Nintendo Greats, Vol. 1: RBI Baseball

I spent a lot of time thinking over the weekend what I should do with this blog, trying to decide if it should have a focus. After much consideration...how about ABSOLUTELY NOT. I've decided I'm just gonna write about what feels relevant to me at any particular moment. If I'm pissed about the Sonics and Clay Bennett, I'll document it. If I flip about my local newspaper writing absolute garbage fluff, I'll voice it. If I find video of what looks like my boy Ian trying to get his dunk on, I'll show it. It seems like that's what's gonna keep this fun. So while I'll try to link to basketball stories I find interesting on the daily, I'm basically gonna be random most of the time. Let today be the standing example, as I briefly discuss the video game that revolutionized sports video game play as I knew it and defined the Friday and Saturday nights of my childhood.

When I think of the late 1980's, I dream back to Boy's Club basketball, giving up homeruns as a mediocre little league pitcher, trying to sneak NWA and EPMD videos on Yo!MTV Raps and BET when my moms wasn't around, and trying to emulate Cru Jones in the greatest film ever made. But the majority of my hours were spent pressing the red A & B buttons...I was a die-hard Nintendo gamer. And while I remember the happiness I felt passing level 8-4 on Super Mario Brothers for the first time, and the constant adventure that was being Link in The Legend of Zelda, joy personified was battling my friends hour after hour in sports games, most notably the greatest game ever created: RBI Baseball.

As far as I’m concerned, it was/is the redefinition of the sports gaming genre, period. Before RBI, the most advanced sports games on the market were Nintendo Baseball, 10-Yard Fight, and…well, that was really it. What RBI brought to the party was not only better game play (pitcher-batter matchups with fastballs, curveballs, and the notorious Wakefield knuckling breaking ball), but was the first to include real MLB players. As a 8 or 9 year old, getting to be Roger Clemens (yes, he was playing 20 years ago), and go against your buddy who was Daryl Strawberry & the Mets…are you kidding me? Check out these rosters. Here’s a synopsis of my RBI team of choice, the Boston Red Sox, courtesy of the guys at Gantry’s RBI Baseball:

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The Starting Lineup

Name	Nicknames	Bats	Pos	Avg	HR	Pwr	Sp	Ct
Marty Barrett	Marty McFly	Right	2B	.286	4	735	134	16
Bill Buckner	Billy Buck	Left	1B	.292	18	789	118	14
Wade Boggs	The Wabbit	Left	3B	.357	8	789	128	4
Jim Rice	RBI	Right	LF	.324	20	891	126	10
Don Baylor	D.B. Sweeny	Right	RF	.263	31	924	136	29
Dwight Evans	The Silver Bullet	Right	CF	.259	26	891	122	27
Rich Gedman	Go Go Gedman!	Right	C	.274	16	861	120	21
Spike Owen	I Suck	Left	SS	.231	1	735	132	34

The Bench

Name	Nicknames	Bats	Avg.	HR	Pwr	Sp	Ct
Dave Henderson	Hendu	Right	.265	15	879	122	26
Tim Burks	Ellis	Right	.272	20	888	140	28
Tony Armas	Tits & Ass	Right	.264	43	918	118	28
Marc Sullivan	Stinky Sullivan	Right	.193	1	789	118	38

The Staff

Name	Nicknames	Arm	ERA	Sf	Sr	Ss	Cl	Cr	Dr	En
Roger Clemens	Rocket	Right	2.48	210	186	166	9	6	4	44
Bruce Hurst	The Worst	Left	2.99	192	181	169	4	5	9	40
Calvin Schiraldi	None	Right	1.41	200	184	173	5	3	2	15
Bob Stanley	The Steemer	Right	1.81	184	157	138	9	6	8	15

Team Synopsis, by Potsie

Boston is my team and I'm just about the only person who uses them. This is due to the fact that they have only one left handed batter and the Red Sox don't seem to show their full potential every game. Either Boston hits a s%#$load of home runs or only a couple; there is no happy medium. If you can't hit with right handed players, pick another team.

Pitching

You must start the game with the only good pitcher on this team: Roger Clemens. He has the second best fastball in the game and can usually give you about 7 strong innings. If he doesn't make it through the fifth, there is almost no chance of winning. After Clemens, put in Stanley who can usually pitch 2 or 3 good innings but can't go more than that. Hurst should only be used against lefties and only for less than 2 innings. Calvin Schiraldi sucks and should never be used.

The Lineup

1. Sub Armas for Barrett. Armas is one of the most powerful hitters in this game. He is one of the few batters capable of hitting 5 home runs but he is the slowest runner in the game. He is the only player who has hit into the 5 drink groundout. You might think that it would be stupid to put such a slow runner in the top of the order, but for some reason he hits ten times better in this spot.
   
   
2. Sub Burks for Bill Buckner. Ellis 'don't call me Tim' Burks is a powerful hitter and is the second fastest on the team next to Don Baylor. I've only used Bill Buckner in a few times and that was enough to tell me that he sucks.
   
   
3. Wade Anthony Boggs isn't the most powerful number three hitter in the game but he still has some pop in his bat. He averages about a home run and a single per game. Boggs is the only lefty on the team allowing him a chance for the lefty hit if a man is on first.
   
   
4. Jim 'RBI' Rice is the f#@$ing man. He is a much better hitter when there are runners on base, but he still very capable of hitting a solo shot. He, like most of the Red Sox players, is pretty slow but he makes up for it with power.
   
   
5. Don Baylor is the best player on this Boston. He is the fastest man on the team and the most powerful hitter; a lethal combination. He and Andre Dawson of the National League All Star team are the only two who have hit a center field home run over the score board and get an extra screen change.
   
   
6. Dwight Evans, who is the better of the two Evans (the other being Darrel of Detroit), has been on a tear lately. He has been good for 2 homers and about 4 rbis a game. He is definitely one of the most underrated players in the game.
   
   
7. Richie 'Go Go' Gedman is a powerful but very inconsistent hitter. He either hits all third base groundouts or all singles and homeruns. He is also extremely slow and on a good day can give Tony Armas a run for his money.
   
   
8. Sub Dave Henderson for the all mighty Spike Owen. Even though Owen's stats are extremely enticing, you must take him out. Henderson is capable of hitting multiple home runs and his first at bat home run percentage is one of the highest in the game for bench players.

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While I don't completely agree with his analysis, the level of depth and passion for each player is completely echoed in my gameplay. Spike Owen hasn't had an at-bat for me in about 15 years. Jim Rice has never disappointed, always comes through with the backbreaking dinger. And if I have to bring in either Schraldi or Stanley in relief, it may as well be a drunk Armando Benitez, because there's a 99.967% chance they'll blow the save, whether I'm up 3-2 or 10-2.

The situational play and strategy make the game amazing, and the superstar power: Reggie Jackson, Nolan Ryan, Straw, Will Clark, Kirby Puckett, Vince Coleman...are you kidding me? Sure, it was ridiculous that Japanese programmers followed the 1921 MLB protocol and made every player 5’8”, white, and about 225 lbs, but we’re dealing with an 8-bit game, so I really can’t complain. It was the glitches in the programming that also made the game phenomenal: bunting for a homerun, hitting line drive HRs through the left and right field walls, monumentous Reggie HRs that would fly completely off the screen when you hit them and must have traveled an estimated 900 feet...I could go on and on.

After probably having spent over 100 weekends of my life completely engaged in this game with friends, I will never grow tired of RBI. So much so that as recently as this past summer, negotiations began with 6 buddies to start either a money RBI league or super tournament. You can absolutely guarantee that once the date is made, you will be hearing all about it here. And as long as Clemens and Bruce Hurst can carry me through 9 strong innings, there’s not much question that I will be crowned undisputed champion.