Diamond Mind Baseball is a computer baseball simulation game developed by Tom Tippett. It was first made available to the public in 1987. Unlike other popular baseball simulation like Strat-O-Matic, Diamond Mind baseball wasn’t evolved from a board game, rather it was developed as a computer simulator. Because of this, some believe Diamond Mind is the best simulation game, since it is able to take full advantage of the power of a PC for its accuracy and game play.

In 2005 it was named PC magazine’s editor’s choice for Best PC Baseball Game. In the review the magazine stated the “statistics presentation is excellent” and “the ability to play a networked opponent is a standout”. “As far as baseball simulations are concerned, Diamond Mind Baseball is the MVP,” the review concluded.

In Diamond Mind Baseball you are your team’s GM and manager. You draft your team, selecting from an almost limitless supply of modern and classic baseball players. Then you set your lineups and manage your team through 162 game seasons.

During the game play you make managerial decisions such as when to pitch around a batter or when to steal a base, and the computer simulates all the players action. (Basically you are in control of whatever a real life manager would be in control of down to pitch selection, but nothing more.) The game play moves quickly and a dialogue box gives a running play-by-play with color such as “gets a bad jump on the ball but still makes the catch, etc.

You can also opt for a simulation-only mode, which allows you to complete an entire season in a few minutes. The benefit to this is that you can make a few tweaks to your roster construction and then see how various seasons would play out. So if you thought your favorite team would have been better off signing free agent X instead free agent Y before season Z you can go back and play season Z both ways multiple times and figure out which free agent would have been superior.

In 2008 Imagine Sports, which controls the rights to Diamond Mind Baseball, announced there would be no new PC version of the game and that they would instead focus only on online version in the future.

But happily for fans of the PC game they ended up releasing the tenth edition of the PC-only game in 2010. It is available for purchase on their website for $29.95. In 2012 Imagine released a 10.a update patch which corrects all of the minor errors in the tenth edition.

Additionally, fans of Diamond Mind baseball may purchase specific seasons, such as the 2012 seasons or the 1952 season, or many classic seasons (and all-star teams) throughout history. These sets run between $20 and $30 and feature details such as park factors and right handed/left handed splits. Prior to a season players can also buy an update which uses Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projection system to anticipate who up to 2000 players and prospects will perform in the upcoming year.

Diamond Mind Baseball now also has a robust online game, with over 50 million simulations played. A team costs 19.99 for a season, and for that price you get a second team for free.

It is testament to Diamond Mind Baseball accuracy that many major website and sports publications use its simulator for making prediction. For example, ESPN.com has run Diamond Mind Baseball’s simulation-only mode in the past to predict the 162 game results of upcoming baseball season. Tom Tippett, the game’s inventor, now has a job as an analytics experts in the Boston Red Sox front office.