The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Verizon had been promoting MSN Premium as part of it’s package. MSN Premium, up until say, yesterday, had MLB.TV All Access as part of the package.

It’s now gone. I signed up for DSL at the end of the Baseball season. I received zero benefit from this ‘benefit’, aside from today’s spring training game.

I’m so pissed. This was part of the reason I switched — so I could see Orioles games, and now..nothing. No f’n way I’m paying $99.95 for that.

Yes, I’m bitching and moaning and venting again. Big surprise, eh?

A couple of things as I work and watch the Baltimore @ Boston Spring Training game on MLB.TV:

1. NBA announced their new deal. I love this quote:
“”Its been our experience that relative competition among the (publishers) has inspired a tremendous amount of creativity,” said Sal LaRocca, senior vice president of global merchandise for the NBA, in an interview”

Yea Sal, nice bitch slap to the NFL and MLB. I couldn’t agree more.

So basically everyone gets to do the yearly simulation game. The arcade games take alternate years which actually makes sense. Finally, NBA gets a say in selling ads in the game. Neat idea.

How about that American Idol F-up? Now Fox has to show another episode! Wow, it’s almost as if it was planned…… I liked Mikhala before but after that train wreck last night, I think she’s on the path to ‘your journey ends here’.

Still no dice with a PSP. I don’t know if I want one yet….

I did not pre-order a PSP. I’m going to press my luck on Thursday. Actually I hope that Circuit City has it online because I still have a gift card that I need to spend. That would be great if they have it.

Then again, I need the PSP like I need se…uh not that, I mean uhhh…I need it like I need a new World Of Warcraft patch. I don’t play the game, so you see what I mean.

Well, here’s hoping that if everyone sells out, Congress will convene a special session and pass a new law so that Dan Clarke will receive a new PSP. It’s all about MY due process. And my civil rights to getting a PSP will be violated if they don’t have any in stock.

Bowling. Oh yeah. A game for a man’s man… and the occasaional scrawny pale guy.

Tomorrow my employer throws it’s annual bowling party in which the publishing and editorial groups take the afternoon off to throw the rock around a bit. When I was a wee lad, bowling was one of the few sports that I was consistently pretty good at, relative to my age. (Yes, I know. How sad.) Growing up, I played little league, driveway hoops, golf, tennis and most of the other usual suspects, but the only way a team captain would pick me first is if the field consisted of me and Stephen Hawking. That would be a push, I suspect. In bowling I was never the best, but if you put up that Food Chain board Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon use on Pardon the Interruption I’d have at least made the list (relative to the leagues).

When I went off to college the hobby got expensive, which was a problem because when I’m into something I don’t do it half way. When a group of people hit the lanes to have a good time they might throw, what? Two? Three games? For me it’s criminal to throw less than six and when I was really practicing a lot I’d shoot for 9-12 (20 or so in a week, generally). All that’s one thing when one of your teammates works at your local alley and you get to play for 25 cents a game (a big shout out to Todd Skye if he’s out there somewhere). It’s another when you have to pay $2 or more. So I just stopped. For a while, every couple years I’d get back into practicing every week for a couple months and then I’d quit again. When I moved to Indy that was pretty much it…. except for this annual corporate outing.

To be honest, I’ve always been uncomfortable bowling with non-bowlers. It’s not a snob thing (which would just be sad), but when you’re at a level where you separate the good pocket strikes from the bad ones, it’s tough to sell the notion that you’re impressed that the guy in the cube next to you broke 100. Plus, where everyone else is just focused on having a good time, my brain habitually starts cataloging shots, probable oil patterns, whether my arm swing’s going to high, which board on the lane to target and whether to use an inside or outside shot.

In the last five years I’ve gone to three of my company’s outings and usually do fairly well (a couple games in the 170 range and a 200+ game or two) considering I get out there less than once a year. Last year was surreal. The first game was nothing special (170-something I believe). The second eclipsed 200 so I was pretty happy with that. The third… well, this was a first for me. A perfect game (300) requires twelve strikes (one in each of the first nine frames and three in the tenth). I entered the tenth frame having thrown the first nine.

Now, I am not a guy who draws a lot of attention at work. Outside of bitching to the publishing group about why Proposal Y blows or that Author Z has writing skills that would make Cato Calin look like Hemingway, I’m mostly stuck in my cube reading manuscript pages. So to have basically everyone I work with (around 75 people) stop what they’re doing to watch me bowl was a fairly unique experience. It is as close as I’ll ever get to a moment like when Phil Mickelson walked the 18th fairway on route to winning The Masters. Even if it’s on a pathetically smaller scale like in my case, I firmly believe everyone should have a moment like that. A moment where everyone in the room is pulling for you to accomplish something rarely done. (Yes, 300 games happen all the time, but you don’t see or experience them very often.) It’s a special feeling.

Unfortunately, unlike Mr. Mickelson I couldn’t finish it off. In the tenth I dipped my shoulder a bit in my release and while the ball didn’t hit the head pin dead on, it was definitely too high. I’ve gotten away with far worse, but this time it left me with a 4-6 split. The 4 and 6 are the pins one up from the corners (the infamous 7-10). So in general terms the only thing harder in bowling than sending the 4 straight across the lane to the 6 is doing the same with the 7-10. Tough break, but a hell of a good time and for 48 hours I was the local “celebrity” at work. One guy went out of his way to come over and repeatedly tell me he was gonna take me out to a strip club. I have no idea how throwing 9 strikes equates to strip club, but his mind made the connection and it seemed best not to poke or prod it as I politely declined. (As much as I can appreciate a nice rack, a new father has other priorities.)

Flash forward a year. I haven’t been back on the lanes since and with this year’s outing a day away all of a sudden people here are all over it again. “Hey, you gonna throw a perfect game this year?” Anyone want to give me odds?

Blizzard released the latest WoW patch today. I’d post what it fixes and what it enhances but it would take the entire front page of the blog. It’s HUGE. This is something that I really like about Blizzard; I don’t always like their games but they really do wait until the game is ready before release and they do a great job of customer support.

As I listed on my free play time list, I’m currently messing around with Spiderman 2 for the Xbox — mainly because Ashley has turned into a Spiderman freak. She’s 4 years old and watches the two movies every chance she gets and even wants me to go get her some Spidey comic books after my dad clued her in to their existance. I have no idea where to start with a comic collection, so any Spidey fans out there..throw me a rope, so to speak. The Spiderman 2 Xbox game is a lot of fun. The missions are repetitive but I just like swinging through the city and Ashley loves jumping on cars and doing flips in mid air. I also fought Rhino! That was great.
As for sports news, I have very little right now. I’ve shelved the baseball games and the only sports games I’m currently playing are OOTP, FOF, and College Hoops. I think I’m going to dive back into Winning 11 8 after I get through my latest Hoops season, though.

However, I might be late-reviewing Fight Night 2, and if I do I’ll chat about that later. I thought Fight Night I was vastly overrated (shock, eh?) but I’m hearing better things about the sequel.

In my attempt to completely take over the Blog, I have added some more info to the sidebar, including the games I’m currently playing in my free time, articles that I am currently working on, and my latest reviews and previews online and in print. As much as I ramble on about my freelance life, I thought I’d add this. I’m sure Dan and Todd will add to this section as well. I’ll try to keep this area updated as much as I can.

I went into Friday’s online poker tourney with only the goal of not being crushed. With 477 entrants and a severe lack of experience I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Overall I think I played well, but I made at least one bone-headed play that will grate on me for quite a while. Three hours in, I found myself not only still alive, but with a decent (bordering on short) chip stack and in the top 55. Considering the payouts started with the Top 50, all I really needed to do to cash in at least $80 was fold, fold and fold some more. Instead, like Sammy Hagar, I couldn’t get my foot off the gas.

After being dealt A-6 offsuit I raised on the big blind to try and steal the hand pre-flop. Everyone folded, but the player who posted the big blind -heretofore known as Dirty Bastard- called. Given the fact that at this point I’m playing to make the top 50, my raise was at best risky, and quite possibly pretty dumb. But I could’ve survived that. Unfortunately, it gets much, much worse.

On the flop I hit a middle pair of 6s, with a Queen up as the high card. There was no flush draw or straight draw to be had. Dirty Bastard, who had a slightly bigger chip stack, goes all in. To be honest, I was stunned to see him do that on a 6-Q-3 flop and in that situation I tend to think I’m getting bullied. (I’m sure a shrink would have a field day with that particular bit of psychosis.) And while at some point you’ve gotta take a chance and cross your fingers, when you have a decent stack in a tourney where the top 50 get paid and there are just 55 players left only an idiot makes this particular call. So naturally that’s just what I did… and watched in horror as I was bounced out to a pair of Queens. I just sat there for about five minutes thinking, “What’d I do?” Not a mistake I will make again.

On to real sports. My NCAA bracket is in a bad way. (I’m sure I’m not alone in that.) I have just seven of the teams that made the sweet sixteen with the only bright spot being that three of those seven are also my final four picks. Too bad I picked Georiga Tech to make the finals. Has anyone got any thoughts on who makes the Final Four out of the Albuquerque Region? With G-Tech and Wake gone I really haven’t the foggiest. I can’t get behind Texas Tech (it’s a Bob Knight thing) and I’m not on Washington’s bandwagon. I guess my money’s on Louisville at this point.

Oh, and how about those Spartans! Obviously, I’m a Wolverine guy used to hating them, but against Duke? I’ll be rooting for ‘em big time.

Sorry for my lack of blogging of late. I’ve had some family issues to take care of.

Anyway, I’d like to thank all of the sports game publishers that decided to ship all of their baseball games before spring training is over — and some even before it started! By doing this you beat the competition out of the gate and your games really show how much you give a shit about the quality of your products. A big, fat wet kiss from me to you.

The result?

ESPN 2K5 is a buggy mess with bizarre gameplay to boot. Thanks Take Two and Kush!

MLB 2006 has a completely broken Franchise mode, major fatigue issues, physics issues, baserunning issues, and a totally broken manager mode.

MVP 2005, I think without question the best of the lot, also has a vanilla franchise mode with terrible AI. I do give credit to MVP for at least being the most playable of the bunch on the field. I remain underwhelmed with its pitcher-batter interface which I think is the main reason I shleved it. But lock me in a room with a PC running Windows XP and I’ll choose MVP. Lock me in a room with a machine running Windows 98 and I’m still playing High Heat 2002.

Of course I’d prefer to stay in an unlocked room but that’s neither here nor there. Actually, I’d still rather play OOTP6 over MVP all things considered. But my arcade baseball gaming is over for the year and it’s March 19th. Thanks guys!

***

Our colt Crimson Stag runs today in Louisiana. This is a turf race so we really have no idea how he’s going to react, but I think he would have to really hate the surface to lose. I fear Bailey’s horse, because Bailey doesn’t ride too many bad horses, but I still think Stag is the horse to beat. If he does win….I think the folks at West Point Thoroughbreds are going to give him a shot against tough competition in a graded race.

***

Finally, did anyone watch the steroid hearing? What a fiasco. This is why our government cracks me up. They spend time and money doing this big hullabaloo and they are totally clueless as a group to the issue they are dealing with.

First off comparing today’s baseball player to the athlete from the 1960’s is stupid. By hearing these guys talk the ONLY reason why we have seen an offensive explosion is because of the juice.

Baseball fans know this to be utter bullshit.

What about:

The juiced BASEBALL
The smaller parks
The smaller bat handles (seriously, this is part of this)
The shit-filled pitching

And most importantly — today’s player has a HUGE advantage in nutrition, diet, and exercise programs. You think Babe Ruth counted carbs? Look, steroids in baseball is a problem. I think Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and McGwire were all on the stuff and I look at them as blatant cheaters. But to assume that this is the sole reason why baseball isn’t the game it was 30 years ago — is just flat out ignorant.

First, a post from Scott Rudoff in regards to MVP Baseball:
“Create a player named Katie Roy, delete said player,everything is unlocked!!!
http://www.mvpmods.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7155“

Thanks! I haven’t tried it out, YMMV.

Glad to see that the House is spending it’s quality time defending one person’s right or non-right to live. I hope that all those kids talking about right to life have a living will, or they too could be condemned to this hell. What a total disgrace, no matter who ‘wins’ and I use that term loosely.

I’m surprised I haven’t heard from my UVM alumni Kevin about the game today. He was probably at the DCU Center and/or drunk.

I’m officially a Celtics bandwagon fan, especially after tonights thrashing of the Rockets. Hey, I believe there’s a rule that says if you run a business and your company sponsors radio broadcasts of the team , you are allowed to become a bandwagon fan. LOL

Who’s waiting in line for a PSP on Thursday?

- I’m getting pretty geeked for tonight’s Friday Night poker tourney at Empire Poker (see Monday’s post). I don’t expect to make it very far, but the best payout I’ve ever competed for is about $20 to $40. This one has a prize pool of $15k so I’m anxious to see how long I can hang in there. After not playing any poker since last Friday I gave one of Party Poker’s freeroll tourneys a shot last night. A touch over 2000 people entered. I was never up much, but I managed to hang around long enough to reach the top 250. The end came when I went all-in with A-K (off suit). I had only one caller, but unfortunately, the dude had pocket 8’s and I didn’t hit a thing. Ah well. At least I picked up a few bucks on the low stakes tables.

- House (9:00 Tuesday on Fox) had one of its better episodes this week. I’m not sure how I feel about the whole conflict they’re setting up with the hospital’s new chairmen of the board and Dr. House, but the first round was written well and was thoroughly enjoyable. You really got a good look at House’s humanity in this one, without having him break character (not easy, given how they’ve set him up). I’m absolutely thrilled it’s getting a second season.

- Was it me or was there absolutely nothing compelling about this week’s West Wing? I mean usually I feel one way or the other about it (hate it or like it), but the whole Castro plotline did nothing for me. Also, after a year I still can’t see Mary McCormack in the role of the National Security Advisor. When was the last time you saw a major player in government who could also make the cover of Vogue? Right now I’m less than thrilled that they’re getting a seventh season (announced this week). As much as I like both Jimmy Smits’s and Alan Alda’s characters, I think it’s time to let the show die.

- They just announced that Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly) is signed on to write and direct a Wonder Woman film. As much as I want to like the character, I’ve rarely ever seen Wonder Woman done particularly well. But if anyone on the planet can develop a killer Wonder Woman movie it’s Joss Whedon. Godspeed, man. And for the love of all that which does not suck, at least put the woman in a skirt. You can’t take her seriously as a heroine when she’s wearing the equivalent of a 1-piece bathing suit. (See Jim Lee’s depiction in the current Superman comic book arc. The comic -penned by Brian Azzarello- blows, but he drew her well.)

- Speaking of superheroes (as long as I’m geeking out a bit). I picked up The Incredibles on DVD this week. I’ve only seen the flick the one time, but if I enjoy it on second viewing like I did in the theater then it’s hands down the single best superhero movie ever made.

- My first round NCAA picks are 10-6. Not great, but all my sweet sixteen picks are still alive, so I’m not in horrible shape.

- MLB Prediction - the Tigers (if they get and stay healthy) will finish over .500 for the first time since the early 90s. They’re not a great squad yet, but there are some legit bats in the lineup and the pen is looking stronger than expected. If the starting pitching can hold its own they can compete in the AL Central.

Have a good weekend everybody!

I was stunned today to find out that Billy “Wicked” Wilson, original founder of VoodooExtreme died this week at the age of 33 due to liver failure.

Those of you that remember him and Jeremy Allford from AGN remember the fun of going online every day to see what’s going on…now all that’s left is Blue’s News, and they haven’t been all that awesome lately.

I had heard rumors that Jeremy has passed away, but I could never confirm it. It looks like Billy’s death is for real.

Back in the Operation Sports days, I would talk to Billy quite a bit. I sent out the news/pr whenever we had a news item. Billy and I would talk about menial shit, but it was funny becuase at the time he had just left UGO becuase of financial issues (no shit!..little did I know) and was always ‘boycotting’ UGO and their sites. It was pretty funny. At the time OS was a UGO site so I kept giving him shit about it….I just went through my emails and found this from Billy…

“At 06:46 PM 2/10/00 , you wrote:
We have continued to post UGO stuff, that was more of a joke than anything. Hell, I’ve even plugged the pathetic Gary Coleman stuff (as a joke, but still plugged it). We very, very rarely ever post sports news, so if we don’t post something of yours, now you know why. I personally don’t get into sports games, and none of the other staff members do, so it’s hard for any of us to actually get excited over sports-games news. We’ve never had complaints about the lack of sports coverage either, so have never changed our ways.

When the news is slow, I tend to post more sports things, as there really isn’t anything else going on…but this is pretty unusual these days.

Now you know.

Billy “Wicked” Wilson
Web chump at the only honey-roasted gaming news site,
Voodoo Extreme ( http://www.voodooextreme.com )”

I was so mad at him about this post I continued to write to him. Every friggin post I did about sports, I sent it to him. He’d then post stuff about Operation Sports has the news about Rugby or something as a joke. Of course we’d get three zillion hits immediately because his site was so popular.

At the time, Tony Wyss from GA-Sports had started over there kind of and I took it personally that they woudn’t post our exclusive Need For Speed preview (back then, I got along really well with EA. LOL). So, I went right to the top and asked Billy about it. You see the response above. It had nothing to do with Tony or GA Sports. Or did it. :).

Finally we had an early beta of High Heat. I of course did my usual news blitz, and Billy posted it within seconds of my sending it out. I sent him a thank you…

“Hey you guys have heard enough crap from us, so we figured we should also say thanks as well!

Thanks very much for giving us credit on the HH story. It’s very much appreciated!”

To which Billy said….

“Just stop thinking that we intentionally don’t post you guys, dammit!

Billy “Wicked” Wilson
Web chump at the only honey-roasted gaming news site:
Voodoo Extreme ( http://www.voodooextreme.com )”

Craig and I would do anything we could to get listed on VE. I think Craig offered fellatio once. I’m just kidding about that, naturally. But still, he had the power to increase our traffic ten fold. You don’t see that these days anymore, and after IGN took over, it just well, sucked. Billy tried to start up GamingGroove, but after 2-3 years of “coming soon” I gave up on it.

Either way, I’m very shocked and saddened to hear about this terrible turn of events. My thoughts are with his family.

At the end of his signature he had this quote:
“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life
on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. ” - Albert Einstein”"

Well for him and for Al, I’ll go green tomorrow. I encourage you to do the same.

Many places are now accepting PSP preorders, including Etoys and Toys R Us. Toys R Us is offering the extortion special where get 5 games with it. Etoys only makes you buy one game.

Part of me wants to get this thing now but part of me knows it’ll stay in the back pack with my GBA SP that gets use once in a great while when nature calls. I’d rather use my TapWave to search the web or play games on that.

I read Steve Kent’s blurb about the PSP in today’s USA Today. It sounds like we likey the graphics, but none of the games wow me. The best game so far is one of those puzzle like games called Lumines. I’ve heard people talk about it, but seriously, I find it hard to shell out $250+$40 for a puzzle game. BFD.

But on the other hand, it’s new and it’s a gadget. So it makes it difficult.

American Idol News
So Lindsey is gone. She was never great, but how Nikko got in but she goes, doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe all those MLB players used steroids to power dial for Ozzie’s son. Oh well.

Next week apparently it’s Billboard #1 week. Of course, the thing with all these theme shows is that although they say you can sing any song, I think the song choices are limited. Note how there are no Beatles songs or Rolling Stones songs, for example. How about they do some Men At Work next week. My bet is 2:1 that we’ll hear some lame Stevie Wonder song. Apparently he’s the only one that clears his songs.

Speaking of TV it looks like this is a good night to catch up with Seasons 1, 2 & 3 of Seinfeld. TV tonight sucks, unless you like college basketball, which I don’t. On the other hand, it’s 80s flashback night on WWE Smackdown with “WrestleMania contract signing,” which is always funny becuase you know, there’s not really a contract for starters. And it involves the Undertaker who I believe is 90 years old.

So….maybe I’ll watch the Daily Show…if my lovely Cable DVR decided to record it.

I finally received MLB 2006 today. My first impression? Thank God I didn’t buy it. I’m playing on the Veteran level and without the actual instruction book I’m finding it difficult. Apparently you can guess the pitch and guess the location. If you get it 1/2 right the corners of the strike zone light up (you either got the pitch or the location, but you don’t know which). Too arcade like for me. I think the if you get the pitch right then you get to know where it’s going isn’t very exciting for me. I prefer the HH model that simply gives you a bonus.

I don’t like how the fielders throw the ball. I’ve seen a few passed balls in my 2 games. I have not had a lock up issue. I have had errors on things that seem too routine for an error. At least Sosa comes on the Orioles already.

So far, I’m not having much fun with the game. With MVP I can get my ass kicked online or off, but I feel like I have a say. I do NOT feel that way in my limited time with MLB. I feel like there’s a control lag too. I’m just not having fun. I’ll keep at it, but right now my recommendation is MVP by a mile.

Wow. In the grand tradition of things like Fox News interviewing George W Bush, GameSpot sports interviews EA. The questions are lowball, and the answers are even worse.

Not much to glean out of this article, except EA won’t be resting on their laurels. So, just to recap: EA makes last MLB game a winner, but both football games, which are ‘exclusives’ suck hard. Ok, if you say so.

Nice dancing around the ’screwing the consumer’ question. Oh wait, that wasn’t really asked. I don’t know about you, but who gives a shit about the business end of it on a gaming site? Gamers are going to the site, it’s gamers you’re writing for, ask questions from a gamer’s perspective. Sure, Why did you fuck football over for everyone probably wouldn’t work, but when someone talks about the anger being natural, why not ask, as a gamer wouldn’t you be upset when your freedom of choice is taken away? Hmmm? Also, why no discussion of the one license they lost. It would have been hysterical to hear him be hypocritical on the MLB license. Or better yet, I would have loved to hear “We’re making it for Microsoft.” That would have been funny. Maybe they have to buy Ubisoft first.

Anyway, if you want to have a look go here.

Well, couldn’t this American Idol show be considered Sports? It is survival of the fittest. LOL.

But seriously, I took a look at all the ‘recaps’ online and of course the forums where people blindly promote their allegiance to a certain person, even if they suck. It’s almost unbelievable. Are these people watching the same show I’m watching?

Take for example Nadia, who everyone says is going to win. I have problems with that. Why? 1)Looks way too much like Scary Spice in order to be taken seriously. 2)The song choices usually involve repeating the chorus over and over again. (Paul McCartney’s ‘My Love’ anyone?) 3) Last night, while the cover band sucked (believe me, they missed the first notes of Nadia’s song something awful to the point of I think she missed her mark to start singing), you could see Nadia very very nervous — it’s understandable, but an “Idol” shouldn’t be nervous. She definitely wasn’t the worst (Hey, Nikko Smith, maybe you should have sticked with your dad and played baseball, and enjoy being the first person to be voted out twice), but wasn’t the best either.

Personally, I’d love to see the underdog continue to do well and perhaps win it all. Yes, I’m talking about Scott. He has sounded pretty good, and doesn’t fit the traditional stereotype. I know Reuben was a big boy too, but still…. I was surprised by Bo and even the other rocker dude. Not a huge fan of Constantine, but he did pretty good last night. I was dreading listening to him maul that song, but not bad.

Okay, did I just talk way too much about a reality TV show? Yeah, I thought so. I didn’t think I’d be this addicted either.