Videogames and Baseball Hit a New Stride

Posted by Gregory McDougal on 04.03.2009

Looks like two of America's two favorite past times are meeting again in various ways.

Baseball and video game fans alike can now test their skills even as they support their favorite players from their ballpark seats. The "New York Yankee's" $1.5 billion stadium features luxury suites that come with a Playstation 3.

That's not the only stadium that shows video games some love either. The Nationals Park, which is home to the "Washington Nationals," includes a 3,700 square foot Playstation Pavillion, where people can enjoy sports and music games before and during games. The Pavillion is part of a larger partnership with Sony that includes stadium advertising and supplying broadcasting equipment.

Card collecting has been around as long as the baseball itself. "Topps" the baseball cardcompany has put a video game twist on the collectible cards by introducing "Topps 3D Live Baseall Cards." The appeal of these cards is when they are held in front of a computer's webcam, a three-dimensional avatar of the player appears on the screen. The avatar can be used to play pitching, batting and catching games with the keyboard.

Also, a group in Cuba is releasing the country's first home-grown baseball video game titled "MVP Cuba 1.0," which features players that have defected from Cuba to play in the United States. The names of the defected players like Jose Cantreras and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez are completely censored in Cuba and expunged from official memory. Their inclusion in this state sanctioned game could be a symbolic step for the country as well as video games.