The Rockaway Wave
Originally published September 8, 2023
A lot of professional baseball players now, both in the majors but especially the minors, grew up playing video games. At this point, the industry has expanded so much that it’s now as much a part of the culture as any other form of entertainment.
Now, ballplayers from the generation who grew up on video games have a unique opportunity — to be in one.
Usually, players would have to wait until they reached the majors. However, MLB The Show, the most popular baseball video game in recent years, has changed that. Any player in a major league organization, including minor leaguers, can request a version of themselves in the game that only they can use.
“It’s pretty funny, I don’t even know how to describe it,” Kevin Parada said. “It’s weird because for so long you grow up, especially my age group of guys, playing The Show, playing with your favorite players. And then all of a sudden now I have one. And it’s with the hope and goal in a couple of years, then it’s gonna be a big league version of it, and it’s just, it’s pretty surreal.”
The feature, called Real 99, gives the player a 99-overall version of themselves to use in the game mode Diamond Dynasty. In this mode, you collect cards and build your team out of current, former and even future MLB players. For Parada, the Mets No. 5 prospect on MLB Pipeline and 2022 first-round pick, he can use himself at catcher.
Mateo Gil, who spent a few months with the Cyclones and is now currently in Double-A Binghamton, remembers the moment when he got his Real 99 card.
“It is really cool. I’ve played MLB The Show for a while, and I’ve always wanted that Real 99, and then some of my teammates with the Rockies, they got theirs, and they showed me how to get mine. And then I got mine, I was in Binghamton at the time and I got it. I was freaking out. I went to my roommate, it was Matt Rudick, I was like ‘Hey Rudi Rudi, look! I just got this new shortstop, look at him.’ And it was me, and so he was like ‘How can I get that?’ But yeah, it was really cool. They messed up the swing a little bit, but it’s fine.”
Ryan Clifford, the Mets No. 6 prospect who was recently acquired in the Justin Verlander trade, said he has also used it as a way to connect with fans.
“It’s cool to be able to interact with some fans after the games who might send me a DM or two,” Clifford said. “So it was pretty cool to be able to be in your own video game and kind of play as yourself.”
Jacob Reimer, the Mets No. 13 prospect, is one of those players who grew up playing video games, especially MLB The Show.
“It’s sick, I’ve been playing that game forever,” Reimer said. “I’ve been on Diamond Dynasty for the last like seven years, playing that, so to now have my own card on my team, it’s sick.”
Players will also play each other in their downtime. Reimer said he often plays D’Andre Smith, another Cyclone. Smith said plays a lot with Rhylan Thomas, his former teammate at USC and in Brooklyn.
“It’s cool,” Smith said. “Rhylan actually got me this morning, we played against each other, and he beat me this morning, but you know, we’ve played against each other every day. I play that game a little too much probably. It’s fun.”
As expected, it’s also an avenue for a staple in both sports and video games — trash talk.
Parada, who went to big league spring training this year, said he would give some of the other guys crap all the time, like when he’d fly out to the warning track with someone in the game because they didn’t have enough power on their card.
Christian Scott, the Mets No. 12 prospect who played for the Cyclones earlier in the season and is now also in Double-A, has experienced that while playing with his friends when they use his card.
“If they give up a home run then they blame it on me,” Scott said. “It’s nice to be able to go out there. It’s my repertoire, it’s what I throw, so it’s cool to be able to see that and go out and play video games with it as well.”
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