MLB The Show 23 celebrates the Negro Leagues’ triumph over adversity in new mode

Storyline mode highlights important part of baseball history

Marco Wutz | Feb 7, 2023

MLB The Show 23 celebrates the Negro Leagues’ triumph over adversity in new mode /

MLB The Show 23 will include a new Storyline mode that highlights the history of the Negro Leagues in baseball. Like most parts of life in the US from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, baseball was strictly segregated: black athletes were not allowed to compete with white players, which eventually led to the formation of several competitions for black baseball players – the Negro Leagues. Their history is another reminder of the long struggle towards equality in US society, containing many almost-forgotten icons of the sport.

Sony has worked with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to use the Storyline mode in MLB The Show 23 to highlight the careers of these athletes, letting players experience them through the game. Season 1 of the new game mode features chapters on eight of the biggest stars, who played in this era:

Leroy “Satchel” Paige: The Negro Leagues’ Brightest Star
Jackie Robinson: Baseball’s Greatest Pioneer
Andrew “Rube” Foster: The Father of Black Baseball
Hilton Smith: The Forgotten Star
Hank Thompson: Barrier Breaker
John Donaldson: The Great Barnstorming Showman
Martín Dihigo: El Maestro
John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil: A Leader of Men

Old-school poster highlighting a black baseball player. — Sony

In addition, Sony has committed to donate $1 for every sale of a MLB The Show 23 Collector’s Edition, Digital Deluxe Edition, and The Captain Edition until December 31, 2023, to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

The company also aims to include new chapters for this mode in future releases of MLB The Show, continuing the journey through this rich history.

In Storyline mode, gameplay highlighting important moments in the respective player’s career is intermixed with short informational videos narrated by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum’s president, Bob Kendrick.

Altogether, this looks like a fantastic initiative from the developers, using their platform to shine a light on the history of the sport they are portraying. Video games have proven to be an effective way to educate and entertain at the same time, making people interested in new topics and getting them started on researching them on their own.

MLB The Show 23 is set to release on March 28, 2023, on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

Published Feb 7, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg