Monday, September 7, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Mr. Consistency
New York Yankees shortstop and captain Derek Jeter is about to pass Lou Gehrig for the most hits all time as a Yankee. After getting a hit in the 8th inning of todays game against the Blue Jays, Jeter is just 6 hits away from being the all time Yankee hit leader.
Babe Ruth. Joe Dimaggio. Mickey Mantle. Titans of baseball history. Jeter currently has more hits than all of those legendary players, and he about to pass The Iron Horse himself, Lou Gerhig, whose career was cut short by the disease named after him. The most famous and winning franchise in all of sports history has had hundreds of players pass through its ranks, but only one Yankee player will ever attain 3000 hits, which Jeter will be able to achieve in the next 2 years if he stays healthy. And that, is the crux of this achievement: consistency.
Jeter has never been considered the best overall player in baseball. Although he hit very well from 1996-2000, during that time his hitting ability was somewhat overshadowed by Nomar Garciaparra from perrenial Yankees rival The Boston Red Sox, who hit .357 and .372 in consecutive seasons in 1999 and 2000. In 2001, Ichiro Suzuki came over from Japan an immediately became the best hitter in baseball - which he remains to this day - he is currently hitting .360.
His defensive skills, while certainly good enough to win him several gold gloves at shortstop, have never been considered by scouts and baseball statistics experts to be extraordinary. His baserunning abilities, while not flashy like base stealing experts Carl Crawford or Jose Reyes, are good enough for him to be a threat anytime he gets on: his caught stealing percentage is always below 20%, the cut off where the statistics dictate it is no longer profitable to steal. Beyond Jeter's physical skills are his often cited intagibles - the mental qualities that cant be quantified. From players to coaches to analysts, everyone agrees Jeter has these intangible winning qualities in spades, more so than perhaps any player that plays the game.
But what wraps all this ability and talent together into a Cooperstown worthy package is a singular quality: consistency. Derek Jeter takes the same approach to playing the game of baseball game in and game out, year in and year out. Whether he is 100% healthy, or playing hurt, whether its a meaningless game in late September or game 7 of the World Series, you know Jeter is going to bring total focus and intensity to every at bat and every play in the field.
Every single time in my entire life I have seen Jeter hit a routine ground ball out to an infielder, he runs with 100% effort down the first base line. I cant tell you how many extra hits he has gotten that way, and how many extra hits other players who dont run as hard miss out on by simply not playing the game correctly. You play to win the game. You play, to win - the game. Every single thing that you can do to help your team win, you do and you do it every single time. Its amazing to me how many extremely talented players - some even more talented than Jeter - I have seen that simply dont play baseball correctly, they simply dont play the game to win. They might be playing for stats or just trying to stay fresh or stay healthy, but they arent playing to win 100% of the time. Derek Jeter is one of the few players I have seen in my life that always, even if hes hurt, even if he doesnt have his A-game, he always plays the game of baseball to win. Thats why he is special, thats why he is different. Thats what makes him one of the very best players in the game, and one of the greatest of all time.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Muramasa Demon Blade: IGN Review
So IGN has posted their review of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and its extremely positive. Overall they give the Wii exclusive game an 8.9, calling it "a work of art," "stunning," and "one of the most beautiful games this generation on any console." They also praise the fast and fluid ninja combat, RPG elements and Super Metroid style exploration based 2D gameplay. Also of note, the developers decided to keep the original Japanese voice acting in the Western release rather than redo it in English, which is a welcome decision from my perspective. Overall, it looks like a must buy for Wii owners.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Trailer
This certainly looks more interesting than the 1st GTA IV DLC.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
God of War 1 & 2 Remastered for PS3
MD, you sir are one very lucky fellow. Not having played the original God of War 1 or 2 simply because you didnt own a PS2 or a backwards compatible PS3, you now have the chance to play a graphically superior version of the game on your PS3. The remastered version will run at 720P native, with 2x antialiasing, at a rock solid 60 frames per second. Apparently, the developers were going to upgrade some of the textures, but after looking at it closely and doing some tests, decided that the original textures looked good enough at 720P to keep them in there.
But really, resolution aside, how many current gen games really look as good as God of War 2 did on the PS2? Not many, in my experience. Textures and resolution only make up so much of a games visual impact, and for me, art design, framerate, and character animation are the top priorities. Although God of War 1 & 2 ran at 60FPS, the framerate wasnt locked and sometimes there would be slowdown or vertical sync issues - my only complaint about the game. That has all now been fixed, and the game will run perfectly and look beautiful.
The only thing left for gamers to whine about now about is the "kick in the balls" difficulty of the games, something personally I cherish and wouldnt want to see changed. Perhaps at the suggestion of some higher ups at Sony, the development team actually considered lowering the difficulty of certain sections, before laughing for a bit and spraypainting "fuck casual gamers" all over the box for the game.
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