MLB 09: The Show

To be as forthcoming as possible, I must admit that I’ve not spent significant time with a baseball game since EA’s stellar MVP Baseball 2005. Sadly, this was also EA’s last professional baseball outing, as Take Two bought the rights to produce Major League Baseball games that same year in response to EA’s purchase of the NFL license. Lucky for us baseball fans, Take Two’s deal with the MLB does not apply to first-party publishers who wish to create an MLB game of their own, leaving the door open for Sony to continue producing their own line of MLB games, MLB 09: The Show being the latest.

The first thing you’ll notice upon booting up MLB 09: The Show is the incredible amount of ways Sony has given fans to experience the game of professional baseball. Obviously standard Season and Franchise modes are present, as well as a Manager Mode where you step into the shoes of the skipper and call the shots from the dugout. The core game of baseball is intact as well, delivering an unparalleled amount of realism with a big focus on the Pitcher / Batter duel. Batter A.I. is good, sometimes too good. They remember each pitch, so using varying speeds and locations on your pitches is a must when you’re on the mound. The pitchers are just as smart, so if you take Josh Beckett yard, don’t expect to see him to be tossing anymore fat fastballs across the center of the plate the next time you step into the box.

But as the title of the game implies, MLB 09 is all about "The Show". Road to the Show mode gives players the opportunity to create their own rookie prospect with an unprecedented amount of character customization, right down to the blemishes and pockmarks. You’re even offered several layers of facial hair, insuring you can that playoff beard trimmed just right. Once you’ve completed your virtual nip/tuck, you can either enter the draft, or simply place your player on whichever team you choose.  No matter which route you take, you’ll spend your first spring training with the main roster as the coaches and GM assess your various talents. Once on the field, any moment during the game that involves your player - whether it’s playing your position, stepping up to the plate, or running the bases – is under your control. Thankfully you won’t be forced to experience every play of every game. Rather, you’re skipped to the next event of the game that your player plays a part in. Often times, your manager will give you a goal prior to each event, such as turning a double play or driving in a run. Successfully complete these goals, and you’ll be given points to spend on training your abilities. Fail, those points will be lost and you’ll receive emails from the front office threatening to cut you. If you perform well during spring training, you’ll stay with the main roster as they enter the regular season. But if the front office feels you need more work, you’ll be sent to one of the club’s farm teams to work on your fundamentals. Work hard enough in the minors, and maybe you’ll get called up to the show. If not, you may just find yourself toiling away in the minors until retirement.

Of course, Road to the Show isn’t the only attraction in MLB 09. There’s also the fantastic ”Sounds of the Show” feature, in which you can customize and create audio for the game. Not only can you customize your player’s entrance music using tracks already o the game disc, you can also create new entrance music with any tracks you have ripped to your PS3 hard drive. But perhaps the most intriguing part of Sounds of the Show is the ability to create fan cheers and taunts using a PS3-compatible headset. Nothing pulls you into your virtual role as a third baseman quite like coming up to bat to the sounds of Muse while fans shout “GameDibs.com Sucks!” in your general direction.

Unfortunately, MLB 09: The Show stumbles once you take the game online. Sure, the game includes expanded support for online leagues, including a live draft feature, but when the majority of your online games suffer from large amounts of lag, none of those features really matter. While a certain amount of latency can be manageable in say, shooters, sports games – especially a sport as dependent on timing as baseball – become nearly unplayable online with even a hint of lag.

For many fans, MLB 09’s Road to the Show mode is the closest thing we’ll get to a baseball RPG. For those not interested in stepping into the shoes of their own personal major leaguer, there’s still a lot of great baseball to be had. While Take Two’s MLB 2K series has toiled in mediocrity over the last few years, Sony’s MLB series has picked up where EA left off. MLB 09: The Show is no exception, providing the most complete baseball experience this side of fantasy camp.