One of the problems with sports video games used to be that the better you got at them, the less they reflected reality. I am not sure if this is still the case. I’ve consciously made an effort to stay away from the Maddens and MVP Baseballs of the world because I know with those graphics I would get hopelessly addicted. The old games at least, when you got a handle on them, you could completely dominate with a great team, and then dominate with a good team, and then dominate with a mediocre team with a star player, and so on down the line until you could be winning championships with a team that went 2-14 in real life. At this point, it was time for a new game.
This past week there were some slight changes to our cable package, which I think Comcast refers to as their Clear Reception Deal. Previously we got CBS, Local Access, and a couple of Spanish channels. However, I noticed the other night, that I suddenly have ESPN2. Even though they were broadcasting a poker game, I made a very large note to self: Channel 65 equals ESPN2. For people that have all of the ESPNs, this is probably laughable, but for me, who hasn’t had any ESPN for over a year now, this was the great awakening.
The first few times I fired up the teevee (something I rarely did when I didn’t have ESPN) to see what was on, I didn’t get much. Poker, highlights from that incredibly boring Super Bowl when the Giants lost to the Ravens 5-2, flyfishing. Last night, though, after I took the dogs out and was headed towards bed, I stopped before passing the teevee and said, let’s just see what channel 65 has on.
It looked like highlights, they were showing big plays by Jarius Jackson and Kevin Durant from the Texas Tech-Texas game. Aw man, I thought to myself, that looks like it was a great game. The highlights went on and on, enough highlights for a post game wrap up, but you know what? It was only halftime! Finally lucky channel 65 had come through for me! I settled down to watch the second half of a tight Big Twelve basketball game.
Which brings me back to the gulf between video games and reality when a little expertise is aquired. Watching Kevin Durant was like seeing Barry Bonds the year he hit 73 homers. The kid was just unreal. Every time Texas Tech missed a shot, Durant got the rebound. He had twenty-three rebounds! Sometimes a guy will get hot in basketball, and you’ll just kind of ride the wave watching him, seeing how long he can keep it up before a few shots brick and he returns to normal. Well that didn’t happen last night. He was too good to believe, it was like there was somebody behind the controls who knew the game inside and out. I noticed a stat at the half, that he was shooting 7-17. He ended the game 15-29, and lot, if not most, of those were outside or heavily guarded shots. He had more points in the second half than the other team.
After the game I learned that had I been watching ESPN2 earlier, I could have also seen Greg Oden play, but Bambi was watching teevee at that point while I was busy beautifing this here website. If anybody is interested in using my old Bill Moyers Wordpress Template, let me know.