MLB 09: The Show

The newest addition to Sony's MLB: The Show series. It adds new gameplay and depth to the franchise. The game was released for the PS2, PSP, and PS3. It features Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Redsox on the cover.

Game Modes

Quick Game

Allows you to one game against a friend or against a computer. You can pick between any of the baseball teams.

Road to the Show

The Road to the Show is the main feature of MLB 09: The Show and the franchise itself. It does what the other games did. Lets you create a character and play with them throughout a career. It does add much more features though. Players can now interact with the manager and negotiate their contracts. After playing 6 full seasons in the Major Leagues, players become free agents and can then receive contracts from other MLB teams. Players can also take batting practice to gain points to upgrade their characters.

Players are given advancement goals that vary based on their position. These consists of 3-6 goals a player must complete in a specified time in order to remain in good standing with their organization. For a pitcher, a player may be asked to increase Stamina rating over a 3 week period, and a first baseman for example may need to increase more offensive statistics such as contact and power.

If the layer repeatedly fails to complete these goals, the manager may choose to bench, demote, or even release the player from the team for the remainder of the season.

Franchise

Allows players to control a team for multiple years. Players can control every aspect of their team such as editing the lineup, pitching rotation, vendors at their home stadium, ticket pricing and vendor pricing. Players can also trade for players and also be offered trades by CPU controlled teams, sign free agents, and draft players. Games can be simulated or played and players can have some innings simulated from withing the game. There is also a limited way to set training to players based on position and you can view stats for each player, view league leaders, the top All Star vote receivers, and the leaders in the various awards MLB hands out to deserving players such as MVP and Rookie of the Year.

Introduced for the first time in the series, the Franchise Mode in MLB 09: The Show featured an expanded feature set in dealing with free agents including arbitration, contract renewal, management of 40 man roster, Rule 5 drafts and the monitoring of service time. The inclusion of these features allowed players to have more authentic General Manager experience.

Season

This feature allows players to take control of one team for a full season (162 games) and into the playoffs, though lacks the in-depth managerial options that is found in Franchise mode.

Rivalry

Allows you to play against your rival. The game keeps track of who wins and loses games so you always know who is ahead.

Manager Mode

Manage a game. You have limited controls over the gameplay and can only make decissions an acting MLB manager can make. In this mode players are even able to view the game from their teams dugout, however this offers a fairly limited view of the games events.

Practice Mode

Allows you to practice either batting or Road to the Show baserunning. In batting a player can chose any batter from any team and hit against any pitcher from any team. The player can also chose which pitches in the chosen pitchers repertoire, and then chose the difficulty, stadium, and other options.In baserunning the player can practice running the bases using the same gameplay from Road to the Show.

Sports Connect

MLB 09: The Show's online portion of the game. Players can form and join leagues, get matched into an online game, and challenge other playeys in chat rooms. Players can also upload and download other user's customly edited rosters and sliders (settings) and also give a limited rating. Sports Connect also provides a live ticker of current, past, and future MLB game scores.

Create-A-Player

Players can create custom players and enter them into the games roster system. Players can choose from hundred of animated batting stances and pitching windups, control attire, facial characteristics, and adjust attributes as they see fit. This is the same system used in the Road to the Show mode, but with unlimited attribute points.

Team Rankings

All 30 Major League Baseball teams are ranked in game by 4 separate categories: Overall, Batting, Pitching, and Defense. The team rankings are the following:

Soundtrack

Two Ways Out- Darker My Love

Wannabe In L.A- Eagles of Death Metal

Work, Work, Work- Hockey

Never Miss a Beat- Kaiser Chiefs

El Barrio Boricua- Ming

Shine On Me- Night Horse

Collapse (Post-Amerika)- Rise Against

Don't You Evah- Spoon

Man Up- The Blue Van

Budos Rising- The Budos Band

Everything You're Breathing For- The Parlor Mob

Rooibos- The Stills

Golden Age- TV on the Radio

Safe to Say- Valencia

M. Mambo- Zodiac Death Valley

You can also add your own music to the soundtrack from your hard drive, and arrange them as you see fit.