Leo: Video (games) killed the radio star

My six-year-old son has discovered the video gamimg world, in a big way. He’s addicted to his Nintendo Wii and portable DS to the point where he’d rather play games than anything else. He reminds me of myself a bit. He likes everything from “Mario Brothers” to “Chicken Blaster” (a game were players shoot egg-throwing, flying chickens out of the sky).

I remember playing A LOT of Nintendo (and later Super Nintendo) in my youth, mostly sports games. There were plenty of great baseball games to occupy my time during hot summer days spent in the air conditioning.

Some of my favorites included “RBI Baseball” and “Ken Griffey Jr. presents Major League Baseball”.

I remember that the players in RBI reminded me of weeble-wobbles. When the failed to successfully field a ground ball, they would squat down and cry (at least that’s the way it looked).

Ken Griffey’s game didn’t have approval from the MLB Players Association, so the players represented real individuals, but with fake names (first initial and last name). One of my favorites was Deion Sanders, referred to as D. Neon.

There was a game called “Baseball Simulator 1.000″ where you could “upgrade” players to have super powers like a “bomb hit” or a pitcher could develop a “stopper ball” (the ball would literally stop halfway to the plate).

I also fondly recall a game called “Baseball Stars” where you would earn money after each victory, which could be used to enhance your roster.

The latest video games are more advanced with better graphics, but I’m too busy with life to enjoy them, so I’ll always remember the games of my youth as the best.

This site compiled a list of the 50 Greatest Baseball Video Games. It names “MVP Baseball” as the #1 game ever, it came along after my glorious video gaming career had ended.

Clippings…

* The Indians outrighted RHP Mitch Talbot and OF Jerad Head from the 40-man roster. Talbot will be a free agent and Head could also be, if he chooses. MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian has more here. Here is the Indians current 40-man roster.

* Former Indians hurler Jake Westbrook has made the Cardinals’ World Series roster. Surprisingly, Westbrook was not on the Redbirds LCS roster. He’s also a former Clipper also, having pitched in Columbus as a Yankee farm hand in 2000.

* Clippers fan Tim Wisecup was the winner of the Pepsi Max “Field of Dreams” promotion.

Next spring, Tim and his friends will play ball with his hand-picked Dream Team:

C – Johnny Bench
1B – Frank Thomas
2B – Rod Carew
SS – Cal Ripken Jr.
3B – Mike Schmidt
OF – Tony Gwynn
OF – Ken Griffey Jr.
OF – Reggie Jackson
DH – Edgar Martinez
SP – Randy Johnson
RP – Dennis Eckersley

The Columbus Dispatch has the story here.

Tim will be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before tonight’s World Series Game #2 in St. Louis.

That’s all for now.