The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Well the MVP buzz is starting to eat away at me. I even read one post that compared it to High Heat 2003, which if you’re a console player is pretty high praise. (HH2003 for the PC was a different story -IMO- thanks to the lack of a separate tune file and no bloody mouse support.) I’m still not running out to the stores to pick MVP up for the weekend, but as opening day approaches I expect to spend some time checking the used game racks and online resellers. That is, if the reports stay favorable.

I was playing poker again last night and had one of those hands that just makes you want to pull your hair out. Now, I’m not a pro but even in a low-stakes .50/$1 game if you’ve got 8-5 off-suit before the flop and someone raises the blinds, you fold. Period. I also know that if you stay in for the flop (which was 8c-Qd-10d or something to that effect) you’ve got no business sticking around with a bottom-pair when there are two other players at the table raising the bet. Now, I had A-9 diamonds, so when 8d came up on the turn I had an Ace-high flush and was feeling really, really good. I mean the vast majority of the time you are not going to lose at Texas Hold’em with an Ace-high flush. At this point the guy had three eights, but I had been raising the pot from the flop on, so you’d have to be an idiot to think I didn’t have a flush. Should’ve been easy money, but of course this hoser lands a 5d on the river card to hit a full house. Even if I’d won $10,000 last night (instead of $10) I’d still be pissed over that one hand.

8-5 off-suit… If I knew where he lived I’d fly there and ring his neck Jay and Silent Bob style.

In other news, Tigers manager Alan Trammell was quoted as saying that his pitching rotation this year has by far the best set of arms he’s had as a manager. Nice, but given the Tigers staff the last two seasons we’re talking about a bar that Mini-Me could use for chin-ups. The best story coming out of camp though is that reliever Ugueth Urbina’s mother -who was kidnapped last September- was rescued in a raid that left one police officer and one kidnapper dead. I don’t know much about Urbina other than that he was superb as the Marlins closer when they won the series two years ago and that Pudge convinced him to sign with the Tigers last year where he was the only reliable member of the bullpen. This year he loses the closer’s role to Troy Percival, but just days after the rescue he’s back in camp and by all accounts happy and ready to pitch in any capacity. There’s been trade rumors about him for months. Personally, I hope he stays in Detroit, but if he’s moved I know I’ll still be rooting for him.

Not that I don’t believe Bill, but let’s face it…most buying decisions you make are based on word of mouth…if you have friends that enjoy the game, you’re probably more likely to buy the game. So I’ve been asking around about World of Warcraft. Here’s a recent IM log of a conversation I had about it:

Me: have you played world of warcraft
My Friend: no
My Friend: i get laid
Me!: bwhahah
My friend: WoW is for people who do NOT

Well, that explains Bill, since he’s injured and married. I guess that also gives it a ringing endorsement for me because I’m not injured but I am married, so there you go. Guess I’ll go out to the store today.

When you tear ligaments in your ankle/foot it’s always worse first thing in the morning. You sleep for 6-8 hours and then get up and put yout foot on the floor and the blood rushes to the injury and boom — it’s like someone is taking a blowtorch to your foot and laughing while they do it. As the day goes on it gets better…until it’s time for ice therapy. Ice therapy sucks. You fill a bucket with cold water and then dump a bag of ice into it. Then you take your foot and jam it into the ice water for 2 minutes. Then remove and dry. Wait 2 minutes and repeat the process 5 times. At the end of the 5th time, it feels like your toes are going to just fall off. The things I go through for Tuesday night basketball glory.

**

Just to let everyone know — I will be at E3 this year. I used to love E3 until I realized that it’s not about the games as much as it is about companies with lots of money schmoozing with retailers with even more money. The games? Well, they just kinda get in the way. But I’ll be there for Gamespy this year and I’ll try to post on the blog at night when I get back to the hotel.

**

I have ESPN Baseball sitting here in shrinkwrap. I’ll get to it later today, and I’m waiting for a MVP PC review copy for CGM. I’ll get them when I can but right now I have to do the Deadmines quest in WoW…must…do…one…more…quest…

I’ve played some more MVP. Feelings are more positive than negative but not yet a full endorsement. My big issue so far is with bullpen substitutions. For some reason, when you sub a pitcher, you can’t find out who’s already in the bullpen. You have to go back to another menu to find out who’s in the pen and then go back to the sub page and sub in a pitcher. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on this one.

I’m also having an issue with the defensive alignments (ie Double Play depth). The manual says it’s all auto, but you can override the alignments yourself. However, the defensive alignment option looks just like defensive substitution to me. If anyone can figure this out, please let me know. The manual is not very good.

There are manager ejections and you can argue calls. That’s neat. More as it happens….

On another note, did anyone watch Lost on Wednesday? When the Korean guy is at the house, the girl is watching TV and it looks like Hurley is on TV getting into a car…anyone else catch it? Am I just making shit up or did that happen?

Damn you Bill Harris. He emailed me earlier saying that the OS forum is a lovefest for MVP. Of course, having been one of the founders of OS, usually that means 12 year olds saying it is da Bomb. But then people I actually believe and respect started saying it was good but ESPN wasn’t….I was dumbfounded. So of course, I had to go check it out.

So, I cheated. I’m sorry. It was just sex. I have cheated on my promise to boycott EA. I had sex with her. I make love to you, right? I’m so ashamed. Well, not really, but it made for good press.

So anyway, I pick up MVP becuase I can’t resist my urge to play sports games. Now I have some serious guilt. First off Sammy Sosa is still with Chicago. All of the free agents that weren’t signed by a team (for example, David Segui for the Orioles) are on the AAA team. This is why you don’t release a game before spring training, because the rosters are a complete joke. I hope that someone releases rosters for the Max Drive soon. The good news is when I signed on to Xbox live it said there will be a fully updated roster released by 2/26 which will include everything up to 2/20/05. Awesome. And then I downloaded a roster, so maybe we are in good shape.

You can create a tournament, but it doesn’t look like there are any leagues, at least none that I can find…no mention of the premium pass, so I guess that’s football only.

I’ve played a few minigames, which are quite addictive. I’m still not a fan of the throw meter, and I seem to have some sort of graphics isses, I have to check my cables on the back of the xbox, becuase it seems very wavy…720p is supported according to the game, vs 480p on the ESPN game. I’ll keep playing.

I did play a full game, STL vs BAL. In typical EA fashion there were 6 runs in the first inning, 2 HRs and then I came up to bat. I’ve only played the game for a half hour. I have found it playable at this point — it’s not boring me yet.

Sorry about the boycott. Oh yeah, and I bought Tiger Woods 2005 too. Might as well totally come clean. If it’s any consolation, it was just oral. I used a gift card so it didn’t really cost me anything for either. Will you forgive me?

So MVP and MLB2k5 have hit the shelves and my bat is staying on my shoulder for this first pitch. In reading the various forums I’m still looking for something that makes either one of them sound like a leap above their efforts last year. Certainly sounds like 2k drummed up the presentation, but if the fielding cam is as bad as folks are saying I’m not sure I’d be able to get around that. Plus, it’s a Kush-developed game. If they’ve produced a sports title in the past 2-3 years that hasn’t turned out to be a buggy mess, I haven’t played it. Meanwhile, MVP is drawing praise from some people I didn’t expect, but damn. I just can’t get behind any hitting system where pressing up on the stick means you want to hit the ball in air rather than swing at a high pitch. Hey, Dan! Any chance you want to buy me a PS2 so I can play MLB2006? It seems the least he can do after the shellacking I took from him in the ESPN NFL league.

I also just can’t get past the fact that it’s still too damn early for baseball games. It’s February for god’s sake. The best course of action seems to be to wait for the publishers to offer a roster update or two, and find out what hidden bugs and flaws come to plague these games. This really could end up being the first time since the mid-90s that I may not buy a baseball game. For me, that’s pretty scary. We’re talking the days of Hardball 6 here. Plus, Bill is setting up his full court press w/regards to WoW and it’s an either or proposition for me right now.

For now maybe I should stick to online poker. I’m new to the online hold ‘em scene (preferring the neighborhood game), but I took home an extra $15 last night on the low-stakes .50/$1 tables at Party Poker. And that was after dropping almost $10 in two of the last three hands. What kind of karma do you have to have to lose to pocket Kings twice in less than ten minutes, anyway?

While I certainly empathize with Chicagoans on Sammy Sosa, as an Orioles fan, regardless of what columnists and what not say…for the first time in a long freaking time, I’m excited to see Sammy play in an O’s uniform.

Earlier, I had said it was a pretty dumb move…and on paper for prospects, it’s still tough to justify…however (and yes, it’s a big however), if Sammy’s environment change means he hits the warehouse…this could be interesting :). Hey, that’s the beauty of Spring Training…we can all dream, right?

MVP Baseball 2005 and MLB 2K5 powered by ESPN (Network Adapter) (Ethernet/Modem) are now shipping. Play ball.

MVP is $29.99, and a swan song for EA. Buh bye. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Come on Microsoft, get started on High Heat 2006.

I’m not buying either. I’m waiting for Sony’s MLB 2006. Then I may buy something. Unless of course I Gamefly them and really like them. Unless it’s MVP, which I’m boycotting anyway. Keep in mind Sony still does the ‘next year’ thing on baseball. Wait, don’t keep that in mind, and buy my NEW SONY MLB 2005 game with eye toy compatability, only $29.99!

I’m a huge fan of XM, the radio and the stock. I have been an XM Subscriber since June of 2002. Back in those days, it cost $500 to hook up your radio and you only could use an FM Modulator or a Sony Plug And Play unit. I was one of maybe 100,000 subscribers.

Now Satellite Radio is a gigantic industry. XM had always bragged about having NASCAR and I listened to it instead of listening to NBC, which I think has the worst coverage. Then they added a NASCAR 2 radio which had the in track audio scanners, which was very cool.

Now I found out that SIRIUS is taking over NASCAR starting in 2007. Good for Sirius, bad for NASCAR. Every SIRI deal seems to be for triple digit millions of dollars. Kinda tough to pay that kind of money when you still lag in subscribers to XM, even if you do charge $3 more per month.

Oh well. I guess I’d rather have MLB than NASCAR. For example, on my lunch hour, I got to hear the Sammy Sosa conference. I can’t wait for every spring training game. Should be good…

OK where to begin..

You’ll have to excuse me if this is a stream of consciousness post; it’s been that kinda week.

The funeral for my Grandfather was Tuesday morning. A very sad day. He was 94 years old and I guess that’s what many of us kept telling ourselves. He died in his own bed with his family around and he wasn’t’ in any real pain. A nice way to go out. If I could make a deal and get 94 and in my own bed — done. Sign me up and I’ll take the double package for my wife. Still, it’s never easy to deal with a loss, regardless of the age.

**

The topper to this wonderful weekend happened Sunday afternoon. I was scheduled to drive down to Trenton for the funeral Monday morning. On Sunday around 3PM I did the unthinkable. The unimaginable.

I tore all three ligaments in my left ankle. The good one. I stepped on a teammate’s foot coming down for a rebound and pop — there it went. A feeling of utter disbelief came over me as I sat there in total agony. I just kept thinking, “Three months of rehab. Son of a bitch. “

So today I’m in my walking boot. Foot propped up, bucket of ice water at my side and I’m just in a generally pissy mood. My dad, who is good at putting things in perspective, asked me on the phone today, “So, T.O. when are you planning your next comeback?”

Funny guy.

I know how this will go. I know the rehab schedule; I mean after all it was just last April that I did this exact same thng to my right ankle. I’ll be back in May. Hopefully. Right now my foot look’s lik pickled pig’s feet. My wife wants me to “retire” from basketball but I just dont think I can do that. I need the exercise and most forms of exercise I find mind-jarringly boring. Treadmills, weights, exercise bikes — fuck that. Running? I run when chased or when late for a plane. That’s about it. I need basketball. So I”ll most likely buy new braces; the hard kind that are uncomfortable to play in but will hopefully provide more stability.

$#@!

At times like these being a gamer is a good thing — no — a great thing. Distractions can be good when dealing with the loss of a grandparent and the loss of ankle ligaments. Now we all know that baseball gaming season is here. I mean hell after all..it’s FEBRUARY. Anyone else find that friggin’ hilarious? It’s still WINTER. Anyway, we’ll have lots of coverage of all the baseball games here on the blog. I’ll be getting ESPN today most likely for a review at GameShark. I’ll do MVP fpr the PC and I’ll grab MLB2K5 as well.

I’m also waiting on a review copy of WE8 for the PC , so I have lots to play over the course of the next few weeks–

But…

World of WarCraft is taking over all of my free time. After Ashley goes to bed and Mary calls it a night, I fire up WoW and the next thing I know it’s 2AM. I know Dan isn’t much into these kinds of games but I WILL get Todd to play. You hear that Todd? Your mojo is waiting for you. He’ll eat this up. Anyway if any blog readers out there play the game, I’m on the Eonar server with a dwarf priest called Mundri. Add me to your Friends list and I’m sure to see you late in the evening. You know a game has some merit when my grumpy ass will pay $15 a month to play.

At times like this, escaping into games can be really, really, helpful.

Just an FYI that I am back in town after what has been an absolutely draining weekend. I have a lot to talk about and hopefully I’ll be able to blog some later this afternoon.

So, this is the first year I’m actually watching American Idol. There’s something to be said for sucking in front of a live audience, I guess. I’m guessing on Wednesday what will even be more amazing is that the inverse rule will apply — ie the better the judges say you are, the more likely you’ll be eliminated. Let’s watch and see, shall we.

Damn 24 is an exciting show.

I’m really sad about NYPD Blue ending. That was always a show worth watching in a one hour snippet. Nothing too heavy, nothing “I can’t wait to see next week” but just week in week out quality television.

Scrubs is still funny. Joey has it’s moments, but isn’t Friends. Seinfeld is still funny. Only a few more weeks before the Shield and Deadwood. Damn.

In this week’s EW, it says that Brando did some voice work for the new EA game before he died. Wow. Also, one of the guys said he was paid a whopping $12,000 to do the voice work. Boy did he get screwed. If EA can pay $50 buhzillion for the NFL, he could have gotten more than $12,000.

I haven’t heard from Bill. Todd is recouperating from the butt whipping I gave him in our ESPN NFL league. Now he’s one game under me in the standings and I really suck. LOL.

Did everyone see the race today?

It was pretty funny, my 4 year old son running up to me saying “Daddy, the Red Car won”…of course, both #8 and #24 are technically red cars, but at least he got the color right.

I’m off tomorrow thanks to President’s Day, which means a weekend of hot love. HAHA. Oh god that was funny, of course it means videogaming and snowblowing the driveway. Typical. ….

While perusing the ESPN Videogames site, I saw this post:

Some of you are wondering what is going to happen to our online leagues in light of the news that EA has signed exclusive deals with both the NFL and ESPN for future games.

Our intention is, and has always been, to make the 2K5 leagues available until the start of the next season for each respective sport. For NFL 2K5 that means the leagues should be available through end of summer 2005. NHL, NBA, and Hoops should be available until late 2005 and MLB leagues should be available until early 2006.

Beyond that, all I can say is that VC is not going away. Stay tuned and stay positive

Well, I have to tell you, if you enjoy the footy, you must get World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International. It’s officially in my kick ass list of games. It is just truly awesome. Now, if we could only get a FIFA license…oh wait, I forgot, we need to have an exclusive for that for FIFA Street so players can run up a wall or some crap. Yay.

In other news, this site hasn’t been updated in a while, but it’s good for a laugh. Check it out.

HUGE RUMOR ALERT
Spies have told me that Microsoft intends to sell three (3) different versions of it’s new videogame system. One will be the ‘cheapo’ version without any extras. Another version will come with a hard drive and have DVR like functionality. Finally, there’s the PC version of their new videogame system. Again, this comes from a good source, one I will not reveal under any circumstances and your mileage may vary. But it is very interesting that there will be 3 SKUs for Xbox.

Usually I’m not a huge fan of rumors unless I can really verify them. I cannot independently verify this, but like I said, the source hasn’t steered me wrong in the past….so there you go…