New Sign Of Success
Seeing Yourself In A Video Game Means You've Made It
By Tony DeFazio

It's the bottom of the ninth and the Pirates trail the Cubs 4-3. The Bucs have two on and two out, with Jack Wilson due up. Wilson never gets out of the dugout, however. A pinch-hitter strolls to the plate. Its Wil Cordero, who places a line drive into the gap in right-center, scoring both runners and giving the Pirates a 5-4 victory. The manager looks like a genius.

If the above sounds like a scenario from two seasons ago, it sort of.

The manager in this case is not Lloyd McClendon, but Jack Wilson - the same Jack Wilson who plays shortstop for the Pirates. And the location is not PNC Park, but Wilson's living room. And the game is not baseball per se, its High Heat Major League Baseball, one of the most realistic video baseball games on the market. And the 2001 video-game version of Jack Wilson is a lot like the actual one who hit .223 as a rookie. Hence the pinch-hitter.

'It sucks - but I had to pinch hit for myself if I was going to win,' Wilson remembers, not all that fondly. 'I had to pinch-hit for myself when I was a rookie not just once, all the time. I hit .223 that season. My guy was pretty bad. I was pretty excited to see myself, too. It was kind of depressing how bad I was.'

Actually, Wilson's first experience as a video game baseball player was even more depressing.

'Yeah, I was a left-handed Dominican guy,' he says sheepishly.

What?

'Literally - I was Dominican and I batted lefty,' he explains. 'I mean, the little guy wore my number and the game's roster said 'Jack Wilson,' but my skin was dark and I was a lefty. That was a real bummer.'

Wilson surmises that the game - the name of which he cannot recall - confused him with Enrique Wilson, an infielder of Dominican descent who played for the Pirates the previous season.

Despite his character's early video-game troubles, seeing himself as a player in a realistic simulated baseball video game was a pretty special feeling.

'It was great. I mean, it is part of the dream in a way - you get to the big leagues, you get a baseball card, you get yourself into a video game,' Wilson explained, sitting at his locker as a weeknight game with the Expos was being rained out. 'When you're 25 years-old, like I am, you've probably been playing video games your whole life. So, yeah, it's really cool to actually be in one.'

Wilson's opinion is not uncommon in locker rooms across professional sports. Professional athletes love video games - especially sports games. An ESPN.com survey of video 'gamers' in the NBA found that 13 of 15 Detroit Pistons play video basketball regularly, and 10 of 15 Philadelphia 76ers consider themselves gamers.

Chris Mills, a forward for the Golden State Warriors, is part owner of 310 Motoring, an automobile-customizing shop in Los Angeles. Mills has a video game system set-up in his Cadillac Escalade. 310 Motoring estimates that 80% of the more than 100 professional athletes who have had their vehicles customized at 310 have had video game systems installed.

Many athletes play video-sports as a way to relax, yet still keep their competitive juices flowing. There is a lot of down time during portions of the season, especially when teams are on the road. New York Jets head coach Herman Edwards recently told ESPN that the video game craze among athletes can be a relief for coaches as well.

'When you go on the road during the season you don't worry about bed checks anymore because most guys are up in their rooms playing video games,' Edwards said.

Boxer Paul Spadafora plays video games to unwind when he is in his most intense training before fights. Before last year's victorious title-defense against Angel Manfredy, Spadafora unwound at a remote location with himself, his trainer, his chef and his Sony PlayStation.

'It's a good way to chill out and get away from the intensity,' Spadafora said.

Spadafora, in fact, would pit himself against Manfredy in the PlayStation version of the bout - with little success.

'I couldn't beat him, man, he was pummeling me,' he said, laughing. 'I was up late trying, too! It started to almost get kinda scary - I was thinking, Aw, man, I hope this doesn't happen.'

The PlayStation prediction didn't come to fruition - the real Spadafora defeated the real Manfredy in a close, but unanimous decision a few weeks after Spaddy's video game losing streak.

Playing the games is a part of everyday life for many pro athletes. Seeing themselves in the action is, well, just flat-out cool.

'A lot of my friends back home play baseball video games, and so do their kids. The kids think it's cool that they know someone in the video game,' said Pirates outfielder Adam Hyzdu. 'And it is kind of neat to be on a video game. I've been playing them my whole life, starting with Techmo Bowl (an early Nintendo football game) and you know who Jerry Rice and Joe Montana are, and you're being them in the game. So now it's cool that there's some little kid sitting somewhere being Adam Hyzdu.'

Pirates pitcher Joe Beimel agrees.

'Seeing myself in a video game was definitely a cool feeling,' says Beimel. 'I would even say that the video game thing was a little cooler for me than my first baseball card.'

Beimel is not sold on the games' realism, though.

'I'm a pretty good hitter in the video game,' he boasts. 'I usually jack one out of the park every now and then - I was pretty excited that the game was so obviously realistic.'

Beimel's remarks were made tongue-in-cheek, but he's actually a more-than-respectable .263 lifetime hitter. So maybe the game is fairly realistic?

'My nephew had me within a homer or two of Barry Bonds' single season record,' said a laughing Pokey Reese, owner of 41 lifetime dingers. 'He'd call me and tell me, 'Uncle Pokey, you hit three more last night.' So I'm not sure how realistic it can be.'

Pitcher Ryan Vogelsong, who has spent time with both the Pirates and their AAA affiliate in Nashville this season, can't vouch for the games' realism either - although he wishes one aspect of the game were a little less realistic.

'I had to do all kinds of different stuff just to get my character on the roster - he was on the inactive list,' Vogelsong says with a good-natured laugh. 'Its tough, man he's not good. I can control him pretty well and get guys out, but its tough because he's definitely not very good. I had to find ways to manipulate the game a little bit. But it's still cool to see yourself on there. It's funny to get a call from a friend telling me I gave up a 500-foot homer last night or something. It's a good laugh.'

Most baseball players stay away from games about their sport during the season - they get enough in-between the white lines from February to October. Currently, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf is the most popular game in at least three clubhouses - the Pirates, Expos, and the Nashville Sounds. Still, the lure of seeing oneself as a video game character is enough to make even an experienced and successful veteran curious.

'I don't play much, but I hear you guys talking about it, and I probably should check my guy out,' says outfielder Kenny Lofton. 'When you stop think about it, and all the kids who play it it does sound pretty cool.'