What happened to Pursue the Pennant?
In the fall of 1995, PtP sent out a mailing to old customers indicating that the company had lost a significant amount of money on the 1994 card set, and that all orders for the 1995 set must include a $15 deposit. The 1995 card set never shipped.
What are the big differences between PtP and TIG?
The stealing system was completely overhauled, introducing a "bad jump" and increasing the chance that basestealers will get nagging injuries. Batter and pitcher cards are now completely park neutral with respect to all hits, and the vLH/vRH splits on the cards are produced using a regression algorithm. The defensive range system was expanded to have 11 range ratings, and the number of range plays was increased. The bunting system was changed significantly. Each card set includes a CHANGES file with a complete list of modifications from the previous season.
When do the new cards come out?
The target date for availability is April 1. The 2005 card set was released on March 21. If you would like to be notified when the cards are available, join the TIG Announcement Mailing List.
How can I get these cards?
The IBL Design Team is making their cards available via anonymous FTP at ftp://ftp.ibl.org/ibl/cards/
How can I print these cards?
Recent card sets have been distributed in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0 or higher. Get the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader here. It is recommended that you set your page margins to zero before printing. It has been our experience that a full-service printer like Kinko's will charge about $30 to duplicate onto a nice sturdy card stock and cut the cards.
What are those numbers on the top of the player cards?
These are: total hits / total on-base numbers / total bases
Are all card sets backwards-compatible?
No. We tweak the system every year. Each card set is released as a stand-alone product. You should download the all of the pertinent files (cards, rules, charts, etc.) for each season you wish to play. Read the CHANGES file for more information.
Are you planning on producing card sets for past MLB seasons?
The primary mandate of our project is to create a card set for the most recent MLB season, so that the Internet Baseball League can play its 162 game season. Given that this is a 100% volunteer effort, and that most members of the Design Team have IBL commitments, it is extremely unlikely that card sets for past MLB seasons will be released (nor will previously released card sets be updated).
I want to create my own card set, can you help me?
The Design Team is more than happy to share the general concepts behind our card generation process, including data sources and methodology. At this time we have no plans to release anything other than a finished product to the general public, as our card generation process is not sufficiently documented to be useful to third parties. The best way to learn is to volunteer your help to the Design Team.
I've got a great idea for a baseball game, how can I contact the IBL Game Design Team?
Contact Sean Sweda via email at: sweda@ibl.org