Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball

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Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball is a classic Super NES baseball game that was released in 1994. The game has a Major League Baseball license but not a Major League Baseball Players Association license, meaning that the game has real stadiums and real teams, but not real players. Fortunately, the imaginary players have the same statistics as their real-world counterparts, and the game comes with a name-changing feature allows players to change the athletes' names. Nintendo released a portable version of the game in 1997 for the Game Boy with real players and stats from the 1996 season. The gameplay is similar to its predecessor's, though it is sometimes sluggish due to hardware restrictions.

[edit] Features

"Imaginary" players in the game are themed with their teammates. Some of the themes include:

• The Cincinnati Reds are writers (B. Stoker, P. Dick, E. Queen).
• The Detroit Tigers are famous Motown singers, (A. Franklin, G. Knight and R. Smokey).
• The Houston Astros are cartoonists (G. Larson, W. Eisner, S. Lee).
• The Milwaukee Brewers have a pitching staff consisting of superhero "secret identities" (P. Parker, K. Kent, B. Wayne), while their position players are fictional secret agents and detectives (J. Rockford, J. Bond).
• The Los Angeles Dodgers are based on punk rock pioneers from Los Angeles and other areas around California including (Exene Cervenka, John Doe and DJ Bonebrake of X, Poison Ivy and Lux Interior of The Cramps, Jello Biafra and Klaus Flouride of the Dead Kennedys, and Lee Ving of Fear).
• The San Diego Padres are based on punk rock pioneers from the UK including (Billy Idol, the members of The Damned, Johnny Rotten, and Sid Vicious).
• The New York Mets are based on punk rock pioneers from New York including (Johnny Thunders, Joey Ramone, Tom Verlaine, Jerry Nolan).
• The Kansas City Royals are based on U.S. presidents (the third batter is D. Ike, whose real-life counterpart is DH Hall of famer George Brett).
• The St. Louis Cardinals are comedians (H. Moe is actually Bob Tewksbury, O. Hardy is famous shortstop Ozzie Smith).
• The Oakland Athletics apparently hired more authors with H. Ernest (he replaces Mark McGwire), L. Byron, M. Twain, and L.Tolstoy.
• The Colorado Rockies contain famous names from horror movies (including G. Romero, B. Lugosi, and T. Savini) .
• The California Angels, unsurprisingly, have famous actors on their team (F. Astair, H. Bogart, J. Wayne).
• The Texas Rangers, appropriately, have a Western theme (their best pitcher, T. Mix, "fills in" for Kevin Brown).
• The Philadelphia Phillies feature a Rocky homage in R. Balboa (Darren Daulton) and A. Creed (Dave Hollins). They also have a Philadelphia landmark (L. Bell) and some of the musicians produced by Phil Spector (D. Love, B. Medley).
• The Seattle Mariners have Nintendo of America employees on their team, except Ken Griffey Jr.
• The Baltimore Orioles pay tribute to Baltimore native John Waters with B. Divine, P. Flamingo, (Mike Mussina) M. Trasho, and H. Spray, as well as Waters himself standing in for Cal Ripken Jr.
• The Cleveland Indians have famous actresses and glamor girls on their team. (A. Margret, A. Hepburn, M. Monroe, G. Garbo).
• The Boston Red Sox contain members from the show Cheers. Cliff Claven, Norm Peterson, and Sam Malone are all present. Also included are Boston landmarks (B. Common, M. Harvard) and figures from early American history (J. Adams, J. Hancock, A. Hamilton).
• The Chicago White Sox are former basketball players from St. John's University (M. Sealy, C. Mullin, M. Jackson).
• The Atlanta Braves are famous dance DJ's, such as Sasha & Digweed. A pitcher for the team is named G. Park, presumably in reference to Atlanta's famed Grant Park. In addition, D. Crime and D. Neon likely refer to Fred "the Crime Dog" McGriff and "Neon" Deion Sanders, respectively.
• The Toronto Blue Jays are players from the Wigan Warriors rugby team (E. Hanley, M. Offiah, D. Betts).
• The Montreal Expos are people from the 1980s music scene in Manchester, UK, including members of New Order and The Smiths.

The only actual baseball player is (obviously) Ken Griffey Jr., although the New York Yankees have several player names that are references to past Yankee superstars.

At the end of every game, the game provides box scores and scoring summaries in newspaper format, providing a humorous newspaper headline on other goings-on in the world of Major League Baseball.

The game has many other features, including a home run derby in which players practice their power hitting against either Ken Griffey Jr. or against three fictitious power batters.