The Hobbled Warrior & My Love For Baseball Appear

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Image via MLB

It’s no secret that I love baseball. A love that has chocked me up while watching movies, or even made me shed tears of joy when I watched Kevin Millwood complete his no-hitter in my college dorm room in 2003, just months after he left my beloved Braves.

My emotional tie to baseball, and other sports, started with a VHS tape I had as a child, Great Sports Moments of the 80s. In the hour long show, Al Michaels presented a top 10 featuring moments from baseball, football, basketball, boxing, and of course ending with #1, the sporting event that kicked off the 80s, the Miracle on Ice.

I bring all this up because the Los Angeles Dodgers are returning to the World Series this year, the first time since 1988. #8 on Great Sports Moments of the 80s featured that 1988 Dodgers World Series. Specifically what happened in Game 1, where Kirk Gibson, the National Leagues’ MVP, injured in the NLCS, was questionable for the World Series but was on the roster.

With a 1-run lead going into the bottom of the 9th, the Athletics brought in, future Hall of Famer, Dennis Eckersley, the MLB’s regular season saves leader that year. After two quick outs, with the pitcher’s spot in the on-deck circle, the Eck walked Mike Davis, putting the tying run on 1st base. During the Davis’ at bat, Dave Anderson had entered the on-deck circle to seemingly hit for the pitcher’s spot. However, Dodgers’ manager Tommy Lasorda had something else in mind.

Image via MLB

Rather than sending Anderson up to pinch-hit, out of the shadows of the dugout, “the hobbled warrior appeared” as Al Michaels said so eloquently. Gibson limped to the plate, in a moment that still gives me chills nearly 30 years later, to face one of the greatest closers of all time.

After 7 pitches, including a foul ball that showed off Gibson’s injury, as he barely made it half way up the line on, the count was 3-2. This is the moment kids plan for in the backyard with their bat and ball, full count, 2 outs, bottom of the 9th, a home run wins the game. I can type out what happens, but I think it’s better to watch and hear the call by, Dodger’s legend, Vin Scully.

Bullpen Banter Ep. 63: Ranked Season Warehouse

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This week on Bullpen Banter, I’m flying solo to talk about the roster update, which saw Justin Verlander become a Diamond, the new set of Player of the Month cards, and the upcoming new Ranked Season, Warehouse.

Videos mentioned in this episode:

SDS blog posts we discussed:

Keep on the conversation going on the Bullpen Banter Discord Server.

Follow our hosts on Twitter:

Bullpen Banter is a weekly show hosted by myself (ThatSportsGamer), Chris (MillsGamingTV), and Kris (SnaggleJ) dedicated to MLB The Show 17. We’ll give you tips, strategies and team breakdowns, to help you be the best MLB player you can be. Watch the show live on Mondays at 9:30pm ET on http://www.Twitch.tv/ThatSportsGamer.

The new Bullpen Banter logo was created by BT Creative.

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Sponsor My Extra Life Stream

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Do you have a website, product, podcast or YouTube channel you want to promote?

On Saturday, November 4th, starting at 9am ET to Sunday, November 5th at 9am ET, I’ll be participating in my 8th Extra Life charity marathon. Each year thousands of gamers come together to raise money for children’s hospitals across North America. This year I’m looking for sponsors to help get me to my goal of $2,000.

This year I actually have two campaigns going, one in my name for the Children’s Specialized Hospital of New Jersey, and a second, in my son Ryan’s name, for the San Jorge Children’s Foundation in Santurce, Puerto Rico.

There are two ways that you can sponsor my Extra Life stream:

  • Prize Sponsor – which sounds exactly as it is, you donate something, a game code, a gift card, etc., that will be given away to someone who donates to my, or my son’s Extra Life campaign. Your link will be featured along side the prize on my Extra Life page and mentioned when I read over the prizes during the stream.
  • Stream Sponsor – In exchange for a $50 donation, you’ll be sponsoring one hour of my stream. During your hour, I’ll have your logo on stream for the duration, as well as messages on the overlay, and in the Twitch chat. Also, on the 15th and 45th minute of your hour, I’ll do a 30-60 second ad read that you provide.

If you’re interested in supporting me as a Prize or Stream Sponsor, please contact me via Twitter DM (@ThatSportsGamer), or send an e-mail to Feedback < at > ThatSportsGamer.com.

Current Stream Sponsor Schedule

Starting Time SponsorSponsor Site
9am:
10am:Press Row Podcast - The best sports video game writers and personalities together on one show, brought to you by Hit The Pass.HitThePass.com
11am:Mike Straw - Veteran journalist and web developer. Whether it be with words or websites, telling stories is what he does.Twitter.com/MikeStrawMedia
12pm:
1pm:PX1Sports - PX1Sports.com
2pm:This Week In MLB The Show - A podcast focusing on all things MLB The Show.ThisWeekInMLBTheShow.com
3pm:
4pm:The Waves of Tech - Tired of all the complicated, drawn-out explanations when it comes to technology and how it relates to you? If so, The Waves of Tech is the podcast for you!Twitter.com/TheWavesOfTech
5pm:Dave Lee - CoFounder of International Podcast Day & host of The Waves of Tech podcast.Twitter.com/AODaveLee
6pm: The Breaking Company - where the greatest sports fans on the web go to laugh and celebrate the love of collecting cardboard.TheBreakingCompany.com
7pm:
8pm:Nock Co. - Creators of high quality pen cases, paper goods, and pen accessories. NockCo.com
9pm:SnaggleJ - Associate Community Manager of @OOTPBaseball. @Twitch Affiliate. Father/Husband/CreatorTwitch.tv/SnaggleJ
10pm:
11pm:
12am:Jeff Solomon - Manager to the Stars. No he is not Kappa. Twitter.com/JerfSolo
1am:
2am:
2am:
3am:
4am:
5am:
6am:
7am:
8am:

Bullpen Banter Ep. 62: Future Stars and Postseason Events

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This week on Bullpen Banter, the gang’s all here as we discuss the release of the second set of Future Stars, featuring players like Ian Happ, Jose Berrios and Chance Sisco, the release of a new 99 Griffey for a flawless BR Run, and a slew of Postseason Events on the horizon.

SDS blog posts we discussed:

Keep on the conversation going on the Bullpen Banter Discord Server.

Follow our hosts on Twitter:

Bullpen Banter is a weekly show hosted by myself (ThatSportsGamer), Chris (MillsGamingTV), and Kris (SnaggleJ) dedicated to MLB The Show 17. We’ll give you tips, strategies and team breakdowns, to help you be the best MLB player you can be. Watch the show live on Mondays at 9:30pm ET on http://www.Twitch.tv/ThatSportsGamer.

The new Bullpen Banter logo was created by BT Creative.

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Subscribe: Android | RSS

Bullpen Banter Ep. 61: Postseason Programs

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If somehow you don’t already know, I do a live stream show, Bullpen Banter on Twitch.tv/ThatSportsGamer with MIllsGamingTV and SnaggleJ about one of our favorite games, MLB The Show. We’ve been doing it for over a year now, and people have been asking for an audio version of the show. So, this is our first experiment with how to do that.

For normal podcasts, we usually use Skype and the MP3 Skype Recorder, but the Bullpen Banter show is streamed live, and done using Discord for our audio. There is not currently an easy way to get the audio from those calls, though I do believe they are working on building something in. One option could have been to use the audio from the archives that are posted on YouTube.com/ThatSportsGamer, but those would have game sounds and Twitch notifications baked into it. I wanted something cleaner for you. So, for this test run we are using a Discord bot known called Craig Records and seeing if it will do the job.

This is just a test run, and since I don’t have a feed created for it yet, I figured I’d use the ThatSportsGamer Show feed since, it’s already setup, and, if you’re still subscribed to it, this will be a nice little surprise. In the future, assuming this all works out and we want to continue doing this, I’ll create a new feed for it, since I want to bring back ThatSportsGamer Show at some point.

Please, please, please give use feedback on the quality of this. You can always reach me on Twitter, @ThatSportsGamer, and in our Discord server for Bullpen Banter at ThatSportsGamer.com/BBDiscord.

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Has SDS Made Hitting Too Easy?

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Image courtesy of @JSherm23 of 23sThoughts.com

Recently there has been some discussion around the level of difficulty, or lack thereof, in hitting in MLB The Show 17. Some have even gone so far as to say that Sony made hitting easier, so that people can earn more rewards in Diamond Dynasty. Now, I don’t think the answer to “Has SDS made hitting too easy?” is as binary as a “yes” or “no”. I think the answer is somewhere in between, and each player will have their own opinion.

For me, I don’t really see it. Though, there does seem to be an increase to opposite field power, which needs to be addressed. In my opinion, the difficulty level on hitting feels about right, with some caveats. Pitching seems to be slightly harder to hit the accuracy meter with lower skilled pitchers, and this year, missing your accuracy meter will more than likely result in well hit balls.

Secondly, there is much more of an emphasis on defense this year. If players are not building teams to properly account for that, then hitting will obviously seem easier, as more balls will be dropping in, and getting into gaps between fielders.

Image courtesy of @JSherm23 of 23sThoughts.com

I would almost contend that SDS has actually made hitting harder, assuming you’ve build your team correctly from a defensive standpoint. This is most evident by the increased effectiveness of finesse pitchers. Last year, guys who topped out in the low-90s were so ineffective that they would rarely be used. Now that there are proper bat-on-ball physics, these pitchers are much more effective at getting soft contact, and, assuming you have the defense to back that up, finesse pitchers can be extremely valuable.

Diamonds In The Rough – Brandon Belt

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Diamonds in the Rough is a series that will take a look at some of the players in MLB The Show 17 that play better than their Overall Rating, or market value, would suggest.

I’ve been using 84 Overall, San Francisco Giants 1B, Brandon Belt on-and-off as my starting 1B and bench player. He’s been pretty spectacular for me in both of those roles, and with good reason. To start, he hits well against both RHP (72 Con / 75 Pow) and LHP (70 Con / 78 Pow). With IE Boosts against RHP, he can even get higher.

As of the time of this post, he’s receiving +11 to both his Contact and Power vs RHP boosting him to 83 and 86, respectively. With the IE Boost, he’s roughly equivalent to an un-boosted Freddie Freeman at 1/15th the price.

My Non-Sports Game of 2016

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Since the jump to the PS4 my backlog of non-sports games continues to pile up. Amazing games like Metal Gear Solid 5, Uncharted 4, even going back as far as The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto 5 have gone unplayed by me. The main reason for that has been due to the addition of my son, I just haven’t been able to dive into a game and spend multiple hours focused on a story. Sports games have been my perfect sanctuary due to the ability to sit down, knock out a game, and not really need to remember what happened in the last play-session to play the next.

As a matter of fact, the main way I’ve been seen non-sports games has continued to be via the great videos done by the team at GiantBomb.com. I’m even almost at the point where I’m going to throw in the towel on ever playing  Metal Gear Sold 5 and just watch GiantBomb’s Metal Gear Scanlon series on the game, where Drew Scanlon plays through the game with Dan Ryckert guiding him.

This year, one game that the folks at GiantBomb had so much fun playing, and I had so much fun watching, was Hitman. After watching numerous missions played on their Quick Looks and Unprofessional Fridays, I realized Hitman was a game I needed to play. The main thing that really clicked with me was the setup of the mission structure. It would allow me to pick up and put down the game without needing to know an in-depth story, which was what was holding me back from playing other games.

I ended up picking up Hitman during a PSN sale over around Thanksgiving. I was initially going to wait until the disc based version came out in January, just in case I didn’t end up liking the game, but at $30 for the entire first season, I had to jump. From there I’ve been in love with the game.

While there is an over-arching story, you don’t really need to follow along with it to enjoy the game. I actually still haven’t finished that story mode, opting instead to do play though the multitude of missions on each of the games six maps, as well as taking part in the Elusive Targets, which are limited time, one shot missions.

After a few hours of playing I realized why Hitman had connected with me. Back in the day I got Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty as a Christmas present from a friend. I hadn’t played the original Metal Gear Solid, but I quickly became a huge fan of the game’s stealth action. Hitman’s gameplay really brings me back to that Metal Gear Solid 2 level of enjoyment you get of knocking out guys and stuffing them into closets.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you check out Hitman. The digital versions are available now, but if you want a disc-based version of the entire first season, you’ll need to wait till the end of January.