Age doing me in?

[rskjackson]

Alright...I'm looking for others in this forum that are over 50 and play the game. I'm almost 53 and have never, I mean never, played The Show before until this years version. I know from reading other posts that the game is harder then other versions, but here's my question for my age group of guys. Is this game too good for us to play?
I'm convinced that I don't have the reflexes to hit the ball in this game! I have tried, practiced, tried, practiced, and so on...and simply can't pick up the pitches and location real well. I can see mind you, but I can't hit a good fastball and other type pitches are just tough for me.
I play on the PS2 and have played 53 games in a season (Royals). I've won THREE games! My pitching is better, but still make some bad pitches in key spots, but if I can't score runs, I have to pitch a shutout to win a game.
I know the Royals may not be the best team for me to play, but they are the team I follow and know more about.
Funny...I really stink at this game, but I still play and honestly enjoy it, thinking that I'm finally going to have that big offensive output. But last night, I simply tossed the controller on my bed in frustration and walked away!
I'm not giving up yet, but would sure like to have some feedback and may similar experiences.
Thanks

[nemesis04]

Yikes! 3-50. That is a lot of losses to take and still have a passion to play.

Jim is older than dirt but still seems to play the game pretty well. I am sure he will chime in with some pointers!

[the_steve]

I started playing last year's version (my first BB game experience since Nintendo) and can remember getting mauled for the first 20 games. Same thing happened on this year's version, but it only took 10 or so games to get competitive. These games are definetly not easy, but you will pick up on it eventually.

Have you worked with your sliders at all? I think the stock settings on this years game make the CPU way overpowered. Another thing you can do tol improve is put in a little batting practice against whichever pitcher you are going to be facing. I usually set the pitcher to throw all breaking balls and dont stop until I have a strategy to handle them.

[JustSteve]

A few things that will help you:

- Play on the rookie game level.

- Adjust the sliders to decrease the pitch speeds.

- Take a lot of batting practice.

[modore]

I'm in the mid - 40's club. Last year was the first year that I've played this series and I had to tone down pitch speed just a notch or two.
I play on the PS2.
I still get around late on my share of fastballs, hit most of my dingers on sliders and change ups. But, with pitch speed down I can at least react to a fastball and take the ones out of the zone.
I have also noticed if my frequency of play increases my reflexes come back a little bit. Just like a real player, a week on the bench and I lose my hitting eye.

[rskjackson]

In my frustration last night I said to my wife...you know, if I played every night, I'd be better and reflexes would be better. I simply don't have the time to play every day, and I know that's probably a big part of the problem.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think batting practice is an option on the PS2? That would help!

[modore]

No bp mode.

Try the slider adjustment for pitch speed and cram in as many games on the weekend as you can.

[bsb13]

Just play a game and when its time for you to pitch just press start and switch your controller to the team thats batting. Keep doing that all game long. Best kind of batting practice there is.