A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on the best sport games of the 80’s.  One of my favorite games was Hardball, for the Atari computer platform. I could vividly remember a screen which struck me when I was a child and has sprung back up now as an adult.  Here is the infamous screenshot:

All- Stars vs Champs, interesting concept.

Is an all-star team better or a championship team? My thoughts are that Baseball is a team sport and cohesiveness is a really important element to consider.  Perfect example would be the Dominican Republic’s performance in the World Baseball Classic. They were quickly eliminated by the Netherlands because they had great individual players, but they didn’t play well enough together.

While watching the world series this past week, I started to say to myself, are the Yankees the best baseball team in the world? I mean earlier this year, the world crowned the Japanese National Team, the World Baseball Classic Champions. They also won in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2005 by defeating the mighty Cubans.

I don’t believe the US team made it out of the 2nd round this time around. Therefore, does that mean the best team in the US has the basis to call themselves the World Series Champions?  Baseball has evolved much from the days of Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb.  It is a global phenomenon now and the tournaments should reflect that.

Granted, the Japanese National Team includes all stars from all of the best players in the Japanese league. Some might suggest, lets have a tournament between the champs of each country’s leagues. This would truly be a World Series and the winner would have the correct title! Or just rename the title “World Series Champion” to “Major League Baseball Champion.”

I say use the soccer World Cup model, that works and its one of the most exciting sporting events to watch! Add national pride to the suspense of baseball and you have yourself a Grand Slam!

In the end Hardball, a game from the 80’s, inspired this debate.  Who’d have known that a game almost 30 years old, still holds up… even for debatable “World Series” Champs!

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Nervous? With this!

In the last of our Caption Contest for a Zombie Apocalypse XBLA code comes this gem of a pic.  We’ve done a bunch of these Caption Contests but this pic has so much potential.  Funniest caption wins a XBLA code for Zombie Apocalypse.

Let’s see all the funny ones.  Multiple entries are also accepted but know if one of them is really bad you’re canceling yourself out

1. Multiple entries will be considered

2. Bad captions will enter you in our Hall of Caption Shame

3. Funniest Caption below wins.

4. Press the “Retweet” button to the right –->

Funniest caption will be selected on Saturday, November 7th at 12PM EDT.  And I better not read anything about the Yankees in the comments…

Update: Hodsey is our Caption Contest winner.  Keep you comments coming, since Caption Contests are always funny.

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Game 1 of the Major League Baseball World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phiilies is wrapped up.  Winner of the first game goes to the Philadelphia Phillies in a 6 – 1 effort backed by a complete game from Cliff Lee and a stellar hitting performance by Chase Utley hitting 2 HR’s.  Even more impressive was the World Series simulation prediction by MLB ‘09 The Show.

Cliff Lee had a very strong performance in Game 1 striking with 10 K’s over 9 innings. The actual score of 6-1 was a tad lower than the prediction but the dominant performance was there by Lee showing the utmost confidence on the mound. In the Yankees losing effort, C.C. Sabathia also had a strong outing giving up 2 solo shots to Chase Utley. So looking ahead to Game 2, Pedro Martinez will make one of his biggest starts of his career in Yankee Stadium. Simulation has the Yanks up top in Games 2 5-4 in 10 innings so let’s see how those predictions go.

Here are some of the final stats…

Final Scores:

* Game 1: Phillies, 12-3
* Game 2: Yankees, 5-4 (10 innings)
* Game 3: Phillies, 6-1
* Game 4: Phillies, 6-3
* Game 5: Yankees, 9-1
* Game 6: Yankees, 6-1
* Game 7: Phillies, 8-2

Key Performers:

* Cliff Lee, pitcher, Philadelphia Phillies – 2-0, 12 K
* Chase Utley, second baseman, Philadelphia Phillies – 11/28, 4 HR, 8 RBI [MVP]
* Ryan Howard, first baseman, Philadelphia Phillies – 7/25, 2 HR
* Jimmy Rollins, shortstop, Philadelphia Phillies – 8/26, 3 SB

* A.J. Burnett, pitcher, NY Yankees – 2-0, 10 K
* Mark Teixeira, first baseman, NY Yankees – 7/23, 5 RBI, 1 HR
* Alex Rodriguez, third baseman, NY Yankees – 9/24, 8 RBI, 2 HR
* Derek Jeter, shortstop, NY Yankees – 8/26, 4 RBI, 1 HR

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You may think I’m going to far with the above title, but I truly believe that the youngest player in Baseball history to reach 500 Homeruns should be banned from Video Games.  If  Major League Baseball will not punish their players appropriately, then maybe “WE” the gaming media should.  It’s a start that many other publications would consider.  This may trigger promotional activities and other pro-athlete “benefits” to start a trend.  Book signings, appearances etc.  Where else can you publicly admit that you hurt the integrity of the sport/job and continue working without penalty or repurcussions?

As a matter of fact, I believe Alex Rodriguez has insulted all of us Baseball fans and Gamers by admitting his “wrong doing” AFTER several denials.  The MLBPA will be hearing from me on this topic, and I will express my disapproval in their lack of direction for players and fans.  Alex Rodriguez, the “person”, will hopefully hear the “A-Roid” chants and even more negative slurs thrown his way, but how can the Video Game industry take a stance?  Ban him from all future Baseball Video Games.

Many kids who play video games, can have the opportunity to play as their “Idol”.  With this proposal of banning Alex Rodriguez from ALL Future Baseball Games will send a message.  Will it be a strong message?  Maybe.  To the “player”, it may send a message letting them know their popularity and fanbase will drop and eventually diminish due to their poor decsions.  This may provoke protective parents alike to open up a conversation with their sons and daughters on taking harmful substances to better your athletiscm.   Picture this, a young child inserts a copy of his favorite Baseball Video game only to discover that his favorite player, Alex Rodriguez, has been left off the Yankees Roster.  Why?  Because the player he admired for so many years, has betrayed him, took anabolic steriods, and decided that playing baseball as a selfish athlete meant more to him than the responsibility of being a “Role Model”.  The child will regretfully understand that harmful descions also have consequences.  Bottom Line, The impact on banning Alex Rodriguez from video games will send a positive message to our kids.

To conclude my argument, allowing Alex Rodriguez to wear pinstripes is a poor decsion by the Yankees organization that believes winning is more important than the message/image their player may exhibit.    Oh yeah, and money.  In the Yankees eyes – the investment made in Alex Rodriguez is greater than the impression he will have on any youngster.  Prove me wrong NYY.  Prove me wrong MLB.

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