MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL 4 GAME CONTROIS If you have a mouse, 80% of the input can be done by pointing to your selection and pressing the mouse button. With or without a mouse, the keyboard can be used to select an option by pressing the letter/number appearing to the left of the option. THE MAIN MENU There are 10 options to choose from on the main menu (Figure 1). For more detailed information about each of these options, please refer to corresponding sections in this manual. A Exhibition Ploy This option allows you to play non- league games. Non-league does not mean that you cannot use your league teams to play an exhibition game. It means only that you will not be given the option to compile stats at the end of the game. This is the best way to become familiar with MLB4. Regardless of the outcome, you won't affect compiled stats or your league standings. After hitting the Exhibition Play A key, a screen reveals a simulated scoreboard showing the stadium in which you are playing, the two teams that are currently selected, the starting pitchers, and two coaches selected (computer or player). There is a series of options on the bottom half of this screen. These options can be changed to suit the way you want to play your game and will be fully explained later in the manual starting on page 4. B league Play This option gives you the opportunity to compile stats at the end of the game. It also takes advantage of many of the other options in the game, such as the Manager Profile, Schedule Editing, and League Utilities. Press Is B to go into League Play and select the league you want. If the league already has a schedule, it will appear automatically. If the league does not have a schedule, one must be generated. A detailed description of this option will follow starting on page 18. C league Utilities This is where you construct and edit vour leagues. You can also assign Manager Profiles and connect to USA TODAY to download current stats. Each option is explained in the League Utilities section of the manual starting on page 21. F Playbook Editor This section allows you to create and edit playbooks. Raise your game to a new competitive level by creating a unique playbook for use against different managers. Never have your "signs" stolen again. The Playbook Editor is fully described starting on page 29. G Manager Profile Now you can create your own likeness in the form of a computer coach. The Manager's Profile allows you to alter the MicroLeague Computer Manager mentality and save it in the form of a new and improved computer manager. You can make as many as you want too, each with its own file name. See page 36 for more details. E Schedule Editor This selection allows you to generate and/or edit a schedule for vour league. If you want the computer to generate a schedule for you, press F1 If vou are the Commissioner of your own league and you want a particular schedule, you can edit the schedule to suit your league's needs. This option is available only to league files. You cannot generate a schedule for a season file. The Schedule Editor is fully described starting on page 27. H General Mgr/Owner This option can only be used if you've purchased the GM/O program disk. This is an auxiliary program used to create and edit teams and players and to trade players between teams. Refer to the GM/O manual for further details. I System Settings The System Settings allow you to tailor the settings of the program to that of your system. You can set communications settings for USA TODAY Stat Down loader and set up your printer. See page 41 for more details. J Exit to DOS Once you are finished having fun, select J and you will return to a DOS prompt. D Reports Press D to see available reports. You can view and print League Standings, Compiled Stats, Historical Stats, and Composite Box Scores. These options are fully explained later. Once you press A Exhibition Play, the Game Options screen appears (Figure 2). The program automatically loads two teams and a stadium. The top half of the screen looks like a scoreboard and displays the options currently selected. You may play the default game selected or modify the selections as noted below. General game options are listed in the center gray box. Additional Visitor/Home options are listed on the left/right respectively. Below is a table of vour general selections GENERAI GAME OPTION KEYS 1 New Stadium: selects stadium of play. 2 Set DH Rule: specifies designated hitter function. 3 Game Type: played as either series, quick, or normal. 4 Graphics: can be toggled on/off. 5 Load Game: loads a previously saved game. 6; Start Game. 1 New Stadium Press 1 to select a new stadium. A pop-up menu will appear listing all of your possible choices on the left. There are four stadiums to choose from. Dodger Stadium automatically loads first, and other stadiums include Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, or Camden Yards. If you have purchased additional stadium disks and copied them to your hard drive, they will also appear. If you keep them on floppies, you need to select the drive from which you will load them. On the right is a list of directories and drives available. Press TAB to switch between the two lists. Use the arrow keys to highlight your selection(s) and hit ENTER. 2 Set Designated Hitter Rule Press 2 to select or de-select the DH option. Your selection will appear on the scoreboard, which will display "DH" above the "General Game Options" box, if DH has been selected. If it has not been selected nothing will appear in this area. 3 Game Type If you want to play a Quick Game or use the Series Play option you can toggle them by pressing 3 . A Quick Game will allow you to play an entire game in less than a minute. The drawback is that you have no managerial control over the game. The Computer Manager takes over and decides the outcome of the game. To have more control over the Computer Manager use the Manager Profile Option where you can "program" the computer coach to your liking. Series Play allows vou to play a series of games and save the box scores without watching the games. The computer will play from two to 18 games unattended. (This feature will also allow you to play just one game, but we suggest playing more than one to maximize the advantage of this option.) After each Quick or Series Play game you will be able to look at the box score and game summary, print, or save (as a text file) it. Press 1 to view the box score and F2 to view the game summary. Once you see the view screen you will see two icons at the upper Aght of the screen. One is a printer labeled F1, the other is a disk labeled F2. To print the information press F1, to save it as a text file press F2. If you are saving it as a text file you will be prompted to give it a file name. Use any name, provided it is eight letters or fewer. The program automatically assigns the extension of "ASC" to your file name. To compile a box score select F3. You will be asked to input a file name. If you are saving to an existing file name the program will ask if you want to overwrite or add to the file. Overwrite the file will erase all of the previous data saved in it. Adding to the file wiU compile the saved data with the new data for a combined total. Since you do not have the option of compiling stats in the Exhibition mode of play, compiling box scores is a good way of tracking player performance. 4 Graphics Press 4: to toggle the graphics on or off. With the graphics off you wiU see only the results of each play during the game. You wiU not see any players run after or catch the ball, or run around the bases. With the graphics off you wiU be able to play an entire game quite a bit faster than if vou leave the graphics on. To see which mode is selected look at the lower left corner of the scoreboard. 5 Load Game If you have previously saved a game vou can restart it by selecting I- A pop-up window wiU display the available saved games. Use the arrow keys to highlight vour choice and hit ENTER to select it. Note: the saved options will be in effect, not the ones that are displayed on the screen. When you load a saved game everything wiU be loaded as last appeared. Be sure to select the same; otherwise the results of the game wiU be affected. 6 Start Game Before you press 6 to start the game, you should read the next section, Game time Options. Additional Options The other options listed on the screen are in the blue and red blocks and correspond to Home and Visitor options. Options A-F pertain to the Visitors and G-l. pertain to the Home team. A G : Select New Tearns: shows league teams. B H : Select New Coaches: toggles between plaver and computer manager. C I : Select New Pitchers: shows available starting and backup pitchers. D J : Set Lineup: shows batting order and field setup. E K : Load Playbook: shows available plavbooks. F L : Load Profile: shows available profiles. A G Select New Teams The program automatically loads two teams when you select Exhibition Play. To play other teams select A or G , depending on which team you want to change. When the appropriate letter is pressed a Select [Visiting / Home] Team screen appears. It lists all the available teams in that league or season file. If you do not want to play with teams from this league and would like to select another league press F1. A pop-up window appears requesting you to pick a league file. Use arrows and keys to make a selection, and that league wiU appear on the Select [Visitor/Home] Team screen. To select a new team press the letter/number that appears to the left of the team name. B H Select New Coaches To choose between one of two coaching possibilities press B for the Visitors or 1 for the Home Team. These are toggle keys which enable you to switch between Player Coach and Computer Coach. Player Coach lets you make the managerial decisions during the game. Computer Coach means that the computer wiU make aU strategic decisions. You can assign a Manager's Profile only to the Computer Coach. C I Select Pitchers To change vour starting pitcher press C or I. A screen will appear titled "Select Home/Visiting Team Pitchers. ' This screen is divided into three sections. The top section contains the current pitcher, the middle section shows who is currently in the bullpen, and the bottom section shows all available pitchers on the bench. Use the Tab key to move between the sections. The program has so much information available for each player that it can't be displayed aU at once. You should use the left and right arrow keys to see aU of the player's stats and ratings and the up and down arrow keys to scroll the highlight bar through the available players. The stats and ratings in order of appearance are: Status, Throwing Arm, Wins, losses, Earned Run Average, Games Started, Completed Games, Saves, Innings Pitched, Opposing at Bats, Hits allowed, Doubles allowed, Triples allowed, Home Runs allowed, Walks allowed, Strikeouts, Groundball to fly Ball Percentage, and Batting Ability. Press V to toggle between Combined, vs. Lefty, and vs. Righty stats. All pre-1982 teams have combined stats only. Press B - to go directly to the batting lineup. (See Set Lineup on page 9.) Press S: to save the current lineup for later. The status for the current pitcher wiU be O.K., Tired or Wild. The status for a bullpen pitcher wiU be Warm, Cold, or Tired. The status for a bench pitcher will either be O.K. or Tired. To remove a pitcher from the Pitcbing Box, highlight him and press ENTER, Before a game, this wiU put him on the bench. During a game, it will send him to the showers. To put a pitcher in the game, first empty the Pitching Box, then highlight the new pitcher (in the bullpen) and press ENTER, To put a pitcher in the bullpen, leave a pitcher in the pitching box, highlight the benched pitcher and press ENTER To sit a bullpen pitcher, highlight him in the bullpen while there is a pitcher in the pitching Box and press ENTER, D J Set Lineup To change your starting Lineup Press D or J . A new screen wiU appear titled "Set Home/Visitors lineup." The screen is divided into two parts. The top shows who is currently in the lineup and the position they are playing. The bottom shows who is on the bench. As with the pitchers, use Tab to change from one part to the other, and the arrow keys to move around within the secbons. To change a player's posibon, press ENTER, and then the letter corresponding to the posibon vou want him to play. To switch two players' positions in the lineup highlight one player and then press the number of the other player's spot in the order. To move a player from the bench to the lineup, highlight him and press the number of the spot where you want to place him. The player in that spot will be replaced by the highlighted player. Hitting V toggles between combined stats and those for left- and right-handed pitchers. Press S - to save the lineup. You can save as either your lineup vs. RHP's or LHP's or as one of the platoon lineups. This tells the computer manager what changes to make when the starter is replaced by an opposite-handed pitcher. Press P to go to the pitcher's screen. E K Load Playbook A new feature of MicroLeague Baseball 4 is the playbook mode of play. This speeds up the game and takes it to another level. It is almost impossible for your opponent to "steal" your "signs." You can have the same play with five different codes, or different plays with no two codes defining the exact same play. With a total of 99 offensive and 99 defensive codes the options are nearly limitless. Instructions on how to make your own playbook (or on how to edit one of our playbooks) is described on page 29. For now press E K to load a playbook. Once you press E K you will see a pop-up menu listing the available playbooks to choose from. Use arrows and ENTER keys to select your playbook. For now select "Default " Playbook. This playbook has been printed (see playbook card, included) so you don't need to print anything before you play a game. When you load a playbook, coach is automatically set to player. F L Load Profile Another new feature is the Manager's Profile. How to create and/or edit a profile wiU be explained later (see page 36), but for now press to load a profile for the computer coach. A pop-up menu wiU appear listing the available profiles to choose from. Use the arrows and ENTER keys to select the profile of your choice. When you load a profile coach is automatically set to computer. Now that all your options are set press G to start game. The stadium in which you are playing appears. The players run onto the field and you will hear the National Anthem. You are ready to play a full game. Have your playbook card in front of you to view different play options. At the top of the screen is the scoreboard. The visiting team is listed first on the scoreboard. You can tell which half of the inning you are in by the "+" appears. It is located next to the team at bat. Play Ball Input a play from your playbook card (for both the home team and visiting team if necessary, depending on the options you have set) . To select a play from the standard playbook, input the one-digit code on the play card. See Playbook Editor (see page 29) for a description of the play options. To select a play from a custom playbook, input 0 followed by the two-digit code from your playbook. It's that easy and that fast. Once the plays are input the animations begin. A digitized video window that contains actual baseball footage wiU appear if enabled. Press V to turn video off and on. Once the play begins, a box appears that contains the play-by-play explanation of the action. Game Final Screen When the game is finished, the "Game Final" screen wiU appear. You have the following options: F1 View or Print Box Score F2 View or Print Sumrnary F3 Compile Box Score F1 . View Or Print Box Score F1 Iets vou view and/or print the detailed box score for the game. F2 View Or Print Summory F2 lets you view and/or print the detailed game summary. F3 Compile Box Score The best time to use this option is during series play. After each game you can compile the box score and stats for the series. If you do not wish to start a league this is the easiest way to keep track of player performance. You can compile to separate files, or compile one whole series to a single file. When you compile to a single file, the stats can be overwritten or accumulated. Press F3 and you wiU be prompted for a file name for your compiled box score. If this is your first compiled box score the input box for a file name will be empty, so enter any name you wish. If this is not your first compiled box score a file name will already be displayed. (If you want a new file name you can enter it at this time). If you would like to compile the box score to the existing file press ENTER. To overwrite stats from the previous box score press F1 . To accumulate stats press F2. To cancel the option press F3 During the course of a game (exhibition or league), there are several information sources you can access. VIEWING/CHANGING IINEUPS . Visiting Team Lineup If vou are batting Z changes your current batter and X changes your on-deck batter. If you are in the field Z visits the mound (to make starbng pitcher changes) and X calls the bullpen to start warming someone up or put him directly into the game. N M Home Team Uneup On the home side of the field select N to change the current batter and to change the on deck batter. When fielding select N to visit the mound and M to call the bullpen. NOTE: You can point and click with your mouse to access these functions, (e.g., If you want to check on your starting pitcher click the starbng pitcher box with your mouse. If you want to change your on- deck batter click the on-deck batter's box). Changes are made as described in the Exhibibon Game Opbons (pages 7-9) except that removed players will "hit the showers" instead of being benched. BOX SCORE Pressing B (or clicking on the scoreboard) displays the box score. A pop-up menu appears and displays options available. Press F1 to view and access the printing functions of the detailed box score. Press F2 to view and access the detailed game summary. Press F3 to save the game exactly where you are and quit. When you press F3 you are asked to enter a file name for your saved game. Enter any name that is eight characters or less. The program automatically gives the file name an extension of ".sav." When you load it from the Game Opbons screen (see page 11 "Load Game") the program only displays ".sav" files. When you finish the game the ".sav" file remains on your hard disk. To delete the saved game exit from the program and use standard DOS commands. To quit the game you were playing without saving press F4. This immediately exits the game and takes vou back to the main menu screen (or league schedule screen if you are playing in a league). Press F5 to finish a game quickly. This finishes the game in Quick Play mode. NOTE: By finishing the game in Quick Play mode you forego any managerial control for the rest of the game. Press F6. to quickly finish the current inning only. Press F7- . to use Quick Play mode through to a certain inning. When you press F7; you are asked to enter an inning number. STAT NOTEBOOK If you are the visiting team TAB lets you access the Stat Notebook feature. The home team uses the / key to do the same. You cannot access this feature by using a mouse; you must use the keyboard. The Stat Notebook is a quick reference to everything you need to know to make the best decisions. When selected, a notebook appears above your selection boxes. See Figure #4. The options in the Stat Notebook are numbered 0-9. To access them you use the mouse to point and click or select the numbers from the keyboard. The visiting team uses the number keys that appear above the alpha-keyboard. The home team uses the number keys that appear on the keypad. NOTE: If the number 5 does not work for the home team make sure your "num lock" is activated. The options are as follows: 0 Index 7 V. Lineup 1 Batter 8 H. Lineup 2 On Deck 3 Runners 4 Pitcher 5 C-LF-CF-RF 6 1B-2B,3B-SS O Index The Index displays exactly what vou are seeing when you open the Stat Notebook. It lets vou know the function of each number. To the right of the stat notebook are tabs with numbers to let you know exactly where you are. The option you have chosen is fully displayed on the tab. The rest of the options are partially covered by the selected options "page. ' 1. Batter If you select the number 1 you see the current batter's name at the top of the page followed by his stats. These are his historical stats (even if vou are playing a league game, these would not be his compiled stats) . The stats are listed in two columns. The left column contains stats versus "lefties" and the right column stats versus "righties." There are three ratings at the bottom of the page. SA is the player's sacrifice ability. PULL tells you whether the batter is a pull hitter, a spray hitter or an opposite-field hitter. If a right-handed batter is a pull hitter, he has a tendency to hit the ball to left field. If a right-handed batter is a spray hitter, he hits it equally to any field. If a right-handed batter is an opposite-field hitter, he tends to hit the ball to right field. POW is the player's batting power, and will be listed as none, some, good, or awesome. 2. On Deck Select 2 to get the same information for the on-deck batter 3. Runners Select 1 to determine who is on base with their speed and base stealing ratings. Base stealing (SB) is broken into two categories: successful steals and caught stealing (i.e., 15/2 would mean the player had 15 successful steals and was caught stealing twice) . The player's speed (SPD) will be listed as leadfoot, slow, average, good, fast, or speedster. 4. Pitchers Select 4 to view the current pitcher stats. The pitcher who is currently pitching is displaved at the top of the page. Below the pitcher s name is the number of innings pitched and his pitching arm. ERA (Earned Run Average) follows. His stats against lefties appear on the left side of the "Page. The stats against righties appear on the right. 5. C-LF-CF-RF Press 5 to view ratings of players at specified posibons (C-LF-CF-RF). The ratings for the players of those posibons include: Fielding Range Rating (R), Throw Rabng (T), and Fielding Percentage (%). 6. 1B-2B-3B-SS Press 6 - to display the same ratings as above for the remaining posibons. The remaining positions are lB, 2B, 3B, and SS. Refer to the glossary for an explanation of the ratings. 7 Visiting Lineup This option lets vou view the entire lineup for the visiting team. The team's abbreviation is listed above the current lineup. The players are listed in the order of appearance in the batting order. The player at bat will have an asterisk by his name. If vour team is in the field, the asterisk appears next to the name of the player scheduled to lead off the next half-inning. 8 Home Lineup Press 8 to view the same information for the home team lineup. 9 Close Book To close the Stat Notebook press 9 . The notebook display disappears, and you may input your play to continue the game. GRAPHIC/SOUND OPTIONS There are several graphic and sound options availahle during the course of the game. G A Graphic Toggles You can toggle the graphics during the game. To speed the game without losing vour "managerial" status you can toggle the graphics by pressing . This will stop all animations and show only results of plays. Press G- again to resume the animated display. To stop "incidental" running press R . "Incidental" running includes players running off the field when out or at the end of the half inning. Press R to resume incidental running. Any animation sequence can be skipped by hitting the space bar. A gray box containing a brief description of the last play will appear at the bottom of the screen. If vou choose not to see this recap text, press L (or click on the box) to disable it. Press L (or click again) to re- enable this feature. S Sound Toggle Press I-: to toggle the sounds on and off. T: Radar Gun Press T to show the velocity of the pitcher's last pitch. (Figure 4) After you've set up a league and created a schedule, you're ready for League Play. Refer to League Utilities Section on page 21 to set up your league parameters. Select B - from the main menu and vou will be prompted to select a league. Once you have selected your league Figure 5 will appear. What vou are seeing is the league schedule, which you can edit. The available options at the bottom of the screen are slightly different from the Schedule Edit screen. (See page 27) . To view the schedule vou use the arrow keys as in the Schedule Editor. The up and down arrows move vou through the schedule a week at a time while the left and right arrows move you through the schedule a day at a time. Two additional movement keys are X First and IZ - Last. Pressing X will take you to the first day in the schedule. IZ will take vou to the last day of the schedule. You have three options to the right of the 'movement" keys. They are: F1- Play Thru Today F2- Play Multiple F3- Quick Play Day F1 Play Thru Today This option uses the movement keys to their full advantage. To play ten days' games, use the movement keys to advance 10 days. Then hit F1 All of the scheduled games that haven't already been played in that 10 day period are quick played. It will stop after completing all of the games that appeared on the screen prior to pressing F1 . Please note: This is also how you play a quick season. Press Z to go to the last day of the season and then press F1 and the full season's games are quick played. This option is completely flexible. You can play through 1 day, 162 days, or anywhere in between. F2 Play Multiple This option allows you to have all of a day's games playing at once. Once vou press F2 you will proceed to a screen titled "Select Game to Play." AU of the available games will be listed in "schedule" on the lower half of the screen. The top of the screen is empty when you first select this option. Information pertaining to the game that is currently being played appears. It is a typical scoreboard containing runs by inning as well as total runs, hits, and errors. Select a game to play by pressing the letter that appears to the left of the team names (or click with mouse pointer) . Once vou select a game to play the Game Opbons screen for that game appears. The Game Opbons screen is exactly the same for exhibition and league play. If you are unfamiliar with anything in the Game Opbons screen (see page 4) refer back to the Exhibibon Play secbon. Once the game has started you wiU play one full inning. At the end of that inning a pop-up screen will appear. This screen is the "Select Game to Play" screen that we started with. The game you are currently playing appears at the top of the screen in the scoreboard. The rest of the games and their current scores are listed in the bottom half of the screen. The magic of this option is at this point you can switch to any other game that is listed. If the selected game is boring or you're getting crushed, just hop into another game. Pressing the letter that precedes the game will take vou to the game options screen for that game and you can assume managerial control of one of the teams from that point on. At the end of every inning you will "pop-out" to the "Select Game to Play" screen and have the option of staying with your current game, or changing to another one. To stay with the game that you are currently playing just hit ESCAPE and you'll go right back to where you left off. A word of caution, however. You still have all of the play and game time options available to you while you are in the Mulbple Game mode of play. This includes the ability to go to the Box Score, to quick play or quit a game. If you choose quick play, you will see a final box score and will be able to see the detailed box score, but neither of those stats nor any other stats for any of the games will be compiled. When you go back to your league schedule screen aU of the games you were just playing will be un-played. As a rule, use F3 Quick Play Day (not multiple games) or it may result in losing the amount of time you put into the game in the first place. F3 Quick play Day This option allows you to play aU of the listed day's games in a very short time (usually less than a minute per game) . Press F3 to play the games. A schedule screen wiU follow listing the games' final scores. The stats are automatically compiled. You can now play through another day or check the stats through the D Reports option of the main menu. Once you are done playing your league games, hit ESCAPE to exit to the main menu. All of your stats are automatically saved and compiled when exiting this secbon of the game. League Utilities When you press C at the main menu, the league utilities menu (Figure 6) appears with the following options: F1 Initialize League F2 Add Teams To League F3 Delete Teams From League F4 Set Team Roster F5 Update USA TODAY Season Disk F6 Assign Manager Profiles F7 Clear League Stats F8 USA TODAY Sports Center Demo F9 Edit Team Lineups F1 Initialize league Press F1 to initialize a league with 1, 2, or 4 divisions. Once you have chosen the number of divisions, you will be given the option to name the league and each division in the league. You may name them anything you'd like (15 character limit). By pressing ENTER you will skip to the next text line. When you are done with names, press ESCAPE You can now choose to adopt or abandon the DH rule. If a division is using the DH it will have a "Y" displaved under the DH? column, and if not using the DH it will display an "N." To toggle between them you press the letter A - D next to the division you want to change. Once you make your changes press F1 to save the names that are displayed. You will then be prompted to enter a file name for your league. Again, this can be any name (up to 8 characters long) . The file name and the league name should be the same so it's easy to remember. Once you type your file name press ENTER. The program will automatically assign the extension of ".lea" to the name you typed as the file name. If you are playing from a hard drive and you want to save your league to disk just hit ESCAPE once, use the arrow keys to highlight the drive and hit ENTER. Then type the file name. F2 AdD Teams To League Once the file name has been selected and the league file saved, the Utilibes screen wiU return. To select teams, press F2 ' - Add Teams to League. You will be prompted to select a source league from which to select your teams. Choose the league which contains the teams you wish to copy. A source league can be a season file ("*.sea") or a league file ("*.lea"). Once you have chosen a source league you wiU be prompted to select a target league. Select the league you initialized as the target league. Another menu wiU appear with the source teams listed on the left and the target league wiU be on the right. To add teams to your target league, press the letter that precedes the source team name. As an example press A; . Notice that the name of the first team now appears on the right side of the screen. You now have one team in vour league. If vou have more than one division in your league, you will notice that the division names appear below the Target League. In order to copy teams to other divisions, press the number that precedes the division name. This displays the teams that are in the selected division. Since this is a new league there should be no teams in the next division. (Use the arrows to scroll through the source team list and the page up and down keys for the target team list.) Once you have selected/added all the teams you want into vour new league, press ESCAPE- All of the additions wiU automatically be saved. F3 Delete Teoms From Leogue If you make a mistake while adding teams to vour league, vou can correct them by selecting F3 - Delete Teams From League. There are actually two functions of this option; you can delete a team or just clear the compiled statistics of the team. Press F3 and the program will prompt you to select a league file. You will select a league file the same way throughout this program by highlighting and hitting ENTER (or double-clicking on it with the mouse). Once you have selected a file, a screen will appear that looks just like a Team Selection screen that you get while setting up to play a game. Select a team the same way you would during the game. Once you select a team a window wiU pop-up asking vou if vou want to delete the team or just clear the team's statistics. F1 will delete the team while F2 will delete only its statistics. Deleting statistics of a league is helpfull when starbng a new season with a current league. F4 Set Team Roster This option is a user must. You have a complete 30-man roster at vour disposal and vou make all the calls. When this option is selected, vou see a team selection menu. Make sure vou are in the correct league and then select a team to view. Press the letter in front of the team vou want to view. The next screen displays all of the players on the roster, with their condition and status. Team rosters are of great informational value. Having them on hand is like having vour own offensive and defensive playbook. To view a plaver's stats or to change his status, press the letter or number next to his name. A display of his status and stats wiU appear. Hit F1 to put an active plaver on the farm list or to activate a plaver on the farm. F5: Update USA TODAY Season Disk This option downloads current stats from USA TODAY Sports Center to a league file on vour hard drive. You wiU be prompted to select a league to update. NOTE: It is only possible to download to an existing league file, so be sure you have defined a league with all desired teams/plavers to be updated! After pressing F5 ., the user is prompted by a second screen that has the ability to call USA TODAY for new stats which can be loaded into vour game. For a thorough explanation of the Stats Service and the USA TODAY Sports Center see the USA TODAY Sports Center Secbon on page 39. F6 Assign Manager Profiles This option lets you choose from different strategies of play by assigning certain types of strategy profiles to your teams. Press F6 to display a screen that lists the teams down the left side and the assigned profile on the right. Each team starts with the default manager profile. To assign a new profile click the team name with your mouse or press the number that precedes the team name on the left. A pop-up menu of available profiles will appear. To select click the profile name with your mouse or highlight and hit ENTER . Once you have made your selection the screen with the team names on the left and the profiles on the right will return. Notice that the profile you just picked is listed to the right of the team name. It's that simple. Remember, every time you load this "assigned" team to play a game you will be loading this profile also. Whenever this team is managed by the computer, the profile will be guiding the management decisions. Hit ESCAPE to return to Utilites menu. F7 Clear Stats This option allows you to use the same league more than once. Once the season is played vou can use this option to clear the stats and start another season right away. You won't be compiling a second season of stats onto the previous season's stats. F8 USA TODAY Sports Center Demo To view the USA TODAY Sports Center press F8 . This option is only available if you have a modem. F9 Edit Team Lineups This option allows you to establish pre-set lineups for any team. Select a team as usual and make changes as noted in Exhibibon Play on page 9. Hitting L. toggles through the basic situation combination of vs. righty/lefty pitchers, starbng/platooning, and with/without DH rule enabled. This allows you to save a variety of lineups for different game situations. Hitting C allows you to copy from a lineup which has previously been set. A small menu with options A through H is available for you to copy from one of eight pre-set lineups (listed by situation) . Hitting l - will cause the computer to generate a lineup from the available players. Simply hit ESCAPE when you are finished. Any changes will be saved automatically. League Utilities When vou select D from the main menu, you will move to the report option screen which contains the following options: F1 League standings F2 Print Compiled Stats F3 Print Historical Stats F4 Print Composite Box Score Each option will display certain information and give vou the option of printing the information or saving it as a text file on disk. F1: Leogue Standings After pressing F1 and selecting a league, a screen will appear that looks like the box score screen, except here you will see the league standings (see Figure 7) . After vou play a few games, vou will see that the standings are divided by division, showing position, wins, losses, winning percentage, and the number of games each team is back in its division. Once vou have played a full season, vou may want to create a new league out of the playoff teams to see who is champion. Press F1 . to print the standings or F2 to save them as a text file on disk. F2 Print Compiled Stats Press F2 to display the compiled stats for any team. When you select this option vou will be prompted to select a league. Once you have selected a league a list of teams in the league will appear. Press the letter to the left of the team name to view that team's stats. To be a top manager you must be aware of who is performing and who is not. You need up-to-the-minute compiled stats to have the edge over the other guys. Use the arrow keys and page up and down keys to scroll through the comprehensive set of stats that MLB4 offers. To return to the reports menu, press ESCAPE. F3 Print Historical Stats Press F3 to display the stats that the players actually accumulated during the year they had played. Select a league and team as above. To predict future performance, you should examine historical stats. Since the players perform in the simulation as they do in real life, historical stats will give you a clue as to when a player would be slumping or streaking. F4 Print Composite Box This option will display any composite box scores you have previously compiled. When you select this option you will be prompted to select a composite box score from a list of available composite box scores. Select the one you want to view or print and it will be displayed on the screen. To print press F1. To save the box score as a text file press F2 and name the file. The Composite Box Score compiles such stats as at bats (AB), runs (R), hits (H), doubles (2B), triples (3B), home runs (HR), runs batted in (RBI), base on balls (BB), strikeouts (SO), averages (AVG) through both a batting and fielding summary . Schedule Editor Once you have created your league and selected teams for it, you must generate a schedule. To generate a schedule press E from the main menu. Select the league vou want to schedule. The Edit Schedule screen will appear (Figure 8). At the bottom left of the screen are the movement" keys. To view different days of the schedule you can move one day or one week at a time. The up and down arrows will move you a week ahead (down arrow) or a week back (up arrow) . The left arrow will move you a day back while the right arrow will move vou a day ahead. The other two options on the right side of the screen are F1 Generate and Print Schedule. F1 Generate Schedule To automatically generate a schedule press F1 . You must have an even number of teams in each league, and the same number of teams in each division of a league to use the Schedule Generator. This will raise a screen titled "Schedule Generation." This screen will set all of the parameters to generate the schedule for your league. There are three parameters that vou can set. The first selection is the number of intradivisional games. Intradivisional means the number of games played against other teams that are in the same division (Ex., in the Nabonal League East if you want Pittsburgh to play each of the Nabonal League East teams 8 times, vou would set intradivisional games to "8"). Interdivisional games are the number of games played against opponents outside your division. The last selection is how many games per series vou would like. If you want your league to have 6 game series before they play another team, select 6 games. NOTE: One-and two-division leagues have no interdivisional option. Once vou have set all of vour variables, press F1 and the schedule will generate according to vour choices. You will notice that the text at the top of the screen is racing by. You may also notice That the program will cycle through the schedule once and then seem to do it again. That is normal. Once the schedule is generated the program will return to the league schedule screen. This time, however, vou should see games to be played in the available slots. Your league is scheduled and vou can use the League Play option from the main menu. Scheduling Double Headers The schedule generator doesn't schedule double headers, so this is what you'd have to do to schedule one. Once the schedule has been generated, select A through O to edit any particular game or to manually schedule a new game on the day shown. (You cannot edit a game that has already been played .) When vou select one of these slots two lists of the teams in the league will appear (one on each side of the screen) . If you select an existing game, the two teams playing will be shown in red (home side) and blue (visiting side) at the top of each team list. To select a new home team, hit the number 1-0 corresponding to the desired team shown on the left side. To select a new visiting team, hit the letter A-J corresponding to the desired team shown on the right side. Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll the home team list and the page up and page down keys to scroll the visiting team list. Hit F1 to delete the game you are presently editing. Hit ESCAPE when finished to return to that day's schedule. Hit ESCAPE to leave the schedule editor. Any changes made to the schedule will automatically be saved. F2 Print Schedule This opbon will allow you to print the schedule for the league (one team at a time), so vou can give a copy to anyone who wants one. The view screen will appear much like that of a box score or stat report screen. Playbook Editor Press F at the main menu to access the playbook editor. F1 . Create A New Playbook Press F1 . to begin editing a new playbook. This will Lake you immediately to the Sign Book Editor screen. F2 Edit An Existing Phybook Press F2 to begin editing from an existing playbook. This opbon can be used to change an existing playbook or to make a new playbook while starting with an existing one. (See Save Plays option on page 35). F3, Print A Playbook Press F3 to print out (or send to a text file) an existing playbook. This function operates just as the Reports Options. PIAY DESIGNER Editing A Pby The sign book editor screen is where the editing is done. A window at the top shows the first ten of the ninety-nine available "slots" in the playbook (Figure 9). Use the up and down arrow keys, page up and page down keys, and number keys, to move through the remaining slots. Each play will show two digits designating the play number (the keys corresponding to that play), and a brief text description of the play. Any slot without a play will have no text. Editing A Play Hit ENTER to edit the highlighted play, or to create a play in an unused slot. The text corresponding to the play appears in small windows in the center of the screen. NOTE: Selecbng an unused slot will cause a blank field to appear here. Type in the play description here. Select the play options by toggling the selections A: through C on offense or A through J on defense. The following is a list of the menus and corresponding keys: OFFENSE DEFENSE A Batting Options A Pitching Options B Base Running Options B Infield Depth C Base Stealing Options C Guard Line Options D Infield Positioning E Behind 1st Base Runner Options F Outfield Positioning G Left Field Depth H Center Field Depth I Right Field Depth J Safe/aggresive Options Swing Away- When this opbon is selected, the batter will swing normally. Hit and Run- With men on base, this opbon will let vour runners begin to advance just before the ball is hit. If successful, the runner(s) may take an extra base or avoid a double-play. Conversely, a fly out may cause baserunners to get "doubled up. Bunt For Hit- If you have a batter who has good speed and bunting ability, vou may catch your opponent off guard and get on base with this opbon. Sacrifice Bunt- If you are trying to advance the runner(s), this opbon may prove useful. When successful, vour opponent will throw out the batter at first while the runner(s) advance. This opbon is risky, so check the batter's sacrifice ability. It may not always work, especially if the defensive coach plays his infielders in. Hit Behind Runner- This is another way to advance a runner on base. The advantage over a sacrifice bunt is that the batter has a chance of a base hit. The disadvantage is an increase in the possibility of a double play or a strike out. Squeeze Bunt- Much like a sacrifice bunt, this opbon is used to score a runner from third base with less than two outs. The success of this play depends upon the positioning of the infield, the batter's bunting and sacrifice abilities, and the runner's speed. Safe Base Running- This opbon will signal the runner(s) not to take any extra bases. Take Extra Base- This option allows you to specify when you would like the runner(s) to take an extra base. You can specify Left Field (LF), Center Field (CF), Right Field (RF), or always (ALL). This gives the runners a 'green light" signal to run aggressively if the ball is hit to any of the selected areas, and they will try to take one more base than is normally considered for them advance safely. The disadvantage of this option is that there is an increased chance of the baserunner getting thrown out. C C: Base Stealing Optbns Do Not Steal- This option will signal the runner(s) not to steal a base. Base Stealing- This option allows you to specify which runner vou would like to attempt to steal a base. You can specify Lead Runner, Back Runner, or Double Stea. This gives the specified runner(s) a "green light" signal to steal a base. You should take the opposing team's fielder's throwing rating and the runner's speed rating into consideration when selecting this option. (See Stat Book for more information). A Pitching Options Pitch (Normal)- This is the normal pitch opbon. Pitch Aggressively- This tells the pitcher to "go right at the batter" by throwing the ball over the plate. This opbon decreases the chances of a walk or single, and increases the chances of a strikeout or an extra base hit. Pitch Around- This should be used when a good hitter is up to bat and vou do not want to give him a good pitch.This opbon decreases the chance of a strikeout or an extra base hit, and increases the chance of a walk or a base hit. Pick Off- This opbon will tell the pitcher to try to throw out the runner at first base. Be careful: you could throw it past the first baseman and the runner may take extra bases. This also increases the chance of a walk because the pitcher's concentration is broken. Pitch Out- This will tell the pitcher to pitch far outside the plate so the catcher can throw out a stealing baserunner. This opbon will greatly decrease the chances of a stolen base, However, if the runner is not attempting to steal, the chances for a walk are increased. Intentional Walk- This opbon is a good strategy when first base is open and a good batter is up for a force play. This can also be used to allow the pitcher to face a potentially weak on-deck batter. B Infield Depth This option is used to bring all or none of the infielders in, or just the third and first baseman as the pitch is thrown. All infielders in increases the chance that a runner on third will "hold" or be thrown out at the plate on a ground ball. On the other hand, it increases the chance that a sharp grounder will get through for a single. Nevertheless, this is useful late in the game to prevent a run on a ground ball. "In at the corners" cuts down on the chance for a successful surprise bunt, and may hold a runner on third base. However, it increases the chance of a ground ball to third or first getting through for a hit. C Guard Line Options This is toggled on and off. Enabling this opbon will decrease the chance of an extra base hit if hit down the line, because the first and third basemen will move closer to their respective baselines. However, the chances for a base hit is greater if the ball is hit "in the hole." D Infield Positioning This opbon is used to tell the fielders to move into either of the infield "holes." Playing to pull causes the shortstop or second baseman (depending upon which side of the plate the batter lines up on) to move to the ' hole" on the batters side to guard against a pulled ball. Playing opposite causes the shortstop or second baseman to move to the "hole" opposite of the batter's pull hole. " If playing to pull and the ball is grounded to the pull side, the chance of an out is increased. If he hits it toward the opposite side, however, the chance of a hit increases. E First Baseman Options This opbon can be changed only when a runner is on first base. Normally, the first baseman will try to hold a runner at first by covering the bag. (This is the default.) Choosing behind runner will allow the first baseman to play as if there is no one on base. This increases the chance for a successful steal, while decreasing the chance of a ground ball getting by the first baseman. F Outfield Positioning When this opbon is changed from normal to play to pull, the centerfielder will play in the hole between him and the other outfielders, depending upon which side of the plate the batter lines up on. For the right-handed batter, the centerfielder will move to the left centerfield alley, and to the right centerfield alley for a left-handed batter. The advantage is that the chances for a double or triple are decreased if the batter pulls the ball. However, if the ball is not 'pulled", the chances of an extra hit is increased. G H I Outfield Depth This option gives vou the ability to posibon an outfielder closer to the field or to guard against deep shots. Choosing to play shallow is advantageous when runners are in a scoring posibon. The outfielder(s) will be prepared to field a shallow hit and throw out advancing runners, but a deep hit may allow for extra bases. Choosing to play deep decreases the chance that a long fly ball will be good for extra bases, but short flies have a greater chance of producing singles. J Safe/Aggressive Options Normally the outfielders will play safe, but a choice of aggressive wiU cause outfielders to try for the fly ball or gun down a runner trying to take an extra base during the play. The downside is that an aggressive outfield may make fielding or throwing errors as they attempt to make the "big play." After selecting the desired options, press ESCAPE to save the play and return to the play selecbon screen. The new play will appear in the selected slot next to the other plays. When you are not editing a specific play, there are other functions available: F1 Offense/DefenseToggle Hit F1 to toggle between the Offensive and Defensive Playbooks. The list of plays will appear. F2 Clear Play Hit IZ to erase the highlighted play. This slot will become available for a new play. F3 Save Plays Hit F3 to save the playbook you are currently editing. If you type in a file name which has already been used, a window will appear to remind you that this file already exists and asks you to select F3 to cancel, or F1 to overwrite the existing file. If you do not wish to lose the previously saved playbook file, select F3 to cancel. Hit F2 to save under a different file name. Returning To The Play Designer Screen Hit ESCAPE to leave the editing menus and return to the Play Designer screen. Hit ESCAPE again to return to the main menu. CAUTION: Pressing ESCAPE to leave the editor does NOT save your information! Press G from the main menu to go to the manager profile opbon. This opbon is designed to set up managerial strategies of your own liking. These strategies, called profiles, are used by the computer manager to make managerial decisions. G . Select Manager Profile Press F1 - to create new manager profile. Press F2 to edit an existing profile. Upon selecting a profile, a screen appears with a grid designating the various game situations and the decisions to be made during those situations. In each space on the grid vou can choose to always take an action (IE give a player the green light to attempt a steal, etc.) Y, never take an action(lE not to attempt) N or to let the default computer manager decide whether or not to take an action SHIFT /. Take a look at Figure 10. The grids for offensive (at bat) and defensive (fielding) options are divided into three categories: They are: from first to third inning, from fourth to sixth inning, and from the seventh inning on. Each category is divided into three scoring situations. The situations are: ahead by two or more runs, less than a two-run difference, and behind by two or more runs. In each of these situations, a decision must be made for no-out, one-out, and two-out situations. The options are: AT BAT FIELDING A Hit and Run G Play Infield In B Steal a Base H Play In At The Corners C Take Extra Base I Play Outfield Shallow D Sacrifice J Play Outfield Deep K Play Behind Runner At First L Play Outfield Aggressive There are special selections that have their own grids. They are: E Pinch Hitter Options Press E for pinch hitter options. A grid will appear that is broken into five (5) secbons: more than one run behind, one run behind, be game, one run ahead, and more than one run ahead. Each of the secbons is divided into three situations: no men on base, one man on base, and two or three men on base. Each of these situations is divided by the number of outs (none, one or two). There are forty-five (45) combinations for each of the following circumstances: NO DH RULE DH RULE A Before the 8th inning D Before the 8th inning B During the 8th inning E During the 8th inning C After the 8th inning F After the 8th inning The pinch hitter options are operated the same as the at bat and fielding options. Enter Y for yes, N for no or use default settings in each field, and use the ENTER or arrow keys to move between fields. To select other options, hit ESCAPE once to remove the cursor, and strike the appropriate letter key. If no cursor appears press [INSERT] . To return to the previous menu, hit ESCAPE a second time. F Relief Pitcher Options Hit F for the relief pitcher options. A new grid will appear, broken into the same forty-five (45) combinations as the pinch hitter options for each of the following circumstances: A Anytime before the 3rd inning B Anytime during the 3rd inning through the 6th inning C Anytime during the 6th inning D Anytime during the 7th inning E Anytime during the 8th inning F Anytime after the 8th inning Enter Y for yes, N for no or use default settings for each field and move between fields with the ENTER and arrow keys. Hit ESCAPE once before selecting one of the six GAME TIME situations, and hit ESCAPE a second time to return to the previous menu. The sports fanatic will absolutely love this new feature. USA TODAY will be providing stats updated once a week for vou to download into your league file. Every Monday around 6pm EAST the latest stats will be available via the Stats Service on the USA TODAY Sports Center. Not only can you get all the stats, hut vou can also sample all the news and reports vou want by way of the Sports Center. You have access to the latest box scores, injury reports, and news on a variety of sports. See who's leading the PGA tour, or who won last night's fight. You can even access the latest news from AP. Sports aren't the only service you can get from the Sports Center. It has everything you need to stay in touch with today's fast-paced world. Your first stat download from the USA TODAY Stats Service is free. To receive this download press C - - League Ublibes, and select F5 - Update USAT Season Disk. The first time vou select this opbon vou will be prompted to enter vour Member Handle. Your Member Handle appears on a sticker on the inside back cover of this manual. It is a nine digit- code that gives vou access to the Stats Service on the Sports Center. Once vou have entered your Member Handle the program prompts you to input your Member Password, which is also found on the inside back cover of this manual. DO NOT give your Password or Member Handle to anyone. Be sure to type vour Password exactly as it appears, otherwise vou will not gain access to the Stats Service on the Sports Center (an example might be HOPE*COW). You must now enter the com port your modem will be using. If you are unsure of the com port, refer to the modem manual. Choose: F1 Com 1, F2 Com 2, F3 Com 3, and F4 Com 4. To select your modem speed press I for 1200 baud or F2 for 2400 baud. If your modem is faster than 2400 baud select 2400 to connect to the Stats Service on the Sports Center. You cannot use a 300 baud modem. You must use Telenet or Tymnet to access the Stats Service on the Sports Center. Telenet and Tyrnnet are communications networks that provide you with a local "node" or access number to connect to the USA TODAY Sports Center. With these networks you do not need to dial a long distance number to take full advantage of the Sports Center. To find out your local access number call the toll free numbers of Telenet or Tymnet that appear in the back of this manual. Once you are connected to Stats Service on the Sports Center you will be required to provide some personal information. This information is stored for the next time you access the network. Once you have completed that task you will be asked if you want to continue with vour free download. Answer Y for yes and the stats will be downloaded. Once the download is complete you will automatically return to the League Utilibes menu. The complimentary stats are updated weekly until the All-Star break. After the All-Star break the free stats are no longer updated, but are still available for download. The second time you attempt to download stats please have vour credit card ready. Select your download package and the download begins. There are no on line charges for the use of the Stats Service. The only charge that you incur is the purchase of a download package. Call USA TODAY Sports Center at 1-800-826-9688 for up-to-date pricing information. There is also an option to "demo" the Sports Center. Select C League Utilities, from the main menu, then select F8 to demo the Sports Center. You have a total of 30 minutes (to be used in no more than 3 connections) of free time on the Sports Center. During this time you have access to all of the news and sports you can handle. During this time you can also view information about joining the Sports Center, so read it and see what you're missing. When you press I from the main menu you will go to the System Settings screen (See Figure 11) . There are a variety of options for you to select. The options are as follows: A Member Handle J Dial Prefix B Member Password K Dial Suffix C Hide/View Communicabons L Init Response D Telenet Phone M Connect Response E Tymnet Phone N Fail Response F Gateway Script Entry O Busy Response G Port (address) & IRQ (address) P Print (LPT1 or LPT2) H Baud Rate Q Printer Init I Init Modem Command Press A to change your Member Handle Press B to change your Member Password. Press C to see the member information being passed to USA TODAY Sports Center. Press D and E to store the access numbers for both Telenet and Tymnet. If you need a script for using Gateway press F. A pop-up window appears for you to enter your script. If you need to change your port and/or IRQ address, press G. A window will appear F1-F4 lists the Com Port 1-4, while F5 defines the port address and the IRQ address. Input the new address in the appropriate boxes and hit ESCAPE. Press H to change your communication speed from 1200 to 2400 baud. Press I to send a specific initialization string to the modem. The code "ATZ" is normally used. It tells the modem to forget all of its old setup info. To dial a prefix or suffix before the appropriate access number press J - or K allows you to input the needed prefix such as: ATDT9- (your Telenet or Tymnet access number). (9 being the common key to dial out off an office.) The " " character tells the system to wait one second before continuing to dial the rest of the number. Note: Do not input the phone number. The program picks up the phone number from D OR E. L,M,N and O are all user definable response signals received by the "receiving" modem. When you connect you can have the program respond with "That's Great" by pressing M and entering it into the box. The same holds true for Init Response, Fail Response, and Busy Response. Press P to view printer addresses Press F1 if your printer is connected to LPT1 and F2 if your printer is connected to LPT2. Select Q from the System Settings Screen to send specific commands to your printer. For example, to change to landscape mode input \027\038\108\049\079 (for an HPIII printer). Now whenever you tell the program you want a printout, it uses this code to tell the printer what style and size of printing you like to use. Select J from the main menu to exit from the program and return to DOS. Please be sure to use this option rather than just turning the power off on your computer. Turning your system off without exiting the program properly may damage the files.