Slydude3129

Hey guys, I'm new here, but I think I can say I have at least one thing in common with all of you guys. I love baseball, and lately I've been trying to get back with baseball. Not to get into the why's but I've been away from baseball for a while, and well, I've made a grave mistake, and I'd like to remember why I loved baseball. And it kind of gave me an idea for a post here. What I thought would be cool, if it hasn't been done before, is have a post where we can share our first experience and how we were introduced to baseball. As some of you may know I like to wax nostalgia rather heavy so if you are not into that, or don't want to get into that, I guess this might be where you get off. Unless perhaps you want to see it as a brain exercise. You may want to remember this memory in the future, so remember it now so you can remember it again. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I don't really remember "how" old I was, but it was T-ball and in and around when I was in the first grade. So pretty damn young I guess, but I played in the school little league "season" as a Houston Astro. Navy blue jersey, with the 1994-95 era logo on it I think. I still have the hat somewhere around here. Anyways I don't remember many of the baseball games, though I do remember one play in particular. I hit one inside the park 2 run home-run when I hit a ball into the air in right field. It hit the fence so hard that it stuck in the fence. Then Center, and Right proceeded to fight over it, as I "flew" around the diamond. We wound up winning our season, not over that game, but as a reward the coaches bought us tickets to go see the real Houston Astros! Holy shit! The real ones? In Houston? No way. The town I'm from isn't big by any means, 33k~. Even smaller back then. We got to the park and we got to go on a tour, telling us how the Astro Dome was built, and about the team. I don't remember much from here, most of it comes from my parents who always tell of how, when the tour guide asked, "Now, does anyone know who plays third base for the Astros?" My hand shot up. "Who?" "Matt"! Apparently the look on his face was priceless. Matt was the kid who played third base for our Houston Astros, not The House Astros. I was a dumb kid. I just remember feeling like we were getting a tour because you know, we had won the season and this was like I don't know a "parade" for us or something. Now I'm pretty sure it was just something they did in the day before the games to make money. Again, dumb kid. What I do remember is the first time I stepped into the actual arena and saw the field. I just stood there for a moment, I had seen Baseball on TV. I remember sitting at the bar at home and watching on the tiny SD rabbit eared set we had there, as Nolan Ryan pitched one of his no hitters. Now that I've looked into it, I'm thinking it may have been his seventh. I really wish I could remember that game better now. But this, what was this? This was huge! I mean, this is where they play? WHOA! Look how tall it is! This is awesome! The field was an almost psychedelic bright green with what I now know as "sliding pits" around the bases. The pitcher's mound looked like a tiny island sitting in all that green, with home plate staring back. And all the seats in some areas were painted up like the Rainbow 86 Jersey they had from their closest run at the World Series at that time. It was crazy, and I loved it from that moment. I remember then, some bits and pieces from the game itself. The now, My Houston Astros, versus the, Colorado Rockies, who as I understand now where a team to contend with at this point in their short history. I remember I had to use binoculars and hold them for real, just to see the game but I followed it. Every time a batter would hit a fly ball, my dad would jump and yell Home Run! Then, the outfielder would just stroll up and catch it. I remember during the seventh inning stretch my mom thought the game was over and was getting ready to leave. "Little league has seven innings Mom. This is the Majors." I remember shortly afterwards while waiting for the game to start back up, I used the binoculars to look at the roof, and found the huge speakers up there. It scared me for a second when I realized how large they were, just hanging up there, above our heads, while we were distracted from the game. Then the game started back up. I remember at some point we did finally hit a home run. I'm thinking it may have been the 8th inning or so. I remember the Rockies won. And I remember the score as 9-5. I was disappointed we lost, but I was barely aware of it. I was too excited at having actually been there. So much so that I can still remember the sounds if I try today. I hope I never forget that and how I felt. And from that day on I loved baseball, and the Astro Dome. She was the first to introduce me to the world of baseball, and to maybe my first love, of baseball. And you never really forget that. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I hope to read more stories like this from you guys. Try and remember that first game, or whatever it was that lit that spark. It'll be a good exercise for us older guys. You younger guys will want to remember this when you get older, so it'll do you good to.

Listen I know how it feels to get ganged up on. That is none of our intentions alright. The truth is, at some point in our internet lives, someone probably sat us down and had this conversation with us as well. Forums are not twitter or Facebook or whatever the cool thing to do now days is, you are not limited to 160 characters. Believe me, if it did, I would never be able to complete any of the points I sometimes try and get across. There is nothing wrong with a long winded post. It tells us you had a point, and a thought process behind it. It makes us want to read it. I'm not saying every time you need help, which at some point we all need help, that you need to fill out a questionnaire in triplicate every time. Let me show you an example of how you could have asked this question I think, without getting some of the backlash you have gotten. When I'm new to a forum, I try to address the person reading it personally kind of like this: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hello! Guys, I'm having some trouble finding the Baseball world cup mod and the World baseball classic mod. This might upset some people, but I haven't really been able to search for it, because honestly I don't really know how to use the search function well. So please don't get upset, I'm just kind of new to this place. Anyways if anyone could direct me to either these two mods, that also include the Team Philippines in World baseball Classic that would be awesome. If you could, as well, could you direct me to a post, if there is one, on how to fully utilize the search option in this forum. I could stand to read over it and get better at it, as I'm sure it would help not only me, but all of the new members. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ And Bob's your Uncle, not overly wordy, not overly drawn out, and makes the point, hey I'm new, but I'm interested in these mods and the game of baseball, and need help. Also, I'm wondering if English is your second language? If so, that may be where alot of the disconnect is coming from. I'm not saying you are not good at typing/speaking English, but that will help us to understand, HEY! This guy is trying. None of us want you to feel unwelcome, or like we don't want to help you. None of us. Because we are all here for the same reason, Baseball. We love it. If you love it as, I imagine you do, then we can all accept that and welcome you. But please understand that when you make short contrived little post that make us play the pro-noun game, to people like myself, who sometimes get annoyed at the little things, it does get under our skin. Sure, that is something I need to work on, I agree with you. But not reading your post, doesn't help you at all, and doesn't help us either. A forum is an online community, and it works only when we all work together to make it work. I could have been a bit more clear and less attacky, with my first post than I was, and I apologize for that. I don't blame you for getting defensive, but again please understand our side of the coin. It is very, very difficult to read into a post, what someone needs you to, when that person doesn't provide you the context within the post to do so. Please don't be upset, and please forgive us. We are only trying to understand how to better help you now, and anytime in the future that you may need help again.

Yea thats what I keep finding.

I agree, though in his defense sometimes the search function on a forum can be a colossal chore. Though that doesn't excuse not trying it, or posting one word threads. I'm not a network admin, but I can't imagine that is healthy for the server load. When I needed the Year Changer tool just the other day, I found a post where the dude was looking for it near the end of the MVP 15 Support thread. It was mentioned that it may be in the TC 94 mod. I downloaded it, and found that it wasn't, no big deal, I watched a game while it downloaded. So after I confirmed it wasn't there, I posted such, then used the search button. I admittedly got frustrated with it, but I didn't give up. I wound up finding the link to it, a little after Gordo uploaded the volume packs he uploaded that included it. Though that one is a special case due to fallout from the past so I have learned. It takes time and effort to do these things, and all of us are not Encyclopedia Britannica. I've learned the best way is, if someone helps you in a post, try to do the same for someone else atleast once. Keep the Karma rolling in the right direction, so that next time you need help, someone will step up to the plate for you. Its a give and receive sort of thing that is what makes forums work.

Played another game last night/this morning and was able to complete it. Though it wasn't anywhere near as "fun", I got thumped 1-10 Oakland. What I think I may have felt as an advantage was due to the Variable Stuff selection. I'm guessing the game was simulating the pitcher being off his stuff, and that was why it seemed like alot of his pitches were fat. Once those relievers started showing up in that game, it was game over. I also turned off trades injuries and suspensions, and I was able to exit the game without a crash. I'm going to replay that game a bit more seriously later on today as I was really just trying to complete the match to see if it would crash. I'll give a bit more of a feedback report once I do so. I just wanted to post that I was indeed able to complete a match and exit it without crashing.

I certainly have probably no business bringing this up here but you need to work on how you create threads on a forum. While I have no authority to ask such a thing, might I suggest then that in the future when you create a thread you spend a bit more time and thought doing so. Creating a thread and having your post be one word or two or three annoys me to no end, and I don't think I'm the only one, though I might be the only one to say so. Having a thread created like that tends to not get very many replies due to spite. Again I have no authority to say or ask, but I can only suggest that you work on this, as it seems to be something you do. Put a bit more thought into your post, or question and I promise you people on this forum will be more than ready to help you. Not trying to bust your balls, or start a flamewar. Just something to suggest that you work on. I have alot I need to work on personally as well.

Gordo just got permission to upload this just the other day and I believe the item you are looking for is the first one on the list on the Volume # 2. But I included both of them incase you might need one out of Volume # 1.

I have no doubt I would love them. I stumbled across a video on Youtube of the 41 or 51 season, and I heard Scully, my jaw dropped. I was already impressed with how they got names into MVP 15, but this indeed is another level entirely. It does appear very easy to have multiple installs, but I'm afraid the hard drive is either in the process of going bad, or already has gone bad in some places. Whenever I try to copy the folder for MVP I get a cycle redundancy error, and sometimes on reboot, I'll get unmountable boot drive blue screens three of four times before it finally boots up. Right now the only things installed on this PC since I reformatted it earlier this week is Kerbal Space Program, because I'm a Space Junkie, and MVP 05+15. Its all I feel safe installing, as I'm afraid the more of the HD I take up, the more likely and more often the errors will start to occur. And if the hard drive really is going, I've already lost the war, even if I am still winning the battles. Of course this is all fixable very easily, get a new rig. But with the way I drop money on my rigs, I can't justify it unless I can assure myself that it won't be obsolete in 3 months because the OS I have is "no longer supported" or so other arbitrary bs that pretty much means I've wasted my money. I got really lucky with this rig. I bought it in 06, and it is still "top" of the line for what I want and need it to do, to this day. Sure I can't run KSP at 300% graphics, but I get steady frame rates of 40-60 FPS which are plenty good enough for me. And with someone who grew up thinking it didn't get much better than the upgrade from NES to SNES, I'm not hard to please when it comes to "eye popping" graphics. The only main hindrance with this rig is its RAM limitation at 4gb. But there isn't a game on the market currently that truly uses the 64 bit's ability to blow 32 bits out of the water. KSP for a short time even dropped support for 32 bit systems in favor of 64 bit, only to have the 64 bit be an unstable unusable mess, and them have to revert back to 32 bit. I understand the potential that 64 bit systems have, but we won't see that being fully used, I feel, until we have the next bit upgrade. It takes time for developers to fully utilize a new OS and bit rate, it won't happen over night just because MS wants people to upgrade from "old" OSs. Yea I've been hot with MS for over a year about this. The only reason my PC is obsolete now, is because MS "says" it is. But it wouldn't be if they would continue to support it. And I really can't stand the move to touch screen OSs, which is why I haven't upgraded sooner. I don't need an OS that is geared for that on a rig I spent 3 grand on. Windows 10, might be the OS I finally upgrade to, if it turns out to be worth a bucket of warm spit But when I do get my new rig, and I really do hope I'll be able to in the very near future, I guarantee you I will be playing your TC mods. I have a few more ideas on how to get multiple installs, as I might try "installing" the game to a thumb drive, but when I tried that with one the other day, I again was faced with the cycle redundancy error. Geez proof reading this, it seems like I'm ranting, and I kind of am, but I most certainly don't mean for it to be aimed at you. I hope it doesn't come across that way, as I have a great deal of respect for anyone who does any kind of mod work, no matter how great or small, to continue on the life of a game that is widely loved. Not to mention you do all of this, on your own time, with no compensation for you work, other than the thank yous from the grateful ones, and WHERE BE THE NEXT MOD/VERSION/PATCH!$!! from some of the less patients ones, of which I am sometimes guilty of falling into. Again, I am ranting, but most certainly not at you. And just let me finish by saying thank you, thank you for your labor of love. Now, whens the next patch! I kid.

I have found in life that is my consistent story. But hey, consistency.

I will have to try those out! Did it make any adjustment to make the game feel more real? That has always been my main complaint about the Madden series. And there might not be a way to "mod" that. If I do find it, or do repurchase it, I will make a point to let you know what my thoughts were. I can't speak for the TC Mods (Total Classic) but the MVP 15 one is very well done. That doesn't do it justice either. It is very, very well done. Though I do plan on trying out the 1994 TC and 1977 TC mods.

I didn't know there was a modding community for any of the Madden Games. Great, now I'm going to have to dig around in the attic to find where I have stored my copy of Madden 08. But I think the last one I bought was 07, I don't remember.

Now that I can agree with.

I'm thinking that he might be referring to how accessible Baseball is now. I imagine most, if not all teams have their own broadcasting station, growing Yankee fans in Texas, or Dodgers fans in Philly. It used to be Games of the Week, and occasional broadcast like that. Now with the exception of the blackout, which is another rant for another post, you can pretty much watch all 162 games of the year. I don't think we have ever had access to baseball quite like we do now.

Indeed nostalgia is a cruel mistress. While I don't know if I can agree with the "golden age" I can agree that Baseball is going in a direction that will hopefully see it do nothing but continue to get better. I'd like to see some bad seeds thrown out, but there will always be bad seeds in anything we do. It will never be perfect, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for perfection.

Oh man KGJ. That dude was so cool. When he and his father hit those homeruns after each other, that was really cool. I miss Ken Griffey Jr. I guess the closest I came to seeing it like that, was going to the Astro Dome in the late 80's and early 90's but I don't talk about those memories much because they hit me right in the childhood. It just had that old timey baseball feel. I've been on a huge kick with watching Classic World Series Games on youtube. Search MLB Classic Games, there is a play list wait, I can link it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uccsNcYt7Q&list=PL5MExjWBMiK_VYLVHf--DM9qaWECtM2_V that is easier. The last one I watched was the 96 World Series Game 6 ATL@NYY. If I inhale long and hard enough, sometimes I almost feel like I'm way back then sitting at the TV watching the game for real, even though most of the time, I already know who won. Makes it almost impossible to go sit in the living room and watch a live game on my larger TV, in crystal clear HD. Yes I'm one of those weird people that miss SD. I'm way to "young" to be the angry old man yelling at clouds. I also miss the way the game was announced. I'm not a Joe Buck hater, but I'm not a Joe Buck fan either. That moment in game 6 of the 77 World Series with Tom Seaver co calling the game when Reggie Jackson hits his third homerun can bring tears to my eyes. That, "High,.." "Good Bye!", and the announcers overlapping each other with genuine excitement. Like he is saying, that ball is gone don't even try to leave any doubt its gone. I'm watching it and I don't believe it but its gone. I miss Mr. Cosell though I don't think I've ever heard him live. Nothing like listening to him, and those other gentlemen call the game. Sometimes I fear baseball's best days are behind us, and I wasn't around to get to see it. I miss John Madden in football as well, but that is another wax nostalgic for another post.

Oh yea I'm very, very tempted to get both the 94 and 77 era mods. I've been looking at the tutorials for getting multiple installs of MVP for multiple mods, the only thing holding me back is the fear that I might mess up my currently only working version of MVP15, and you know how much trouble I had getting that to work from my end, not that its your fault. I swear I had to drag my PC kicking and screaming to get it done. And now that I have it, I don't want to lose it and have to go through all that again. But it is something I am heavily considering even if I do have to reinstall MVP 15. But then I'd have to play the game with big fat nostralgic man tears blinding me, and I'm bad enough at the game already.

Man look at that field, look at that broadcast, what is it about old baseball games that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside? I miss players like Mr. Jackson, and others like him. While I understand we still have a few ball players who are like him, it seems like there are fewer and fewer every year. I've never personal met the man, but from all accounts that I have ever heard, he was a great person to be around. He kind of reminds me of Tony Gywnn who I was a big fan of back in his day. And now I've remembered that Mr. Gywnn is no longer with us. Hopefully he is playing up there in the best stadium with the other best ball players the world has ever known, where the lights never go out. Baseball needs more players like these two gentlemen. But to be honest, even if every ball player were like them, we would still need more. You can never have enough people like these guys.

I'm glad it did, I was afraid that if I was to blunt about it, that it might violate some sort of rule. So I did my best to skirt around it whie still being honest.

Ok on to some game play feedback. I found out that if I do 6/5 view that I can get the "zoomed" out view from vanilla MVP 15. I was pleased to find that, as I like to pitch from the traditional broadcast view, and hit from the other. I just played the first game of the Rangers' season against the A's, and first rattle out of the box, my lead off hits a hard ground ball on the line to first base. The first baseman swipes it on a dive and barely throws me out, but injurers himself in doing so. Wow, didn't see that coming so early. The next few hitters to step up I began to get a bit worried. Suddenly I'm hitting the ball, and well. When the top half of the first ends I have 2 runs. One unearned due to a pick-off throw that went badly. That was kinda neat. My first pitching experience was a bit of the same. I got the hitters to ground right into the infielders for easy outs. It is at this point that I pause the game and double check my difficulty settings, yep I did pick MVP. Pretty much more of the same from the 2nd inning on, I was hitting the ball, and pretty well, but I wasn't finding the holes that I was in the first inning. But their pitcher is getting tired. Then the top of the 5th. With two singles and a walk I have the bases loaded. I want to swing so bad, but manage to hold off because the pitcher appears rattled and he can't find the plate. He walks me in 5 pitches, forcing a run in. 3 zip Rangers, no outs bases loaded. While I did my best to make mental notes I don't recall exactly what happened. I'm pretty sure Sin Soo Choo hit a double to the wall that scored another two. 5 zip Rangers, and they get three outs to end that terrible outing. I'm feeling confident now, and a bit worried that perhaps, the view I'm using to hit, is a bit unbalanced. But on to pitching. By this point they've seen my stuff, I don't recall where in the batting order they were in, but in just a few pitches they had managed to get a run in with a man on second as well. Ok 5-1 not a big deal, time to tighten up my pitching. over the course of the next few batters they drive the man in from second, and manage to load the bases. Ok 5-2 bases loaded with no outs. A sacrifice fly deep into left field drives in the man on third. Damn it, 5-3, one out, and two men on. In steps their DH. Great, the man that is paid to do one thing and one thing only. Got to love those DHes (sarcasm). With two men on I keep the ball low in the zone, and my first pitch is a Curve. Wrong pitch, wrong place, wrong time, ends in the left field stands. It is now 5-6 Oakland, and I'm a very unhappy manager. Suddenly the advantage I was afraid I had was gone. Suddenly I was throwing bricks with big red hit me here targets painted on them. Luckily the next two hitters are easy outs. A pop fly to shallow center, and a grounder to the first baseman. Then I step up to bat, feeling a bit better, remembering that I can hit this guy. Little did I know that the pitcher had been replaced, with a hologram of himself, and the real pitcher I was facing I'm guessing was Mr. Nolan Ryan himself. Suddenly I couldn't hit water if I fell in the ocean! I guess I was rattled, that was a hell of the bottom of the 5th, and I was getting early swings and trying to hard to pin point my way out of a mess that I had somehow in my infinite stupidity blundered into. Nothing happens in the top of the 6th. I get Elvis on first, then get him promptly picked off of first. Everyone else were easy outs. Thankfully I three up three downed them in the bottom of the 6th. Ok, time to get real. I manage to get men on the corners with two outs. Ok here we go, all I need is a base hit. Just hit there where they ain't like that damn annoying person in the crowd always screams, simple right? Hey that third base man looks a bit tired over there, better hit it right at him to wake him up. So much for that attempt. By this point their pitcher is almost 2/3ds down his stamina. Who the hell is this guy that gets stronger and better the longer he is out there. He's no man, hes a piece of iron! Now that my starter has been knocked through a loop, I start debating with myself? Do I take him out? He is near 75% stamina, he has plenty of gas to get him through the 7th. I was almost wrong. They managed a guy to third before I finally got the final out. Top of the 8th. This is the inning to make noise, sure its dramatic and makes great tv to do it in the 9th but our manager has a bad ticker and high blood pressure, no sense in stressing him more. For the last few innings they have had men up in the bullpen. I know the hook is coming for this dude, and by now, I've realized I might be wrong on thinking the view I have has given me too much of an advantage. I have got to get hits on this guy, and now. First pitch, and I drive it over the first baseman's head, I want to go to second but the right fielder just got to it a bit quicker than I felt comfortable challenging. Then the hook comes in. A new pitcher. Damn it, I was hitting that dude, oh well buckle down and make this new dude pitch to you. Where as the starter couldn't seem to find the plate often, this dude couldn't miss it, and I couldn't find a way to put wood on the ball. Two miserable swinging strike outs and one with an over the top 12 to 6 Curve ball that caught cleanly the bottom of the strike zone. That 12 to 6 hurt. I had been looking to T off on that one, and while I wouldn't have hit it out I don't think, anything is better than going down watching. Bottom of the 8th. I put in a new pitcher, and get some confidence back. He does well, and manages to keep the ball on the ground for three easy outs. Ok, 9th inning, Crunch time as they say. In comes the Closer to shut the door on me. First pitch is out well over the plate and I poke it into right field for a healthy little double. Alright, man in scoring position, no outs. I can get that man in. Three pitches and three swings later, I have one out. Come on guys, watch the ball, be the ball! First pitch is outside, well outside. I wisely watch it go past. The second pitch tries to sneak in the same pitch but over the strike zone. No sir, not today, not this game, not happening. I belt it hard into right field, it looks like it just might go, but it doesn't carry enough, and the right fielder catches it at the warning track. No worries I tag up my guy on second and get him to third easy. Damn these Rangers are fast. Alright two outs with a man on third, this is where dreams come to be born, or come to die, which path is it? Its a pop fly, to the center fielder. My dreams came to die. I sat there for a second, a little stunned. I started off so well, I thought maybe I was kind of cheating, or doing something. Then it was like I hit a brick wall. I shrug it off and think about what a nice story this will make on the feedback thread. I go to exit the game, and it crashes, or rather freezes and forces a restart. No, no no no no, no no! The frame comes crashing down not quite to the mooring mast, oh the huma...sorry wrong script. I remember seeing Gordo post in his roster updates that injuries, suspensions and trades, need to be turned off or else the game might crash or freeze. I clearly had these on. Though I do not have any of his rosters loaded, I assume that word of warning carries over to the mod itself as well. In short, I feel like the batting difficulty needs to be up'ed just a bit more, not by alot. The pitching is almost spot on, but I feel like it to could use a nudge in the harder direction. But all this is cancelled out by the freeze. Is there anyway to fix this issue? I badly need to leave injuries and the lot turned on, but I can't risk playing through a whole game to have it crash on exit. I wrote this a bit long winded because you had asked earlier, "but did I have fun?" Well its easy to say yes or no, but it doesn't convey the truth behind it, atleast not really. Sure I could have made this a simple cut and dry fix this tweak that, but again, there is no "fun" behind that. In this way, I feel like I can express the amount of fun I had with the ups and downs, clearly enough, that it might let you know, whether you need to do anything or not, regardless of what I felt might need to be tweaked. A few quick nit picks though, I've noticed the Batter Walk up music is loud, really really loud, and tends to drowned out the announcers and the crowd. I couldn't honestly say all of them, but it sure seemed like it. And the last thing, sometimes between innings some numbers will hang from the bar on the bottom of the screen. The one I saw I think would have been the speed of one of the base runners left on. As soon as it showed the box score, it went away, not a big deal, but something you might want to fix, or not. If I was unclear in anything please ask me to elaborate, but I will try another game either tonight, or later on during the day. I'm also going to try it with all the stuff turned off. If that prevents heartbreaking crashes at the end of the game, well then I'll have to settle for that until there is a way to fix that, if there even is a way. Of course, once its finished I will report back here to let you know what there is to know. If you want me to be less dramatic and more cut and dry, I can do that to.

Just a bit more feedback now that the game is wrapped up. Not about gameplay though. I'll admit, I like older music, 80's 70's and 60's are my wheel house, no matter the genre, I don't listen to much of the new stuff unless I'm hanging out with a younger crowd. I didn't think a soundtrack could get much better than MVP 05, there are alot of songs from it, that have been stuck in my head since the first time I heard them on this game. But you proved me wrong, it can get better. And it did get better with the music you guys put into MVP 15. Of course I love Eye of the Tiger, I'm a Rocky fan as well. But even the new stuff I dig, and right now I'm keying off on "Dangerous" by BIG DATA. Is it just me or does it seem like alot of new music has that 80's midi video game vibe to it? I mean one of the most memorable video game music moments I can remember is "Robocop 3" on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I must have rented that game a ton of times, and mostly just to listen to the title screen music. I mean damn is that my shit sir play it again. If you are to young to have rented this game, or just don't remember it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z754_a_aAHA you can thank me later. And yes the dude commenting on top is me. I don't know who picked the music out, but man, that is always icing on the cake to me. I love my music.

Oh yea, do all that you can for the pitching duel, it is after all half the game. I also agree that it is imperative that the player can still get ahead of a breaking ball, and in turn get behind on the heat. That is the glorious give and take that is the game that we love.

I like the idea of "throw this controller through a wall" challenge for MVP. While I haven't put the time in to make an accurate judgment on how it feels, my first impression was, this seems a bit easier than it had been. There isn't any need to put yourself in a personal bind in order to get this done immediately. We are not going anywhere anytime soon. But I would agree that this difficulty would be a nice All Star one, as the vanilla all star made pitching seem easier than it needed to be. I played a few quick innings in Exi and was getting hit left and right, which is good for me, it seems the pitching difficulty went up. While I'm one of those guys that doesn't want a "cheating" AI, I also don't want an AI with one arm tied behind its back. Though personally, I did enjoy the original camera zoom in batting more than the vanilla. I felt like I could see more of the field and that the pitcher wasn't right there on top of me. But that is personal preference and if you have found a balance between this view, and how fast the ball gets to the plate, I can learn to enjoy it. As I felt in vanilla I had no time at all to swing the bat, now even with a fastball, I now have a split second to decide to swing or not. Which just feels better to me than the vanilla did.

I am enjoying it yes. Thank you for the assistance.