car? Or do you get to take the lady to a place of your choice? Also, if you are required to engage while in the vehicle…do you get a discount in your car is smaller/not enough room and all that? I was also going to ask if these places take on the names of other famous drive-thrus in the world like one of my favorites like “In-n-Out”(Burgers) here in California, but maybe I wont.

Holy cr%p Jogar, that Keith Hernandez looks superb. I can't wait for the Harold Baines-"Oscar Gamble style".

You know what? I had something similar happen to me this spring with both the NBA 2K and MLB 2K games. Obviously these games use a lot of graphics card horsepower and especially if you are adding the graphics/color enhancements on them (like I do). Anyway my games were starting to stutter and then go black. I could still hear the crowd noises like you described and I had to shut down the PC. I thought this was strange because I was running these on a dedicated Gaming PC and I took the side panel of the case off to see if the GPU fan was clogged with dust or something. I typically run a program in the background called "GPU Temp" (it's free) and the damn temp on my GPU was up to 90+ degrees CELSIUS. That's way hotter than the averages (which are around 50-75 degrees celsius). So the problem wasn't dust...the entire fan on my GPU/Video Card had stopped and the only thing dissipating the heat was the thankfully large heatsink on the card. Luckily, through the warranty of the card, they sent me a brand new fan/heatsink combo for free and I just had to supply the thermal compound and install it myself. The temperatures went back to normal and I haven't had any further problems. Except for the obvious issues of making sure you have the latest video card drivers installed, your problem could potentially be "heat" related...so you might want to check that out. Best of luck to you, I know this stuff can be frustrating at times. Dennis

HA!HA!HA! That made my day.

Thanks Y4L, but I am always a believer that we improve (or strive to improve) in whatever our endeavors are; whether they are our hobbies or work. I know I never released those yellow A's uniforms separately, but it would be my fault that I let them slide into the MVP 12 and MVP 13 releases. Oh well, I guess I would be really weird if I actively kept track of every uniform set for 120 teams in the game.

File Name: 2013 Oakland Athletics Uniform Corrections File Submitter: dennisjames71 File Submitted: 27 Aug 2013 File Category: Uniforms and Accessories Version: 1.0 OAKLAND A's UNIFORM PACK 2013 My apologies that some of these issues with the As uniforms, went under the radar when I checked them for MVP 13 release. The first correction in this pack is the now, modern/corrected wordmark for the Oakland road uniforms. As you can see from the Coco Crisp screenshot; the road uniforms had been using the pre-1993 wordmark. The correct ones are in this pack. Secondly, I was reviewing the yellow alternate uniforms in MVP 13 and they are awful. I feel I can say that because I made these back in early 2011 when these jerseys were announced and I think the colors for the uniform are terrible <see other screenshot>. My skills in color manipulation/application have certainly improved and these are far more accurate along with the correct white outline on the font numbers and letters. Lastly, I made some fictional alternate road uniforms for the As with the 'Oakland' wordmark and a yellow colored elephant shoulder patch. Right now, I have them in the following slots: Slot B = Road (Modern Correct Wordmark) Slot D = FICTIONAL Alt. Road Slot E = Alt. Home (Yellow) Extract the main ZIP file and install each of the individual ZIP files for the uniforms you want to update. Feel free to to put them into other uniform slots by re-naming them and re-Zipping them up. Use TiT to install. *Also included in the main ZIP are uniform select screens in BMP format. Enjoy! Dennis Click here to download this file

What a great nod of acknowledgement to modders of the game. And what 2 excellent choices to kick off this thread with... Thanks for this idea Y4L!

HA! I love the pre-fro Cubs photo of Oscar...it looks so out of place, that it's hillarious. It's like it's really a picture of someone else. Those were the days when there was SOME possibility of the baseball cap touching the skin on his head...well and these days too since he doesn't have too much hair left. Although it must have been really easy for Oscar in the 1970s when each Spring Training and Season would roll around and he never had to worry if they had enough properly sized caps for him. He could have worn a tiny sized 6 cap or a massive Barry Bonds Roid-Cap; and it wouldn't have mattered in the least. This might be a good time to revisit the story of why I have the 1976 Topps Traded Oscar card as my avatar. I think I mentioned it back in 2010, when I joined the site...but the story is that it was 1980 and me and my friends collected all kinds of sports cards and mostly baseball. We were really young kids and were well aware of the famously funny Oscar Gamble card and for whatever reason, we all had to have it. It's like we attached some gran intrinsic value on the card because it simply made us roar with laughter because of the ridiculous air-brush work on the card and the priceless "what am I doing here?" look on Oscar's face. Anyway, one of my friends ended up acquiring the card that summer and I wanted the card so bad, that I agreed to a trade. The infamous trade included my 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson (yes, his rookie card) and a 1978 Julius Erving card (the super-sized NBA cards from that year) for the 1976 Oscar Gamble card. Of course, years later I realized how lopsided a trade that was but really never cared much. In the mid-80s, I started putting my Oscar card in one of those protective card holders (changing it every few years) and I carry it around with me to all the places I have lived since. I don't analyze the situation too much...I don't wonder if I keep it to remind me to be careful about making deals or trying to latch onto fleeting childhood memories. The card just makes me laugh to this day and to know that the passion for the sport I love feels the same as when I was a kid.

Hey Y4L, I enjoyed this week's "Random Thoughts" and what caught my eye was the information on "International Left-Handers Day". I can't believe I never had that marked on my calendar because I love to share the stories and the agonies of being a left-hander in a right-handed world. I'm sure you already know that we only comprise of a little over 11% of the population (for both male & female, female is only about 9%). I completely agree that it has always been aesthetically and financially unfair to us as left-handers. Going to school and sitting in those crappy right-hand desks and uselessness of spiral notebooks...I started writing backwards (starting on the backpage and going left) on those spiral notebooks when I was a Freshman in high school. I happen to use my mouse on the right-hand side, but the cool thing is that I can adpetly use either hand in any configuration whenever I need to. However, I have the same great experience whenever I have friends over who are interested in my guitars; because they can never play around with them for long since they are either left-handed or the guitars are strung left-handed. Then they get mad at me when I pick up one of their righty guitars and I can actually play some chords and scales on them. LOL! I know what you mean about the ridiculous prices for specialized "left-handed" products. In the late 1990s I stumbled on an actual "Left-Handers" shop near San Diego and just had to go inside. They had every conceivable lefty product I could think of and they even had a cafe where all of the coffe cups for sale were left-handed (you know, so that the image on the cup would be facing outward when you drink with your left-hand). They played music in the cafe and you could even buy select music CDs of artists who were left-handed (like you would be able to tell?). Anyway, I did purchase some useful items like a pair of left-handed scissors (still have them), spiral notebooks, and yes...a couple of those stupid lefty coffee mugs.

Oh, from what I read on NLSC and saw on some uniform making tutorials (for NBA 2K games)...they said that the NBA logo is usually hardcoded into the standard home/away uniforms but the uniform slots that are Retro (e.g. rh10023) will not have the NBA logos on the uniforms. I think this goes for some special/alternative jerseys as well but I haven't researched this enough. Even though I can get picky about some of these "historical accuracy" things, I don't even notice this when I'm playing the game; especially in a fast paced game like basketball.

Hey Y4L, Here are about 20 screenshots of the ABA mod in NBA 2K12. You get to even use the official ABA ball too. Sometimes the uniforms might have the small NBA logos on them (because they are hard-coded) but everyone who worked on these really made this project as authentic as possible. I zipped the screenshots for your convenience...and I have some shots of mcoll's Pacers team too. ABA Screenshots.zip

Hey mcoll, Who was your ABA team? I loved the New York Nets simply because of Dr. J. and what he did for that great league.

Hey, not a problem Y4L. I'm sure I will get a chance this evening to take some screenshots of the ABA mod and a lot of the different teams. Another cool thing about the ABA mod/rosters is that they include the Harlem Globetrotters (and their own court) along with the fictitious Flint Tropics team from the movie "Semi-Pro". It really a whole lotta 70's (and late-1960s) coolness and basketball action. Stay tuned...

Hey Gordo, I really think those 1980s sliders are pretty accurate...even though the 1980s were known for the dominating centers and some teams with hard-nosed defense; the scoring was far greater in this decade. I think that they captured that in those slider although I do tweak them a bit here and there. I played a 1987 game between the Nuggets and the Suns and the score was 121 Nuggets vs 111 for the Suns. I'd like to see some good 1970s and 1960s sliders soon and give them a test. Sorry I've been busy lately, but how are you enjoying the game overall? -Dennis

LOL! Well if you think of it this way Y4L, can you imagine if you installed Total Classics Baseball for the 1975-2013 seasons as individual installs (at about 2-3 GB a piece)? I guess in that regard, 15GB would seem like small peanuts. I have to say, that I kinda like only having to load up a single game and then just choosing the year I want to play in via a particular roster load.