The Recycle Bin

For those of you that aren’t Indians fans, here’s a bit of history from ESPN this week:

“We tried to do it in Cleveland, we didn’t quite succeed. We lost the team,” Steinbrenner said. “We tried to buy the Indians first, but we didn’t get them. So Gabe Paul said, ‘Let’s come up to New York and see the Yankee people. They want to sell.’ So we came up here, and I met with Bill Paley, and he was a man of his word, he stood behind everything he ever told me. And that was it. I just fell in love with New York.”

That’s right… Steinbrenner tried to buy the Tribe in 1973, but the Indians’ current ownership wouldn’t pull the trigger. Gabe Paul was in control of the Indians for most of the 70’s and 80’s, except for a few years with New York, as described by Steinbrenner above.

I wonder if he would’ve accomplished the same types of things in Cleveland as he has in New York? Nah… nothing ever that good happens for Cleveland’s sports teams.

I am not sure why, but sometimes I find rather mundane things humorous. For instance a couple of nights ago I posted about the new Miller Lite “raining beer” commercial. On the side nav referral today, to what did my wonder eyes appear? On a Google search referral “raining beer commercial” shows CG 2nd from the top; for some reason I find that rather amusing. Try “miller commercial raining beer” which also put CG in the Top 5. Funny stuff.

CG, we are all about the beer.

Digital download of NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005 was supposed to be ready last week. Then ealy this week. Now….who the heck knows? Sports Interactive may be good developers, but good Lord do they not know how to get a game to the United States.

Some funny culture clash commentary going on in the OOTP and SIGames forums. While the US-based OOTP boards are all a twitter about the new expansion, the intrusion of baseball into the stoic and non-tolerant world of “football” is getting interesting reaction from the European faithful. They seem a bit underwhelmed.

I absolutely hate what has happened to sports – in all but a few cases, the athletes run the show. I am not naive to the point where I do not understand what is going on in today’s sports culture, but that does not mean I have to like it.

Everyone knows about the love triangle between Kobe, Shaquille, and Uncle Phil, so I will not elaborate. Instead I want to focus on the ridiculousness surrounding the return of Phil Jackson to the Lakers. Take this gem of a quote from Kobe Bryant:

“When the Lakers began the search for a new head coach, I put my complete trust in Dr. Buss and (general manager) Mitch Kupchak to select the person they thought was best for the Lakers’ organization,” Bryant said. “In Phil Jackson, they chose a proven winner. That is something I support.”

Who gives a flying flip what Bryant thinks about the search for a new head coach? And what if Kobe did not put his complete trust in the head brass? What then? A trade demand maybe? I am so sick and tired of all the cry baby athletes that are paraded around by the media as if we actually care about their opinions. I know I do not, which means that I have already written too much about Kobe.

If you don’t already know that Out of the Park Baseball 6.5 is available for download, then you won’t be interested in anything I write about, so move along and chat with Kevin or Jonathan.

I love the new Miller Lite – “It is raining beer” commercial. Great stuff! Speaking of great stuff, I am not sure if anyone got my “tighten up the graphics” refernece from a few posts back. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you need to check out this link that I stumbled across via the new last referrals list section on the right-hand side of the site. The commercial is too damn funny!

I am not sure what that says about me, but I enjoy good commercials, 80’s music (thank you VH1 Classics!), the O’Reilly Factor, I still love to read D&D books, the first song I downloaded for my iPod was “Voices Carry” (‘Till Tuesday), I think 50 Cent kicks arse, and I still do not own an Xbox because it does not rule as much as the PS2. I am not sure what the hell that says about me, but I am a die hard Bulldogs fan, I love the Falcons, and I have followed the Braves since the Biff Pocoroba days. I have several Star Trek DVDs, Seinfeld is my favorite series, I never made it big with my Net Yaroze!, and I think it would be cool to own a hobby shope that specializes in tropical fish. In short, I walk alone.

What bothers me? Work; cannot say much since folks from work read this blog, which is hard to believe, but never the less true. iTunes does not have very much in the way of a Corey Hart selection, which is something that I think sucks in a big way. Jacko gets off when everyone knows he is a perv; plus he should no longer be called “the King of Pop.” Other stuff bothers me, like I am almost (but not all the way) attracted to Kelly Clarkson; that really bothers me for some reason. Plus I still remember the lyrics to White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) by Grandmaster Flash, and I never come close to doing that sort of thing. But I think I may get laid tonight, so it is all good.

This is from the Diamond Mind Baseball forum:

“DMB was, of course, a PC game and, as indicated, was rated 4.5 out of 5 and also was named an Editor’s Choice. The others reviewed in this category were Baseball Mogul 2006 (3.5), Inside The Park Baseball (3), PureSim Baseball (3), and Ultimate Baseball Online (2.5).”

Inside the Park Baseball!!?? Baseball Mogul 2006 beat out Puresim!!?? No Out of the Park Baseball 6 in the mix?

Good grief.

Saw on Diamond Mind Baseball’s site that it was selected as the best PC baseball game. Now, don’t get me wrong, Diamond Mind Baseball is the best at what it does. If I wanted to replay baseball seasons, I certainly would choose DMB over almost every product out there. However, and this is a BIG however, DMB is so limited in comparison to Out of the Park Baseball or Puresim Baseball that any magazine that claims DMB as the best baseball game made, simply should get out of the game review business.

I don’t know who the competition was for this award (the article appears in the June 28th edition of PC Magazine), but I do know that DMB is great at some aspects of baseball, so is OOTP, heck, even MVP Baseball has its good qualities. But they are all very different games aimed at very different baseball desires.

I honestly didn’t know that PC Magazine was still in business since I stopped subscribing to it ten years ago. Their game reviews were horrible back then and I suspect that not much has changed over the years.

But it is good to see text games getting some props with the print media.

Gamespot has an interesting interview with the folks working on NASCAR 06. It seems that team crews will play a pretty big role in success or failure this season. If this feature works and the game isn’t dumbed down with silly trophy and unlocking features, this couild be a game worth purchasing. Tiburon was generally praised for their previous effort, but I didn’t buy it because nothing seemed worth giving up on Papyrus’ classic NASCAR Racing game.

I may have to use my EA birthday coupon afterall.

I read over at Gamespot that EA Sports announced a new Arena Football game. This could actually be an interesting product, but I am sure EA Sports will mess it up. There will probably be plenty of “extreme” action stuff and a weak simulation engine.

Who knows, maybe they’ll surprise me?

NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005 was released last week. Once again, Americans need to go to extraordinary lengths to purchase a Sports Interactive product. We all know about the Worldwide Soccer Manager fiasco, better known as the game that was released but never really was. The previous version of the EHM series was available via digital download. The second game will also be available via download�at some point in the future.

Yes, I know that unlike the WSM debacle, EHM can be ordered through GoGamer.com and folks are getting the game pretty quickly. I just can�t understand why Sports Interactive still isn�t trying to get their products more widespread distribution in the United States.

The impending release of SI�s Out of the Park Baseball really has me worried since the company shows no ability to get games to the United States in any coherent fashion. I can imagine a scenario where OOTP will be available in Sweden before it is in America.

We shall see�

I’m sure Jonathan read the news about the link between kudzu and binge drinking. I should point out that until Mr. Calvert dubbed his OOTP team in our online league the Columbus Kudzu, I’d never heard of the plant.

One of the “can’t-miss” reads on the internet, in my opinion, is Bill Harris’ Dubious Quality blog. In one of today’s entries, he discusses an article in Discover magazine that argues that playing video games makes you smarter. Silly me, I just thought it made me lazy, yet more prone to violence. Anyway, rather than give you second-hand information of second-hand information, just click here and read the post entitled “Gamers and the Brain.” It’s good stuff!

Piggy-backing a bit on Chris’s last post…

Lately, I’ve been using All Star Baseball 2004 as my main baseball simulator. That’s right, I’m using a console baseball game as a sim. The incredible depth and realism of the Franchise mode, combined with the ability to manage-only, and a very “watchable” game of baseball on the screen, make ASB 2004 a pretty good choice for those that don’t want to rely on hand-eye coordination to build a winning team. There are a few minor bugs to slog through, like the dreaded “roster analysis” screen that forces your hand on some moves due to position distribution, and some graphical glitches, but for me, these are fairly easily overlooked. It’s a fair trade-off for a game that includes salary arbitration, the June Amateur Draft, 40-man rosters, options, and many more items that are “by the book” in Major League Baseball. Never has any game – PC or console – more accurately simulated what it’s like in the GM’s chair from a baseball operations standpoint, in my opinion.

I’ve decided to take control of the Pirates, circa 2003 (ASB 2004 was actually released in the Spring of 2003), and see if I can build a winner with their feeble budget. Surprisingly, at that point in time, I really feel like the Pirates had a competitive roster for the NL Central. Too bad they traded all of that talent away…

Why the Pirates, you ask? I just absolutely love PNC Park, and I can’t think of a better place to “manage” half of my games… Plus, I kind of get tired of picking my hometeam Indians all of the time.

While I was basking in the joy of returning to the internet yesterday, I forgot to mention what a great job Jonathan did with the site upgrade. Place looks pretty darn good.

Most of the baseball sim world that matters � the Out of the Park Baseball crowd � is heavily invested in the �to buy version 6.5 or not to buy� debate raging in various forums. Markus is charging $9.95 for the first OOTP expansion pack and this just didn�t sit right (as we say in Texas) with some of the rabid fans. I reserved judgment until I saw the final feature list. I must say that at $9.95 it is a pretty good deal, if everything works as advertised.

No word on the support that will come with the inevitable 6.5 bugs, but Markus and Sports Interactive clearly announced version 7 way too soon. OOTP 6.5 has as many new features as some of the previous full versions on release. Not a whole lot new for online leagues, although trading picks is a nice feature. I�m just not sure how this will work with a June draft. The general game gets a number of stat tweaks and AI adjustments.

Many in the online community fear how OOTP 6.5 will affect BOSI and Catobase. Markus told one league commissioner that the CSV files haven�t been touched, but I think I�ll wait a while and let other braver leagues take the plunge.