Thinkcorps

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.