It has been ten years since the introduction of the USERPBP.FIL into the Strat-O-Matic Baseball computer game. In October 1994, I was surprised and pleased to receive a phone call from Bob Winberry who, along with Hal Richman of course, had brought the great SOM game to the computer just a few years earlier. By the conclusion of that conversation, I had volunteered to help develop a new play-by-play system for inclusion in the DOS 6.0 version of the game coming out later that winter. Thus began my volunteer relationship with the Strat game company and a wonderful friendship with a great individual, Bob Winberry.

The CDROMBB version 9 product, released in late January 2004 included the tenth iteration of the USERPBP system. Many new concepts have been introduced through the years. Just to mention a few: team files, nickname files, newspaper recaps, several hundred new symbols and modifiers allowing complex play account calls, player specific calls, etc., etc. A complete description (including details of how to create new accounts and/or edit the current files) of the USER Play-By-Play module is available for your download from the "resources" section here at SOMWORLD.

Let me now list and briefly describe the improvements made to the pbp module in CDROMBB version 9:

1. As always, the team files have been updated to reflect current events for the 2003 season. This includes references to the new Cincinnati stadium, city and team specific newsworthy events for 2003, player milestones that may be reached in the 2003 season (ex. Sosa reaching 500 homeruns, Clemens reaching 300 wins, etc.), city specific references to noteworthy restaurants (ex. Don Shula’s Steak Restaurants in Tampa and Miami), events (ex. The Masters Golf Tournament in Atlanta, Boston Marathon, etc.), local weather patterns and geographical references, etc. This kind of team update is completed yearly.
2. The USERPBP.FIL has been edited this year to eliminate several repetitious phrases in the play-by-play accounts. These play calls typically were simply edited to add new words and descriptions of various play outcomes – thus eliminating the words that apparently had been appearing too often for some people’s tastes. A couple of pbp errors were reported last year -these were fixed during this updating procedure as well. Newsworthy events were added this year, as always. More play by plays were added in a variety of categories and the trivia questions/answers were edited as well.

    

3. Nearly 6,000 new nick.fil lines were added! This came close to doubling this recently added game feature. Now, virtually all players since the 19^th century are represented with at least a couple references to their individual characteristics – be it their nickname, their physical traits, their hometown, college, etc. I would like to point out that Ren Petrie is the major force behind this file, contributing over 90% of the old-time player lines himself!
4. The first addition to the popular boxscore newspaper recap was completed with this CDROMBB version! Close to 200 more lines were added for more variety in these game stories. Many new manager/player quotes were included – adding humor and realism to the newspaper articles.
5. The most significant improvement to this year’s play by play module is due to a reprogramming of the computer methodology used to choose a play account from each category. In the past, Bob Winberry placed certain time constraints on the computer program as it looked in each category for a play-by-play line to use (he did not want this feature to move too slowly). At times, the computer program was instructed to use a default play account if an appropriated USERPBP.FIL (or team file) was not found quickly enough. The details of this process are much too complex to review here – nor are these details important. What is important, however, is the result of this method of picking play accounts from the various categories. About 35-55 default play-by-plays were used per game (at the expense of the USERPBP and TEAM files). Keep in mind that about 350 play accounts are used per game as each at bat often uses lines from 5-6 categories. Here is an example of the play by play flow of one at bat: [Category 90 (batter introduction) – category 92 (batter stats) – category 97 (pitcher stats) – category 99 (pitcher delivery) – category 13 (strikeout) – category 82 (second out)]. Now that computers are so much faster than ten years ago, a new method of picking USERPBP.FIL, TEAM.FIL and NICK.FIL lines was developed by Bob for CDROMBB 9. Simply put, the computer now chooses a play account from each category from a group of up to 250 lines – that is seven times more than in the previous versions! Now, typically less than 5-7 default lines appear per game – less than 2-3 % of all lines used – and this will be even less in 2005! With the fast machines of today, there is absolutely no apparent slowing in play-by-play presentation. Why is this increased use of the USERPBP.FIL important? There are three reasons actually. First, with markedly fewer default lines coming up during the scrolling play-by-play account, there will be a significant reduction in repetitious lines/phrases. Many of the repeat lines seen from year to year were coming from the default play accounts – this will no longer be a problem. Secondly, and probably more important, scores of new play accounts will be seen by the game player this year. With the new method of selecting play accounts from the USER/TEAM/NICK files, many lines that have remained "buried" for years will now have an opportunity to be seen. I always use full detail play by play when playing games, yet until this year, I had gone years without seeing some of the play accounts I had personally written back in early-mid 1990’s! It is great to finally see them! The third reason, and also very important, is that there were certain categories that seemed to rarely have USERPBP.FIL lines chosen (instead, default lines were almost always used for these categories). These included categories that referenced relievers (categories 41 & 45) being brought into a game and opening game comments (category 89), just to name two. Now, for example, much more information/statistics will be noted during pitching changes and more detailed pre-game introductory remarks will be commonplace. These are just a few of the improvements that one will now notice due to this significant programming upgrade!
6. New modifiers and symbols have been added for version 9. In recent years, frequent reference to pitch counts has become commonplace. For this reason, two new symbols and four new modifiers have been added to allow play-by-play reference to a pitcher’s pitch count and to mention just how close he may be to his target pitch count for any given game. @:PT= Target Pitch Count for game (symbol) @:PN= Pitcher’s Current Pitch Count (symbol) @:P1= Display only if pitcher is less than 80% of his target pitch count (modifier) @:P2= Display only if the pitch count is greater than 80% of the target pitch count but still less than this target pitch count (modifier) @:P3= Display only if the pitch count is greater than the target pitch count but by no more than 15% (modifier) @:P4= Display only if the pitch count is more than 20% greater than the target pitch count (modifier) Details on these codes can be found in the pbp.txt file in the CDROMBB\DATA sub-directory of the game. In fact, this file gives definitions of ALL symbols and modifiers – multiple hundreds of them.

• Maddux has been masterful out there this afternoon. He has shut down the Astros on only 5 hits, still working on a shutout. He has a chance to finish this one too as he has kept his pitch count down nicely. Here we are in the 8^th inning and Greg has only thrown 82 pitches! (requires use of @:PN, @:P1)
• Houk has to be careful with Ford out there now. Whitey has thrown 153 pitches so far this evening. He can’t have too much left in the tank, I wouldn’t think… (requires use of (@:PN, @:P4)
• Clemens is nearing his target pitch count here in the 5^th inning. He certainly has been mowing down the Tigers’ batters tonight. But, with his 10 strikeouts, typically comes a lot of pitches… and this game is no exception. The Rocket has thrown 105 already! (requires use of @:PN, @:P2)