THE MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL REDUX IS COMING...

Or... we hope so at least.

When we last left you, we were doing everything we could to figure out a way to get the old 1984 original version of Micro League Baseball back! We were trying to get it up and running and perhaps maybe... just maybe eventually get a network of Micro League Baseball nerds together for some online game play.  I know... I know... baby steps, but you need to think big to make things reality.

We have written a few articles about this game and how, as a kid, it literally changed my life. I started compiling stats, creating my own teams and making my own seasons.  Needless to say, I didn't have much of a life, but I loved baseball and that's where it really began for me.  It appears I'm not the only one.   Once we released LET'S MAKE A MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL NETWORK we received this Tweet from "old buddy" Mark Simon of ESPN who Tweeted:

@BleednYankeeBlu Dibs: 1986 Mets
— Mark Simon (@msimonespn) June 10, 2013

We love Mark ever since he helped put us on the map introducing us in his ESPN article a few years ago when he wrote Yankees at Twins and wrote the paragraph:

 "David Robertson who got a day off yesterday, has been amazing in his last nine outings, allowing two hits and no walks in 9 2/3 innings pitched. One intrepid blogger has even started a Cy Young campaign for him."

That's another post for another time, but needless to say, we never forget, and we appreciated that and to be honest, if I could have my 1978 Yankees compete against his 1986 Mets in a Redux of Micro League Baseball, I'd absolutely love it.

So where are we at, you ask? I have a friend named Jim, a computer genius who is trying his best to figure it all out. He was able to secure a 5.25" floppy disk drive. He was able to hook it up to his computer. 1 problem we encountered, but fixable though; When we started the game, the computer was so fast, a 9 inning game lasted about 2 minutes if simulated on it's own.  Furthermore, if you attempted to play and put in your selection, the move would take place so quickly, you wouldn't be able see what the outcome was.  Remember this was played on a 1984 IBM PC Jr back in the mid-80's. Times has changed, technology is much more advanced.

No worries. Jim has a plan to slow down the game, but we need to get there first.  The biggest obstacle right now is getting this Micro League Baseball "self-booted" game read and copied as a file (almost like an APP), that I can eventually have downloaded from Bleeding Yankee Blue... and that's where were at... a road block.

Now, road blocks are made to be busted throug and Jim is working to figure this out. Again, the man is a genius, but as alittle extra backup, I ask all of you;  if you know how to get this 5.25" disk made into a file let us know. Remember this a a "self-booted" disk. Right now, because it's NOT a disk you place into the drive and boot yourself, we are thinking that's the reason why we can't make the file.  If you have an idea, let us know.  We'd love to figure this out. Email me Bleednyankeeblu@gmail.com.

Nerds stick together, you know.

 Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.

LET'S MAKE A MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL NETWORK

Nerds stick together. I am happy to say that I am a baseball nerd who still has a binder full of useless statistics from a game I played on an old IBM PC Jr in the 1980’s called Microleague Baseball.  It’s been an interesting journey the past several months revealing the fact that I was a nerdy kid who played this slow moving, stats heavy baseball computer game. But something happened when I showed my cards in IS MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL DEAD? ... there were other nerds…THANK GOD!

You see, I’m being alittle nostalgic lately.  I found my old 5.25” floppy disks and the Micro League Box, but in this day and age, you really can’t play floppy disks on a computer anymore.  I searched the Internet for days and hours trying to find a 5.25” disk drive that could perhaps be plugged into a USB port. Sounds easy right? Nope.  That appears to not exist.  Then I was told there were disk drives that did that, but they were for the smaller 3” floppy disks.  Well, that doesn’t help me.

Then someone sent me an email revealing that there was a link on the Internet that would allow you to download Micro League Baseball to your computer.  I shared that with you in MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL IS IN FACT ALIVE & WELL, but truth be told, I don’t download anything to my computer because there are viruses and who knows what else out there.  I gave you that warning as well.  I didn’t endorse the link, I just told you it was out there.  Then the search for Micro League Baseball seemed to die.

 Then, the other day, I received a comment that stated the following:

“Not only do I still have my micro league baseball, I have it on a CD Rom disk. I'll gladly burn you a copy & find a way to send to you. My only condition (hope) is that you & I arrange a way to play online. I would gladly whoop on any sissy Yankees fan who would dare challenge my mighty 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates squad. Seriously though, I love ML & have played it for nearly 30 years. If you respond, I'll send you my email to discuss further. Recruit others! We'll form a league of idiots who have all the time in the world to waste! –Dan”

Now before you get on Dan for calling us “sissy Yankee fans”, know this, it’s a joke.  I look past that when I see the eye on the prize…Dan wants to try and get something going here.  Perhaps alittle Micro League Network that we can play online, together, as nerds! Something that perhaps that would allow up to sign up for and play each other, maybe like Strat-O-Matic or something.  Now, truth be told, this is way over my head.  I have no idea how any of this computer stuff works, but someone out there does.  

Dan, I am serious when I say that I want to discuss this with you.  My email is Bleednyankeeblu@gmail.com. Get in touch with me and let’s figure this out! And to all of you Micro League Baseball nerds out there, let’s try and get this together.  Micro League Baseball may have been the greatest game of the 1980’s when it came to stats and the game itself.  These days it’s much different.  Let’s try and get something going here.  If you read this and you have ideas how to get this “online” stuff going, let me know as well as how I can get a copy of Dan's game on my own computer... let’s make this happen!  I’ll make it a permanent link on Bleeding Yankee Blue if we can, that’s how serious I am… and, I’m still a nerd… that never changed... hopefully you guys are too! 

Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.

MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL IS IN FACT ALIVE & WELL

It's good to have nerd friends.  Not sure if you remember, but I was desperately looking for someone to help me get my old Micro League floppy disks up and running again.  I wrote  IS MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL DEAD? back in January.  In it, I wrote: " I found my Micro League floppy disks containing probably around 200 teams and stats.  I mean, this is hours and hours of useless and wasted energy that I spent in my youth, all on a bunch of floppy disks that I can no longer play.  Now that I think about it, I am not sure how I functioned in the real world after Micro League, because I remember being consumed. What a Nerd!!!"

It's true, I am a nerd, but I'm not the only one.  One of my close friends was trying to help me out after he read  the piece and then I received a few emails, one of which wanted to help get the games off my disks, but one problem, I didn't want to part with the disks, and he didn't want to part with his drive.  It was a stalemate at it's best and eventually died. 

I did all the research and was only able to find that if I want to actually get a 5.25 floppy disk drive, it's not easy.  Any floppy disk drives now are 3 inch and while they work, it won't work for my much older disks.  I was sunk.

 Then something happened.  The other day I received this email:

"Saw your article on Micro League baseball - I adored that game as a kid too. I made tons of my own teams using the General Manager disk and loved tracking the stats too. I remember printing out pages and pages of stats using a dot matrix printer lol."

OK... At first I thought I got really drunk the night before and wrote that to myself. Why you ask? BECAUSE IT SOUNDS LIKE ME! I read on...

"It still exists, though you need to download it for free online, and use an emulator to make it work on your computer.  I don't remember exactly where I downloaded it from, it's been awhile, but this could be a good place to start:

http://www.myabandonware.com/game/microleague-baseball-48  "

Now I don't usually just download stuff off websites, so I'm going to do my research on this, but from what I can tell, this is the game and this is pretty damn exciting if I can can get this thing to work.

Truth be told, I don't know the web page this gentleman sent me, so I don't endorse it, but I do suggest that if you loved Micro League Baseball like did, you at least look into it.

If anyone else knows about this web page of about the game itself, comment here.  Us nerds need to stick together!

Your nerdy pal, Casey

Twitter: @BleednYankeeBlu




Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.

IS MICRO LEAGUE BASEBALL DEAD?

I have been a baseball nerd as long as I can remember. And not only that, I remember everything when it comes to my life and baseball.  I remember the day my dad bought me my first “old school” baseball card, this 1958 Yogi Berra below. We were on vacation in Cape Cod.  It was the morning of the last day of vacation.  It was a drizzly morning in the summer and I was very happy.

I remember my first stolen base in little league. It was at Anderson Field in Bloomingdale, New Jersey. I also remember playing Micro League baseball on my IBM PC Junior.  Micro league baseball was not only a really, really graphically poor looking baseball computer game (because it was 1984), but it was also the greatest game for a baseball nerd ever!  I loved to just pile up statistics as well as form my own baseball teams of all the players I could think of.

Last weekend, I was in my attic and found a box that had fallen over onto the insulation.  I found my Micro League floppy disks containing probably around 200 teams and stats.  I mean, this is hours and hours of useless and wasted energy that I spent in my youth, all on a bunch of floppy disks that I can no longer play.  Now that I think about it, I am not sure how I functioned in the real world after Micro League, because I remember being consumed. What a Nerd!!!

But I’m disappointed.  As technology advanced, my teams can’t come with me.  Those 5.25 inch floppy disks are most likely unusable. I’d love to look at the old teams and see who I played where, what the names were of the teams I created and well, if I must… be a nerd again… and play!

I searched the net casually searching for a solution. So I have to ask... Is Micro League baseball officially dead?

And so, I'm doing something I never thought I’d do… I’m asking you, the BYB readers, some of the smartest, most thoughtful readers out there, do you know if I can ever get some type of 5.25 floppy disk drive that I could plug into my PC , maybe via USB port and see what still exists on these disks?

Remember, this was for an IBM PC Jr., the format is DOS and the disks are 5.25.  I use Windows these days and have no idea if any of this stuff is compatible, usable and playable… but I’ll tell you something, I sure hope so and I am being serious when I ask…does anyone know?

I’m a sentimental guy.  I remember the little moments that shaped my youth.  Micro League Baseball was a big part of it.  Truth be told… I’d love to try and crack the case on this one… anyone want to help?  Email me at BleednYankeeBlu@gmail.com and let me know. I would truly appreciate it.

Your nerdy pal, Casey

 Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.