stecropper Posted March 30, 2006 Share Posted March 30, 2006 I noticed the below statement online today regarding MLB's upcoming investigation into illegal drug usage by players and the need to address it firmly: "Former commissioner Fay Vincent called this month for an investigation and suggested it be headed by Mitchell or John Dowd, who led baseball's 1989 probe into gambling by career hits leader Pete Rose, who agreed to a lifetime ban." Could this be the infamous "John Dowd" used in the game as a substitute name for Barry Bonds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJEagles Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 Step, This has been covered a few times on the forum. Dowd is a programmer(?) with EA Sports. They used his name in the game. If you search the forums, someone posted a pretty indepthbio on the guy. It is pretty hilarious though!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carter Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 That's wild. I was sitting in my barber's chair today and on tv were two guys talking about the Dowd Report. I couldn't believe it. John Dowd exists. For more information, visit his website here. "Mr. Dowd, a life-long baseball fan, served as Special Counsel to the Commissioner of Baseball in the 1989 investigations of Pete Rose, George Steinbrenner, Don Zimmer and Len Dykstra." I wonder if there was some foreshaddowing done by EA here. Did they know that Bonds was going to be investigated by John Dowd? Hmmmm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwinginSoriano Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 They used the name as a joke, that's kind of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DustinTheWin Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 Do you think Bonds holds out of the game (players association) have anything to do with steroids....I'm also wondering why Millar didn't want to be in the game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tebjr Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 Millar can't be in the game because he crossed the picket line back in '95 during the strike. He can not be a member of the Players Association. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eber Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 It seems this always pops up...all coincidence... John Dowd: lawyer Jon Dowd: assistant producer for EA Sports Jon Dowd From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Jon Dowd is an assistant producer working on EA Sports' MVP Baseball video game series. His name was used to create a fictional player designed to emulate slugger Barry Bonds, due to Bonds' unprecedented decision to pull out of the union for monetary reasons. As the producers of the videogame felt they couldn't release the game without a character representing the San Francisco Giants' star player, Dowd "became" him. [edit] The History of Jon Dowd EA Sports had worked out a contract with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) to use all Major League players who are members of the Players Association union. Giants left fielder Bonds withdrew from the union because he felt independent marketing deals would be more economically viable for him. Bonds, a 7-time MVP with first ballot Hall of Fame numbers, is not easily ignored, especially since the Giants' offense rests on Bonds' shoulders. EA Sports was left with a strange predicament and needed a player who could fill Bonds' shoes and could be easily interpreted as Barry Bonds. However, the replacement could not be exactly like Barry Bonds, in order to avoid legal action. EA Sports created Jon Dowd, a devastatingly powerful Giants outfielder, in his stead. Although they attributed Dowd with batting abilities similar to Bonds, they changed several key factors: his name, race, age, handedness, and uniform number. Since Jon Dowd is crafted from the parts used in the Create-A-Player mode, Dowd has no career batting statistics and is thus always a rookie when starting in Dynasty mode, but due to this he all-but-invariably wins the National League Rookie Of The Year award in the first year of Dynasty mode. For the 2005 edition of MVP Baseball, EA Sports altered Dowd to be more similar to the real-life Bonds, altering his age, as well as his race. His default batting attributes are still the best in the game. In a similar fashion, Barry Bonds is known as "Wes Mailman" in Acclaim's All-Star Baseball series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indianajones Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 still, that's one hell of a coincidence... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopelessCubFan Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 Would also like to point out that Jon Dowd made his share of programmer teams in other EASPORTS games. The ones that jump to mind are the programmer team in NHL 98 and Triple Play 2000 (which was by far the coolest team with two 10 foot tall guys and two 5 inch tall players). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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