Baseball is a sport that, perhaps more than any other, appeals to the fan on two levels. The first level is where you go out watch the action unfold - hitting the ball, running the bases, hot dogs and beer. The second level of baseball is the statistical aspect, which baseball probably has more than any other major sport. Strikeouts, slugging percentages, errors, on base averages, any statistic that can be kept is kept in baseball. And for the most part, baseball games on the PC have appealed mostly to the folks who love just playing the game, with any statistical input being secondary. All of that is changed with Baseball for Windows: Broadcast Blast, a game which totally reverses what you'd expect a computer version of baseball to be. In fact, Baseball for Windows is nothing but statistics. You never see one ball thrown, you never swing a bat, you never actually run the bases. Instead, BFW lets you be the manager with control over any managerial aspects of the game, and never offers arcade-style action.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that while there's no arcade action going on that this is a boring game. Not even close. Being based on the APBA board game, Baseball for Windows shows the logistical side of baseball, something that a lot of people don't realize exists as much as it does. I will say that this game is absolutely NOT for everyone. If you're the kind of person that thinks there shouldn't even be statistics in sports, you'll probably think that this is the worst program ever developed for the PC. But on the other hand, if you're the type of person that likes computing things like the defensive efficiency record, the save opportunity percentage, and the inherited runners scored percentage, you'll probably think that BFW is one of the greatest games ever made.
Playing a game of baseball in BFW consists of looking at a still picture of a stadium with the players' names being put on their respective positions. A menu bar on the right hand of the screen lets the player, both defensively and offensively, choose which actions are to be taken by the team, but these choices are only as broad as an actual manager's choices in a real game. On offense the player can order his players to hit the ball, bunt, steal, hit and run, and call a time out. Defensively, the player can choose to pitch to the batter or intentionally walk him, hold the runner close on first, pitch from the stretch, and play the infield in close. Every now and then a situation will occur where a baserunner has tagged on a fly out and has a chance to advance to the next base. In these situations the offensive player must decide whether or not to have his runner try for the next base, while the defensive player must decide which base to throw to. Since real managers must make these decisions quickly, BFW mimics this by giving players a limited amount of time to make these choices.
Of course, the player can also substitute in BFW, just as a manager can in a real baseball game. This is where most of the strategy takes place, since there's not much more interaction than that as far as game play is concerned. The player is the manager, choosing all of the strategy for his team. For an arcade lover this is hell, but for a baseball strategist - heaven.
Baseball For Windows: Broadcast Blast has gained its title from the Ernie Harwell (the longtime Detroit Tigers announcer who was recently elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame) commentary throughout the game. Listening to the announcing can, at first, sound a little strange. The game is actually stringing together a bunch of prerecorded phrases and words which, when heard all at once, loses the continuity of actual speech. But overall the quality is quite impressive. The program doesn't have a lot of stops and pauses while loading in the speech and there's a surprising amount of diversity included. It's really a lot of fun to listen to while playing the game, but some strategy purists will probably be searching for the "off" button after an inning or two.
Baseball for Windows includes much more than actually playing a game of baseball. Several other modules come with the main program. The Advanced Draft module lets the player set up his own organizations, leagues and teams. It's a very diverse and powerful editing system in which the players can be switched from team to team and called up from farm teams. Creating organizations and leagues are a little confusing at first since you have to create from the top down. Before you can add teams to your league you first must create an organization, which includes your league, which includes your divisions, which includes your teams, which includes your players. This is nearly as confusing as it sounds, but once you've created a full organization, you get the hang of it. The only problem is that the teams that are available to mess around with are very limited. Included are the players from the 1971, '43, and '21 seasons. While there are four old-timer leagues which have the great players from years ago, there are no modern players in the original package. If you want these players you have to go buy add-on disks which have these folks in them. There's an encyclopedia add-on available (not included with BFW) called the Bill James Electronic Baseball Encyclopedia. You can import stats of players and team from the Encyclopedia into BFW, which includes a small demo of the James work.
Also included with BFW is the League Manager, which does exactly what you'd expect it to do. This module shows the schedule for any league that has been created, the starting pitcher in each game, and the times and places that the games will be played. The lineups for each game can be accessed so the player can do things like set up rotations for his pitchers.
The StatMaster module is where the pure baseball statistician will have a field day. As a season progresses, the StatMaster is where any statistic about anything involved in the league can be found and printed. Want to compare stats like most double plays, number of outs made, hits per nine innings, shutout percentages, or strikeout-to-walk ratios? All of this and much more is available for you to use and peruse using the StatMaster. Even the most demanding of baseball statisticians should be appeased with the sheer amount of numbers that this module is able to produce.
Along with playing the game, BFW also comes with some nice support packages. An on-line tutorial takes you through the aspects of playing and working with BFW, a program called Tale Spinner is included which has audio interview clips with folks talking about the game of baseball and their experiences, and there's also a section called Great Announcers which has biographies of some of the game's greatest announcers. All in all, any baseball nut will spend hours checking out the additional information provided on the CD.
As said before, Baseball For Windows: Broadcast Blast is not for everybody. The low level of direct interaction with the game is sure to turn a lot, if not most, folks off. Only the most involved of baseball fans, the kinds who like to keep their own scorecard with every out and sac fly noted, will be able to fully enjoy this package, and of those only the ones who eat, live, breath and sleep baseball will be able to get the most out of it. A statistical paradise, BFW can be overwhelming with all of the numbers and percentages but BFW, like the game of baseball itself, takes time and study to know and understand.
