Archive for April, 2004

The Greatest of All Time?

April 19th, 2004  |  Published in Out Loud

I just picked up MVP 2004 (baseball) for ps2, and I was immediately reminded of something that I’d heard in the news awhile back—Barry Bonds handles his own rights, unlike the rest of the league, which does it through the league or the player’s association (maybe both), I forget. The point being, no Bonds (arguably the most popular player in baseball videogaming, since vids are going to naturally place more emphasis on home runs).

Obviously, Bonds’s replacement isn’t hard to find. I quickly found the anonymous (and generically white) Barry Bonds stand-in. He does have awesome stats, but it’s too bad. He doesn’t have any Barry-like qualities, probably on advice from the lawyers.

So my question is, can you be considered one of the greatest players of all time, if you’re not in any of the videogames? Each vid has a short lifespan, but Barry’s holdout could continue indefinitely, meaning he might not ever make it into even the ‘classic’ rosters in future editions. Kids of the future are going to know their baseball not from afternoons skipping school to spend at the park, but from afternoons skipping school to hang in the basement, playing games.

Teeth

April 22nd, 2004  |  Published in Out Loud

I just had a filling done and was recounting the experience (good) to my friend Chance. He said, “I’ve got to get some work done, too. One of my teeth has cracked from an old filling.” Surprised, I told him I had the same problem with two old fillings.

“Yeah,” Chance said, “who would have thought metal was harder than teeth?... I would have, actually.”

I laughed. Who came up with metal fillings anyway? And mercury before that? No wonder people hate the dentist. Sadistic little bastards.