Virtually Reality

The 2009 baseball regular season does not begin for a few months, but in less than a week, you can play the sport yourself on a video game console near you.

On March 3rd, Sony will release MLB 09: The Show, their forth installment of a baseball video game based on the actual players and teams of major league baseball. Apparently there is enough to improve upon from the last edition that these franchises can continue to produce a game every single year and people will continue to buy them.

Similar to car manufacturers, the Madden NFL football video game brand releases versions a year early. The 2009 edition marks the twentieth in the Madden series, dating back to 1988. Brett Farve donned the cover of the game in a Green Bay Packers jersey, despite the fact that Farve played for the New York Jets in 2008.

Perhaps, Madden will display Farve in a Jets jersey this year, so that they can feel embarrassed again when he declares that he will be playing for the 49ers.

What these games have in common is their warped reality of sports. Baseball games do not usually end in scores of 33-1. Football players do not usually have three-hundred and twelve yards rushing with six touchdowns.

In this respect, video games are not usual. None of these games are real, but they represent real sports and give us the false hope that we might actually quarterback for the Vikings some day.

These games allow us the possibility of reaching perfection. They grant our wishes by indirectly stepping into the shoes of professional athletes. That is why people purchase such games. In fact, we become angry if that perfect image is not met. We complain to our television when the player makes a mistake, because it is never our fault.

Video games give us control of something that is usually out of our control, the ability to gather nine all-stars onto a baseball team and go undefeated in an entire 162-game season. In addition to that, we have the option of creating our own player.

Only under those circumstances would a 6'8" 208 lbs. shortstop named Tino Barfbag have incredible speed and power. He's got ninety home runs on the year, and has stolen two-hundred and eleven bases. Wouldn't that be something?