Puerto Rico Voluntarios Franchise Begins

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Last Friday was the worldwide release of Out of the Park Baseball 26. To celebrate, I fired up a stream on Twitch.tv/ThatSportsGamer (archived on YouTube) to start a new franchise. I discussed my plan for this franchise in detail in a previous post. The only real change from that post was that I renamed the North Carolina team the Cloudbusters, named after the Cloudbuster Nine baseball team from the elite Navy training school at UNC-Chapel Hill during WWII.

When you look at the team, one thing you’ve got to keep in mind is that with an expansion adding six teams means that one hundred and fifty-six players who would have normally been in the minors are now on Major League clubs. Also, being that I plan on doing this franchise for a long while, in-game time, I focused more on playing the long game. None of my main players are over 30 years old, and a lot of them are low-overall high-potential guys.

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Expanding Major League Baseball In OOTP 26

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During a segment on Foul Territory where they were talking about the Portland Diamond Project’s renderings of a stadium and a discussion on whether Portland or Salt Lake City would be the western expansion for Major League Baseball, I realized what I needed to do. Why did it have to be Portland OR Salt Lake City? Why does the eastern expansion have to be Nashville OR Raleigh?

Why not both? Why not more?

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Gotta Catch ‘Em All

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Over the last few years, one of my main goals in MLB The Show’s Diamond Dynasty has been to unlock all the player cards. I’m not even sure that is possible in any other console sports card collecting mode, but in MLB The Show it is. I’ve been close before, but this year was the year I finally did it.

In ’21, I ended up fifty-six cards short of the complete collection, which made me believe it was possible. I went into ’22 with the mission to collect all the player cards but got derailed by a weird issue. One of the player cards was only in the game for a very short time.

Alexander Vizcaino of the Cubs seemingly fell off the face of the earth. After throwing 13 2/3 innings with the South Bend Cubs in ’21, Vizcaino just chose not to show up to Spring Training in ’22. I believe his card was in Diamond Dynasty at launch but pulled from packs when he was moved onto the Restricted List, and his card was also removed from packs.

MLB The Show 23 was a huge setback in my quest. At the end of the year, I was eighty-one cards away.

The stars aligned for me with MLB The Show 24. I don’t know if it was rededication to the process after failing miserably in ’23, or the extreme help of Showzone‘s Collection Tracker, but this year I was able to accomplish my goal.

Now I’m ready to do it again in MLB The Show 25…

Content In New Places

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I just wanted to give you the heads up that I’m starting to post some more content on a pair of new places and you can follow me there:

  • Bluesky – Feels kinda good to get a fresh start on a social network, and Bluesky has surpassed Threads and Mastadon for me so, if you’re there too, you can give me a follow there. I’m still posting on X too.
  • TikTok – I’ve been throwing up some clips over there and I’ve been getting some good conversation about the stuff I’m posting over there. If you like some short-form video content, give me a follow there too.

My Birthday With The Boulders

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New York Boulders Logo

On Saturday, my wife and son surprised me with tickets to Clover Stadium in Pamona, NY to see the Sussex County Miners take on the New York Boulders. To my surprise, a bunch of my family was also waiting for us at the stadium when we arrived. This was an excellent surprise being that I had been talking to my dad about going to a game, and possibly even this one the day before.

Pat Kivlehan went 2/3 with 2 HRs and 4 RBI against the Miners. Image from Drew Wohl.
Boulders’ Center Fielder Pat Kivlehan

Clover Stadium is, like most MiLB and MiLB Partner League stadiums, a really nice, family-friendly, place to see a ballgame. We sat 15 rows up from the 3rd baseline and had a great vantage point to see the action, especially Pat Kivlehan‘s two absolute bombs to left field.

Aside from Kivlehan’s offensive domination, the real star of the game, in my opinion, was Boulders’ pitcher Aaron Dona, who replaced their starter, Tyler Keysor, with two outs in the 3rd inning. Dona would go on to pitch the rest of the game for the Boulders and record seven strikeouts while only allowing two hits en route to getting his first win in only his second professional game.

I really don’t think there is anything more relaxing than going and watching a baseball game in person. Just sitting there, having a beer, some peanuts, maybe even a funnel cake, and blocking out the world outside of the stadium for a few hours is great for the soul.

Game Day Is Tomorrow!

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With World Series Game 6 tomorrow night, our Extra Life plan has taken shape. You can watch all of the following Saturday live on Twitch.tv/ThatSportsGamer:

  • 10am – Ryan’s Gaming Time
  • 2pm – Fortnite w/ Ryan On Commentary
  • 4pm – MLB The Show Battle w/ Kris Jardine
  • 6pm – Out of the Park Baseball 90’s Braves Franchise
  • 8pm – World Series Game 6 Watchalong w/ Kris Jardine
  • 11:30pm – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II w/ The Boys

So please stop by for a little bit, to check out the fun as we continue to support the Children’s Hospital of New Jersey.

Any donation, no matter the size, is extremely appreciated, and if you can’t donate, you can still help out by passing on this information to your friends.

You can support our campaigns at the following links:

Or go to Extra-Life.org and put “Lauerman” in the “Search For A Player” bar on top. 

Thank you for all your support! We, and the children of New Jersey, really appreciate it.

Extra Life 2022 Is Right Around The Corner!

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November is right around the corner, and that means it’s Extra Life time!!!

Once again Ryan and I are teaming up to raise money for the Children’s Specialized Hospital of New Jersey. This will be my 13th Extra Life event and Ryan’s 6th! In the past, you’ve helped us raise over $14,000 for sick kids in the Garden State, and we’re once again asking for your support.

Ryan during Extra Life 2021

This November 5th, Ryan and I will be playing and streaming video games until we drop. As of now, the plan is to start at 10am ET with a block of games with Ryan including Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons, Roblox, and other kid-focused games. Then as the day progresses, we’ll get into some Out of the Park Baseball, and MLB The Show. When the kiddies to go sleep, it’s going to be shooters into the early morning with Fortnite and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

There is also a chance that November 5th will be Game 7 of the World Series. If that happens, we’ll be doing a special watch-along stream with the voice of the Chatham Ironman, and TSG Crew for Extra Life member, Kris Jardine aka SnaggleJ.

Normally we try to play for 24 hours, but with a 6-year-old… and a 38-year-old, that’s not always possible. So, for any hours less than 24 that we play on November 5th, I’ll be making up on the night of November 19th with launch weekend play of Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 with “the boys”.

Any donation, no matter the size, is extremely appreciated, and if you can’t donate, you can still help out by passing on this information to your friends.

You can support our campaigns at the following links:

Or go to Extra-Life.org and put “Lauerman” in the “Search For A Player” bar on top. 

Thank you for all your support! We, and the children of New Jersey, really appreciate it.

The Banter Is Back!

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Bullpen Banter is back for a new season!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Join ThatSportsGamer’s Bullpen Banter Discord Server!

Bullpen Banter is a weekly show dedicated to baseball video games.

Disclaimer: T.J. is the Head of Community for Out of the Park Developments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Com2us. However, all of the thoughts and opinions represented on this show are his own and may not reflect those of his employer.

The Bullpen Banter logo was created by BT Creative.

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