First off, I'm not a big sports guy. Technically, I'm not a sports guy at all. I'm a geek, a comic book geek, pure and simple. My life is villified through the likes of Captain America, The Question, and Howard the Duck rather than some backwater low-IQ'ed moron who just so happens he can kick a football better than two other guys. I prefer to live a life that's fraught with danger from the unknown --be it ghosts, demons, or the occasional alien invasion-- than be a beer jockey with all the apes around the open stadium of Heinz Field or PNC Park.

But lately, though, my attitude towards Baseball --the Great American Pastime-- has changed somewhat because of one little movie called Fever Pitch.

Now, in case you haven't seen this charming flick, it's about a guy named Ben who falls in love with Lindsey, but he's a diehard, really, really obsessed Boston Red Sox fan. After all this time, Ben's finally found the right person for him, one who complements his style and personality, but Lindsey gets a little tired of the whole obsession, and they call it off for a while. Ben tries to sell his season pass for her, but she realizes what he's doing and that it means a whole lot to the both of them. Ben decides not to sell his tickets, he and Lindsey get engaged (and later married), and the Red Sox win the World Series. For real. They did break "The Curse of the Bambino" that year, so the filmmakers changed the ending of the film to reflect that.

Since watching that, Ben's (played by Jimmy Fallon) little obsession kinda rubbed off on me, and now I dig the Red Sox. Manily because of two things: The whole "Rooting for the Underdog" factor, and I felt as though I had been watching myself on the TV, hadmy own obsessionsbeen geared more towards baseball than Ghostbusters. It was actually a little frightening to see that, so I think I identified with the film more than I thought I would. But...more on that in a bit.

Getting back to my original point, I'm not a sports guy. On occasion, I have been known to play a sports game demo on the demo discs I get with my PlayStation magazine, but other than that, no. When I was a kid, I had wanted to be a pitcher for some baseball team (was pretty good, too), until I learned how far away the mound was from home plate (something like ninety feet). That was daunting enough to disarm any fantasies I had about pitching, so I got into comics instead. Had a blast reading about the adventures of Archie Andrews, Godzilla and Gamera, and just about any other comic I could find. Been that way ever since.

Recently, I started playing the demo of Midway Games' "MLB Slugfest 20-04" on an old demo disc I had. For some reason, it was really, really fun and quite appealing. Having played the demo to death, I sought out the full version of the game and subsequently bought it. For a while, I had a hard time nailing down a definite team to stick with (I tried the Anaheim Angels, the Arizona Diamondbacks, Minnesota Twins...the list goes on), until I saw Fever Pitch. I dug the flick, and I remembered the entire feeling of "Rooting for the Underdog," so I selected the Red Sox to play as.

This game, "MLB Slugfest 20-04,"has consumed me. I've played this more in the three weeks since I've had it more thatn I have 90% of the games in my library (and that includes the "Grand Theft Auto" series)! King Kong? After learning that there is a level where you HAVE to shoot the big monkey off the Empire State Building, I haven't touched it. I'm like, five minutes into it, and I just put the game down. Evil Dead: Regeneration? Put that down after the battle in the mourge (I had very little health when I saved, too). Everything else? Just short little games, nothing to really hold onto my attention for a long time like the GTA series did.

Edit: I later beat "Evil Dead: Regeneration," and loved it immensly. Bruce Campbell reprising his role as Ash with Ted Raimi as the half-deadite midget Sam...pure gold.

...until the Slugfest game. I'm like, thirty games into the season on there, and I haven't lost one yet. You look down the line of other teams, it's all, "Win, Win, Win, Win, Win," etc. But it's not easy. There is a damn smart AI on that thing, and it learns from your moves, so there have been some pretty close calls on there. Most times, I've won by just one run. Jus barely squeezed by into the win.

But like I said, I'm not a big sports guy, I'm a gamer. And since this game and Fever Pitch, I've actually started to follow the Red Sox games. As of this, er, "blogging," the Sox have won six games out of eight, and I'm still rooting for them to go all the way. Just because they didn't make it to the Championship last year, doesn't mean they won't make it again.

Now, back to my other point, and a humbling thought...at least, somewhat humbliing for a guy like me. I've said this before, I'm a huge Ghostbusters fan. Not quite the standard of Ben on Fever Pitch or like Greg Justis of the Detriot Division (man's got a massive collection of GB stuff, and I mean MASSIVE), but still a huge fan nonetheless. The other day, while listening to the FP soundtrack, I realized that Ghostbusters is the Red Sox of fan franchises. Think about it. They had a great early run, the first film and the cartoon series was a massive hit (likening to the Sox winning the World Series back before they sold the Bambino), then the second film was a mediocre hit (but still huge to us GB fans), and the franchise went downhill (they sold the Bambino). Yeah, they had a revival back in the late 90's, but that wasn't anything near as special as it was supposed to be (thank God for Fritz and most of the GB community for salavging that through the "Apocrypha" line of stories), and the recent comic series from 88MPH Studios was supposed ot be the great comeback, but the guy at the wheel dropped the ball continually, and has been promising a hardcover collection for more than two years.

Basically, the Ghostbsuters are the Red Sox. We are the team that is contually shat upon by all the other franchises out there (namely He-Man and other 80's franchises) and are used mainly as the butt of a joke.

Luckily, most of us in the GB community are taking matters into our own hands and hopefully, we'll have our day at the World Series yet.

But, anyways, that's my whole view on the matter of Ghostbusters, Gaming, and the Great American Pastime.