Tales From the Bargain Bin #23 - Ken Griffey Jr Presents Major League Baseball

[00:00:11] Hello and welcome to episode 23 of Tales From the Bargain Bin. I'm Bill Tucker and with me is a ultra distinguished, I'm gonna say now ultra distinguished, earlier I said just distinguished, we're gonna up the ante and say ultra distinguished gentlemen of leisure, the one and only Bobby Tucker. What's going on man? Take it down a notch. I'm sorry. I can't follow that up. Goodbye. I'm serious.

[00:00:40] And just in case you didn't see the title of this podcast before you clicked on it, we are talking about a not bargain bin game. This is not a game that I would consider bargain bin, but since the baseball season as of this release is right around the corner and I really, really, really want to talk about it. We are talking about Ken Griffey Jr presents Major League Baseball for the Super Nintendo. Uh, yeah. Uh huh.

[00:01:09] This game is great and this is a game that we had. I couldn't remember how we had acquired it Bobby, but you said this is one you actually asked for. Yes. This doesn't really qualify as a bargain bin game, but I don't know. It's the beginning of baseball season. Clicks are nice. Yes. Let's talk about Ken Griffey. In preparation for this, it might be a gamer looks at 40 first. I have a yingling light on standby. Oh, this. I don't know if you're allowed to have drinking on this. It's fine.

[00:01:39] That's fine. There's no problem with that. It's a left. It's a yingling light from leftover from the Super Bowl from a month ago. So, and it's not good, but, but I figured why not crack one open in baseball fashion? Uh, have a beer and some peanuts. I dig that. And, uh, and also other fashion, uh, in the athletic realm, I tried cupping for the first time yesterday. I don't know if you're aware of cupping.

[00:02:06] I remember this being a thing during the Olympics, a few Olympics a little ago. Isn't it like the suction thing that they put suction cups all over your back and, uh, but, and, uh, you're left behind with these purple circles all over your back. So I am all cupped up like an athlete with my beer and cups. I think I am more than prepared for this podcast. Yeah. Cause nothing says athletic, uh, athletic prowess.

[00:02:34] Then King Griffey jr presents major league baseball for Nintendo, uh, developed by software creations, uh, released to the system in 1994. There was a game boy version of this. It sure was released in 1997. Now I just, just have to see that on the screen, looking at me, but, uh, Bobby, you wanted this game. This is a game you wanted and you've always been a baseball fan. Yes. So we didn't grow up in a sports household per se. I think our father liked the giants, but I don't actually remember.

[00:03:04] Um, and I, you know, maybe like they watched some hockey, but you know, just casually, you know, um, like our mom and dad would go to MSG on dates when they were dating in the seventies. But as a household, there were no penance, there were no flags, nothing like that. So I was just flipping through cable TV in 1993. I think I was around the second grade or so first or second grade. And I just came across Yankees baseball and they were just playing a game and it was a

[00:03:33] game I could follow. And I just really took to it. And I, in classic kid fashion, I said to mom, I was like, I want to watch baseball. And mom was like, yeah, you don't want to watch baseball. And she didn't believe me. And then like the next day I was watching and she was like, Oh, Oh geez. He actually likes baseball. So when, uh, when I, either it was Christmas or birthday came up, I remember seeing ads for this game and a Nintendo power. I didn't even know who Ken Griffey jr. Was like that.

[00:04:00] That's how fresh all this was, but I wanted to play a baseball game. We had baseball for NES, like the classic one. Yep. And probably some other games that came in and out from borrowing from friends, but I wanted this game. It looked really fun and you can play as the teams, not the players, but the teams. And I said, I want to, you know, I want to play as the Yankees or the Rockies for some reason. I mean, Rockies and Yankees were like my two teams.

[00:04:26] And, uh, so yeah, sure enough, I got it for either birthday or Christmas. Uh, I played the heck out of it. And to this day, I still play emulators of it on a, on a, my PC, uh, just in passing just to kill like a 30 minutes or whatever. It's a very, like in some ways, as far as like baseball goes or baseball games, it's just, it hit like the pacing and fun of baseball, like perfectly.

[00:04:55] It's just, it's just so fun to pick up and play without being too ridiculous. Like some other games where like get powers and stuff. It's still very true baseball game, but it's not like MLB the show where you're managing rosters and stuff. Right. It's right. But the mechanics of it are just, and the speed of it are like perfect. I almost wish like real baseball was this fast paced, but it's not, I mean like the, you

[00:05:20] know, it, it, it cuts out all the fat, but it's, it's a fun game to get good at. You know, it's the epitome of an arcade sports game. And that's exactly what it is. Arcade sports at its finest. Yeah. And like you said, it is just realistic enough to where you don't feel like you're playing a, like a cartoon or, or a pastiche of a game. Like you like, like baseball simulator 2000, which was the other one we were going to do for this, for this. Yeah. I decided to talk about Ken Griffey jr. Yeah.

[00:05:49] Um, but like, but it's not like MLB the show where you have to like worry about the wind speed and like timing your, your, your throws. And I don't like playing sports games where I actually have to know the sport intimately in order to do it. Well, like I want to pretend like I'm a really good hockey player. I don't want to actually have to be a good hockey player to play my video game hockey game.

[00:06:16] Like with the stick motion and all that, like, I don't have to pretend to be a good baseball player to play baseball. And that's what Ken Griffey provides. It's, it's fast, it's fun and it's just exaggerated enough where it's, where it's just fun. I am actually in the midst of a season right now playing. It's a, it's a half, it's a half season on my steam deck on the emulator. And I am every once in a while when I get some time and I don't feel like doing anything

[00:06:46] else, I play a game with the Yankees and I just throw a game on and then it's, and I have some stats on my, my batters are all hitting 600. You know, like it's a, it's one of those games that is easy to pick up and easy to figure out, but still requires some skill to get good at. And it's, it strikes that beautiful balance. Yeah. Like you said, it's all the major league teams of the day are represented.

[00:07:16] The rosters are not though. So it has MLB license, but not MLB players association. Right. The names are great and they're all relate kind of sorted to the city in which the players are from. Of course, the only real player of course is Ken Griffey jr. himself. Yes. And because Nintendo and the Seattle Mariners of course had a very close relationship. The presidents of the, yeah, the president of the Nintendo owned the Seattle Mariners for the long time. I was going to say, they weren't they owners? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:45] That's a little window of time. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. So what was your team? So were you always playing as either the Rockies or the Yankees or were you doing that? Yeah. So my national league team was the Rockies and the Yankees are the American league team. Um, Yankees were always what turned me into baseball. So, and they, and even then in 93, 94, they were a good team, even in the video game they got, and they were to get better as the late nineties would show us.

[00:08:13] Uh, but, um, and then the Rockies I would play, uh, and that's just like child logic. I thought like the mountains were cool and the logo purple mountains were neat. And I was like, I don't like gravitate towards it and they're not as good in the, in, and they were brand new at the time. I didn't even know that they're a brand new team. Yep. Yeah. And that's, what's fun about this game because as a baseball fan, the Montreal expos are in this game, which is really fun.

[00:08:39] Uh, which are now the nationals, uh, the, the Florida, uh, the Tampa Bay is called the devil rays, which they got rid of the devil part. Now they're just called the rays today. And so it's like, there's a little time capsule in this thing too, which is really fun. But the Rockies were Rockies were a new team at the time. And so they weren't great in the game either. So it was more of a challenge to play as the Rockies, but the Yankees are like playing on easy mode. What are you gonna say? Oh, I was saying the, are the devil rays in this game? Cause I know the Florida Marlins are. Yeah.

[00:09:08] The Marlins and the rays. Yeah. Are the rays in this? Pretty sure. Yeah. All right. I'm looking through the list now, but all right. I trust you. I don't know because I know the Marlins and the Rockies came out in the same year. They were the, they were the expansion teams of the day. Yeah. And this was the first baseball game that had the two new expansion teams. And so I don't know if the devil, maybe there is in there. I could be wrong. Um, but yeah, no, I've, the rest of the teams are the ones that we all kind of know and love.

[00:09:37] I do like the fact that the, that the, the Montreal Expos are still there. Yeah. Kind of great. Are the Marlins is still a team? Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's where, that's where Jean Carlos Stanton came from. We, ah, yeah, the Mar, the Marlins are a glorified farm team. I don't mean mean, but it's just kind of like they'll pick up some good, you know, like drafts and then they'll end up playing for the Yankees or the Dodgers. That's kind of where we're at now in modern day baseball.

[00:10:06] So obviously the game is very simplified. Pitching follows the time on a tradition of arcade pitching, where you can control the path of the ball as it goes towards your, towards your opponent. Only pitching was that cool. I know if only pitching was that cool. Um, it has a lot of voices and some voice samples in there. The, uh, yeah, I'll throw some of those, uh, delightful samples in here. I'll do a little extra work for you. Just, just, just because, uh, the, the main thing.

[00:10:34] The theme that plays over your baseball game is awesome. Yeah. That may, it's one of the best like repetitive themes ever. Cause you listen to it nonstop through the entire game and it never gets boring. It never gets old. It's got that nice Oregon going. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, the, the, instead of the, uh, players, obviously the game featured fake, uh, players

[00:10:58] here on the Wikipedia, it tells you the themes for some of the, of the teams. So I'm going to go through it and see if you know what these different themes are. So the Braves are, uh, the brave, all the brave players are named after famous dance DJs. I didn't know that. I never played, I never played as the Braves in the game. So I guess they didn't pick up on that.

[00:11:25] The Baltimore Orioles pay tribute to Baltimore native John waters. Is that right? Yeah. For stands in for Cal Ripken jr. That's funny. B divine filling in for second baseman, Harold Reynolds. Oh, wow. Wow. B divine P flamingo. M trash show. Cry baby. Yeah. Uh, so that's the, the, if, so if you know anything about Baltimore, you know that the red socks contain members from the show. Cheers. Oh, cool. I didn't know that.

[00:11:56] That's crazy. I am. This is a game I've played a hundred times. Uh, the California angels have famous actors on their teams. You have Fred Astaire, H Bogart. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and Brando, Jay Dean. And as in 93 cause or 94, I was first, second grade. Yeah. I had none of this one over my head. It was all over my head. Totally. What's great about the Yankees. Maybe you're going to get to them. They're all like horror movie icons.

[00:12:23] So like, if I remember like, um, uh, damn it. Um, Bella Lugosi is a player. Um, and, um, uh, who's Frankenstein? I'm like blanking on Boris Karloff. Like they're all Karloff and Lugosi are on, on the Yankees. I love classic horror today, but at 93, I had no idea. I just thought the hitter's name was Lugosi.

[00:12:51] You're, you're, you're actually, you're actually a little backwards on that. That was the Rockies. The Rockies were the horror movies. Yeah. So Romero. Yes. You had Lugosi S King. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I didn't put any of that together until I was an adult. Like, um, yeah. Even got Tom Savini. T Savini is in, is a member of the Colorado Rockies. I think he's a pitcher. Yeah. Yeah. He's a middle relief pitcher. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:18] I remember using Savini, but all of that went over my head. And then, uh, yeah, yeah. I launch Chaney jr. I think it's one of them too, but, um, yeah. Yeah. Why the Rockies though? I don't even know why they picked them. No one. It's the weirdest thing. The Rockies are the famous neighbors. They, the, the Yankees were the nicknames of famous Yankees. So you had bomber. Bambino. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I remember. Those are the nicknames of famous Yankees. Mantle.

[00:13:48] I think so. Yeah. There's Mickey. He's, he bats fifth. Cause I play as a Yankee. So he bats fifth. I know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, uh, yeah. Anyway, that makes sense. It makes good sense. Some of them are random though. Like the Chicago white socks are former basketball players from St. John's university. That's really specific. St. John's university is not in Chicago. That's very specific. John's is in New York. So weird.

[00:14:17] That's very, uh, Cincinnati reds are writers. So you have B stoker. I Fleming. Oh, he dick. Cause reds. I think cause reading. Oh, I just caught. I think that's what they were going for. Oh God. Yeah. They're clever. They're clever. The Cleveland Indians are famous actresses and glamour girls. So a Margaret, a burn M Monroe and wood.

[00:14:46] So that's always fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, the Detroit tigers are Motown singers. I remember that. That's cool. It makes sense. Yes. A Franklin, G night. Oh, Redding. Oh, just red. Jay hooker. Jay Brown. So yeah, you go. Mm hmm. Nice. Let's see. That cartoon. Oh, the Houston Astros are cartoonists.

[00:15:12] So you have G Larson, W Eisner, uh, Jay Kandel, uh, B. Sorry. Uh, uh, B Edlund. Who's B Edlund? Oh, the tick. He's the guy who did the tech. The tech. Okay. You have our crumb. Nice. Robert crumb. Cool. Shortstop. He plays shortstop. Um, horny shortstop. Yeah. Fantastic.

[00:15:39] Uh, I don't just, I'm not gonna go through every single one of these, but, um, basically every, every player had a link to something, which was really cool. I think that's very, again, very, very clever. Yeah. If you don't have the players licenses, have fun with it. And that's, I always appreciate that. And they got the stadium and the team licenses, which is really fun for Super Nintendo. Yes. And the teams are actually pretty accurate. So what they looked like back in those days. Uh, the only other two I'll do are the Mets.

[00:16:08] The Mets are based off of punk rock pioneers from New York. Oh man. So Johnny Thunders, Joey Ramone, Tom Verlaine, A Vega, Lou Reed. Who's D Manitoba? Who's D Manitoba? Oh, a band called the Dictators? Oh, I don't know. They, they, they really dig in. Debra Harry. Debra Harry plays. From Blondie. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. That's that.

[00:16:36] I just wanted to do the Mets one cause it's a, cause it's New York based and related. Yes. Yeah. Well, the Ramones are from Queens. So, you know, that's, that makes sense to me. And of course the San Francisco Giants are members of the development team software creations because they were based out of San Francisco. Oh, is that right? Yeah. They're all the people who made the game naturally. Oh, that's always fun. Yeah. I always appreciate that in old games, you get like a pixelated, a bit map of like the

[00:17:06] developers. They always got giant glasses and bad hair. And I'm like, yep. Thanks, man. Thanks for making this game. Thanks for putting in the extra hours. Sim City used to do that. And I thought it was kind of neat, funny. Do you still play baseball video games of any type or stripe? This one. So you never, cause yeah, you're a big, cause you're a much bigger baseball fan than I am. I like it fine. But if I watch two games a year, that's probably a lot.

[00:17:37] You watch a lot of Yankee games. You are, you are a Yankee fan and you go to games and when you can. Yeah. So, so you never die, don't delve into video game baseball. Yeah. And sports games in general. Like I've always been casual. I mean, the, the most sports game I played, which was probably like Madden 2002 on the GameCube. I got good at that for some reason, but I, I never, yeah, I just don't really gravitate

[00:18:06] towards sports games. I watch Yankees and New Jersey Devils and that's enough. I got other things to do. That's enough, uh, uh, sports outlet for me. Uh, and I, and of course I, I enjoy major league soccer cause I played soccer as a kid, but I don't follow it extensively. I just sort of like an appreciative fancy for the New York Red Bulls. Um, but, uh, yeah, I, I, but I don't play too many sports games.

[00:18:34] I'm trying to think, uh, yeah. I, other than like Madden, that's kind of like where I fell off. Yeah. I fell off with Madden. I played Madden on the GameCube and I played a lot of NHL games over the years. I think the last NHL game I've purchased was 2010 for the PS three. Is that track somewhat sort of kind of, yeah, I guess so. It was on the PS three. Uh, and I, I stopped because they just got too complex. They are very complex.

[00:19:04] Too complex. I just want to sit down and play a fun game. I want to say I've tried playing Madden like maybe eight years ago. I think Brian and company had a copy of it. And like, this is what you said, like the way you throw the ball on your wrist and the wind. And it was like, no, this is too realistic. I just wanted to like go to the receiver, like in a video game. You know, I don't want to feel like I'm playing a real, uh, playing like a real player. You know, that's, that's, that's not the fun of it for me. Yeah. Yeah. I'm here.

[00:19:34] No, I'm listening. Sorry. I'm here. No, I agree with you. I just want to have the fun of playing the game. Um, also when it comes, when it comes to the game, there were different modes. You had a single player and a two player mode. You had a full season, half season or quarter season. If I remember correctly. So you could play like a 28 game season, a 70 something game season or a full one 22 or one 62. Rather. I played full one 62 seasons often. Yeah, I did too. And I'm pretty sure you did too. Yeah.

[00:20:03] Now, how did you do? Cause there was no save files. So you must've just waited till I was done with mine. Yes. And then started your own. And there was a time either what you or I, we left the, like the system on for like days. Like I kind of remember like the TV would be off, but the system was on like no one touched the super Nintendo. So I guess it was either your season or mine. And then we would just, you could, you had a video switcher.

[00:20:32] So yes, we could switch to other systems, but the super Nintendo was like off hands. Well, like what was happening? I can't remember the specifics, but I remember that being on for like a month. Oh my gosh. Are you kidding me? That's crazy. I think so. Yeah, I think so. Well, the games, the game, the save file is notoriously not great for King of Virginia presents evidently a lot of copies of the game had issues with save files. There was also an issue where home runs would reset, like all your character stats would

[00:21:01] reset after the all-star game. Um, there was a lot of why I wonder why that was. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was a, eventually a bug in the game that caused that to happen on occasion. Hmm. Um, I also remember that you could play an all-star game off the bat and you could do a home run derby. Yes. I would play the heck out of a home run derby. Oh, so fun. It's so fun. That's a fun, like arcade thing to do where like, all right, I got like 30 minutes. Let's just do this. Uh, and the all-star game was fun too.

[00:21:31] Everyone's just hitting home runs. So that was kind of fun. The manual for Ken Griffey Jr. presents major league baseball is amazing. I don't remember. It's amazing. Oh, you may still have it, Bobby. We still have manuals down there, right? Uh huh. We may still have it. I'm looking at it right now. Um, let me send you the link to this cause we had the technology. We have the power. There is actually a chat window in here. I'll need the internet to do this. Oh, you're not on the internet. Are you on your phone?

[00:22:01] That was a joke. That was a very bad joke. You could be on your phone. I don't know. No, no, I'm I have internet. Okay. Well, I don't know. Again, you could be on your phone. You're like, I don't want to go switching around. Well, I just sent you the, I wait, wait till you see this manual Bobby, because this is bringing back floods of memories to the point where I may just pass out. I may, I may just have an aneurysm from the memory flood that I am receiving from this manual.

[00:22:29] It was a 40 page manual. The first three or four pages of which is like the base, the history of baseball. It gives you the history of baseball. Uh, it's loading right now. Yeah. And I'm just trying to vamp for a little bit of time. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Oh, look at Ken Griffey. It's a nice look at Ken Griffey. I do remember the manual now. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yes. I remember these drawings. Oh, the birth of a national pastime.

[00:22:59] Yes. Ah, yes. Baseball begin. Cincinnati has a big upper body man with a handlebar mustache. And a tiny, tiny torso. Uh, for the audience, I love old baseball when they wear pajamas, basically. I love that era. I love the murders row Yankees. It's yeah, this, this speaks to me. Do yourself a favor. It speaks to me. I will link this in the, uh, in the show notes so you can easy access to it. But, um, the manual for Ken Griffey Jr. is amazing.

[00:23:29] The first three pages are full history of the game. Also has like a then and now section where it says like where the teams expanded and what they started and where they expanded to. It is a wonderful manual. And I loved how the background for a lot of these, there's just peanuts. Like they're, they're baseball peanuts, which are great. Yeah. This is just awesome. It is an amazing. Now I wish we had a visual component to this.

[00:23:59] See, we were just joking. We were saying like, I'll, when I, when I release this, I'll release a clip of us talking about the manual on Tik TOK and I'll have screenshots of the manual. I will use that as our, uh, as our thing. Yeah. It gives you information about every single team. Like it has like, like a half page little dossier on every single team. This is so well done. It's amazingly done. The manual is incredible. They don't put this much effort into these things anymore. No.

[00:24:28] They barely put that much effort into games. Nevermind the manual. Yeah. There's so much good artwork here. This is great. The artwork is fantastic. They had the peanuts. Informative. I'm trying to see what, for them that from Florida Marlins were, uh, it was their second season in 94. So there was not much of a, of a dossier for them because there's, there was only, they had only been the expansion Marlins began their second season in 1994.

[00:24:54] The Marlins early pursuit of top players through free agency of trades should please fans in South Florida. And with a roster comprised of experienced veterans and promising young players, the Marlins look able to continue building towards success in the near future. Mm. Cause they, cause now they're the Miami Marlins. Right? Well, I think they're still called Florida Marlins. Oh, okay. I thought they were Miami for a while. Well, they are Miami, but I, I don't know. I make that mistake a lot in sports where the Florida team is, I always called them the

[00:25:23] Miami, like the Panthers and hockey. I call them the Miami Panthers and that's wrong. So, so I don't know what's right. Don't ask me. I'm not a good source on that one. That is fine. And I think you're right. The rays are not in this game. I thought they're not. Yeah. I didn't think so. That's wild. Even a little, have a biography of King of the junior stats. Nice. They even have a little, little thing about the, uh, the, uh, the umpire. Yeah.

[00:25:53] We have those, a real umpire. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Steve Palermo. That's awesome. Listen, Bobby, you know, you've put way too much effort into your video game manual. Two yahoos, 25 years later, I spent 10 minutes talking about it and your manual has a bibliography at the end. When your manual has a bibliography. Yeah. You've gone above and beyond. They cited some sources. It's great.

[00:26:22] They've cited some sources. In the, in the manual. Yes, they did. They had to, they had to do it. I kind of remember that photo of Ken Griffey, like, I don't know, signing autographs for some reason in the bibliography. I don't know. I don't want to remember that photo, but it's so random. It's so random. Um, when this game came out, it had actually mixed reviews for the game. From video game outlets. Again, where there wasn't a ton of outlets back in them days, uh, electronic gaming monthly

[00:26:49] gave it a 6.6 out of 10, which isn't great. Uh, game pro, uh, highly heavily criticized the game's lack of realism, which I think is a good point. Actually. I think it's a boon, uh, citing fictitious players, inaccurate ballparks, inability to adjust defense, stylize player sprites, and the ability to control the ball. Even after it leaves the pitcher's hand. All of these are good. I don't know what the reviewer for game pro was looking for.

[00:27:17] I guess they were looking for more simulation. Yeah. Yeah. Real baseball. I guess. I think all those things are fantastic. Yeah. Um, and that in time though, this game is like, I think people adore it. Yes. And, uh, that's kind of when we were discussing doing this, I'm like, I, I think today it has not even just a cult status. Like even mainstream media says like, this is one of the best baseball games ever made, at least in the top 20.

[00:27:46] And, um, and like that, I found that bleacher report article or like, yeah, it was in the top 10 for them. Like, that's pretty cool. Yep. I'm looking through it right now. See where it ranked five. Maybe five. I think you're right. Yeah. I think it was five. Yep. Five. That's it. Hey, out of all the baseball games ever made, a lot of baseball games, there are a lot of baseball systems for a lot of, yeah. I mean, I think they were making baseball games for Atari.

[00:28:12] I think they made baseball games for like, you know, Coleco vision or Commodore 64. As long as there've been video games or been baseball games, cause baseball's one of the oldest sports in the country. So there's, it's a very easy synthesis to like, how do we make a baseball game? Yeah. It was also a big seller for the system. It sold 750,000 copies. That's big. 1994. It's a big seller and ultimately sold 1.2 million units. Anything over a million is a huge hit. Especially then. Yeah. Especially then.

[00:28:42] So yeah, it was a big hit. Hence, this is not really a bargain basement game or no, but it is like, it may not be as known as like the bigger baseball games that people tend to talk about. Yeah. I don't have too many people go on about it. Um, but we have a special history to this game cause I think that soundtrack played in the basement for many years. I think anyone with an ear shot actually knows, I think our sister knows that song, but she didn't realize she knows that song.

[00:29:11] You might have to play it for her. Hey Lindsay, does this ring a bell for you? And she's like, oh my God. Yeah. It really should do that. Might be like a muscle memory thing. It might be. I, I still, I still try to make sure I say foul. Foul. Yeah. I know. Foul ball. Foul. Steerack. Uh huh. I still do too. Of course. Yeah. Uh, Kangaroo Jr. Was it great? I remember cause I think I shared this on a different episode.

[00:29:41] I forget at one point, but I was really into baseball on the Nintendo. As you said before earlier, we had black box baseball. Yeah. And that game is not great. I mean, I tried to play it like relatively recently and oh boy, it's not aged well. It's rough. Yeah. But it's 1985, you know, baseball game. Yeah. And the problem was at that era, there was already better baseball games out like bases loaded

[00:30:08] in RBI baseball were much better within six months of the launch of the system. But black box baseball was one of the first games released with the Nintendo. And I used to play as team Y all the time. And I used to make my own seasons because there was no seasons. There was just games. I vaguely remember this. So I had binders and binders of notes where I would track the standings and track the players

[00:30:37] and track their RBIs and their home run totals. And there, I would track it all by hand in these, these large tomes that I would just have. And I would play full seasons of baseball and make a playoffs, a playoff bracket. And when I saw that Ken Griffey Jr. did all of that for me, it was amazing. It was like, yeah, I can just play a season and not have to write in my notebooks and do

[00:31:04] all my calculations for batting average. And I don't think I calculated batting average. That would have been a little much, but definitely home runs and RBIs. Yeah, definitely that. That's in the spirit of actual, like, um, watching baseball though. There are older fans who will, who will follow the score with a pencil and paper. Yes. And that's just an old school way of just like keeping track of baseball. Like they've got this scoreboard and everything. You don't have to do that.

[00:31:32] But if you want a little golf pencil and a pad, like you, they still have those at the stadiums. Can you really? Oh, wow. That's great. Yeah. You'll find an older guy of a certain age. You'll see them writing it down as the game goes on. Oh, that's cool. Cause back in the day, like that's how you kept track of the game, you know? Yeah. Scorecards. Yeah. Scorecard. Yeah. So that's kind of in the spirit of the sport. Yeah. I'm very proud of you to actually attempt to do that in your own way with a notebook. I did it in a notebook.

[00:32:00] And I, again, I used to keep track of it, had world series and playoffs. And again, the baseball game had maybe I think six or eight teams. I don't think it had, they were just C D A Y. There was letters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Corresponding to like the Cubs, the athletics, the Yankees. I think so. That was the goal. Cause the colors of the uniforms matched that. Yeah. But again, they had no licensing of any sort. So yeah, I always played as team. Why? And that was my team. Go. Why? Go.

[00:32:31] Any other thoughts on Ken Griffey jr presents major league baseball? I, it's a game I love and I, I'm glad that emulation exists so I can still play a season of it while my son bounces around trampoline parks and I watch him. I get to sit there and play Ken Griffey jr. You play, you play on your steam deck. I sure do. That's awesome. Great. Yeah. Yeah. It's super fun to pick up and just play a single game. It's still to this day. I think it really works. I'm curious about the game boy version.

[00:33:01] I never knew it existed until like a year ago. And I'm like, I'm kind of curious what that's like, but you don't really need that anymore. Cause you can just play the whole game on a steam deck like you're doing. Yeah. Um, but also like the mechanic, like the pitching is one thing getting good at pitching is as important to anything in this game. Yeah. But learning how to hit, there's like a timing mechanic to it that like, I can't explain it. You just want to get good at it. It becomes its own challenge of how to like, how do you hit more home runs?

[00:33:31] Uh, it's really dependent on whether like the pitcher gets tired and stuff. And then you capitalize that like real baseball. And, um, that's how it's really, that's where it becomes very roster based, especially in the season, uh, uh, management. Yep. But, uh, other than that, like you don't really need to know all that learning how to steal bases is helpful, but you might actually get more outs than actually still bases. If you get bad with that. And, uh, you can also get like tagged pretty easily if you're not quick on running back to base.

[00:34:01] So I don't even know if that matters, but you can, you can, you can lead off bases and, and steal all that's in the game. It's really fun. And catching, uh, fly balls. I've always found hard. Really? Well, you get used to it cause you, cause you, cause you can't do it. The camera backs out really fast. And then you have to find the X on the little map in the, in the HUD. Right. And I, sometimes you just don't have that, like that instinct to look down.

[00:34:27] Like you'll, you won't make it to the X and that's the trickier part. Sometimes. Um, once you get good at that, it's fine. But, uh, I, when I, when I haven't played in a while, I'm like just out, uh, fly balls are just flying past me. I'm like that. I'm like, it's fine when it comes to like grounders and like fast grounders, you know, like to short, because you really need to be able to react very quickly to those. And because you don't, there is no X for you to follow. You just have to know instinctively. Okay.

[00:34:55] The ball is going towards set second base. I, I'm assuming my shortstop is going to be the one I'm controlling to do this. And if you're wrong, then you are completely wrong. And now it's a double. Then you're just, you're just doomed. Uh, hitting is actually relatively straightforward. Um, but you still run to situations where I I'm, I'm getting strikeouts. Don't have them very often offensively. I mean, I was, if you have a player, uh, the pitchers would have three stats. I think they'd have control speed and an endurance, like how long they could stay in the game.

[00:35:24] And of course the starting pitcher has more endurance than a relief pitcher. Um, you are always better off with a pitcher with more control because then you can just bend that, bend that thing to the dugout and, and they would always swing on it. Yes. If you know how to make it curve before the base, it's an easy strike. Yeah. Yep. And, uh, the other thing too, I always remember is the opposing team. If you get a five, five run lead on the team, your, their pitchers gone. That's it. Yeah.

[00:35:55] Five run lead. That's like the trigger for the team, the game to say, all right, time for another pitcher. Yeah. So, and they always leave their pitchers in way too long. Uh huh. And so you always have a situation towards the end of the game where you can come back and start getting some dingers off the target pitcher. You always get an inning where you can capitalize, which is much like the spirit of real baseball. Yeah. Uh, you don't need to warm up a pitcher in order for them, you know, they don't think be warmed up or anything. They disappear. They disappear. Yeah. But, uh, yeah.

[00:36:24] And do you ever, um, like, uh, swap out hitters? They do bring them like, you can, but do you ever do that when you play the game? I've done it. I only do it if I'm playing with a DH or if I'm playing with, in the American league back in the American league had pitchers hitting. That was part of the strategy. If I was playing like as the Mets, for example, I would, if my, do my pitcher was tired and

[00:36:49] I knew they were coming up next inning, do I leave them in to then swap them out on the, on the, at the plate for a pinch hitter and then have the team game automatically say, okay, now you need a new pitcher for the next inning. Right. So I would do that on occasion in my current season. My, my DH was not doing well. So I have swapped out my DH and I think he's swapped back. But I'm a little weak at DH in a King or for junior.

[00:37:17] Um, and that's another time capsule there. Cause now the national league has a designated hitters. So that's all done. That's done. Yeah. Yeah. End of an hour. Well, you know, they're, they're trying to get to the speed of, of King or for junior presents because of the clock. The pitch clock is trying to make that happen. Let's get, let's get this game over with in two and a half hours. Games are actually 30 minutes shorter now, which is actually saving baseball.

[00:37:44] Um, yeah, pitch clock helps the bigger bases are helping that people are stealing more. Um, the inability to shift the way they used to for defense that that's a little more shaky. I'm not sure the rules about that one, but, uh, yeah, all these things are, uh, yeah, they're trying, they are trying to speed up baseball. There's also a delay. I swear, like when it's on Apple plus that like they cut out the middle stuff and it just seems faster when it's like broadcast to us and it's kind of, but it's done in real

[00:38:13] time because there's like a delay on the broadcast and they're just cutting stuff out, I think. And I, I was like, man, they really liked speeding this up for the home viewer. It's interesting how they do that. Yeah. Interesting. Indeed. Oh, I, while I do think something is lost when you take out the leisurely part of baseball, I completely understand it. Yeah. Why, why in a modern audience would want to sit through that? Like not all of us are, you know, eating peanuts and drinking beer. Yeah.

[00:38:41] So it's like, you know, but when you're there in person, you get to see all of that, including, you know, mulling it over in the dugout and all the stuff they do to waste time. Yeah. All the mind games. Mm hmm. Well, Bobby, I usually ask, I usually ask, does this go back in the bin or should this stay on the shelf? I think there's no need to even ask that question considering we're both playing it still 25, 30 years later, whatever it is. Yeah.

[00:39:09] It belongs on the top shelf up shelf indeed in some glass. Yes. As a matter of fact, if I found a real copy of this, like at a convention or something, and it was a decently priced, I would consider buying it and not even having a super Nintendo play it. Just to have it would be cool to have. I'm sure you have it in your bait in the basement of mom's house still. Yep. Sure. It's there somewhere, but I don't know if this guy is the kind of game that I think I played a ton of and I continue to play.

[00:39:38] And that's just proof that old games can last forever because good gameplay will always last. Yes. This game is great. That's why the other baseball game doesn't last. No. It's not. Because it's not good. Because it's not very good. Yeah. You know, sometimes nostalgia, you just can't, they can't go back home as they say. Yeah. Yeah. And you revisit an old game and you're like, ah, this is lost to time, but Ken Griffey

[00:40:06] Jr. presents baseball is not that game. It's a. No, it is not. It could be like a great mobile game for like your cell phone. That would be a really good mobile game. It actually would be. I think it would. Yeah. I think there is definitely room in the world for a mobile version of this game. Mm-hmm. Indeed. All right. Well, thank you very much for joining me on this look back at a not bargain bin game. But again, like I said, I, I just wanted to cover it because it was a formative game.

[00:40:34] Thank you for checking out this edition of tales from the bargain bin. If you like this nonsense, I got a lot of nonsense for you. Just go to a gamer looks at 44 zero.com. All of my nonsense is stored there. There are, there's a section that has all of our full podcast series that includes the final fantasy series, legend of Zelda series, earthbound and tales from the bargain bin. You can get those episodes in one playlist and binge them to your little heart's content. Uh, Bobby, thank you as always for joining me. Oh, thank you.

[00:41:05] And until next time, just be kind to yourselves and each other.