I love consuming everything baseball. Whether it’s documentaries, movies, TV shows, or video games; as long as it’s baseball, I’m in. Each character created for these platforms have their own unique personalities. So here we have it, a case for a number of fictional baseball players, to eventually decide who the best truly is.
There are many baseball video games that are debated for the title of the best of all time. Some to consider are; Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball, the original Backyard Baseball, MLB The Show franchise, MLB Slugfest, Triple Play 2001 (shout out to the HR derby mode where you can play as a shrunken legend in a living room), and RBI Baseball. However, the one title that rises to the top of everyone's list is MVP Baseball 2005. MVP 2005 introduced an original game model that has not only lasted the test of time, but was also adopted and utilized by the likes to San Diego Studios' The Show games to this day. The king of MVP 2005 (besides the Manny Ramirez cover, Red Sox World Series winning theme, and game soundtrack) was Jon Dowd.
For those who were living under a rock and never played the greatest baseball game of all time, MVP Baseball 2005, Jon Dowd was the answer to EA Sports not being able to utilize Barry Bonds' likeness for the game. Bonds was pursing personal licensing opportunities, which meant video game companies like EA (Electronic Arts) were not allowed to use Bonds' likeness in any games. Having a San Francisco Giants team that fully represented of their talented roster with their reigning National League MVP 2001-2004, Barry Bonds, was a big opportunity that EA had to figure out. Enter an at the time, assistant game producer Jon Dowd.
Jon Down floated the idea to his superiors that they create a player with Bonds' talent and use a different name. The powers that be agreed and told Dowd to name the player after himself. Dowd was given the same position as Bonds (Left Field), and same batter/fielder attributes and ratings. To avoid legal trouble he was made a white player, right-handed batter, and sported the number 51. Anyone who was smart enough with the game took the same actions I did by editing the player to bat left-handed, black, and number 25. I even went as far as to edit his batting stance to mirror more of a Barry Bonds mold. With or without any edits, Dowd was a force in every capacity of the game.
In my opinion, it was critical for as the user to at least edit Dowd to bat left-handed. Without doing so took away all the fun of launching balls into McCovey Cove. The greatest thing about the legend of Jon Dowd is the fact that he is a created player. With the other exception of Anthony Friese (player created in place of Kevin Millar), every other player in MVP 2005 is a real life ballplayer. The fact that EA had to create a "Barry Bonds" in the form of Jon Dowd makes him a great and memorable fictional baseball legend that everyone who played the game will always remember and revere.