With the NBA playoffs heading down the toilet, and as we begin the transition to baseball, we asked ourselves a simple question.
Is there anyone from the original Nintendo RBI Baseball video game still playing in the majors? That would mean they would have had at least a decent year or two before the game came out in 1988 in order to be featured in it, and still be actively playing almost 20 years later.
As it turns out, almost unbelievably, the answer is yes. Of the 160 players that appeared in the game, Julio Franco is still playing and Roger Clemens will soon be up with the Yankees.
This is the original TV commercial for RBI baseball that came out in 1988. If you're not too distracted by the Tron-like graphics, you'll hear that the game allows you to "throw heat like Clemens."
Just to put this in perspective, three players from the original game - Kirby Puckett, Jose Uribe and Donnie Moore - are dead. Also, Vince "Firecracker" Coleman is referred to in the commercial, along with some other guy we've never heard of who is told to "swing for the fences." He must have been some player.
And just in case you wanna kill some time, or relive the days of Wally Joyner, here's the game in all its original glory.
-WCK
UPDATE: We have confirmed that it's "Let Gibson swing for the fences." It's garbled, but it is indeed referring to Kirk Gibson.
16 comments:
The only person that "Vincent" might be is Bo Jackson. His real name is Vincent Edward Jackson, and he hit 25 HR in 1988. This is all thanks to Baseball-reference.com
Vince Coleman is just that, Vince Coleman, the St. Louis Cardinals speedster.
No Barry Bonds?
Barry Bonds is in there, his head is just too small to notice him.
Long live TENGEN
I think he says (Kirk) Gibson swings for the fences.
Had Bonds withdrawn from the union's marketing contract at that point?
Just so everyone knows, we were sure to check for Bonds. The Pirates weren't in the game and Bonds wasn't on the NL all-star team in the game either.
Wasn't Greg Maddux in that game too?
No, Maddux wasn't. It's possible you could be thinking of the Arcade version. There was an arcade version of the game that included all-time great teams, such as the A's and Yankees. The arcade version had more players. We went strictly by the NES version.
Ahh, I love these commercials. Cheesetastic.
That does sound like he said Kirk "I Don't Believe What I Just Saw" Gibson.
Nice! I posted about this for The Big Lead a few weeks ago. The definitive site for all things RBI is undoubtedly http://dee-nee.com
Bruce Hurst was my fav. pitching from RBI baseball, but that Twins teams was stacked, Gaetti and Hrbek could swing the stick.
they're not saying "Vincent". They're saying "Gibson", as in Kirk Gibson.
Also, 160 players appeared in the game, not over 200. 16 players per team, 10 teams.
My favorites were Fernando Valenzula and Brett Saberahgen... those guys were awesome becuase they were pitchers and could go yard pretty easy. By the way, anyone remember Dusty Diamonds all star softball?? Diablo....LOL
Vince Coleman was GREAT!
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