I Liked Sports Games More When They Were Simpler

Well, that was discouraging. I called Jack to try and figure out where the comics he was supposed to mail before Memorial Day were. Turns out he wasn't at the store that week, and so he isn't sure if they were mailed, when they were mailed if they were, and thus we have no idea where they are. Swell.

I hope they show up soon. In the meantime, I realized they was an old game I loved I had never done a post on. Maybe because it was a sports game. I've talked about sports games before, but it's usually something about Madden 2005 riling me to the point I break the disc in half and throw it in the trash. And my Sega Game Gear had its share of games like that, minus the part about actually breaking the game. NBA Jan Tournament Edition used to rile me on a regular basis, given the number of times I lost on full-court shots at the buzzer.

But I'm going to be upbeat today, so I'll look at Majors Pro Baseball instead. It was one of those early sports games where you didn't have to apply any logic to how you used your players. If I wanted, I could use the same pitcher every day, and he'd never get hurt. He would get fatigued, but only as a result of however many pitches he'd thrown that game, not because I'd used him the last 30 games in a row. I could put any lineup out there I wanted, without worrying about whether I'd included someone who could play catcher or not. Someone in the lineup would play there, and they'd be fine.

With only a directional pad and two buttons, the controls couldn't be too complex, which meant stealing bases was pretty easy. Just a matter of getting a decent lead and timing it right. That's actually what frustrates me most about the last few baseball games I've played, base stealing feels so much more difficult now. I want to run like crazy, damnit! The Cardinals of the 1980s live on, but not if the game designers make it too complicated, because I lose the will to go for through all the mess it takes to make it happen. So yes, I'd try to steal (or go for the hit-and-run) on practically every pitch, with practically every player. Sometimes it blew up in my face, but the nice thing about the rosters being based on the 1991 season is the Cardinals could make almost an entire lineup of players with 10 or more steals, so running worked pretty well.

I guess I was pretty good at scoring runs, because I teamed up with a friend of mine to play a season where he handled the pitching and I handled the hitting. We went something like 30-2. He pitched because he'd mastered the ability to throw hard. I never could figure it out. I think it had something to do with hitting the button repeatedly as you threw, versus just holding it down.

My pitches never topped 80 mph, which meant all my pitchers were Jamie Moyer. Who, come to think of it, might have been available as pitcher in that game, though it would have been as a Cardinal, and I don't remember him being on the roster. Speaking of Moyer, I'm disappointed the Rockies DFA'ed him. I mean, they stink, let the 49 year old continue to set all sorts of age-related records on your club. What else are they playing for this year, Todd Helton's quest for 2,500 hits?

Anyway, I threw everything on an arc, aiming for the outside corner. Unless the hitter was standing right next to the plate, in which case I tried to jam him. This was made all the trickier because I could move from one side of the mound to another before throwing, and the hitter could shift position in the batter's box during the pitch. So I could stand in the center of the mound, and throw it to the outside corner, and the batter, who had been standing in the middle of the batter's box, could rush up to the plate as I threw to try and get in range of the pitch. It was a rather strange way to represent the games pitchers and hitters play trying to outsmart each other.

The real joy for me, though, was the soundtrack. I was always jealous that the computer team got my favorite music whenever they got someone in scoring position. It was similar to the regular music, but faster and with a harder edge to it. It was absolutely worth it to let the other team get guys on base, just to have that music as the backdrop while I was pitching. I was almost disappointed when I'd work out of trouble. Almost. I hate losing too much to want their half of the inning to continue.