ATG8--WHY DILUTE THE SET?

Response from Strat O Matictroday:


Offline

JohnG

Posts: 153
Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2012 11:35 am

ATG 8: Japanese/Cuban Players

Unread postMon Jun 16, 2014 6:39 am
Hey guys,

We have carefully read your feedback regarding the addition of Japanese and Cuban ballplayers to ATG. Although we are disappointed in the reaction, we have decided not to add them to the new set. If enough users are interested we may be able to add those 30 players as an "ATG +" Player Set but when we launch we will do so without them.

We would never have considered adding these players to begin with if we felt they did not represent Baseball History. Although baseball in Cuba and Japan is different than baseball here, the game here has changed and evolved. Play in 1880 is not the same as it was in 1930 nor in 1968 nor in 1998. These Cuban players and Japanese seasons were carefully researched and evaluated to create Major League Equivalence factors to create cards that would integrate seamlessly into our current Major League rosters for those seasons. For example, although Sadaharu Oh hit 51 home runs in Japan during the 1973 season, his card reflects only 29. Players such as Sadaharu Oh and Omar Linares are among the best ballplayers in baseball history, regardless of where they played.

Having said that, again we have taken your feedback into consideration and will not launch ATG 8 with these players. We will consider an "ATG +" or ATG "Unleashed" if enough users would want to be able to play with them. If you are interested in that please speak up and let us know!

-John

Thanks for your posts, Bill; they put this whole debate (most of which, to me at least, degenerated into name-calling a long way back) into proper perspective. I used to pride myself on my writing, but I can't hold a candle to your lucid prose! In my younger days, I read every Roger Angell piece in The New Yorker, not to mention his books, and marveled at how he captured my favorite game. Thanks again for these posts.

Tom

Thank you for these excellent Angell passages, Bill. They are eloquent and brilliant--as Angell usually is--and they well complement and support your previous thoughtful comments about baseball and time.

These are the four main Ideas about baseball and time I garnered from Angell's commentaries. Please feel free to amend them:

1. Time, on the whole, doesn't truly affect the game itself. We are all playing and watching the exact same "game" that players did 40 years back, 60 years back, and so on.

2. Time doesn't determine the outcome or length of a game. The rules and structures of the game, as well as the actions of the players, determine it...there is no "game clock."

3. There is the Proustian element you previously mentioned. Because our memories of (and thoughts on) baseball do not form or function in a linear fashion, the linearity of time cannot shape or command our baseball memories; we do.

4. In a paradoxical inverse to idea one, time's incessancy can affect and threaten the baseball memories we ourselves shape. However, that gives us the valuable realization that our baseball experiences and memories can be fragile and fleeting (as you noted), and should be further cherished.

Thanks again,

Jason (a Giants fan from the late 70's on).

george barnard, have enjoyed your posts and appreciated your efforts.

Could you check your private messages?