Assembling Parks
As any fan knows, the size, shape and playing surface of a
ballpark have a big influence on play. So does the weather. All
these factors are reflected in Diamond Mind's ballpark ratings, so
choosing the parks in which your teams play is an important step.
(You can read a parks overview
elsewhere. Click on the Back button to return to this
tutorial.)
If you are working with real-life teams, they are probably
associated with their home ballparks already. For example, if you
import a team into your database, DMB gives you the option of
bringing its ballpark along with it.
But if you have created fictional teams, or if you would like
your real-life teams to have a different home, then you will need
to gather the parks in which they might play. DMB provides you with
two basic options for achieving this.
First is importing parks
individually from another DMB database. For example, every copy of
DMB comes with the All-time Greatest Teams #2 disk, which contains
the 1955 Brooklyn ballclub. So you can import Ebbets Field (as it
played in 1955) and "move" your 2003 club out of Los Angeles and
back east.
Because ballparks change over time, so do their ratings. And, of
course, no ballpark is forever. So Diamond Mind has compiled a
historical database with the park dimensions and statistical
factors for every ballpark that has been used since 1901. This
database is a separately priced product that you can purchase and
install along with your DMB game. If you have installed this
database, you can import any of these parks into your database for
use in your league.
Your second option for gathering parks
is creating them. This is a
matter of entering general, physical and weather information along
with statistical factors that will affect events on the field. In
addition, you will need to associate your park with a ballpark image.
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