Tony La Russa Baseball

Tony La Russa Baseball
Cover art forTony La Russa's Ultimate Baseball.
Developer(s)	Beyond Software, Inc. (now known asStormfront Studios)
Publisher(s)	Strategic Simulations, Inc.(Tony La Russa's Ultimate BaseballandTony La Russa Baseball II) Maxis(Tony La Russa Baseball 3andTony La Russa Baseball 4) Electronic Arts, Inc.(Tony La Russa BaseballandTony La Russa Baseball '95)
Composer(s)	Jerry Martin George Sanger(C64, DOS)
Platform(s)	Commodore 64(Tony La Russa's Ultimate Baseball) Sega Genesis(Tony La Russa BaseballandTony La Russa Baseball '95) MS-DOS(all except theGenesistitles.) Microsoft Windows(Tony La Russa Baseball 4)
Release	1991
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single player,Two player, Computer vs. Computer

Tony La Russa Baseballis abaseballcomputerandvideo game consolesports gameseries (1991-1997), designed byDon Daglow,Michael Breen,Mark Buchignani,David BunnettandHudson Piehland developed byStormfront Studios.The game appeared onCommodore 64,PC,andSega Genesis,and different versions were published byElectronic Arts,SSIand Stormfront Studios. Theartificial intelligencefor the computer manager was provided byTony La Russa,then manager of theOakland Athleticsand later theSt. Louis Cardinals.The game was one of the best-selling baseball franchises of the 1990s.

The game was based on the baseball simulation methods Daglow evolved through theBaseballmainframe computer game (1971) (the first computer baseball game ever written),Intellivision World Series Baseball(1983) andEarl Weaver Baseball(1987).

TLBrefined many of the simulation elements ofEarl Weaver Baseball,and introduced a few "firsts" of its own:

• User Interface and theFly Ball Cursor-- Prior toIntellivision World Series Baseballin 1983 all hits in baseball games were grounders, since there was no way to display the ball in flight in 3D. AfterWorld Series Baseball,from 1983-1990 games had fly balls but used a ball-shaped shadow to trace the ball's path on the ground. This made catching fly balls difficult, since users couldn't tell how high the ball was if it was off the screen. InLa RussaDaglow designed a circularFly Ball Cursorthat appeared where the ball was going to land, and grew or diminished in size based on the height of the ball. If the wind was blowing the cursor would move its location to reflect the changing course of the ball. The Fly Ball Cursor introduced real fly balls and pop-ups to computer baseball games, eliminating the last segment of the sport that had never been simulated accurately. Every graphic baseball game published since 1991 has used some variation on Daglow's Fly Ball Cursor for outfield play.
• Fantasy Draft--La Russawas the first computer baseball game to allow users to conduct drafts and set up their own leagues, all with access to the game's comprehensive player statistics. Tony La Russa would draft on behalf of all non-human users in a league, and users could tune the AI draft strategy uniquely for each team. The draft features were enhanced in later versions.
• Head-to-Head Stats and Simulation Accuracy--La Russawas the first baseball game to offer accurate stats for each individual pitcher against each individual hitter, data that actual managers use extensively in the dugout. Player stats and ratings were supplied by baseballsabermetricspioneersJohn ThornandPete Palmer.
• Baseball stadiums-- Ballparks in the game were larger and more richly detailed than any prior game. Add-on disks allowed users to play in real Major League ballparks.
• AI-- In contrast to many sports celebrities who merely lent their names to games, Tony La Russa spent extensive sessions over a period of years working to make the game'sartificial intelligenceas accurate as possible. The team leveraged the lessons learned working withEarl Weaverto make the "baseball manager as game designer" feedback loop even more efficient.

The first version ofLa Russa,Tony La Russa's Ultimate Baseball,was released almost exactly twenty years after the first playable version ofBaseballwent live atPomona Collegein 1971.

Games

• Tony La Russa's Ultimate Baseball(1991)
• Tony La Russa's Ultimate Baseball: Ultimate Expansion Disk(1991)
• Tony La Russa Baseball(1993)
• Tony La Russa Baseball II(March 1993)
• La Russa Baseball '95(1994)
• Tony La Russa Baseball 3(1995)
• Tony La Russa Baseball 3: 1996 Edition(1996)
• Tony La Russa Baseball 4(1997)

Reception

Computer Gaming Worldin 1993 stated thatTony La Russa Baseball 2was especially strong in league play. Although citing several bugs and stating that the action game "is not as clean as it should be", the magazine concluded that "this is quite simply thebestbaseball game on the market ".

A reviewer forElectronic Gaming MonthlygaveLa Russa Baseball '95a 70%, commenting that "The controls for the pitcher and the batter need some work. Animations of players are neat, but they slow down a bit. An okay revision from last year."

In 1996,Computer Gaming WorlddeclaredTony La Russa Baseball 3the 128th-best computer game ever released.

See also

• Baseballmainframe computer game
• Intellivision World Series Baseball
• Earl Weaver Baseball
• Old Time Baseball

References

• Rielly, Edward J. (2005).Baseball: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture,Lincoln, NE:University of Nebraska Press.ISBN0-8032-9005-5.
• La Russa IIatMobyGames
• La Russa 3atMobyGames
• Detailed review ofLa Russa 3