MLB The Show 23’s Negro Leagues mode is the best thing in sports video games

One of the most interesting niches in video gaming is sports. They’re tremendous sellers, huge money-makers, and yet they’re so taken for granted that nobody really talks about them the way they do a Resident Evil re-release, or Bethesda Softworks’ next RPG. You owe it your self to play the games if you’re a Game Pass subscriber and have an Xbox. MLB The Show 23’s outstanding Negro Leagues storylines mode. If you’re not a sports fan, it will teach you a necessary part of American history. And if you are a sports fan, it will tell you something you don’t know about the National Pastime.

As someone who considers himself an expert on segregated baseball history, I am able to speak this because Jackie Robinson was not the first player in Brooklyn Dodgers’ history. “Storylines,” the new historical re-creation mode that SIE San Diego Studio introduced for MLB The Show 23, begins with the eight stories of Black professional baseball players, forbidden from the National and American Leagues by the tacitly understood “gentleman’s agreement” that preceded Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947.

Satchel Paige is a well-known name in popular culture. This close-up allows you to see the man and to get started with the mode. You will gain a deeper understanding of the man who, from his youth flamethrowing to his senior years, was probably the most successful pitcher of all time. It closes out with the sui generis Martín Dihigo, national hero of Cuba, the most complete baseball player God has ever made, who played all nine positions on the diamond and excelled at every one of them.

The best part: We haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet. Josh Gibson is on his way, having once hit a clean ball out of Yankee Stadium. Buck Leonard, Gibson’s teammate, is probably not too far behind. And you can probably count on James “Cool Papa” Bell, too, who was so fast he could turn off the lights and be in bed under the covers before it was dark.

Baseball fans just celebrated Japan’s fifth World Baseball Classic. They’ve gotten to know dozens of stars from all nations and cultures and embraced their fandom as their own, because it elevates the sport as a whole. The interactive glimpse behind the segregated Major Leagues of 1920-1940 supports this ideal. My belief is that video games can be most effective when they allow players to learn something new about the game they’ve loved all their lives. That is exactly what it is. MLB The Show 23.