Marlins’ Stanek, MLB giving fans ‘a little bit of baseball’ with video game tournament
The Playstation 4 arrived at his Tampa home a few days ago. The headset and webcam from Sony should be there this weekend.
Come Sunday, relief pitcher Ryne Stanek will join in the fun with 29 other players from around Major League Baseball.
Stanek is serving as the Miami Marlins’ representative in the first-ever MLB The Show Players League, a small dose of pseudo-baseball reality during a time when no baseball is actually happening. MLB shut down spring training just over four weeks ago, so while players take respite in their homes for who knows how long until baseball can resume, this is the next best way to provide an outlet of sports to their fans.
Charity is involved, too. MLB, the MLB Players Association and Sony Interactive Entertainment are doing $5,000 on behalf of each participating player to a Boys & Girls Club affiliate in their team’s community. The winner of the tournament will earn an additional $25,000 donation.
Games began Friday with the first set of six players taking their controllers and playing four three-inning games.
Stanek starts his virtual baseball season at 9 p.m. Sunday. His opponents on his opening day: the Toronto Blue Jays’ Bo Bichette, Chicago White Sox’s Lucas Giolito, the San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. and the New York Mets’ Jeff McNeil. All games will be live streamed on Stanek’s Twitch account ohpigsooie5 (a gamer tag he’s had since he was a teenager).
The league’s regular season is essentially a round-robin tournament, with everyone playing each other once. The eight players with the best records after playing all 29 opponents will advance to the postseason, which starts on April 30. Division and Championship series will be best-of-three matchups. The eventual World Series will be a best-of-five competition.
Stanek spoke with the Miami Herald about the players league, what he’s doing during the downtime and provided an update on his back injury that had him sidelined when spring training came to a halt.
How long have you been playing MLB The Show and how good would you say you are?
“I mean, honestly, I don’t really know. I feel like I’m decent. I don’t know. I’ve been mostly on shooters and stuff recently. I just got this year’s version of The Show a few days back, but I’ve play The Show every year before this. I think I’m decent, but I don’t know how I compare to all the other guys, though. That’ll be interesting to see.”
What team do you normally use when you play?
“Honestly, when I play online, I always do a diamond dynasty. It’s just like a hodgepodge of players from around the league. I never really stuck to one team or if I do a franchise, I do the fantasy draft. I never pick one team. I feel being in the big leagues and playing with one team is strange. To me, it’s weird. I try to play with hodgepodge teams. I like to build a team from the ground up. That’s by far my favorite part of The Show.”
With no live games going on, how does it feel having some sort of competitive baseball and giving fans something to tune into?
“I think it’ll be a great way to interact with fans and with each other and do something that’s fun and light and not so serious as compared to everything else that’s going on around us. I think this is a good outlet for people to hang out and watch us play. You get a little bit of baseball in your life instead of watching re-runs or anything. You get a chance to see everyone’s personalities. You get to see a lot about us in these situations and with the interactions. It’s as good as we can get considering the circumstances.”
How are you streaming? Do you have a Twitch account?
“I have a Twitch account but I’ve never actually streamed. My Twitch account is ohpigsooie5. It’s the same gamer tag that I’ve had since I was like 16. But I’ve never actually streamed, so it’ll be pretty interesting to get on there and actually do that for once. I’ve watched a lot of gaming like that, but I’ve never done it myself.”
What has this last month been like for you? In a normal world, you should be in your third week of the season right now.
“It’s been tough not playing and not being around the team and the baseball world. It’s been tough, but like I said, with the circumstances being what they are, you make the best of it. You find things to do around the house. For me personally, being a little banged up when this thing all kind of got put on hold, I’ve been working really hard doing my rehab and getting my body back in shape to be ready for when the season does end up kicking off. It’s just trying to take everything one day at a time, one session, one meal, one whatever at a time. Stay locked in and be ready at a moment’s notice when we do get the OK to play.”
I was going to ask you about the back injury. Sounds like everything is progressing how you want?
“Yeah, I think so. I didn’t really know how long it would be and with all this going on, it gives a little bit less of a time crunch to get ready to go at a certain date. It just makes everything a little more ‘Take your time, do it right. Make sure everything gets done right.’ You don’t have any push behind you to go faster, and that’s usually coming from yourself. Very rarely does anybody not want to play. I definitely wanted to not be in this situation. I’m trying to do everything I can to being ready to go.”
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