Major League Baseball, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and San Diego Studio are partnering to introduce legends from baseball’s Negro Leagues to MLB The Show 23.
In a video posted to MLB’s Twitter, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick spoke about the partnership, saying the museum is thrilled to “take you on a journey back to the Negro Leagues and introduce you to some of the baddest brothers and sisters to ever play this game.” You can check out the full video for yourself below, which introduces the players and shares some brief history of the Negro Leagues.
MLB The Show 23’s new game mode is called Storylines: A New Game Experience Celebrating The Negro Leagues. Eight Negro League legends are a part of MLB The Show 23: Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Buck O’Neil, Rube Foster, Hilton Smith, Hank Thompson, John Donaldson and Martín Dihigo.
MLB announced that Storylines will feature a narrative experience for each featured Negro League player, with “short videos about the players mixed with gameplay centered on important moments of their careers.” The players will also be available in exhibition mode and other areas of the game.
This isn’t just a one-off idea, either. MLB The Show 23 will feature Season 1 of Storylines, with every new MLB The Show game including a new roster of Negro League legends. Kendrick will narrate the stories in the mode, and also helped select the list of Negro Leaguers to introduce over the next several years.
San Diego Studio will also donate $1 to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum for every copy of MLB The Show 23 Collector’s Edition sold from now to the end of 2023.
The Negro Leagues was established on February 13, 1920. They operated from 1920 until around 1960, giving African Americans and Latin Americans a place to play baseball when Major League Baseball was segregated. The Negro Leagues saw some of the greatest players in the history of the sport, and in 2020, MLB bestowed Major League status upon seven professional Negro Leagues, officially recognizing over 3,000 players as Major Leaguers.
Last week, we learned the cover athletes for MLB The Show 23. Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Miami Marlins will headline the standard edition, while New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter will grace the Captain Edition of the game. MLB The Show 23 launches on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on March 28, 2023.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
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