New College Baseball ROM

[fightonusc]

Hey everyone,

I just finished my first ROM. I got the idea from watching some college baseball the other weekend, and noticing that every time I heard the "ping" of a bat, it reminded me of a "dee nee" sound from RBI Baseball. So in that vein, I created a ROM with All Star teams from 10 of the greatest college baseball programs of all time. The teams are:

USC
Texas
Miami
Florida St.
Wichita
Arizona St.
Arizona
Stanford
LSU
UCLA

(If there's a West Coast bias in the team selection, sue me. Feel free to make a case for why a different program should be represented.)

I think it plays pretty fair - certainly there are a few teams with dominant areas (USC's pitching, ASU's hitting, FSU's speed), but I think it's pretty fair. However, I'd love to get feedback from you guys on the playability (i.e. is it too pitching, hitting or speed slanted? Are certain players' stats all out of whack?), as well as any suggestions for famous baseball alumni I missed, or teams that should be added. Needless to say, it was difficult to find a player at every position for some teams, thus why Keith Moreland is a starting player, for example.

Im also going to post the "stats" roster file, as well as a roster with first and last names (some of the palyers are older or somewhat obscure).

Hope you guys enjoy this, and I'd love to get some feedback.

[fightonusc]

Here's the roster with stats...

[Gantry]

Wow, good job...

I see power numbers over 1000 for many players.  I personally think that's going to be too high.  Dawson is 951 on NES RBI, having Troy Glauss at 1015 and McGwire at 1100 is going to make those guys unstoppable.  Just an opinon, haven't played the ROM yet...

[BDawk]

I guess you're going for MLB players on college teams. There are a few good ones that just didn't cut it with the bigs.
Mike Piazza is a tough one for me. I'm not sure he actually played for the 'Canes.  Also, Jason Michaels might be a good bench guy.
Are you doing MLB stats for the college players? If not--Pat Burrell should have a high batting average (not that it really matters in the game). He batted over .400 for his college career.
This is a really good idea, though.

[fightonusc]

- I debated a lot about the power numbers. I wanted to try to give the game more of a "college baseball" feel to it, so I probably amped up the power number more than I otherwise would have. Having sat through enough 15-14 games while watching college baseball games at USC, I knew that skewing the stats to add additional offense would making it more in line with the college baseball experience.

- As for the stats, I used MLB career batting averages, and the player's average HRs per full season (i.e., if someone had 100 HRs in 11 "seasons", but his first season was a Sept. call up with 21 ABs and no HRs, I didn't count that, and only averaged out for 10 seasons). Using MLB stats versus college stats was more a function of easy of access to stats than anything else; I certainly might consider changing to college stats if I do an update.

- I definitely tried to stick with players who made the big leagues only. One reason was practical - it was easier for me to compare stats and make judgements if using MLB player stats only. In addition, I was trying to think about a player who isn't a fan of a particular team, and that they would probably get more enjoyment out of seeing (even obscure) MLB players rather than college players who never made it to the bigs.

- As for Piazza, I'm going off of the University of Miami baseball media guide, which lists him as being a former Hurricane now in the pros. Here's a link to the page from the Web site: http://hurricanesports.collegesports.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/072400aaa.html. I know that his official MLB bio lists him as going to Miami-Dade North CC, though. Someone get Miami's SID on the phone, stat!

[Gantry]

You did a heck of a job finding these players.  Did you know of this link for all the MLB players by college?

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/college/colleges.shtml

Tried for a little bit to find a new guys but you had them all.  I'll lleave the rest of the research up to you...

[fightonusc]

You did a heck of a job finding these players.  Did you know of this link for all the MLB players by college?

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/college/colleges.shtml

Tried for a little bit to find a new guys but you had them all.  I'll lleave the rest of the research up to you...

That was actually my main reference source. Basically, I filled in as much as I could from memory (like, I knew that Barry Bonds and Reggie Jackson went to ASU), and used that to fill in blanks,

[erhajj]

This is an awesome rom.  I love it.  Thanks a heap for making it.  I am going to play it for a few hours tonight!

[erhajj]

one mistake though, you made REggie a right handed hitter.  Overall great job though.

[Baines]

This looks pretty sweet.  I haven't played any ROMs yet cause I'm pretty much clueless on that stuff but I'm going to have to check this one out.

[Gantry]

Can I put this on my ROMs page?

[fightonusc]

Can I put this on my ROMs page?

Absolutely.

[Gold and Blue]

USC Blows.  That is all.

[fknmclane]

USC Blows.  That is all.

Shouldn't your username be Blue and Gold?

[guy49]

I haven't posted in light years, but this rom is awesome, it forced me out of retirement.