Since moving a month ago, I was lucky to move into a home housing a Nintendo Wii. My initial tasks were to master the arts of Wii Sports. I quickly decided boxing and golf were bollocks, but tennis and baseball were going to be made my bitch. Tennis is relatively easy to gain points on once you realize to just flick your wrist forward for hard hits, rather than swinging your arms, but baseball was another animal. Once I got to 900 points (with 1000 being “pro”-level), the computer AI’s hitters were crushing every one of my pitches and every ball I hit was a sharp grounder straight at a fielder. This was made more upsetting by my fielders constantly making errors, keeping in mind in the game you don’t even control your fielders as it’s all automated. All you do is pitch and hit.
After reading a few tips online, I turned 7-0 mercy rule loses into 10-2 drubbings of my computer opponent. Some simple rules:
- Double-tap the directional pad left or right when pitching to ensure the ball goes off the plate. Sometimes when holding it in, my balls would still go straight down the middle.
- Try to never use a fastball, instead relying on Jamie Moyer-style junk. Just don’t emulate his 2004 season (44HR given up in 200IP!?).
- If you’re a righty, pitch curve balls inside to left-handed hitters and screwballs inside to right-handed hitters. Southpaws do the opposite pitching techniques. This jams the opponent, reducing the likelihood of solid contact.
- The odd time, mix up a screwball away to lefties and curve ball away to rights, making sure to throw the pitch slowly and _off the plate_.
- You can sometimes get away with an inside 95MPH fastball to strike players out, but use it very rarely. Keep in mind, if the computer makes contact, they’ll likely hit it harder than the softer throws.
- Mix in splitters to keep the AI honest as they’ll sometimes chase in 2 strike counts.
- Change arm slots every couple pitches, using 2 to select sidearm and 1 to go back to overhand. I mostly stick to sidearm as it makes the softer pitches harder to lift for distance.
- For hitting, recognize splitters by their lack of movement and do not swing as they are outside the strike zone 99.9% of the time and the only contact you can make is a come-backer or a foul tip.
- Do not swing at a pitch until you get a called first strike. Never. Seriously. 1000pt+ opponents always throw splitters and junk outside for 75%+ of their pitches, so you’ll end up walking a couple times in the first inning alone. This tires out the pitcher by the second inning.
- … and a tired pitcher leads to failed splitters that end up being 70MPH faster balls down the centre. You’ll recognize these by the red exclamation mark that appears over the pitcher’s head. Anticipate and pull a sharp line-drive into the seats.
Use these tips wisely and become a master at being a huge nerd!
