It’s Time to Re-Split the Sets

Right now ATG has 1785 cards in the “pre-WW2 set” and 3240 cards in the “post-WW2 set.” Not a very even split. Furthermore, I can’t fathom why the Negro League players are in BOTH sets. At the very least, the NeL cards (NeL and 1920-1942) should be removed from the post-WW2 set.

My real suggestion is that we move the separation date. From 1900-1960, there were 8 NL and 8 AL teams. Then MLB had a flurry of expansions in 1961, 1962, 1969, 1977, and 1993. My suggestion is replace the current pre/post WW2 sets with pre/post expansion sets. That would be 2407 cards in the 1870s-1960 (incl NeL) “pre-expansion” set and 2490 cards in the 1961-2016 “expansion” set.

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How about splitting them from the time of the first expansion - 1961-62.

Being a Mets fan , I will forever consider them an expansion team … a plus would be that you could have cards for players like Aaron, Mays, Mantle, etc. in both sets.

A split like that would definitely make me more interested in playing more teams in the subsets.

Actually, Aray's idea (split at 1960/1961) works out much better than my original idea (split at 1968/1969), so that there are not a trickle of early-year Angels, Senators, Astros, and Mets in the first set.

I've now gone back and edited my top posting to split at 1960/1961.

You can already set up a league this way if you want to . To me, this is WAY down on the list of priorities. Repricing the entire set should be first (ATG 9)! Adding all major award winners and historically great teams should be next. Making all the Chevy cards Cadillac cards is up there too. More board game info on the game replays. I could go on and on.

I have long advocated 6 eras.

1. Pre-1901 - leagues appeared and disappeared, rules were changed almost annually, and records are spotty.
2. Dead Ball - 1901-1920 - both leagues were stable.
3. Golden Age - 1921-1946 - include the NeL with this, I realize that Pop Lloyd, Oscar Charleston, and others were contemporaneous with the dead ball era, but this would be a great card set.
4. Integration Age - 1947-1968 - Blacks were admitted to the game, and quickly became major talents.
5. Expansion Age - 1969-1992 - Baseball expanded from 16 teams to 24.
6. Modern Age - 1993 onward - Steroids, bullpen juggling, defensive shifts, mega-contracts.

Would there be enough players in each of the six eras you propose? For both a 12 and 24 team league?

First, I agree w/ the initial proposal here:

(a) Split the sets in Pre/Post expansion (i.e., up through 1960, the 1961 to present)
(b) Include NeL players in the Pre-expansion set only

Second, I really like rburgh's idea of smaller Era-based sub-sets (I actually created something like this by requesting custom sets from SOMO). That said, I might debate how these sub-sets might be broken down...

1875 to 1910 - Pre-modern
1911 to 1945 - Lively Ball Era
1946 to 1968 - Golden Age
1969 to 1992
1993 to Present

...those details could be worked out, but I'm all in on the concept

You can already set up a league this way if you want to . To me, this is WAY down on the list of priorities. Repricing the entire set should be first (ATG 9)! Adding all major award winners and historically great teams should be next. Making all the Chevy cards Cadillac cards is up there too. More board game info on the game replays. I could go on and on.

Steve, I don't disagree with your "ask," however, your points are in a completely different realm because all of that stuff requires programming and or data management - time-consuming tasks for scarce IT resources. Rearranging the player sets within the context of the existing ATG8 structure, on the other hand, would be a much simpler administrative task.

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Granted it's a separate topic, but yes! ATG8 is almost 5 years old and definitely needs a reboot. The pricing of the cards is a mess (worst since ATG1 ) ..., but SOM is soooooooooooooo slow. I had stopped playing the game for a long time and when I came back, I was amazed to find that after 17 years, they still had been too lazy and irresponsible to fix the code governing Relief Pitcher usage - pathetic...