Marcus Stroman has hit some major landmarks in his young career.
He was selected 22nd overall by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft. He led Team USA to its first World Baseball Classic championship in 2017 and was named the tournament MVP. He was the Blue Jays opening day starter in 2016, then named the winner of the MLB American League Pitcher’s Gold Glove Award a year later. Now he’s the cover boy of a video game as Stroman is featured on the exclusive Canadian cover for MLB The Show 18.
The Medford, N.Y. born pitcher didn’t grow up a huge gamer but has grown appreciation for the trade as the games have continued to evolve and as he’s found himself with more down time as a professional athlete.
This year’s game is pretty immersive as the new features include a dynamic and adaptive commentary experience, a batting stance creator, and an option to choose your archetype.
On a recent off day, I caught up with Stroman to talk on camera about his experience playing the video game version of himself in relation to playing in the actual show.
You can watch that video in full here:
But there are a couple of interesting responses Stroman gave that didn’t make the piece. We talked about the reality of the game allowing him to prepare for big league batters. We also talked about that despite the fact that the game had his patented “HDMH” moniker and current hairstyle, the game did not yet update with his Humboldt tribute on his New Era ball cap and why that was so important for him to do in real life.
His answers to those topics are in full below.
On if he uses ideas from at bats in the video game to prepare for real-life batters:
“It’s crazy to say, because I feel like I would never say that in the past years but these games are so accurate, probably, yes. You can probably pick up tidbits of going and seeing an opponent and seeing their swing against a certain opponent or you can pick up pitch sequences and your like ‘oh that actually might work in real life, I’m going to use that.’ It’s so accurate to the point you can pick up things to do in real life from an actual game.”
On if he prefers to pitch to contact to keep his pitch count low in the video game or tries to get strike outs with his wipeout slider:
“I don’t know. It’s whatever I’m feeling that day. It’s kind of like that whenever I show up to the park. I kind of just go with whatever I’m feeling that day. If I’m feeing like my stuff is going to play to contact and I’m going to get weak contact all day. If I feel like my slider is really good like you said and I got a little more juice on my four seamer, I might try and strike guys out. Baseball is such a sport man, sometimes it doesn’t make sense what will work so I just go out there and keep that mentality and compete, compete, compete.”
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On playing online versus other players on other teams:
“I’m not but some guys are. Baseball is like a family, man. Baseball is such a fraternity. Everyone’s got friends and family on different teams so everyone is connected. The online features make it very easy to play with guys on different teams and friends in a different clubhouse before the game and they do, it’s pretty special.”
On honouring the Humboldt Broncos on his hat:
“To wake up to hear and see that news. I can’t explain what I felt in my heart. Anyone who has played any type of sport has been on a bus late at night. Just to see how tragic that was, to see how many young lives were taken. Anything I could do just to show my love and respect for the Humboldt Broncos, the province of Saskatchewan and the whole country of Canada. Truly special. Just to go out there and put that on my hat and to raise money for a good cause just to let them know that we’re there for them and we know they are going through an extremely tough time. Obviously, the Blue Jays, the entire country of Canada, we’re they’re for them.”
On him and his friend Drake keeping the tragedy in the consciousness:
“I saw he did that. It was awesome. I think it something that hit the entire country of Canada so hard. Anything we can do to get around our community I’ll do that. I’ll continue to do that to raise awareness. I love seeing everyone come together for a very special cause.”
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