Tony La Russa Baseball II Help Tony La Russa Baseball II brings many facets of the game to the computer. Each of these is available to you through the menu bar at the top of the screen. Press escape (the ESC key on the keyboard) or move the mouse pointer up to the top of the screen to access the pull down menus. Use the arrow keys or the mouse to select from the menus. The menu bar is available at all times in the game, although the actual items on the bar may change according to which part of the game you are playing. !*************** F7 means help! *****************! If at any time in the game you are having a problem or don't understand what's going on, press F7. Tony II will do its best to provide some useful information. Click on the arrow buttons to the right scroll the help text; or use the page up and page down keys. OVERVIEW Here is an overview of the five menu bar choices in Tony II. After the overview is a brief description of each selection on each menu. THE BASEBALL ICON (on the left end of the menu bar): play arcade-style baseball from here, or create new teams with the Fantasy Draft feature. THE SEASON MENU: Baseball standings, season schedules, standard (computer-simulated) games, box scores, and the all-star game are all available from the season menu. THE MANAGER MENU: Who's on the team, who's in the starting lineup, and who's in the pitching rotation? Ask and answer all managerial questions here. THE UTILITIES MENU: See the statistical leaders: who hit the most homers, drove in the most runs, won the most games, or led any other category you can think of. Create your own baseball leagues, teams, and players, and fill in their stats as you see fit. Take a good look around inside each of the stadiums; pick out the best one for each team to play in. THE HOME PLATE ICON (at the right end of the menu bar): display, save, or print additional information here. A single keystroke brings up detailed batting, pitching, or fielding stats, or sends the data to your printer, or saves it in a text file for later use. If you get lost anywhere in the game, press F7 for help. (more about each menu below) MORE ABOUT THE MENUS THE BASEBALL ICON: PLAYBALL: play an arcade-style game of baseball. 'Playball' will take you to the ground rules menu, then to the lineup exchange screen, then right out onto the field. This will be an exhibition game. LOAD SAVED GAME: at any time during the play of a game, you may save it to disk. Load saved game retrieves the game, and picks up where you left off. FANTASY DRAFT: here you can pool an entire league's players, then hold your own draft. Choose up teams however you see fit, with the computer participating as much or little as you like. GENERAL HELP: select 'general help' to display the Tony II overview you are reading now. CREDITS: This is a list of all the people involved in the creation of Tony II. QUIT: exit the game and return to DOS. THE SEASON MENU: STANDINGS: displays the baseball standings for the current date of the season. The first time you start up the game, the season hasn't begun yet, so the teams will be in alphabetical order within their divisions. PLAY STANDARD GAMES: Tony II will simulate all or any part of an entire baseball season. Use 'Play Standard Games' to have the computer play any games you do not want to feature (play yourself). LEAGUE SCHEDULE: The league schedule screen displays a single day of the season's schedule and allows you to select featured games. TEAM SCHEDULE: The team schedule screen displays one month of games for a specific team, and allows you to select featured games. START NEW SEASON: In Tony II, the season may be 162 games long, just as in professional baseball, or it can be a simple one-game round robin - each team plays every other team exactly once, or you can create a schedule somewhere in between. Use Start New Season to select a schedule of games for the league configuration you designed in 'Setup Leagues' on the utilities menu. GAME SCORES: Tony La Russa Baseball II keeps a record of the score of every game during the season. To review these scores, select 'Game Scores.' SPECIAL BOX SCORES: Occasionally, in baseball on the field, an unusual result occurs: one team scores 20 runs, or someone throws a no hitter, or a guy gets a pinch grand slam, or something. The same is true in Tony II: now and then the out of the ordinary happens. The special box scores feature allows you to preserve these exciting games. PLAYOFF RESULTS: When the playoffs begin, line scores of the individual games replace the baseball standings. Here you can follow the playoffs as the games are being played. ALL-STAR GAME: At any time during the season, you may choose to play an allstar game. The computer will evaluate the players, based on historical or simulated statistics, and choose an allstar team from each league. THE MANAGER MENU: PLAYER ROSTER: The player roster screen presents a list of all batters on the team, as well as those on the reserve list. Here you can change the active roster of a team by moving players to and from the reserve list. PITCHING STAFF: The pitching staff screen presents a list of all pitchers on the team, as well as those on the reserve list. Here you can change the active roster of a team by moving pitchers to and from the reserve list. DEFENSIVE ASSIGNMENTS: Here you assign players to defensive positions, keeping in mind that the player with the best glove for a certain position is not always the best choice. Keep offense in mind too. BATTING ORDER: After you have made the defensive assign- ments for your team, it's time to put together a batting order. If you haven't set up your defense yet, you should do that, then return to the batting order screen. MANAGER PROFILE: A manager profile is a model of a manager's tendencies in certain baseball situations. In Tony La Russa Baseball II, the model is built out of several "sliders," which describe each tendency on a scale of one to ten. It is here you can recreate the innovative style of the legendary John McGraw - or bring your own skill, knowledge, and insight to bear on your team's playing personality. NEW TEAM: Whenever you select an option from the manager menu, the program first asks you to choose a team. When you are finished with the first team, click here to select another one to work with. THE UTILITIES MENU: STATISTICAL LEADERS: The statistical leaders screen is a powerful database tool, which can sort and display the players' statistics in a variety of categories. CHANGE LEAGUES: Tony La Russa Baseball II can maintain up to 50 different leagues of players, each with its own name. Use change leagues to switch from one league to another. SETUP LEAGUES: Tony II is flexible when it comes to managing leagues, divisions, and teams. Play one or two leagues of either one or two divisions. Mix and match teams however you like. Use setup leagues to create and modify leagues. EDIT TEAM NAMES: Leagues and teams come with standard names: "A" and "N" for the leagues; "California," "Chicago A," "Kansas City," and so on for the teams. These names are not fixed. League names may be anything, up to 14 letters or numbers; teams names can be up to 13 characters in length. EDIT TEAM COLORS: Each team has a 'main' color, used on the players' cap, sleeves, belt, and socks, and an 'accent' color for details and stripes. Just as the team names and league names are not fixed, nor are the team colors. EDIT PLAYER STATS: Tony La Russa Baseball II maintains many statistics for each player. These stats are divided into three groups - batting, pitching, and fielding, each of which you can edit separately. ASSIGN STADIUMS: In Tony La Russa Baseball II, each team plays in its own home stadium. The Assign Stadiums screen allows you to change which park each team plays its home games in. TRADES: Teams may trade zero, one, two, or three players with each other. The players may be all pitchers, all batters, or a combination of each. The only limita- tions are that after the trade, both teams must be left with 15 to 24 batters and 10 to 16 pitchers. IMPORT VERSION 1 STATS: Tony La Russa Baseball II will accept teams and data from Tony La Russa's Ultimate Baseball. You may import single teams one at a time, or entire leagues all at once. IMPORT ONLINE SERVICE STATS: Tony II will accept statistics from the Stats Inc. Online Service. Be sure to follow the instructions for the service, and refer to the guidelines in the help text for this menu option. THE HOME PLATE ICON (on the right end of the menu bar): On many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F4, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: switches between historical and simulated statistics The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. When you are viewing box scores, F6 adds the text to the file, boxscore.txt. To get more information about any of the menu selections, click on the item, then press F7 when you get there. * Ground Rules Help Before you start to play a featured or exhibition game, the program displays the ground rules. Here you tell the computer who controls each team, and with what input device, and how difficult the gameplay should be. Also, you can switch on or off various options, such as the DH, errors, sound effects, and so on. Each team has a column of options and check boxes: CONTROL: this area describes who controls this team, you or the computer: PLAY: Select 'play' if you want to control all aspects the play of this team: managing, hitting, and fielding. MANAGE ONLY: 'Manage only' means you make the top-level decisions - who plays, whether or not to steal, when to pitch out, and so on. The computer does the rest: swings the bat, selects and throws pitches, makes all the plays in the field. In other words, you are the manager, the guy in the dugout, and the computer controls the players on the field. COMPUTER: Click on 'computer' to have the machine run everything - the managing and the on-field play. INPUT: here you select the input device for this team: KEYBOARD: use the keyboard to input your game play choices. JOYSTICK1: use the first joystick to run this team. The computer will disallow this selection if no joystick is connected. JOYSTICK2: the second joystick will control this team. The computer will disallow this selection if no joystick is connected. MOUSE: use the mouse to run this team. If no mouse is hooked up, the program will not allow this choice. AUTO: stands for "automatic." If you are controlling the players (the 'PLAY' choice under control, above), this describes which actions you want the computer to take care of. Check 'YES' to tell the machine to control an action, 'NO' if you want to do it: FIELDING: this covers everything in the field, except throwing the ball. If you check 'yes' here, the computer will get under fly balls, get in front of grounders, and run to pick up hits. You will have to throw the ball. THROWING: select 'yes' to have the computer make all throws in the field. This does not affect actually running to get the ball, only what the players do after they have it. RUNNING: is short for "base running." If you want the machine to control the lead runner for you, click on 'yes.' The computer always handles all the trailing runners. On the right half of the screen are general gameplay options, with yes/no check boxes: DESIGNATED HITTER: Typically, the "A" league uses the DH, the "N" league does not. This allows you to change that. NIGHT GAME: The physics of the baseball vary with the time of day, as do players' performances. Check 'yes' to play a night game, 'no' to take the field during the day. ERRORS: errors are random events, based on the players' fielding averages. If you want to play error-free ball, select 'no' here. INJURIES: from time to time players will get injured and have to be replaced in the lineup. Select 'no' to disable this feature. COMPUTER PIPES BALL: Check 'yes' to tell the computer to try to throw all pitches right down the middle of the plate. This is similar to batting practice. A tired pitcher, or one with poor control, may not always succeed in piping the ball. USE STATS: the outcome of each play is based on the statistics of the players involved. To disable the stat model and create a more arcade style game, click on 'no' here. The results will be random, although good players will still tend to play better than poor ones. ONE PITCH MODE: this a batter-pitcher confrontation short cut. One pitch mode displays only the action of the "result pitch" for each batter. If the hitter strikes out, only strike three is shown. If a home run is the outcome, the only pitch you see is the one the batter blasts out of the park. You may select one pitch mode only if each team's control is either 'manage only' or 'computer.' When you are playing, one pitch mode is always off. AUTO REPLAYS: Tony La Russa Baseball II comes complete with several "big screen" instant replays of exciting plays in the field. These switch on automatically when they occur. To disable this feature, select 'no' here. SOUND EFFECTS: To disable the sounds effects, click on 'no.' VOICE: to turn off Ron Barr's play-by-play of the game, select 'no' here. MUSIC: to shut off the various pieces of music, choose choose 'no' here. QUICK OFF THE FIELD: the players require time to run off of and on to the field between innings. Selecting 'yes' here eliminates this wait. Fielders running off auto- matically jump to the dugout, batters zip to the plate, base runners vanish immediately upon scoring, and fielders running on appear at their positions. SCROLLING: Scrolling the baseball field to show the action of the play is a time-consuming task for the computer. If you have an older or slower machine, the scroll may detract from the play. To switch from scrolling to cutting from one view to the next, select 'no' here. At the bottom of the screen is a box and two buttons: ANIMATION SPEED: this is general game play speed. Use the arrows to scroll the choices: very slow, slow, normal, fast, very fast. PLAY BALL: click here to move on to the lineup exchange before the start of the game. STADIUM INFO: brings up information about the stadium you are about to play, and allows you to select a different park for the game. * Lineup Exchange Help Before each baseball game, the captains of each team head to home plate to exchange lineup cards. The rules require managers to reveal their starting lineups to each other. The lineup exchange screen does exactly that. The display is split in half: the home team is on the left, the visitor on the right. At the bottom of the screen are five buttons: two 'bench,' two 'pitchers,' and one 'play ball': BENCH: click here to see the backup players for this team. The bench button on the left is for the home team; the one on the right brings up the visitor's substitutes. PITCHERS: this displays the team's pitching staff, and is used to replace the starting pitcher. Again, the one on the left is for the home team, the one on the right for the visitor. PLAY BALL: this starts the game. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F4, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: switches between historical and simulated statistics The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. * Starting Lineup/Bench Help This screen displays the batting order on the top and the bench players on the bottom. Players on the reserve list are unavailable until the roster expands to 40 players on September first. To move a player into the batting order or to swap players already in the order, click on one, then click on the other. They will exchange positions. At the bottom of the screen are four buttons: DONE: click here when you are finished with the batting order. MORE: There are too many bench and reserve list players to fit on the screen at one time. 'More' brings up the rest of them. DEFENSE: while adjusting the batting order, you may decide to change your mind about one or more of the defensive assignments. Click here to switch to the 'defense/bench' screen. RESTORE: click on restore to cancel any changes you have made to your batting order since coming to this screen. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F4, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: switches between historical and simulated statistics The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column abbreviations: AB: at bats AVG: batting average B: stands for batting side, and can be 'R' for right, 'L' for left, or 'S' for switch hitter. DU: stands for days unavailable. For batters, this means the player has been injured and cannot play. If this occurs, a reserve list batter will temporarily fill the injured player's roster spot. HR: home runs OBA: on base average POS1: this is the player's primary position, the one he has the most experience at. POS2: the player's secondary position. He can play here, but is better playing POS1, his primary position. SA: slugging average SB: stolen bases * Defense/Bench Help This screen displays the current defensive assignments on the top, and the bench players on the bottom. Players on the reserve list are unavailable until the roster expands to 40 players on September first. To move a player into the starting lineup or to swap players already in the lineup, click on one, then click on the other. They will exchange positions. At the bottom of the screen are four buttons: DONE: click here when you are finished with the defense. MORE: There are too many bench and reserve list players to fit on the screen at one time. 'More' brings up the rest of them. OFFENSE: When you are finished adjusting the defense, you may want to switch back to the offense. Click here to switch back to the 'starting lineup/bench' screen. RESTORE: click on restore to cancel any changes you have made in your defensive assignments since coming to this screen. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F4, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: switches between historical and simulated statistics The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column abbreviations: A: This is the strength of the player's arm. The stronger the fielder's arm, the farther and faster he can throw the ball. AVG: batting average B: stands for batting side, and can be 'R' for right, 'L' for left, or 'S' for switch hitter. DU: stands for days unavailable. For batters, this means the player has been injured and cannot play. If this occurs, a reserve list batter will temporarily fill the injured player's roster spot. FA1: this is the player's fielding average when he plays in his primary position, POS1. FA2: this is the player's fielding average when he plays in his secondary position, POS2. POS1: this is the player's primary position, the one he has the most experience at. POS2: the player's secondary position. He can play here, but is better playing POS1, his primary position. R: Range rates the player's ability to get to hit balls. For example, a shortstop with a high range will field more balls hit in the hole between short and third, than a player with a lesser range would. * Starting Pitcher/Pitchers Help This screen displays the team's pitching staff, with the current starter on top, the rotation in the middle, and the relievers on the bottom. Pitchers on the reserve list are unavailable until the roster expands to 40 players on September first. To start a different pitcher, click on his name. He will appear in the 'today's starter' box. Pay attention to the 'DU' column when choosing a new starter. Using a pitcher who needs rest greatly increases his chance of injury. At the bottom of the screen are three buttons: DONE: click here when you are finished considering a different starting pitcher. MORE: There are too many bench and reserve list pitchers to fit on the screen at one time. 'More' brings up the rest of them. RESTORE: click here to restore the original starter to the 'today's' starter box. As on many of the screens in Tony La Russa Baseball II, the function keys, F1 through F4, are available to bring up more detailed player statistics. Point to a player (or highlight him), then press one of the following keys: F1: displays batting stats F2: displays pitching stats F3: displays fielding stats F4: switches between historical and simulated statistics The right mouse button acts as F1 for batters and as F2 for pitchers. Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print screens: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer. F6: appends what you see to the contents of the file, print.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column abbreviations: BB: bases on balls (walks) DU: stands for days unavailable. For pitchers, this can mean one of two things. If the number in the DU column is followed by an "r," it means the player has recently pitched and requires time to rest. A resting pitcher may still play, but if he does his chance of injury rises dramatically. If the number in the DU column is not followed by an "r," the pitcher has been injured and cannot play. If this occurs, a reserve list pitcher will temporarily fill the injured player's roster spot. END: this stands for endurance. Roughly, 10 times the endurance is the number of pitches this pitcher can throw before he starts to tire. ERA: earned run average IP: innings pitched K: strike outs SV: saves T: throwing arm, either 'R' for right or 'L' for left. W-L: wins and losses. * Standings Help This displays the baseball standings for the current date. There are three column headings: W: stands for wins. L: means losses. GB: is short for "games behind," which is the difference in wins plus the difference in losses, divided by two. In other words, this is the number games the team behind would have to win and the team in front would have to lose to have a tie. * League Schedule Help Featured games are those you play yourself, with a mouse or a joystick or the keyboard. You see the grass and the players, and all the action happens before your eyes. Standard games are played by the computer. It generates a result for each game, and the baseball standings change day-to-day as the season progresses. The league schedule screen displays a single day of the season's schedule and allows you to select featured games. For each game, the two teams are shown, the visitor on top, home on the bottom. An "(n)" to the right of the home team indicates a night game. A "(2)" means there is a double header that day. To the left of each pair of teams is a box. Click on the box to feature that game. Click again to change it back to standard. When the computer encounters a featured game while playing standard games it will stop to allow you to play that game yourself. At the bottom of the screen are four arrows and a 'restore' button. Click on the arrows to display a different day of the schedule. Single arrows change the date by one day at a time. Double arrows go forward or back two weeks. Select 'restore' to cancel any changes you have made since coming to the league schedule screen. * Team Schedule Help Featured games are those you play yourself, with a mouse or a joystick or the keyboard. You see the grass and the players, and all the action happens before your eyes. Standard games are played by the computer. It generates a result for each game, and the baseball standings change day-to-day as the season progresses. The team schedule screen displays one month of games for a specific team, and allows you to select featured games. For each day, the screen shows the date, a check box, and the team's opponent for that day. An "at" preceding the opponent indicates an away game. An "(n)" following denotes a night game; a "(2)" means there is a double header that day. To the right of the date is a check box. Click on the box to feature that game. Click again to change it back to standard. When the computer encounters a featured game while playing standard games it will stop to allow you to play that game yourself. At the bottom of the screen are two arrows and a 'restore' button. Click on the arrows to display a different month of the schedule. Select 'restore' to cancel any changes you have made since coming to the team schedule screen. * Play Standard Games Help Featured games are those you play yourself, with a mouse or a joystick or the keyboard. You see the grass and the players, and all the action happens before your eyes. Standard games are played by the computer. It generates a result for each game, and the baseball standings change day-to-day as the season progresses. Tony La Russa Baseball II will simulate all or any part of an entire baseball season. Use 'Play Standard Games' to have the computer play any games you do not want to feature (play yourself). When you play standard games, the play always begins on the 'current date,' which is displayed in the bottom left of the screen. This may be the first day of the season, or, if a season is in progress, may be a later date. If the season is over, you must start a new one to play more standard games. Select "start new season" on the season menu. Before starting the play, you must choose an ending date. The three buttons in the bottom right are for this: ONE DAY ONLY: click here to set 'play all games to' to the next day. Use this option to play only one day of games. THRU REGULAR SEASON: this button sets the ending date to the day after the last day of the regular season. The program will stop playing standard games before the playoffs begin. THRU WORLD SERIES: click here to play the entire season, the playoffs, and the world series. After the computer is finished, there will be a world champion. Use the left and right single arrow buttons to change the ending date by one day at a time. The double arrows go forward or back up two weeks at a time. After setting the 'play all games to' date, click on 'play' at the bottom of the screen. If there are any featured games prior to the ending date, the program will ask if you want to play them as standard games. If the schedule you have chosen includes an All-star Game, the computer will also ask if you want to play that as a featured game. While the standard games are being played, the baseball standings appear on the screen, changing daily with the new results. If the computer encounters a featured game in the schedule, it will stop to ask if you want to play it. You may play the game yourself as a featured game or have the program treat it as a standard game. During the playoffs and the world series, the screen will change to display a line score for each of the games. When the series is over, the World Champions trophy will appear. * Start New Season Help In Tony La Russa Baseball II, the season may be 162 games long, just as in professional baseball, or it can be a simple one-game round robin - each team plays every other team exactly once, or you can create a schedule somewhere in between. Use Start New Season to select a schedule of games for the league configuration you designed in 'Setup Leagues' on the utilities menu. At the top left of the screen is a list of schedule types: 162 games - 26 teams: this is a typical baseball schedule for a 162 game season. The major leagues played a similar schedule in the 1992 season. 162 games - 28 teams: after expansion in 1993, the major leagues went to 28 teams; they played a schedule like this one of 162 games. Round Robin: in a round robin, every team plays every other team. The number of games in the round robin is the number of times the teams play each other. Generated: Tony La Russa Baseball II will construct a season of any length for any league configuration, with one condition: each of the two leagues must have an number of teams in it. Select 'generated' to create a non-standard schedule. Some schedules will work with some league setups, and some will not. Use the arrows to scroll through the list of schedules. Notice that each time you select a different schedule, the "required league setup" data at the bottom of the screen changes. This information describes the league requirements for the selected schedule to function properly. To the right, is the "current league setup," which you chose in "setup leagues" on the utilities menu. If your league setup does not fit into the required league setup, the program will not be able to create the schedule of games you have selected. In the middle of the screen are more schedule options: NUMBER OF GAMES: here you may shorten a typical 162 game schedule (down to as few as 10 games), or set the number of meetings in a round robin (up to a maximum of 10), or select the length of a generated season (anywhere from 1 to 162 games). Use the arrow buttons to change the number. Single arrows go by ones; doubles arrows by tens. START DATE: The season can start as early as April 1st, or as late as October 18th, provided the World Series will be over by November 30th. Use the arrows buttons to change the start date: Single arrows change the date by one day at a time. Double arrows go forward or back two weeks. The date will stop advancing when to do so would cause the World Series to end after November 30th. PLAYOFF LENGTH: Here you may select the length of the divisional playoffs. Click on the arrow buttons to change the number. The choices are 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 games. SERIES LENGTH: The world series can also be as few as one game or as many as nine. Use the arrows to select the number you want. At the bottom of the screen are two buttons: NEW SEASON: click here when you are ready to create a schedule. If your league setup is not compatible with the choices you have made above, the computer will suggest another schedule type. If the setup is okay, the game will warn you that starting a new season will destroy the current sim- ulated season and any special box scores you have saved from the last season. To preserve these boxes, save them as "alltime" box scores. To do this, select special box scores from the season menu, then view the boxes you want, then save them. Next the program will ask whether or not you want to use the DH (designated hitter) rule for each league. After that, the computer will generate the schedule. SAVE SEASON: Use 'save season' to preserve the statistics of a season for use as another season's historical stats. This allows you to play a progression of seasons, each one laying the statistical foundation for the next. * Game Scores Help Tony La Russa Baseball II keeps a record of the score of every game during the season. To review these scores, select 'Game Scores.' The screen is laid out like the league schedule, with a single day of the season's schedule displayed. If the games for that day have been played, scores will also be shown. At the bottom of the screen are four arrow buttons. Click on single arrows to change the date one day at a time. Double arrows go forward or back two weeks. * Stadium Info Help Here you can select a different stadium to play the game in, and change the various conditions at the park. On the right, near the top is a list of the available stadiums. Use the arrow buttons to scroll through the list. On the left, is a small illustration of the park. To select a stadium, click on its name. The lower half of the screen displays stadium information. On the left are fence distances, on the right weather. Below these are stadium notes. These supply a little history and atmosphere at the park. All this information changes with each stadium you select. Although the fence distances for each stadium are fixed, you may change the weather for the game. Click on the arrow buttons to adjust the various conditions (the range of values for each item is in parentheses): WIND SPEED (0-50 MPH): this is how fast the wind is blowing today. The arrows change this value by fives. A strong wind can push a homer back into the park, or turn a pop foul into a double down the line, or make a high fly drift right over the fence. WIND DIRECTION: there are four possibilities: blowing out, left to right, blowing in, and right to left. AVG HUMIDITY (0-100): the average humidity at the park today. The arrows adjust this by fives. The higher the humidity, the heavier the air: fly balls will not carry as far. AVG TEMPERATURE (0-100): today's average temperature. The arrow buttons change this by fives also. Hotter air is thinner air; flies will go farther as the temperature rises. ALTITUDE (0-10000): the altitude of the stadium in feet above sea level. Use the arrow buttons to change this by one hundreds. The higher the park, the farther balls will go. At the bottom of the screen are three buttons: PLAYBALL: This button starts the game. GROUND RULES: Click here to bring up the ground rules screen. VIEW STADIUM: click here to see what the full stadium looks like. Use the arrow keys or the mouse to scroll around the park and take in the sights. * Special Box Scores Help Occasionally, in baseball on the field, an unusual result occurs: one team scores 20 runs, or someone throws a no hitter, or a guy gets a pinch grand slam, or something. The same is true in Tony La Russa Baseball II: now and then the out of the ordinary happens. The special box scores feature allows you to preserve these exciting games. The screen consists of 14 yes/no check boxes, each representing a particular unusual event. Selecting "yes" for one of these events asks the computer to save the box score of any standard or featured game which meets the criteria. For example, if you check the "1 hitter" box, then play standard games, the computer will auto- matically preserve the box scores of all games in which either pitcher tosses a one hitter. Warning! Each box score requires approximately 7K of hard disk space. So, although you may ask for all the boxes of every team, when a standard 162 game season finishes, they will have consumed about 15,000,000 bytes on your disk. Also, the more special box scores you ask the computer to save, the slower it will be in playing standard games. It takes time to save each box score to the disk. At the bottom of the screen is a single button: DISPLAY BOX SCORES: click here to bring up a list of all the special box scores currently saved on your disk. * Select Box Score Help During a season, Tony La Russa Baseball II saves special box scores to disk according to the special box scores settings (select 'special box scores' on the season menu), and saves all playoff and world series boxes. When you start a new season, the program deletes these special boxes to make room for those of the new season. Use this screen to view and preserve special box scores as "all time box scores," and to view all time boxes. The screen displays a list of box scores. All time boxes are designated as such. Special boxes are labeled with the reason they were saved - 20+ runs scores, no hitter, and so on. Click on the arrow buttons to scroll the list. If the program says, "Box score not compatible with the current league setup" it means the box is now obsolete, because you have changed your league setup since saving the box. To see this box score, you must restore your league setup to the one under which you saved the box. To preserve a special box score as an all time box, click on it to view it, then select 'save.' At the bottom of the screen are two buttons: DONE: leaves the select box score screen. SPECIAL/ALL TIME BOX SCORES: The program separates special box scores and all time boxes. If you see a list of all time boxes, click here to see the special box scores. If special boxes are on the screen, click to list the all time. * Batting Box Score Help This is a typical baseball box score for the game, batters only. The hitters are listed according to the batting order of the game, with substitutions indented underneath the players they replaced. Along the bottom of the screen are six buttons: DONE: click here to leave the box score screen. SAVE: select 'save' to preserve this box as an "all time" box score. The program will save the box on the hard disk so you can look at it again later using the "special box scores" option on the season menu. DELETE: the opposite of 'save,' 'delete' removes the box from the all time box scores list. MORE: If the box score contains too many batters to fit on the screen at once, click on 'more' to see the rest. SEE 'other team': click here to see the batters of the other team. PITCHING: to see the pitching portion of the box score, as well as the inning-by-inning line score, and the time and attendance of the game, click on 'pitching.' Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print box scores: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer, plus an extra "how they scored" section. F6: appends the box score, including a "how they scored" section to the contents of the file, boxscore.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column heading abbreviations: AB: at bats BB: bases on balls (walks) CS: caught stealing D: doubles E: errors H: hits HR: home runs R: runs scored RBI: runs batted in SB: stolen bases SO: strike outs T: triples * Pitching Box Score Help This is the pitching portion of the box score for the game. The pitchers are listed in order of appearance. Additional game information is displayed below the players: WP: the winning pitcher LP: the losing pitcher SV: the pitcher who got the save (if any) TIME: how long it took to play the game ATTENDANCE: the attendance of the game PLAYED AT 'team name': where the game was played. An "(n)" means the game was a night game. Near the bottom of the screen is an inning-by-inning line score of the game. The visiting team is on top, the home team on the bottom. If the game lasted more than 10 innings, only the last 10 are displayed. The column abbreviations are "R" (runs), "H" (hits), and "E" (errors). Along the bottom of the screen are six buttons: DONE: click here to leave the box score screen. SAVE: select 'save' to preserve this box as an "all time" box score. The program will save the box on the hard disk so you can look at it again later using the "special box scores" option on the season menu. DELETE: the opposite of 'save,' 'delete' removes the box from the all time box scores list. MORE: If the box score contains too many pitchers to fit on the screen at once, click on 'more' to see the rest. SEE 'other team': click here to see the pitchers of the other team. BATTING: to see the batting portion of the box score, click on 'batting.' Use the function keys, F5 and F6, to print box scores: F5: prints the screen: the computer sends what you see to the printer, plus an extra "how they scored" section. F6: appends the box score, including a "how they scored" section to the contents of the file, boxscore.txt. You may print this file, or use any text editor to look at what's in it. Glossary of column heading abbreviations BB: bases on balls (walks) BK: balks D: doubles ER: earned runs H: hits HR: home runs IP: innings pitched R: runs SO: strike outs T: triples WP: wild pitches * Playoff Results Help When the playoffs begin, scores of the individual games replace the baseball standings. Here you can follow the playoffs as the games are being played. Next to each score is a 'more' button. Click on one of these to see the full box score for that game. You may select 'more' while playoffs are in progress (which will pause the playing of the games while you look at the box) or after they have been completed. Only one league's scores will fit on the screen at a time. To see the results in the other league, click on the "see" button at the bottom of the screen. * Load Saved Game Help At any time during the play of an exhibition or featured game, you may save it to disk. Load saved game retrieves the game, and picks up where you left off. Select the game you wish to restore, then click on 'load.' Loading a saved game does not delete it from the disk, so you may replay the same game from the same point over and over. However, at the completion of a league game, the computer deletes all saves of that game: the result is in the books, and has been applied to the standings, so you cannot finish the game again. "Saved game not compatible with the current league setup" means the game is now obsolete, because you have changed your league setup since saving the game. To load this saved game, you must restore your league setup to the one under which you saved the game. * All-Star Game Help At any time during the season, you may choose to play an all-star game. The computer will evaluate the players, based on historical or simulated statistics, and choose an all-star team from each league. There are three buttons on the screen: USE HISTORICAL STATS: Click here to have the computer use the players' historical or "canned" statistics to make the all-star team choices. USE SIMULATED STATS: check this box if you want the program to pick the teams based on the season in progress. To the right of "use simulated stats" is the number of games played so far. If no games have been played, this option is unavailable. PLAY: click on 'play' to display the ground rules screen. Once there, you may choose the stadium for the game, or click on 'Play Ball' to see the starting lineups. *