MLB The Show has had a feature called ‘Moments’ in it for years now. The idea is to put you in the moments that make baseball exciting. That full count, two outs, bases loaded home run that every little leaguer dreams of.

There’s a laundry list of these moments in the latest entry and one, in particular, has Fernando Tatis Jr. (if you don’t know he’s an incredible talent playing with the San Diego Padres) hitting a grand slam. It was a controversial and memorable moment from last year and you get to recreate it. Except not really.

I played my at-bats, tried a good half dozen times, grounded out, struck out, and then finally lifted a long fly ball to left-center. The left fielder got under it but it wasn’t enough: home run. Then immediately into a post-game screen. Tatis’ digital counterpart just made it past second base, the announcer had just called it a home run, but I didn’t get any moment to celebrate. The game was showing me a full post-game screen for a single at-bat and was already guiding me back into menus.

The Show didn’t let me enjoy the Moment. It was already leading me along to the next one. Earn more fake credits, open more packs, just keep moving.

I moved on to create my Diamond Dynasty team. A version of the alternative fantasy draft every sports game seems to have now. Create a dream team by opening packs of random players and use that team to grind out more packs, credits, or whatever else to slowly put together your perfect team. The Diamond Dynasty mode has several ways to use your team or other smaller fantasy teams you put together but don’t keep, to keep grinding away moments, games, and credits. It’s a slog but if you’re dedicated you can spend hours putting together a great team.

The problem is everything is a grind. Road to the Show is a create a player mode where you start on draft day and work your way up to the big leagues and hopefully the World Series. Unlike Diamond Dynasty there are no credits or boosts. You just play over and over again, slowly increasing dozens of attributes like hitting for contact against right-handed pitchers, or plate discipline, or arm accuracy until the game decides you’ve played enough and are promoted. It’s a slog but if you’re dedicated enough you can finally make it and play alongside your favorite players.

The problem is it’s just another long grind. Everything in this game is a series of bars or tasks, slowly ticking upward. You aren’t playing baseball for fun or experiencing the moments that make the game a “you had to be there!” kind of experience. It’s all toil and labor. I threw a perfect game in AAA with my player, a game later they mention it once and I'm back to the grind with little fanfare or care.

Baseball often sucks to watch. It’s three or more hours long. It has long stretches without any hits. And the current baseball product has more strikeouts, more breaks, and more nothing than ever before. It can still be fun though.

It’s those moments you remember with friends over and over again. Gibson’s 1988 home run with two bad legs. The Rays Game 162 comeback against the Yankees to make the wildcard. They are moments that make you feel a part of something. MLB The Show recognizes that and fails to spotlight it.

Maybe it’s fantasy sports and how some fans care less about home teams and more about an assortment of stats from around the league. Maybe The Show has pushed too far into loot boxes and left baseball behind.

Maybe I’m an old man yelling at clouds. Regardless I feel a deep disconnect from MLB The Show. What was once a celebrated franchise has followed the well-worn path that NBA 2K, FIFA, and Madden all have traveled. The enjoyment and passion for the sport have been overwhelmed by mechanics and menus.

MLB The Show doesn’t feel soulless, it feels like the soul is being drained from it. I hope this is a sign of transition as we move into new hardware and not of a general decline. Because what’s left here isn’t what baseball is about.

I haven't played The Show since PS2 days, but I will definitely be trying it out now that it is on Xbox Game Pass. This blog post makes me sad though, as it sounds like the game is leaning into everything I hate about modern sports video games. Maybe Super Mega Baseball is the only way to get an enjoyable baseball experience that isn't attempting to monetize gameplay at every turn. Even Out of the Park Baseball, a well-respected simulation game on PC, is now more focused on developing their Perfect Team (card collecting) mode than on the core baseball simulation itself. I will still try to go into The Show with an open mind and hopefully it doesn't end up striking me the same way that so many other recent sports games have.

I agree wholeheartedly. This is actually the first year I've skipped a release of The Show since 2017, despite having a ps5. But I think they've just leaned too far into making a "realistic baseball experience" that it all just feels like such a simulation. I remember growing up with the MVP Baseball series, and it felt like every inning had a home run robbed or a Derek Jeter-esque jump throw to take away a single. It didn't matter that there were icons under every player constantly reminding me I'm playing a video game, because the game was fun and did the exciting bits of baseball well. But the show never sets you up for that type of fanfare. Even if you rob a homerun, it's just another out. Like you said, real baseball can be boring at times and I think The Show simulates that side of it better than the game side.

That's a shame. I jumped into The Show for the first time in '19 and thoroughly enjoyed it - I didn't mind the grind of RTTS as it was at least a realistic depiction of grinding through the minors to get to the Show, plus I think playing a starting pitcher is more fun because you have off-days that you don't have to care about. I never care about any of the card-collecting modes in sports games but I'm not surprised to hear that they've been leaning into it so hard; that just seems to be the way of the world now for sports games. Was potentially interested in trying this if/when I get a PS5.

The good news is that Super Mega Baseball is nothing but the pure fun of baseball. Sure, the new game's franchise mode can be a slog because you can't simulate games in normal mode, and it doesn't have anywhere near as much depth as The Show, but it's still a ton of fun to play and has that goofy charm. Not a replacement experience if you had your heart set on playing as your favourite team or building a RTTS player to play alongside your favourite players - but hey in my RTTS game in '19 I was drafted by my Cardinals and then just as I'd found my feet in AAA I was traded to the goddamn Marlins. I requested a trade out once I was an established player...and was traded to the Rangers. They sucked, and I again requested a trade and was traded...to the Tigers, who also sucked.

Sports games work best when they're creating their own moments, unfortunately. I've had the highs and lows in my current Pro Evolution Soccer save. Won promotion through the play-offs with the last kick of the game, narrowly missed out on winning the Premier League the next season and now the bottom has completely fallen out.

I like when a game manages to organically produce that journey but, dealing with the past is a little too mechanical and flat.

FIFA World Cup 2010 had some scenarios where you could right the wrongs of the Qualifying campaign. I watched the Ireland v France one (a game in reality settled by a Thierry Henry goal that shouldn't have stood) and you can rewrite that history.

So you do it.

And the game presents the victory as something routine, bland. You've just sent a team through to the World Cup. Something that few teams get the chance to compete at. They should be celebrating but they trudge off, shake hands and not even the commentary team can be deployed to make this feel special.

I actually saw a lot of comments on various The Show forums/boards where people were praising the Moments being quickly ended and back into the menus. I assume those are the folks who grind them for Diamond Dynasty?

I dunno if I agree with your view entirely (but I get it). For sure DD is a grind that seems ridiculous - but I guess that’s what all those “ultimate team” modes are anymore. Grind for card packs, get new players, grind for more, level them up, etc. It’s definitely not my cup of tea, but those who love it really seem to love it.

RTTS seems fine to me. The whole cap of 50 for the ratings kinda sucks and shouldn’t be there. But the slow grind to improve stats seems to fit the minor leaguer thing earning their way to the bigs. Players talk about the grind all the time, so I don’t mind that so much. But the diamond equipment grinding needed to reach high ratings is pretty damn lame.

For me though, franchise is where it’s at. This is where you get those moments. I definitely go games where I can barely seem to get a couple hits, but I also have those games where my lineup breaks out big time. I’ve had no hitters into the 9th and the stress of each pitch after about the seventh inning. I’ve had walk off home runs belted deep into the night. I’ve had players with slow starts slowly build up their stats to be near league leaders by mid season. Having an active hand in the minor league rosters is a blast, watching players stats and growth and then moving players up or down to reward them.

There’s a few things I wish were different for sure. But I still think, for me in franchise mode anyway, the baseball is still really good.

Those kind of exciting moments are best represented in the game when pulling a diamond card from a pack lol.

Franchise mode is still great but you have to use your imagination to create that excitement.

I'd like to push back on the core of your argument (or at least what I remember to be the core from when I read this post earlier this week), though it'll out me as a true fan of baseball in a way I couldn't realize during my frivolous 20s and actively avoided in pursuit of more lively sports like football and basketball.

That is, baseball is a game of failure and frailty, which MLB The Show examines quite expertly. I'm willing to elaborate more someday, but that's the core of my enjoyment of The Show: even having gotten decently good at it, I am still pretty bad, because pretty bad is all you can ever be in baseball, and that's usually good enough. Hank Aaron got on base less than 40% of the time he stepped up to bat, over 1,000 of his plate appearances don't even count as at-bats (and this is a good thing!) and he only scored a run in just over 17% of those plate appearances. He's arguably one of the five greatest baseball players to ever live.

I'm comforted by that. I could always be better, but it's not the worst thing in the world to be average, either.

@nodima: I do enjoy that aspect! It's not the grind that gets me, it's that everything is a grind. As much as baseball is a more failure than success kind of sport, video games are usually some form of power fantasy.

So that might mean a fantasy team with a bunch of my favorite players or creating a player who throws no-hitters every other game.

I'm okay with a good chunk of the game being true to the game that's played but I still crave some moments of balls-out fantasy.

@nodima:

While I am not really a baseball fan, I think I understand what you mean.

I enjoy F1 games. Doing the career mode in those games generally means you start driving for the bottom to mid-pack teams and are not expected to even win races. Simply finishing in the points is exciting. Gradually working your way up to the top teams, where you actually have a chance of winning is, to me, rewarding.

Of course, you can lower the difficulty so that your lowly Williams team wins it all, but this always feels weird to me.