New York, NY – May 5, 2010 – 2K Sports announced today that 24-year-old Wade McGilberry of Semmes, Alabama has won an unprecedented cash prize in the amount of $1,000,000 by being the first person to throw a verified perfect game in Major League Baseball® 2K10, the latest iteration of the popular Major League Baseball® 2K series.

Personally, I prefer The Show franchise. But I think this was great marketing for 2K. Congratulations, Wade.

Then a venerable blind squirrel came out to find a nut before the sun would set. This is a good reminder: Baseball is a game about percentages and lots of discrete events. In a small sample size, anything can happen. Today was a triumph of the small sample size. Mediocre has-beens do hit a few home runs, after all.

The other side of the statistics is that over a large sample size, we get more predictable results. Rich Aurilia is hitting about .200. The Giants are only one game over .500. Baseball Prospectus puts the odds of them making the postseason at about 9%. Sounds about right.

Good idea. Nothing wrong with trying to address a weakness, and believe me, the local team has a weakness. (Giants : Offense :: Achilles : Heel). The question becomes what you’re willing to give up. Sabean is willing to give up a piece of the team’s future for a better chance to win today. Nothing wrong with this exchange either. If the improvement today has a chance to make a difference, that is. Last I checked, Baseball Prospectus put the odds of the Giants making the playoffs at about 4%.

What is the Giants goal? Rebuild. Get younger. Get experience to prepare for competitive runs in the next couple years while waiting for a group of promising players come up from the minors.

What is the general manager’s goal? Keep his job. How can he best do this? Put the best team he can on the field, right now, and win the most games he can. Impress the ownership.

These goals are not compatible.

Last night after work I went to dinner at Parma, a tiny Italian restaurant in the Presidio area. There, a little happy luck shined down.

At the table next to me? Tim Lincecum and Joe Martinez. I tried to let them eat in peace, but happily Timmy joined in our strategically timed baseball talk. He talked about what it’s like to hit (or not), how much he likes playing in Chicago and hates playing in Atlanta, and how he hopes to stay on the Giants long-term. Joe, meanwhile, said he was feeling great after the injury and hoped to be playing again soon. I embarassed myself with talking about how good of a Tim Lincecum I was on the PS3.

The grainy cell-phone picture of Heather is there to prove to myself that it happened.

It’s called MLB 09: The Show. How, you ask, is a baseball simulation an RPG? Well, the game offers a mode called “Road to the Show” in which you make up a character, adjust statistics, go into dungeons stadiums, hit, throw, run, gain experience points, and level up over the course of seasons. Eventually you can make the Hall of (Virtual) Fame.

Anyway, there went a week of my evenings. The good news is that “David Douglas” — a name the game announcer can pronounce — just got called up to make the Rangers’ starting rotation.

I see RPG memes everywhere these days. From every other action game using XP and advancement, to good and evil choices and alignment scoring, and economic gameplay.