What I hate about playing games online

Last night I decided to play MLB 08:The Show online. I’ve done this before and haven’t had that much success for one reason or another. All of my games with the exception of two have been decided by one run and I’ve been competitive in every single one. Because of this, I wasn’t surprised when I was challenged almost immediately. After reviewing the settings I finally accepted. The player challenging me had a 55-22 record which is leaps and bounds better than my 1-10 record. I figured he thought it would be another easy win.

We start the game and I match him pitch for pitch, hit for hit until the fifth inning. In the top of the fifth, I finally managed to string a few hits together and I scored once. I continued to hold him to no runs through the fifth and sixth. The top of the seventh comes and I get it going. I scored once on a couple of hits and then with one out I had two guys on. He thew the ball and I SMASHED it to right field. It sails over the fence and I let out a “HELL YEAH!!!”

At this point I’m thinking that he’s pissed. I’m winning 5-0 and he’s supposedly much better than me. In the bottom of the seventh I make a mistake and he hammers one over the left field wall to make the score 5-1. We go scoreless through the top of the ninth. He comes up in the bottom of the ninth and I manage to get the first guy out and I’m thinking, “Yeah I’m finally going to win one!” The next batter comes up and he swings at the first pitch and he pops it up by first base. I start moving my guy over there to catch it and all of a sudden the other player pauses the game. I waited for a bit and he resumes the game and I get him out. I begin to wonder why he paused it other than the fact that he’s confirmed my suspicion that he’s being a poor sport. When you put the ball in play you can’t pause the game and make substitutions. There’s nothing you can do except for looking at statistics. The next batter comes up and I throw the pitch and he hammers it on the ground right to my first baseman. I start to semi celebrate because I just beat a much better player but that celebration is interrupted by a paused game again.

The next thing I know the game stops and the traffic and delay notifications begin to show up at the top of the screen signifying some kind of problem with the connection. We hadn’t had any connection problems at all during the game so I figured maybe it was just a glitch or something but then the game says, “Lost connection with bleacherbum84″. I was so pissed. I couldn’t tell if it was my fault or his but if it was my fault I would get a loss on my record even though I was winning. From what I’ve gathered, this means that he was pissed that I beat him and he pulled the connection before the game could officially finish. Thankfully, the system credited me for the win and for 8 innings of play.

So here’s my gripe. If you’re going to challenge a lesser player and they are winning be a man and finish the game. Pulling the connection doesn’t prove anything except for the fact that you’re a wuss and sore loser. I have one disconnect on my record but I didn’t do anything to cause that disconnection. i was losing that game anyway. The guy that I had the disconnect with did the appropriate thing and rated me 1. I didn’t intentionally disconnect but still that was fair. If you play MLB 08 The Show online with a PS2 beware of bleacherbum84. He usually plays with the cubs. When our game ended I rated him at a 1 which is the lowest you can go and subsequently added him to my ignore list. It sucks that people can’t finish what they start and be gracious winners and losers.

If you play MLB 08: The Show online with the PS2 look me up and I’ll play you. Look for cobalt45xy.