Can "MLB The Show 25" make baseball appealing to me?
Baseball is a niche sport in Europe. The sport, which is popular in the USA and Japan, is considered boring and difficult to understand. Can a game convince me otherwise?
It's a classic chicken-and-egg question: How do I, as a spectator, gain access to a sport I don't know? First learn the rules and then watch the games? Or watch games in the hope of eventually understanding the rules? In the case of baseball, the question arises because I want to attend a baseball game on an upcoming trip to Japan. Baseball is by far the most popular team sport in Japan and the games attract thousands of visitors. The perfect place to get to know the sports culture. But I don't know much more about baseball than the basic rules.
Learning by playing seems to me to be a sensible way to close this knowledge gap. I want to try this with Sony's baseball game "MLB The Show 25". Spoiler: It doesn't work.
Every beginning is easy
I start in Medias res. The game sends me straight to the field, where I both hit and throw. What was that again? The catcher has to catch the ball three times, then the batter is out. OK. And three outs like that means my team gets to hit the ball next - and score.
I remember in PE class where we played a simple version of baseball. The game explains well which buttons I have to press. The tutorial throws around technical terms like "curve ball" or "fastball", which I don't understand, but my balls still land on the catcher with a certain regularity. I also develop a routine when hitting the ball... it's not that difficult, is it?
Baseball with training wheels
Apparently the game has categorised me in the "beginner" difficulty level. It's kind of like supervised baseball. My team basically runs after the ball on their own. The game takes me by the hand (or rather the fingers?) and shows me which button to press so that my fielder throws the ball to the right base and gets the batter out of the game. I feel like a monkey in a laboratory that has to press the right buttons to get food. Press the button. Home run. Press the button. Strike. Move stick in the direction of the ball. Ball caught.
This is not fun. But it does give me the time to understand the most important fade-ins. Where I can see how many outs there have already been, which inning we are in and how many strikes and balls the pitcher has already thrown.
Facts, facts, facts
My next step takes me into the so-called "March to October" mode. I choose a team and play a season. Because a season in the top division, the MLB, consists of 162 games, the mode is limited to key moments. The game answers the question of whether baseball is boring for me. It is damn boring.
I only gain control in about every seventh game and only for the last third of the game. The objective is then, for example, "hold the lead and win". I've now set the difficulty level to "dynamic", which results in a rat's tail of incomprehensible game situations. Suddenly I have to deal with stealing bases, i.e. when a player starts running from a base before the catcher has even caught the throw. I also have to decide which player to throw the ball to in order to get the opponent out. This overwhelms me, which is why I lose game after game and frustratedly look for a change of pace. I find this in the games themselves, namely in the storylines.
Playful communication of history
This is a documentary game mode in which I learn all kinds of interesting facts about the "Negro Leagues". These were baseball leagues in which African-American male and female players (in the story, three women were signed to one team) played baseball professionally, as the Major League had long banned them from playing. The director of the Negro League Museum explains historical moments in short sequences, which I can then actively re-enact. I have no pressure as I can repeat these situations as often as I like.
This mixture of documentary with interactive elements really grabs me. The story of "Cool Papa Bell", the fastest player of his time, or "Bullet Joe", who could both throw and hit brilliantly, are told in an exciting way and I actively relive them. Even if I'm often not fully aware of the extent of their achievements because I simply don't understand baseball enough...
Learned a lot and realised nothing
.. which brings me back to the here and now. My plan to learn about baseball by playing a video game didn't work. I don't even fully understand the rules. I don't even understand the tactical finesse and subtleties of the game. Nevertheless, I learnt a lot: about the history of baseball, the positions, the teams in the Major League and the course of the game.
When I go to watch a game in Japan, it gives me plenty to talk about in terms of sports culture. If only I could speak Japanese better... Fortunately, there are diverse games for that too.
"MLB The Show 25" has been available for PS5, XBox Series X/S and Switch since 15 March. The game was provided to me for testing purposes by Sony for the PS5.
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Simon Balissat
Teamleader Editorial
Simon.Balissat@digitecgalaxus.chWhen I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.
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