Friday Starter is a weekly column of news and tidbits from the world of baseball video games—past and present, domestic and foreign.
Learning about some new voices
I knew that two new PA announcers were added to MLB The Show 25, bringing the total up to three and adding a lot more variety to the game sounds you hear across a Franchise Mode playthrough. You can actually choose which voice you want to hear in the settings menu before starting a game, which made me realize I didn’t know the name of the previous sole PA announcer. So who are these people?
Alex Miniak took over as the sole PA announcer for the series starting with MLB The Show 19, taking over for former Dodgers PA announcer Mike Carlucci. Alex has been the voice of the San Diego Padres since 2014, making him a natural fit as the local guy next to the devs at San Diego Studio. Alex is also the voice behind the cinematic at the start of the March to October mode, and for the Home Run Derby in-game. You can pay him to record a special message for $20 on Cameo, if you’d like.
You can hear him in this recording from last year’s game on my channel.
Renel Brooks-Moon was controversially let go as the San Francisco Giants PA announcer last year after two decades of work there. At the time of her hiring in 2000, Renel was the second female PA announcer in MLB history, after fellow San Francisco Giant Sherry Davis. The San Francisco Chronicle says Sony had already reached out to her two years ago about adding her voice to the game, and reconfirmed she was still in their plans after her unexpected firing, and will continue to record new names as needed going forward for updates and future titles.
You can hear her voice on this recording from my channel.
Adrienne Roberson has been the voice of the Baltimore Orioles since 2021. She received the call-up from the Bowie Baysox, where she had been PA announcer since 2004. Adrienne was interviewed by WBAL Radio about her role in the new The Show game. She explained there a bit about the process: She read over 2,000 names in total for the game, in sections of 50 at a time. She gave roughly the same timeline as Renel above: Sony reached out about two years ago, and work began last April in preparation for this year’s game.
You can hear her voice in-game in this recording from Sports Gaming Universe.
Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2025 update out on Monday
The 2025 rosters update is coming to Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2024-2025 on Monday, April 21st. Players will be added and removed to reflect the new rosters, with the usual-for-Konami select screen on launch letting you choose between the 2024 and 2025 versions of the game. Other new features in this update were discussed here a few weeks ago.
Hardball Retro’s Compendium is now an award winner
Derek Bain and John Racanelli’s book compiling baseball video games won one of this year’s Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Awards. I contributed a few screenshots, capsule reviews, and a page listing Japanese baseball video games for the book. Congrats to Derek and John!
New WBSC eBaseball Power Pros Instagram account
It’s nice to see promotion work is still going into the $1 online baseball game WBSC eBaseball Power Pros, more than two full years after release. New Instagram videos on their @wbscesport account introduce the controls and characters in the game, and they’re voiced by my internet acquaintance Robert Tomlinson, AKA dishnet34.
3D printers are cool
Thanks to my brother for this model he made and painted of Rusty from Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball for the Nintendo 3DS!
Encyclopedia Updates
Plenty more work has been going into the encyclopedia part of this site, though I haven’t been listing it in the weekly posts lately. My favorite addition this week is the new article for Dolucky no Kusayakiu, the Coca-Cola sponsored Super Famicom baseball game, including a scan of the box art and instruction manual. The manual’s got some great character illustrations, like this cool guy:
YouTube Viewing Guide
- “World Series, world tour: Rampage & Reggie Jackson Baseball” by Jeremy Parish. Jeremy continues walking through each Sega Master System game, including Reggie Jackson Baseball (or American Baseball as it was called in other regions, as the video shows). Jeremy does an incredibly professional job covering any type of game, and this video’s no exception.
- “Jackie Robinson: One Person Can Change the World” by Sony San Diego. This is basically a repackaging of the content from a previous game’s Negro League Storylines mode, but coming at a surprisingly politically-charged time for the memory of Jackie Robinson, it’s appreciated.
- “What Happened To MLB Showdown TCG?” by 983 Media. Not video game-related, but I still enjoyed this short documentary on MLB Showdown, an MLB-licensed trading card game I enjoyed as a kid. It’s like a very simple APBA Baseball with really nice-looking baseball cards.
Song of the Week
A Nippon Ham Fighters theme from 2009 written by the Hokkaido-born singer and one-quarter American, Miho Fukuhara.