FANTASY BASEBALL
BY MARK HALPERN
Baseball has always been and will be America’s pastime. However, out of every 100,000 hopeful players a year, they all have less than a 1% chance at making “The Show.” For the super hard-core guys who fall up short and for kids say 8 and up (yet my six-year-old has hit some homeruns) there is another more realistic way they can live out their dreams and that’s through the video game MLB The Show. The game gives you control of literally everything to make the game as realistic as if you were stepping on the field yourself. For others you can set the difficulty to whatever if you’re not up for the huge challenge to just enjoy and play as your Heroes of today.
MLB the Show gives fans so man different opportunities to play in so many scenarios from playing as your team in a Franchise Season, Diamond Dynasty (create a team of your own players you want), Road to the Show (gives you a chance to work from high school to being drafted to becoming a legend) and the new more popular “Storylines” mode in which you can play as certain Negro League Stars and play as them in the journey through the Negro Leagues. This is great cause it really gives a Highlighted and in depth look into certain players who have never really had a chance to own that spotlight. It also helps fans learn the history of the Negro leagues, something that MLB should lean more into.
MLB the Show has become the premier Baseball game that can be crossed played on numerous platforms such as Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. There are several of other Baseball games out their but none of them can come close to the most realistic Baseball game available.
The Dynasty mode is the most popular because it brings together not only the fun of having a possible line up of the best players in the game but makes you start with basic players and as you go through games, different practice modes and some in season challenges you can earn packs which can contain players of old and new. Packs is a way to connect the fun experience of opening a pack of player cards and not spending $100 to do it. You are the manager and it is your job of putting the best team on the field to beat your upcoming opponent. Now anyone can try to put the most unbeatable team on the field. The way you do this this is by winning games against the computer or take your chances against a random player from around the world (as MLB the Show is played almost on every game platform.) It is not always about the skills of your player but, the skills of the player controlling the game. Everything from the game is lifelike from the movement of the pitches across the plate to where watch batted ball goes if your lucky enough to connect. The fun part is that it is kind of like LEGOS in the way that you can build any team (or thing in Legos) you want to build it to your own liking. You get to play in over 100 realistic stadiums from old to brand new and even the minor leagues. You can create your team’s name, colors and even design their jersey or pick from hundreds from MLB (old and New) and MILB (AAA and AA teams.)
There are many sport games out there that people prefer as their favorite sports game. When it comes to baseball, I would find it hard to find a gamer who plays baseball that doesn’t use this game as their go to. And even as a whole MLB the Show might be the best franchised sports video game.
The Sports Insanity Network 