For at least a 10-year period from 1990-1999, there was no player in all of baseball that was more electrifying than Ken Griffey, Jr. So it makes sense that Sony Computer Entertainment and San Diego Studios selected “The Kid” to be the first non-active player to don the cover of the best-selling baseball sim, MLB The Show 17, this spring.
In the Spring of 2006, Sony and San Diego Studios released their first version of the MLB The Show franchise for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable (PSP) consoles, MLB 06: The Show.
David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox was the first athlete to grace the cover of the now best-selling baseball simulation franchise that brought you the ground-breaking Road to the Show game mode which allows you to fully customize your own virtual slugger and guide him from the MLB draft all the way to the majors and beyond.
Ken Griffey, Jr. becomes the first retired player to assume the cover of The Show, fresh off of his National Baseball Hall of Fame induction this past July. The decision to have Junior grace the cover was announced by San Diego Studios on Thursday, and has been met with rave reviews by fans thus far, including myself, an avid player of the game and a huge fan of The Kid while I was growing up in the 1990s.
The gaming company announced the news on Thursday with a picture of the new cover of MLB The Show 17, along with the headline: “A Legendary Game Needs a Legendary Cover”.
MLB The Show 17 comes to PS4 March 28, 2017! Say hello to cover athlete Ken Griffey Jr: https://t.co/nxAK0Lo1aP pic.twitter.com/kKQTxkBGE2
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) October 27, 2016
There is no word yet on any of the new features coming to MLB The Show 17, but Sony did release their standard pricing packages for the game, with one even including a baseball cap with the Major League Baseball logo on the front, with the batter donning Junior’s signature backward facing cap.
The Game will drop on March 28, 2017, just in time for the start of the 2017 Major League Baseball season, and Sony has in the past staggered the release of game-play specific details throughout the winter months, using live broadcasts hosted by the San Diego Studios developers and often giving away cool prizes to viewers.
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Stay tuned for more information as the winter rolls on, and follow MLB The Show on Twitter for the latest developments on MLB The Show 17.