The Brooklyn Superbas - A Stadium Building exercise.

[dwmyers]

I've been playing for 25 years now. I played a good portion of the weekend and it's time to pause and think about what all has happened. I've been fascinated by building stadiums and with 2k6 the only team for which I could be successful with a stadium building regimen was the 199x New York Mets. But with 2k7 things were a little different and so I decided to start with a bit of a different team.

The 1905 Brooklyn Superbas are not only wretched, but they live in a bandbox. It was quite a surprise, coming from teams like the 1950s Red Sox or Milwaukee Braves, where you have some excellent talent, because this team had no starters of consequence when I obtained them. Usually with a team of middling talent you can trade all their good players to save cash, but in this case, the good players were so bad they were untradable and money was so short I had to make do with letting contracts expire as I could. Still, I moved some costs and in 1908 I build:

1908 William Marsh Rice Field. Capacity 30,000. Infield excellent, grass medium in length. I want good infielders to benefit from my stadiums. Access was good, comfort good, viewing good. The right field line was 315 feet away, 375 in the middle, 405 at the deepest. 325 on the left corner. I do like home runs. The foul "zone" is tiny.

By this time I have two home grown stars in 1B Jake Daubert and P Nap Rucker. With my new flush of cash and with a promising farm system in 1909 I trade for a rookie catcher from the Pittsburgh Pirates named Bobby Schang. I'm hurting at catcher and he's good, good enough to be my starter, an all-star and a golden glove winner by 1910. My team is improving and my cash flow is improving, so in 1911 I build:

1911 Theodore Roosevelt Field. Same dimensions as Rice field, but with a capacity of 40,000. Attendence doubled in the first six years but the team still isn't over the hump and successful. The team is third in 1911 and we resolve to use free agency to add talent to the club. In 1912 2B Eddie Collins is dropped by the New York Yankees for some reason and we pick him up to be our second baseman. This shores up the infield defense and gives the team an anchor. For the first time we win a pennant and a World Championship. In 1913 Walter Johnson becomes available as a free agent and we squeeze the cash to slip him into the lineup alongside Nap Rucker. In 1914 we trade for a young right fielder named Babe Ruth and we build another stadium.

1914 Woodrow Wilson Field. Capacity of 50,000. Otherwise identical to the previous. But of note is our attendence goes over 3.8 million for the first time and we make 54 million dollars. This is the most we'll ever make in our first 25 years. We win the world series for the third consecutive time.

This is also about the time a young left fielder named Tilly Walker begins to make some noise. Drafted by the New York Giants in 1906, he couldn't break out of their rookie league and we traded for him in 1909. By 1914 he hits 28 home runs and is one of the twin towers of power of Brooklyn through the next ten years.

In 1917, after winning five consecutive world series, we build yet another stadium in Brooklyn. This one is named William Tecumseh Sherman Field, and we shorten the right field line a little when we build this one. It's 299 feet to left now, 370 to left-center, 405 to center field. 375 to right, and 325 to right. With a maximum capacity of 60,000 fans, this is the stadium we use for the next six years.

In 1918, out of a mix of oneriness and a certain annoyance with our current center fielder, we track down Ty Cobb and wrest him from the Saint Louis Browns. This then establishes the Brooklyn murderer's row, one of the more enjoyable pairings I've played in Baseball Mogul.

I'm still making money and so in 1923 I build one more palace. I have the cash, why not?

1923 Ulysses S Grant Field. Capacity 70,000, same dimensions as Sherman stadium. Building it does increase my fan loyalty (from 93 to 96 iirc), but for the first time I don't fill the stadium. I get somewhere between 55,000 and 59,000 crowds, and in the first year of Grant stadium, I wouldn't have made a profit if I hadn't made it to the playoffs. The extra cash I got from the World Series games tipped the balance.

By this time players are beginning to fall away. In 1920 Nat Rucker begins to slow and I trade him. In 1924, Walter Johnson no longer can justify his high salary and I trade him back to Washington. In 1924, Bobby Schang's superb defensive skills begin to leave him and he becomes a backup catcher. 1924 is also the year 4 time MVP Tilly Walker's skills erode dramatically. 1926 is Eddie Collin's last year with my club. 1927 is Cobb's last year. In 1929, Babe Ruth suffers a massive skill collapse and this time I don't have a replacement ready. I guess I expected the Bambino to last into the early 1930s and it just wasn't to be. For the first time since 1912, I'm not in the World Series. So, for 1930, I'm far more aggressive. I get C Mickey Cochrane off the free agency tables. I win a World Series in 1930, though right field is still an open wound.

By now the game is different and there are other forces afoot. The Giants have been steadily cutting their ticket prices and the Yankees have a stadium that can seat 82,000. My team, though it won the world series, is thin and lacks backups. The pitching is a mess, with too many players in development. I wonder if I'll continue this time line.

Still, it was fun. The Superbas were so awful to begin with. Some of the World Series games were close. The best was a series against the Yankees, early 1920s, 3-3, bottom of the ninth, 2 outs, when Ty Cobb, of all people, wins it with a home run. It will be hard to beat some of the exotic moments of this stadium building exercise.

David.

[petrel]

Here's a question -- how much of a team's record can be attributed to the stadium in which it plays?

Your Superbas did very well, but it seems that they did well because you had some fantastic players. You made some infield adjustments and moved the fences in to take advantage of the power of your players, but wouldn't offense have gone up with any team, or wouldn't defense go up with any team that infielded reasonably well?

How much would you say stadium redesign helps a team? Five %? Ten%? I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.

--Pet

[dwmyers]

In my opinion, you're not going to turn a bad team into a good team by building a new stadium. You will affect the kinds of players you play and the kinds of players you develop. But the major effect of a stadium rebuild is financial. More seats and better seats mean more money. More money means more money to pay the good players you develop. In Baseball Mogul, teams in large cities have huge advantages economically. They can retain stars and purchase stars, so I was building stadiums to increase my buying power.

One interesting thing I noted from playing the 199x Mets and then the Superbas is that the Mets gained a lot more financial benefit from having additional unoccupied seats during the season because in their era, there are a lot more games in the postseason. All those playoff games completely fill a mostly full stadium. So, economically, there is more advantage in having additional seats in 2005 than there is in 1925. In retrospect, I could have easily stopped at Sherman Field and been fine until divisional play.

In terms of how a stadium affects players, I would say it has little effect on the bedrock of a good team, which is pitching and defense. A Mike Schmidt might hit a lot fewer home runs in the Astrodome, but his defense is unaffected by the stadium. Where it comes into the realm of management are situations like:

* You have two choices for a left fielder. One has a low average, walks a lot, hits a lot of home runs, has poor range but fields well when he can reach the ball. Arm strength is average. The other has a higher average, doubles power, walks less, rarely hits home runs, has exceptional range, average arm strength, and is an adequate fielder when he reaches the ball.

In the Astrodome, you would pick the second fielder. Hitting to gaps is treasured there, the range is essential, because if you can't get to the ball, you can't field it. In Wrigley field, you might be able to get away with option one.

If you want names, etc, consider the following: whose offense would be more valuable in a pitcher's park like the Astrodome: Mike Schmidt or George Brett?

There are other elements to a stadium which are more intangible. How would a small stadium affect a young pitcher's confidence? How does it affect a player in a pitcher's park knowing that if they had been in a smaller park, they could have won the batting title (a la Jose Cruz Sr in the 1980s)? Battinng titles are worth money to a player, and BM 2k7 can't really address issues of that kind, the frustrations of dealing with an exceptional building.

David.