Strat-O-Matic Baseball - Create "Major Leagues" League Utility

This utility helps with the process of creating a single Major League from separate American and National Leagues for the Strat-O-Matic computer baseball game. The intent of this utility is to reduce the manual effort in creating a single Major League. You will still have to do some manual steps within the computer game.

BaseballJeff created the original documentation. Before you begin, please thoroughly read this documentation to understand the entire process. The documentation is repeated below as you step through the utility.

UPDATE (March 31, 2022). Originally this was created for AS PLAYED rosters (using lup, trn, and schpit files). But you can still use it for non-AS PLAYED rosters (those without lup, trn, and schpit). See directions below.

For illustration purposes we will use a league year of 1974. Substitute the year you are merging for 1974.

Steps 1-4 are manual steps for both AS PLAYED and non-AS PLAYED rosters.

• Step 1: If the rosters are not already installed from the main screen, select League -> Install rosters to install the league as played rosters. If you have not already done so, use League ->Import Team Nicknames to set the proper team nicknames for both AL and NL teams.
• Step 2: From the main screen select League -> Create New League. Enter league year 1974 or whichever year you are merging. Use the two character abbreviation "ML" and name the league "Major Leagues". Fill in the number of games (154 or 162). Click OK.
• Step 3: Before copying teams from NL and AL to Major Leagues, use Team -> Update Team to rename any team which also has a team in the same city in the other league to include the league of that team, e.g., Chicago (AL) and Chicago (NL), Los Angeles(AL) and Los Angeles(NL). Now copy all of the AL and NL teams into the Major Leagues. This is most easily accomplished by highlighting all teams in each respective league and then dragging and dropping them into the newly created Major Leagues.
• Step 4: Highlight your newly created Major Leagues then use League -> Update League. Use the drop-down box to fill in the Subleague Info, Divisional Info, Team Divisions and DH settings. Play by play, Manager and Nickname settings do not need to be filled in but you may do so if you desire. DO NOT CLICK OK until you have filled in all of the information. Just fill in the data, access the drop-down box and fill in the next screen, etc. until you are finished and then click OK on the last screen. Examples:
  
  
  
  Note the subleague information for each division 1=AL, 2=NL.
  
  If there are no divisions within the AL or NL, just use AL and NL for divisions and enter the subleague number as shown below.
  
  
  
  If the AL and NL do not have separate divisions (prior to 1969) enter the divisional information as follows:
  
  
  
  If the AL and NL have divisions (1969 and subsequent seasons), then proceed to define the Team Divisions using separate numbers to define each division and then define the Team DH settings as shown below.
  
  
  
  

• Step 5: Navigate to your CDROMBB\Rosters folder. [By default the game now installs to the C:\Strat-O-Matic Baseball folder — if that is where the game was installed to your computer, just substitute that folder for CDROMBB in the instructions]
• Step 6: Find the file named 1974AL.trn and double click on it (or if it will not open right click the file and select open with Notepad or a similar text editor).
• Step 7: Select all of the text, copy and then close the file.
• Step 8: Find the file named 1974NL.trn and open the file with a text editor.
• Step 9: Scroll to the bottom of the text in the file and then paste. The AL and NL trn files are now merged into one file. Save the file as "1974ML.trn". Close the file. (Sometimes the file will be saved as 1974.ML.trn.txt. If that is the case rename the file to 1974ML.trn and ignore any warnings about changing the file name.)
• Step 10: Find file named 1974AL.lup and open the file with a text editor.
• Step 11: Select all text, copy and then close the file.
• Step 12: Find the file named 1974NL.lup and open the file with a text editor.
• Step 13: Scroll to the bottom of the text in the file and then paste. The AL and NL lup files are now merged into one file. Save the file as "1974ML.lup". (Sometimes the file will be saved as 1974.ML.lup.txt. If that is the case rename the file to 1974ML.lup and ignore any warnings about changing the file name.)
• Step 14: Find the file 1974AL.rec and open the file with a text editor. Select all text, copy and close the file. Now find the 1974NL.rec file and open the file with a text editor. Scroll to the bottom of the text in the file and paste the AL record to the end of the file. Save the file as "1974ML.rec". (Sometimes the file will be saved as 1974.ML.rec.txt. If that is the case rename the file to 1974ML.rec and ignore any warnings about changing the file name.)
  
  NOTE: In the current game version the .rec files (daily team Won-Loss records) are installed automatically when you install the game. In older versions of the game you were given the option to install the Won-Loss records at the time of installation. If you are using an older version of the game and did not elect to install the Won-Loss record you will not find the .rec files. You may safely skip this step or if you want to use the records you may use your game disc and reinstall the game this time choosing to install the records. Be sure to backup any leagues you are playing and customizations you may be using, e.g., game sounds, ballparks, etc. before reinstalling.

Step 15 is a manual step. Pick either "Step 15 for AS PLAYED rosters" or "Step 15 for non-AS PLAYED rosters".

• Step 15 for AS PLAYED rosters:
  
  Go to the main game screen and highlight 1974 American League. Use File -> New Scheduled. Note the start date. IF YOU ARE NOT USING THE AUTOMATION FOR STEPS 16-20 (see below), do the following: click "Export". Click Ok.
  
  Go to the main game screen and highlight 1974 National League. Use File -> New Scheduled. Note the start date. No need to Export.
  
  
  
  *** IMPORTANT NOTE: If the AL and NL started their schedule on different days, stop here and review
  INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING DIFFERENT STARTING DATES FOR AL AND NL for different starting dates prior to merging the schedule files. If the starting dates are the same you may continue with the following steps.
• Step 15 for non-AS PLAYED rosters:
  
  Go to the main game screen and highlight 1974 American League. Use File -> New Scheduled. Note the start date. Do the following: click "Export". Click Ok. File will be placed in the Export folder.
  
  Go to the main game screen and highlight 1974 National League. Use File -> New Scheduled. Note the start date. Do the following: click "Export". Click Ok. File will be placed in the Export folder.
  
  

For schedule build, pick either AS PLAYED or non-AS PLAYED.

• Step 16: Find the file 1974ALschpit.txt and open it in a text editor.
• Step 17: Copy all of the text and then close the file.
• Step 18: Find the file named 1974NLschpit.txt and open it in a text editor.
• Step 19: Scroll to the bottom of the text in the file and then paste. After pasting, select all the text in the file, copy and then close the file.
• Step 20: Navigate to the Export folder. Locate the file named 1974ALSC.TXT and open that file in a text editor.
  
  
  
  Select all text in the file and delete the text. Now paste the text you previously copied from the 1974ALschpit.txt and 1974NLschpit.txt into the file. Save the file as 1974MLSC.TXT. Close the file.

• Step 16-20: Use automated process by clicking here. It will create file 1974MLSC.TXT.

Steps 21 is a manual step.

• Step 21: Go to the game screen. Highlight 1974 Major Leagues. Use League -> Schedule Maintenance. At the top of the screen fill in the starting date of the season.
  
  
  
  Then click "Import". Navigate to the Export folder and select the file you just saved and named 1974MLSC.TXT then click ok. It will take a few minutes but the schedule with starting pitchers will be imported into the game.

Congratulations, you have now created your Major League rosters.

INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING DIFFERENT STARTING DATES FOR AL AND NL.

If the AL and NL started their season on different days. If, for example, the NL started on 4/4 and the AL on 4/5, then you will need to add 1 to the "day" for each game in the AL schedule file before merging the schedule files. You may use Excel to create a formula to do this. This example assumes the AL starts one day later than the NL, which is most often the case when they start on separate days.

• Prior to merging the schedules, open the 1974ALschpit.txt file in Excel. Create a new column and insert a formula that takes the day column and adds 1 day to it for each day of the season. Then copy and paste the new column over the top of the original day column. You will need to use "paste special" and select "values only". Then delete the column with the formula that you created.
• You may then use File -> Save As to save this file as a .csv (Comma Delimited) file. After saving the file rename it to 1974[NL or AL]schpit.txt as the case may be.
• Now you may merge the AL and NL files schedule files and import them as provided for in the instructions above.

Failure to do this will result in wrong dates for transactions and lineups for the season.

Go Back to Step 15

OPTIONAL BUT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

• At the game screen use Options to set up Rules, Lineups and Usage, Game Preferences, etc. to whatever you prefer.
• Highlight your league on the main screen. Use League -> Backup League. You will only need to check the box to backup Rosters and Stats.
  
  
  
• Click OK and your League will be backed up to the CDROMBB\BACKUP (or Strat-O-Matic Baseball\Backup) folder as a ".lzp" file. You may rename your backup to whatever you want, e.g., "1974 Major League Rosters".
• If you want to reload your rosters or start your league again just use League -> Restore League and navigate to the CDROMBB\BACKUP (or Strat-O-Matic Baseball\Backup) folder choose the league you saved and click Open.

AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO SAVE YOUR LEAGUE ROSTER

In this method we are going to create a roster file for the new Major Leagues to enable the ability to reinstall the Major League rosters at any time by using League -> Install Rosters, i.e., a new "U" roster for the year in question.

• Once you have successfully created your Major Leagues, at the game screen use Options to set up Rules, Lineups and Usage, Game Preferences, etc. to whatever you prefer.
• If your new major league appears to be in order you may now delete the AL and NL leagues by highlighting the league and using Edit -> Delete. Do not delete the Pitcher's Hitting League. Failure to delete the separate AL and NL leagues before creating the new "U" Roster will result in an install of AL, NL and ML leagues if you reinstall the roster.
• Now navigate to the Roster folder and perform a search using the search term "1974*.*" (without the quotes). Use Winzip or a similar program and add all of the files found in the search to a zip file. Save the file to the Desktop or some other folder as "1974U.zip" (without the quotes).
• Navigate to the Support\Rosters folder and rename the 1974U file located there as "1974UOriginal.zip" (without the quotes). You may now copy the 1974U.zip file to the Support\Rosters folder. Now when you choose to install the rosters for that year using League -> Install Rosters the Major Leagues roster will be installed together with the pitcher's hitting league.

NOTE: You may also want to copy your newly created Major Leagues roster (1974U.zip) to another folder for safekeeping. If you purchase a newer version of the game your file may be overwritten with the new game installation.

Have fun using your new Major League rosters.