STARBALL 94
by David A. Hook


If you are amongst the 60,757 entries in this year's Toronto
Star fantasy baseball contest, you already know what a drudgery
it is to recalculate 18 players' scores every week to check your
new total. From the Excel 4.0a spreadsheet (and template)
provided, you may enter your player codes (A1, B4, C3, etc.)
once, into a template, then copy it onto the spreadsheet
provided, and all the totals will be run for you.

Up to twelve players may be accommodated (or six, before and
after the trades permitted, prior to the June 24 deadline.)

I have entered all the player data from the first TEN weeks of
the contest for you, and plan to post them immediately after each
Wednesday's Star publication. So you may wait for them, or enter
the 144 numbers yourself, to keep it up-to-date for yourself
every week.

Please note, all the values have been double-checked but I offer
no guarantees on the (future) accuracy. In fact there have
already been at least three typos in the Star listings so far, as
my Week Three summary gave differing totals for two players (who
knows which value is correct!), and one poor guy had fewer points
in a subsequent week than in a preceding one.

You will get points totals for all players (up to 12
participants), and a table with the maximum points possible for
that week, the minimum, the average, and the median points. Each
new week extends the table so all prior history is maintained.


Requirements

You will need to be running Windows 3.1, and (at least) Version
4.0 of Microsoft Excel to use this spreadsheet. I do not know if
all the Excel functions are available in competing spreadsheets,
because Excel is the only product that meets my needs, and I do
not use other spreadsheets on a regular basis.


How to Use

Load in the template, called TEMPLATE.XLS, first. Change the
Names in the top row to match your contestants. Under the
appropriate column change the A1, B4, C3, etc. to the codes
matching your own players on the Starball entry form.

When complete, Save this template UNDER A NEW NAME (the SAVE
AS... option, please.)

Do NOT make any changes to the other (weekly) spreadsheet, called
SB940706.XLS (stands for JuLY 06, 1994 newspaper, which was Week
NINE of the contest.)

Instead, you next load in the current worksheet, SB940706.XLS;
select all the rows and columns from your TEMPLATE worksheet;
then COPY this range to the weekly one, starting at cell C1 (for
the upper-left cell.)

In this way, when you get a new weekly one (e.g. SB940713.XLS is
the next to be published) you may simply copy in your own players
from your own TEMPLATE again, thus eliminating any new data entry
on your part each week.

Print out whatever portion of the spreadsheet you wish, using the
usual page and printer setup commands. I'd recommend landscape
mode. Two pages should cover the entire contest range for the
players and the high, low, etc. You will get the filename on the
upper left, a centred title, and the date of printing on the
upper right. A page number will appear centred on the bottom of
the page.


Your Obligations

It is silly to ask people to pay for something you have done for
your own enjoyment, especially when the accomplishment is a
modest one. So please enjoy it--I hope you find it useful.

My only promise of support is a money-back guarantee! The
calculations do work, and this is the second year of use of this
format. Please do not contact me for any technical support, as
none is offered. Excel junkies will readily see that more than
twelve players can be accommodated, by copying and modifying the
formulations. Do so at your own risk, please.

A postcard or a brief note to the address below will give me an
idea of the range of interest. But if you don't get around to it,
do not suffer any lingering guilt. Back in the good old days of
microcomputers, everyone was a lot freer with their (admittedly-
less-sophisticated, but no less-useful) handiwork.


David A. Hook
215 Anne Street North
Barrie, ON
L4N 4T4


P.S. Yes, the template given is for the six members of my
immediate family, including room for post-trade totals. Hope you
have been better, or luckier, in your player selections!