When Cubs pitcher Sean Marshall takes the mound, it’s personal.
Especially if he’s playing as his video game self anonymously online.
As MLB2K9 and MLB ’09: The Show hit store shelves this week, RedEye wondered if it’s as fun for major-league players to control virtual versions of themselves as it is for fans.
The answer is a resounding yes for Marshall, 26. He told RedEye one of the most exciting moments of his young career had nothing to do with strolling to the mound at historic Wrigley Field. It came when MLB2K7 appeared on video game consoles and he could toss virtual 93-mph fastballs as his cyber self.
“I was excited when I started playing and my face popped up in the game — it’s a real cool feeling,” Marshall said. “My brothers and I grew up playing the MLB and Madden games, so it was a bit of a dream come true.”
The left-hander loves to choose himself as the starting pitcher when he plays anonymously against strangers over the Xbox Live online service.
“I don’t tell people who I am because that could be weird. You know, they could start bugging me or sending me a lot of messages,” Marshall said. “I just play normally and try to beat them with myself.
“They have my delivery down pat, and they give me the same five pitches that I use in real life.”
The game characters’ close resemblance to their real-life counterparts is intentional, said Jonathan Rivera, producer for MLB2K9 publisher 2KSports.
“We’re trying to do a lot more with things like signature batting stances or the way a player steps into the batter box or trots the bases after a home run,” Rivera said. “We even have [Cubs pitcher Ryan] Dempster shaking his glove back and forth before he pitches.”
Not all major-leaguers are as pleased with their game version as Marshall. Some players even feel cyber-dissed.
Sox ace John Danks was looking forward to playing as his virtual self — until he saw his ratings in a previous game.
“I had real complaints about my talent level. It was like a 47 overall or something, and so when I pitched as myself, I got lit up bad,” Danks said. “So that was that.”
Nearly all baseball video games rank players from 1 to 99 in various categories and then assign them an overall rating.
Rivera said he hears complaints every year from players about their ratings.
Last season, San Francisco outfielder Fred Lewis and Washington pitcher Joel Hanrahan contacted 2KSports about what they considered inadequate abilities in MLB2K8. Lewis in particular was miffed his speed was rated 85.
“We did adjust his speed for this year,” Rivera said. “Not that every time a player complains we’re going to make him better. You have to have the stats to back it up.”
Or, players could take matters into their own hands, as Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija did in his days as a wide receiver for Notre Dame. He manually altered his ratings to 99 out of 100 in every category for the college football version of himself. He then easily rolled through an entire virtual season with this new superhuman Samardzija and rushed for 10,000 yards.
He quit football video games altogether after fumbling three times on a single possession during a game involving a hefty wager.
“I slammed my controller and broke it and quit,” Samardzija said. “In real life I would never do that, so doing it in a video game I can’t control is so frustrating.”
Even though his in-game player rating is a sky-high 87 in MLB2K9 after a breakout ’08, Sox slugger Carlos Quentin said he won’t suit up as Cyber Carlos.
“It’s great if fans want to use me in their game,” Quentin said, “but if I played, I definitely would use someone else.”
