The Best Play By Play In The Business
Diamond Mind Baseball is better than you think.
More Diamond Mind Play By Play
This is the third in our series of looking at good play by play examples in Diamond Mind Baseball.
To refresh your memory, this all started when I read Derek Bain’s Review of Diamond Mind Baseball. This paragraph caught my attention:
Bain is entitled to his opinion — but so am I. I don’t know if I’m well qualified to speak on this issue; I’ll let you be the judge of that.
I’ve collected numerous examples of excellent play by play here and here. I’ve also got a large collection of screenshots of good play by play to use here — 139 clips in all, and I haven’t even played through April 1949 yet.
Yeah, yeah, I know that Diamond Mind Baseball is a dead game. Still, the play by play here is simply amazing, and it deserves to be highlighted.
Also, please note that I’m using Jack Wood’s expanded play by play, which you can find here. This should be in the base game, but, well, you know how Dayne is…
And so, without any further ado, let’s get right down to it.
Park Specific Play By Play
I could make a full post just with examples of this. Here are some snippets:
This was from a game at Yankee Stadium, with about 3 outs left to go. The Yankees were ahead in this one.
And here’s one from across the bridge:
Now, I know that it’s not unusual to see references to the advertisement at Ebbets Field. Still, it’s cool to see the famous Bulova sign mentioned:
Looking for something a bit less obvious? How’s this from Forbes Field?
And here’s a DC-specific advertisement from Griffith Stadium:
Here’s one from Fenway:
That’s a pretty good explanation of how things have gone so far for the Boston Red Sox in this replay.
And here’s another one, with a reference so obscure that it was news to me:
I could go on. This stuff is great because of how descriptive it really is. I’m really not sure what Bain was looking at.
Phantom Calls
How about some calls that keep you awake? Here’s one:
Yeah, there’s a pretty big difference between a home run and a double. I’m not sure that Westlake even scored when all was said and done.
I feel like the game is just trolling me at this point. Even the most routine text can’t be trusted.
And then you’ve got your old fashioned bad calls:
Implicit Criticism
From time to time, the play by play man will criticize the players. And it can be quite hilarious.
The criticism in this one was a bit subtle and implicit. However, it can also be a lot more direct:
Yeah, .048 is so far away that the Menodza Line doesn’t even look like a line anymore.
For a game that supposedly doesn’t have very imaginative or descriptive play by play, this “pie thrower” comment was absolutely awesome.
Finally, this one is my favorite:
It makes me wonder how long it took for Jack Wood to come up with the “runaway beer truck” line. Classic.
Great Plays
Last but not least, let’s look at a few examples of great plays.
This is so much more descriptive than the normal “lineout to short, runner doubled off first” that I don’t really need to say much more. This is excellent commentary, and is better than what any other game I’ve tried has ever offered.
Again, this is much better than the normal “pop out to second baseman” that most second games would run in its place.
And how about this for a dramatic play?
Again, the imagery and description here is absolutely excellent. I’m kind of surprised that Trinkle’s shoulder was given the assist, by the way. It’s almost like a practical joke on the part of the official scorer.
Let’s look at one more:
You simply can’t get more descriptive than that.
Anyway, I’ll continue to post more of these from time to time. The really good ones are a bit rare. There are some examples of repetitive play by play, but it’s nowhere near as bad as Bain insinuates. And, of course, even the routine plays will throw you for a loop from time to time.