Need a Baseball Fix during COVID-19? Video Games!

Ok, I gotta admit I miss sports. It has been over a week since the sports world, and really the United States of America for that matter stopped in its collective tracks to access the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Everything has shut down from businesses to schools to Mom & Pop shops, and of course sports. We don’t know when Major League Baseball will return to the scene, especially after the Centers for Disease Control made its recommendation that no public gatherings of 50 or more people be allowed for at least eight weeks which takes us until mid-May.

And if you listen to many baseball insiders, the reality is we may not see competitive baseball at any level until June.

So what to do? Well, I think this is pretty obvious.  If you need a sports binge you can do a few things: go to YouTube and binge on old games, watch sports movies, or pull out PS4 and play video games … MLB the Show 20 is out ya’ know.

Or you could download one of the many sports games to your phone like MLB 9 Innings 20. 

Got it! Downloaded it! Yeah, it’s a lot of gigs, but I needed a baseball fix, and played an exhibition between the New York Mets and Oakland Athletics at Citi Field. Here’s what happened.

Jacob deGrom dominated, tossing eight innings of three hit ball, striking out 15 batters. At one point deGrom carried a perfect game into the fifth inning before giving up a single to Matt Chapman with one out in the top of the fifth.

Offensively, the Mets got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Pete Alonso crushed a Mike Fiers pitch … (that’s right, the whistleblower Mike Fiers) … to deep center for a two-run homer.

Leading 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Jeff McNeil led off with a single, before Alonso doubled to move McNeil to third. Michael Conforto slapped a Fires pitch down the left field line to plate both runners to make it 4-1 Mets.

After striking out two batters in the eighth, deGrom’s stamina is low, so I have to substitute him for the ninth inning.

Who do I bring in? Yeah, I’m not bringing in Edwin Diaz; I don’t want to lose my first game doing this. In comes Seth Lugo for a 1, 2, 3 ninth inning.

Mets win 4-1.

Record: 1 – 0.

It’s a video game. It isn’t real. But it felt nice to have a little baseball in my hands for 45 minutes or so after diner.