RetroPlay In Progress (2.0)

April 2, 2025: The foundation has been laid, so construction of the RetroPlay virtual replay system — version 2.0 — is underway. In this session and those that are scheduled to follow in the next weeks/months, the grids (30-year spreadsheets) are to be uploaded for examination and use. These revised grids will reflect the new team and league configurations, though the parameters and rules for the replay process will remain essentially unchanged. See below (under the 3/31/25 posting) for more details. One new wrinkle that interested parties will probably enjoy: I’ll upload the seasonal templates — distillations of grids into applicable columns that are easier to work with when replaying, going team-by-team and year-by-year. If time allows, reproductions of the templates used for RetroPlay 1.0 (original design and run-through) will also be uploaded for those who want to check my work and/or duplicate the experiment themselves. If that batch of uploads comes to fruition, look for it on the RetroPlay Results (1.0) MEGA-page. But for now, priority #1 is to build toward a fully-functioning version 2.0.

…………………………………….

March 31, 2025: This newest page among Seaporter1 websites is set to begin the process of construction. The purpose of this page is to display the revised league structure and compile the results of a second run-through (version 2.0) of the Open Baseball League (OBL).

Like the original project design, each Major League Baseball (MLB) season will be (virtually) replayed, using birthplace-based teams rather than the historic squads. In essence, all of the historic players (well, most of ’em, at any rate) will be “divvied up” by birthplaces within larger regions (U.S. state or regional configurations and extra-national, or “foreign” country combinations). WAR (Wins Above Replacement) values achieved in a given season by each birthplace-based team’s players will again determine the wins, losses, standings, and that year’s champion. (No playoffs or post-season; the regular season is the “whole enchilada”). The main difference this time around is that the teams will be combined in slightly different ways that should tend to involve a few less franchises, but foster better competition league-wide throughout the eras. At least, that’s how it looks to me on paper before the replays begin. We’ll see…

The plan then, is this: The 19th Century seasons (1871-1900) will probably see very little, if any change; but seasons from 1901 through 1948 will be replayed with special interest, as we adopt the official MLB/Baseball Reference.com RE-definitions regarding the Negro League (Black Baseball) leagues (i.e., 7 NLB leagues were retroactively granted Major League status in 2020/2021; many (1.0) teams will be affected by this in version 2.0); the years from 1949 through 2020 will also be replayed with the new regional combinations, and that will bring to a close the second 150-year run-through of our virtual OBL. All of the results and summary reports will trickle in when ready, so this page will grow accordingly.

Okay, that’s it for today, but check back often in the coming weeks and months to see what we’ve been building.

RetroPlay (version 2.0) Grids (spreadsheets)

Here we go with 2.0. As per usual, for each 30-year OBL era, an Excel-compatible version precedes the PDF. All of these files are made available as free downloads (tip: .xls files can be manipulated as you see fit, but editing PDF material may require a paid Adobe Acrobat subscription; just FYI).

Notes on the data: Everyone should feel free to get out ahead of me and do their own replays, whether using my league configurations or not. Nobody says that you have to use my birthplace-defined teams, WAR as the numerical basis, or the same 150-year span. “You do you,” as they say. As for myself, I’m not disowning my original project or its design, by any means. I’m doing version 2.0 for three simple reasons:

First, I did see some room for improvement in the methodology (a better way to make some regional combinations more competitive and rosters not stretched so thin);

Second, it seemed wise to better align with Major League Baseball and Baseball-Reference.com definitions re: which players from the old Negro Leagues (on a league-wide basis) qualified to be named as authentic, historical MLB players (although retro-actively, it should be noted). In other words, it’s better to strive for statistical consistency, and since RetroPlay is dependent upon the actual stats and reported WAR values displayed by MLB and BR, it just makes sense to eliminate as much guesswork and what-if speculative machinations and stick as close as possible to the objective numbers. Yes, this is fantasy-league stuff, but to me, the more realistic the system, the greater mental satisfaction that can be derived from it. (Here I go again with the “mental fun” angle).

Third, as always, if I have the time and health to do this sort of thing, I do get a kick out of it. I call this work-play because it is production of a sort and largely tedious (data entry, re-entry, re-RE-entry, long-form combination and RE-combination), but the element of play is always there, and its importance as a part of an enjoyable life remains. At least, that’s how this researcher-writer sees it (me doing me).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~////~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TEMPLATES (to be used in version 2.0 season replays)

Before this session winds up, the next uploads will be a series of templates that can be used to replay the seasons on paper (print these out and use as worksheets to add up the team WAR for a given season). These will all be in .xls (Excel-compatible) form so that they can be altered/manipulated to suit. Advisory: download these soon (for free) because eventually, the plan is to offer them exclusively on an upcoming sp1works.com store page (charges, though never steep, will be attached to many items that are now available at no cost to you). Here’s the first batch; this will take us through 1930 (RetroPlay era 2):

We’ve come to session’s end for April 2, 2025. Back to work on the necessary behind-the-scenes stuff for the entire staff (myself). When more files and graphics are ready, they’ll be posted in dribs and drabs.