I’ve been finally getting around to getting prepped for my 1966 NL replay. I’ve always said that part of the fun of the journey is getting there so just sitting down and rolling the dice without a plan is not my style and quite honestly, less fun for me. Getting ready is fun and anticipation is the idea here.
Like some of you, I’m the kind of person who likes to have my necessary information in spreadsheets. They’re sortable and filterable and you can manipulate them in any way you want. Tonight, I focused on getting the 1966 season transaction data and schedule the way I can easily read it.
Schedules and Transactions
I’ve probably said it before but Retrosheet and Baseball Reference are godsends for those of us who do replays especially of older seasons. Do a web search on “1966 baseball transactions” and the first result is Baseball Reference’s Transaction data for the year 1966. Very handy. It was very easy to copy the data and import it into an Excel spreadsheet.
I’ve decided to go with the original 1966 MLB schedule for my replay (as opposed to actual games played). Like I’ve said in the past, Retrosheet has a page for that. They have original schedules for all years from 1877 to the present (for some reason there’s no data for the 1876 season. The schedules are in comma delimited (.csv) format which are perfect for importing into Excel.
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Tip: Retrosheet’s schedules put the date in YYYYMMDD format (for example: 19661002 for October 2, 1966). That’s not the easiest date format to read. Fortunately, Excel has the DATE function which will help parse that out. This web page will explain it better than I can. |
Since I’m just doing an NL replay, I can easily filter and delete the AL references in the schedule.
Keeping Stats
I’ll plan on using the same spreadsheet that I use for my league team for each of the NL teams in my replay. Most likely, I’ll modify it to my liking, perhaps adding a stat category or two my league doesn’t track. Populating the players names is a bit tedious so I usually do that on the fly, when I enter the stats.
On top of that, I’ll have a master spreadsheet that won’t have any new data. Rather, it will link to the cells from the teams’ sheets. From there, I can set up standings, leaderboards, and a full register.
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I’ve already worked up the schedule and transaction data for my 1966 replay (ahh, remember the good old days when Cincinnati would always host opening day?). Once I get my master spreadsheet in order, it will be time to roll the bones.
Tom,
First off Good Luck on your 1966 NL Replay! The team I like most from this season is the Pittsburgh Pirates. With Clemente, Pops Stargell, Donn Clendenon, and one of my top all-time favorite players in Matty Alou this team does not lack any offense. Too bad they only had one very good starter in Veale. Swap out Fryman, Law, and Blass for a better carded grade from their career and this team would have given the Dodgers a run for its money I believe. Sounds like a good idea for a what-if project!
I’ve taken your stat spreadsheet and added a column for errors and GIDP’s on offense. For pitching I’ve added a column for HBP, BK, WP, and Homeruns Allowed. It gave me an opportunity to mess around with excel and get a somewhat better understanding of how the program works so thank you for setting me with your stat sheet. Again Good Luck and keep us posted as to how the replay unfolds.
Thanks,
Walt Taylor
Hi Walt,
thanks!
and for what it’s worth, I too am going to add GIDP for hitters. For pitchers, I’ll add HBP and most likely HR.
Right now as I write this, I’m working on the transaction spreadsheet deleting the AL-to-AL transactions which won’t have any bearing on my replay.
My target date for actually rolling the first dice roll is next weekend.
Tom
Where might I find a .csv schedule for this season?
Hi Timmer,
Retrosheet has schedules for download in csv format.
http://www.retrosheet.org/schedule/index.html
Tom