2013 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives

October 17, 2013: Which Superhero is the Best Baseball Player?

Sports stars are often referred to in superheroic terms, but which superhero would make the best baseball player? Sports Illustrated are asking that very question by examining characters from both DC Comics and Marvel using a scientific method to study each superhero's playing abilities.

    To the best of my ability, I've ported the superpowers of 100 of the biggest names in comic books into the hyper-specific sub-ratings of baseball simulator Out of the Park Baseball, simulated a 162 game season, and examined the sabermetric output.

    OOTP is a text-based game that simulates a general manager's experience by assigning each player a ton of ratings, covering everything from the obvious (power, average), to the obscure (BABIP tendencies), to the intangible (work ethic). The game creates shockingly realistic scenarios that have the feel of a genuine alternate reality, thanks to the game's advanced detail and career-progression engine.

    Rather than simply assign one-to-one equivalencies between certain powers and certain traits, I tried to ask, with each player, "what would really happen if he or she tried to play baseball?" So, for instance, the Flash has great pitch recognition because he can slow down time. But so too do the telepaths, who can anticipate the future pitch, the Kryptotians, who can perceive life at a molecular level, and Cyclops, with his mutated spatial awareness. The Flash family (all four of them) are top base-stealers, but so are the teleporters on the X-Men.

Baseball

Check out the complete first article in the Sports Illustrated 2-part examination of superheroes in Baseball.



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