Guidelines for Preparing Statcards

Statcards are used to determine the scores of each week's games.  In
addition to this, they are used to compile a cumulative record of the
performance of each team throughout a season and from year to year.
In order to make my life a little easier when it comes to processing
these stats, I ask that you follow a few simple guidelines when
preparing your statcards.

- Use the official statcard format from the forms file, available from
the WWW server.  The program I use to help process the stats gets very
unhappy if the categories are listed in a different order or if you
put things in places that it doesn't expect them.

- Clearly (and correctly!!) label things.  If a few owners start to
fall behind on stats like has happened at times in the past, clearly
marked statcards will help me know when all stats are in for a given
week.  Each card should be clearly labeled with a team name and week
number, at the very least.  Make sure you change the name of your
opponent if you use the same statcard too!  A card for the Blacksburg
Argyle Sox vs. Champo's Clubbers can be very confusing when I know the
schedule says that the Clubbers played the New Jersey Turnpike and the
Sox played the Houghton Penguins.

- Actually, the only lines I use are the lines marked "totals" on the
statcard.  Make sure these lines contain only the word "Totals" and
the actual totals.  Please note that the "*" on this line has not been
in the official statcard for a few seasons now.

- Fill in all entries in the totals lines.  I don't care if you bother
with individual averages and things, but I need all fields in the
totals to contain a value.  Even if that value is 0, you need to put
it there.

- A few common problems with pitching totals involve the Games Started
and Innings Pitched categories.  Since GS is not used to determine the
outcomes of the games, some owners don't bother filling in its total.
This will cause my program to shift all other values over, probably
giving you something like 37 saves, but not too many innings pitched.
And for IP, always always always use .0, .1, and .2 for 0/3, 1/3, and
2/3 of an inning.  The .0 is important again as a placeholder, and
using .3 for 1/3 and .6 or .7 for 2/3 will cause the program to think
you meant 3/3 or 6/3 or 7/3.  Again, not good.

Please, if you have any questions about the statcards, let me know.
And most importantly, GET THE STATS IN EARLY!  When you and your
opponent have agreed on the totals, send them on to Dave.  He'll
record the Wins and Losses and forward them to me for the stat
reports.  Also if you can write up a few paragraphs about your team's
performance each week, I'll include it in the game summary reports.
It will make the file much more interesting.  You can send those along
with your statcards you send to Dave, or send them right to me, and
I'll paste them in.