DMB-Blog
1968 Deluxe Past Season with transactions and lineups available now!
1968: Tragedy, Tumult, and the Shrine on Michigan and Trumbull
by Steve Ehresman
America in 1968, torn apart by assassinations and riots, faced an uncertain future. The deaths of Martin Luther King, Junior and Robert F. Kennedy were dark chapters in our nation’s journey through a nightmare decade of war and civil unrest. Few constants remained to remind the American people that they have always been stronger and more resilient than the forces of despair. For those who still believed in our nation’s spirit, institutions like baseball offered solace and healing in even the most painful of times.
In the quiet, seemingly reliable world of our National Pastime, life on the diamond proceeded with equanimity, despite the fact that Major League Baseball was posed on the brink of revolutionary changes. With the unexplored worlds of expansion and divisional play on the horizon, some have come to regard 1968 as the last authentic baseball season, one that our ancestors would have recognized because it had been in place since the established National League and the upstart America League declared a truce and began playing post-season games dubbed the “World Series.” After 1968, baseball would evolve and usher in a “brave new world.”
No better testimonial exists to describe the 1968 season than the fact that its two Cy Young Award winners were also MVPs in their respective leagues. In the National League, MVP Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals awed the sports world by compiling a 1.12 ERA, on his way to a 22-9 season, in which he struck out a league-leading 268 National League hitters and tossed 13 shutouts. Not to be outdone, the American League MVP, Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers, put together a record-breaking 31-6 campaign, along with a 1.98 ERA and a staggering 28 complete games.
Whereas other hurlers, such as Luis Tiant (21-9, 1.60 ERA, 9 shutouts), Sam McDowell (283 strikeouts, 1.81 ERA), Dave McNally (22-10, 1.95 ERA), Mel Stottlemyre (21-12, 2.45 ERA), Fergie Jenkins (20-15, 2.63 ERA), and Juan Marichal (26-9, 2.43 ERA), vied for the attention of America’s baseball fans, Gibson and McLain truly compiled seasons for the ages in the “Year of the Pitcher.”
It would be inaccurate to overlook the outstanding offensive statistics many batters compiled in 1968, despite the overall dominance of hurlers. Batting champions Carl Yastrzemski (.301) and Pete Rose (.335) consistently hit opposing pitchers, while Frank Howard (44 home runs) and Willie McCovey (36 home runs, 105 RBI) led their respective leagues in slamming long balls. Ken “Hawk” Harrelson prospered in his first full-season with the Red Sox, slamming 35 home runs and compiling 109 RBI. Bert Campaneris and Lou Brock tied for the lead in stolen bases with 62 apiece. Cincinnati debuted a twenty-year-old catcher, who hit 40 doubles, clubbed 15 home runs, and drove in 82 runs, while posting a .275 average. The National League would hear much more from Johnny Bench in the years ahead.
In the Fall Classic, the upset-minded Detroit Tigers faced the defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. Led by an outstanding cast, the Bengals captured a championship for Motown, besting the Red Birds in a compelling seven-game World Series, in which Mickey Lolich starred and Mickey Stanley played shortstop. The team that many Detroit fans have called “Baseball’s Last Real Champions” brought hope and calm to Tiger Stadium and to a great, but troubled, American city.
Since that turbulent summer, baseball has forged ahead, never looking back: adding divisional play, a designated hitter, free agency, new teams, and even wild cards. Although the National Pastime is prosperous and healthy, our fascination with the Boys of Summer from an earlier age has never waned. Diamond Mind is excited to re-issue this historical season, complete with all the features that have made it a leader in baseball simulations. Order yours today, and replay the year in which Major League Baseball bid adieu to the old era and stepped boldly into the future.
The 1968 Deluxe Past Season database contains everything you need to play games using teams and players from the 1968 season -- a full set of ratings and statistics for every player who appeared in the big leagues that year, plus team rosters, manager profiles, ballpark ratings, transactions, and league schedules. Statistics include official batting, pitching and fielding totals with left/right splits for all batters and pitchers.
If you are a registered owner of the 1968 Classic Past Season, you are eligible for upgrade pricing for this item. Send an email to dmb_info@imaginesports.com to request your discount promotion code.
(The Diamond Mind Baseball - Version 11 game is required to use this product)
All-Time Elo Teams Collection available now!
The All-Time Elo Teams Collection is not a new season, nor does it contain any teams not already available from Diamond Mind Baseball. Instead, it takes 64 of the best teams of all-time, based upon the Elo Rating System, and puts them in one place, making them available to you for any project that you wish.
The Elo Rating System is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in competitor-versus-competitor games such as chess. The FiveThirtyEight website applied this system to baseball, rating the teams from every season in modern history. This database contains the top 64 of these teams, with the following adjustments:
- Teams from the war-time years, 1942-45, have been excluded.
- Teams from a given franchise must be separated by at least three years. For example, with the 1939 Yankees included, the 1937, 1938, 1940, and 1941 Yankees are excluded.
The All-Time Elo Teams Collection is compatible with Diamond Mind Baseball - Version 11 and at the low price of $14.95 is a great value for 64 of the best teams in baseball history.
Owners of this collection are invited to participate in the All-Time Elo Co-op Tournament. Visit the Fans of Diamond Mind Baseball community forum to view the official rules and regulations and check out the tournament brackets.
- Tags: elo tournament
Diamond Mind Community Message Boards
There are a number of online communities available for Diamond Mind Baseball users. These groups can be a source of indispensable information about the Diamond Mind game, troubleshooting tips, reference materials and an overall great place to stay in touch with other Diamond Mind customers.
Click the link below to visit the official Diamond Mind Baseball discussion and support forums. This ad-free message board community is maintained and moderated by Diamond Mind staff.
Diamond Mind Baseball discussion and support forums. (tapatalk.com)
Also visit the Fans of Diamond Mind Baseball forums. An independent ad-supported community not affiliated with Diamond Mind or Imagine Sports.
ZIPS 2016 Projection Database-Mid Season Edition
The 2016 ZIPS Mid-Season Projection Database is now available. If you have previously purchased this product, you should be receiving an e-mail with a download link to download and install the software. The download link allows five (5) downloads of the database. Make sure to back up your software in the event that you might need to re-install it sometime in the future.
The rosters are as of beginning of play on Friday July 29, 2016.
If you do not receive the e-mail with the download link (filename is proj2016b_v11.alt) , please let me know at dmb_info@imaginesports.com
Saving/Viewing an Exhibition Game Boxscore
When you save a boxscore, scoresheet, and/or the game log from an exhibition game, the files are saved in the folder location that contains the active database. For example, if you were playing a game with the the 2015 season database (typically named "sd2015_v110"), would look for your saved boxscore file in the folder location "C:\dmb10\sd2015_v11".
DMB automatically provides the file name "exhib.box", however, if you entered a different name when you saved the file, that is the file name you will need to look for.
- Tags: Boxscore Exhibition Game
