Review Of MLB08 The Show Plus Our Five Winners

by JD Arney on Apr 1, 2008 9:21 AM EDT

Mlb08screen_medium

I have been playing MLB08 The Show now for a couple of weeks, and I'm honestly loving this game more than any other baseball game since ... I don't even know. Ken Griffey Jr. baseball for the Super Nintendo? It's been a really long time since I've enjoyed a baseball video game (unless you count OOTP, which is an entirely different animal in my mind).

I haven't gotten into online play or even franchise play yet (you might want to check out more in depth reviews for that) but I have been playing the Road to the Show format quite a bit, and it's a really good time seeing the incredibly detailed minor league stadiums and trying to advance your created player through the organization's minor league system. I also want to know that, incredibly, the announcers haven't been at all annoying, something that has always driven me crazy in the past. Even Madden has suffered from repetitive speech, but I haven't seen this as an issue in The Show (although it's possible I haven't played enough yet).

If you have a PS3 I'd definitely suggest picking this up.

Ok, on to our winners. The correct answer was 1466, and here are the email addresses of the people who came the closest without going over:

hurricanseason2001 [at] yahoo [dot] com

dnic24 [at] gmail [dot] com

sleuck [at] purdue [dot] edu

JHall [at] transy [dot] edu

jch24 [at ] hotmail [dot] com

If one of these addresses belongs to you send me your shipping info and I'll get your game mailed out tomorrow (want to get all the addresses together before heading to the post office so get them in quick if you can).

Nobody got the number exactly right, but stevo154 was the closest with a guess of 1465.

Thanks again for all the guesses everyone.

UPDATE: The Answers

The Reds lost more starts by Tom Browning than any other pitcher in the last 50 years. How many games did the Reds lose in which Browning was the starting pitcher during his career? (124)
Adam Dunn has homered in 218 games in his major league career. How many of those games have the Reds won? (131)
How many times has Ryan Freel stolen third base as a Red? (31)
How many games have the Reds played at GABP where the home team has not homered? (117)
What is the total number of runs scored by the Reds during the month of August since 2000? (1063)

I ran queries on my own computer against Retrosheet data for #3 and #5, but #5 should match Baseball-Reference (once they get their splits fixed). I don't know of anywhere that #3 can be found online, but I can post the raw data below if someone needs it. - Slyde

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Comments

Wow

No lie, I glanced over the categories and pulled my guess (1463) outta my arse. Always better to be lucky than good I say, since there's considerably less work involved. :)

by jch24 on Apr 1, 2008 9:25 AM EDT reply actions

Answers to each of the 5 questions.

I'd be interested in the individual answers to each of the 5 trivia questions. Thanks!

by rojosoto on Apr 1, 2008 9:26 AM EDT reply actions

I've added them to the post

The BBRef report on #4 does not match the number we were looking for because the report includes yesterday's game, which it shouldn't.

And for those not doing the math, the Reds are 131-87 when Adam Dunn homers. That means they are 325-431 when he does not homer. If that's not a sign of selfishness on his part, I don't know what is. Clearly he should homer every game so the Reds have a chance to win.

Don't talk back to Darth Vader or he'll getcha!

by Slyde on Apr 1, 2008 9:56 AM EDT up reply actions

Answers

I looked up answers to 4 & 5, but did a lot of guesstimating on 1-3. Applying the team winning percentage to Dunn's HR total obviously wasn't the way to go!

by rojosoto on Apr 1, 2008 11:48 AM EDT up reply actions

some more details

For fun, I looked up the Winning PCT of the Reds when some current Reds homer...
Dunn - 131-87 (.601)
Griffey - 116-64 (.644)
BP - 23-21 (.523)
EdE - 22-16 (.579)
Ross - 20-13 (.606)
LLM - 15-11 (.577)
Hatteberg - 14-9 (.609)
Castro - 17-8 (.680)
Freel - 16-4 (.800)
Gonzalez - 6-8 (.429)
Keppinger - 3-2 (.600)
Votto - 2-2 (.500)
Arroyo - 3-0 (1.000)
Hopper - 1-0 (1.000)

Clearly, Juan Castro and Ryan Freel are the key to the Reds offense.

If you are wondering why Josh Hamilton was traded, the Reds were just 8-10 in games that he homered. That ain't gonna cut it.

And if you still need more minutia - The Reds are 28-9 (.756) when both Griffey and Dunn homer in the same game. They should do that more often.

Don't talk back to Darth Vader or he'll getcha!

by Slyde on Apr 1, 2008 1:56 PM EDT up reply actions

now i can see why hamilton was traded....

i need to call wayne and apologize

"Never perfect but perfectly forgiven." -Petra

by shortstopv2 on Apr 1, 2008 9:05 PM EDT up reply actions

I hate myself

I got this exactly right (baseball-reference.com is god). However, in Excel I forgot to extend the SUM formula to include all the values! ARGH.
For Freel...I went to each year in his career, noticed a game where he stole a base, and clicked the game history and counted manually. Tedious yes, but best way I could think of.

by MReedy on Apr 1, 2008 11:51 AM EDT reply actions

Yes, that's one way to do it

I guess I meant there wasn't a way to find Freel's numbers without checking his gamelogs. Obviously all of these answers are available somewhere on the net, if you have the time to find them. That sucks that you put out all of that effort for nothing. Shit. I always do that. I always mess up some mundane detail.

Don't talk back to Darth Vader or he'll getcha!

by Slyde on Apr 1, 2008 12:01 PM EDT up reply actions

That

Should totally be your avatar.

by jch24 on Apr 1, 2008 1:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Damn you, Sean Foreman!

Apparently BB-ref needs a stolen base log like the home run log. My guestimations were incredibly close, except for the scoring in August which I looked up and got 1079. That put me over. I guess I added up the Augusts wrong.

by Red Menace on Apr 1, 2008 3:09 PM EDT reply actions

With Regard to MLB 08 The Show

Great game. It's eating up a ton of my free time. ;)

by Senor Pez on Apr 1, 2008 3:47 PM EDT reply actions

i thought the game given out was 2k8

if i had know it was the show i would have actually tried

"Never perfect but perfectly forgiven." -Petra

by shortstopv2 on Apr 1, 2008 9:06 PM EDT reply actions

But you did try.

And you won. You won a Wii.

Just click here.

by Fat Vegas Alan on Apr 1, 2008 9:42 PM EDT up reply actions

PSYCH!!!!

"Never perfect but perfectly forgiven." -Petra

by shortstopv2 on Apr 1, 2008 11:45 PM EDT up reply actions

Rankings?

What did everyone guess? When i saw the correct answer and saw I only missed it by 5 I thought alot of people must have gotten them all right.

"If I ever find a pitcher who has heat, a good curve, and a slider, I might seriously consider marrying him, or at least proposing." - Sparky Anderson

by bphil2b on Apr 1, 2008 11:03 PM EDT reply actions

I don't know what everyone answered (only the fine people at PriceWaterhouseCoopers know the count)

but were you 5 over? Because if you went over, you automatically lost.

Don't talk back to Darth Vader or he'll getcha!

by Slyde on Apr 2, 2008 8:24 AM EDT up reply actions

bphil

If I remember right you were sixth, the other five were all between 1462 and 1465.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. --Oscar Wilde

by JD Arney on Apr 2, 2008 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions

Thanks

I was just curious I actually already have the game. Was hoping it was 2k8.

"If I ever find a pitcher who has heat, a good curve, and a slider, I might seriously consider marrying him, or at least proposing." - Sparky Anderson

by bphil2b on Apr 2, 2008 9:49 PM EDT up reply actions