Mace Thurman and his PSP…

Posted on 02. Jun, 2009 by Corey in All, Dayton Dragons Baseball, General Baseball.

In the real world, Dayton Dragons relief pitcher Mace Thurman is happy. However, in the fantasy world of videogame baseball, he was recently so upset that he asked for his release.
In his video game world, Thurman is a right handed shortstop who has become so frustrated at  not getting a promotion past Double-A that he asked his parent club to be released.  In the game, Thurman is a member of the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. Corpus Christi is only a short drive away from Mace’s actual home in Texas.
Some would say that Thurman is addicted to his PSP gaming system, and mainly the game, MLB The Show ’09.  Thurman can be found in the clubhouse or on the team bus with his eyes glued to this game, sucked in so much he thinks it is real.
A teammate of Thurman’s said, “It will be dead silent on the bus in the middle of the night driving home from a game, and all of the sudden you will hear Mace screaming at himself because he struck out.”
Another teammate added, “The team was trying to watch a movie and we had to ask the bus driver to turn the volume up because Mace was yelling and grunting with each at bat.  I had to sit back and laugh because he shows more emotion for that game than he does on the field.”
In this video game, Mace only controls his own character. The rest of the action is simulated.  He talked about how the virtual coach asks him to do certain things like sacrifice a runner to third, steal more bases, work on defense, etc.  Doing these things that the coach asks will earn Thurman points that he can use to better himself as a player in the game.
Although he is a very successful left handed pitcher in the Cincinnati Reds minor league system, he can live out his dream of playing shortstop in his fantasy world.  The only question is, which Mace Thurman will make it to the Major Leagues first?