When I first heard about the MLB The Show Player’s League, I was a bit skeptical, I am not a huge fan of video games, I’ll play one once in a while but I don’t live to play them like some people do.
So the first night, a few weeks ago, I decided I would try to watch a professional player sitting there and play a video game, I wasn’t the player, I was a mere participant. I was going along with the ride on the chance of escaping some of the boredom that has come with the Covid-19 shutdown.
What did I see? Well, a different side to many major leaguers for sure. Some really colorful characters emerged from watching these MLB The Show 20 games to me. Particularly, Blake Snell, who goes by the twitter name of @Snellzilla4 – he’s a hoot. A different generation from me, a few of them actually, but he’s someone that reminds me so much of my son.
Blake Snell signs on for a special giveaway night on his channel, and he does this quite oftenPlease subscribe to the FightinPhillies.com / Phillies Talk Podcast YouTube channel above and with the video below, thanks!
There’s Amir Garrett from the Reds, he’s emotional, blurts out all kinds of funny comments and screams, upsetting the docile nature of video game play. But back to Snellzilla4, he’s a master of social media, and these type of games. His Twitch.tv channel has thousands of ‘subs’ as he says, meaning subscribers, and they actually pay money to ‘Subscribe’ to his specific channel, meaning he’s making a lot on money doing this.
“I neeeeeeeedddd it soooooo baaaaaaddddd”
A quote that you’ll hear Blake Snell saying over and over again, as he ‘works’ his crowd, come on in and join me, he says.
And Snell delivers something back to his subs, he had a giveaway night the other night, that was specifically to give things away arbitrarily to ‘only subscribers’ of his channel. Several MLB The Show 20 games, a couple of PS4 consoles, signed autographed cards, even a signed pair of Snell game used cleats. And people? There’s easily a thousand or so people tuned into his channel when he plays his video games, sometimes 1.5K. A cult of personality.
Rhys Hoskins, a thinking man’s gamer!Onto the Phillies representative in the MLB The Show 20 Players League, that being Rhys Hoskins. He’s about the opposite of what Blake Snell is, he’s more reserved, and an equally pleasing personality. He’s constantly asking for tips from his audience, how to gain an edge in this complicated video game. Oh, yes, his dog, Rookie often stops in to visit him when he is playing, and Hoskins is more than happy to introduce the dog to the viewers.
Did I tell you that some Twitch.tv broadcasters can make $5K, 10K, even up to $20K a month playing video games, and doing other assorted screen based entertainment for you? Yes, they do. Money from subscribers is split between the Twitch.tv network (owned by Amazon) and the channel operator. It doesn’t stop there, product endorsements, and other sorts of income are derived from this way to making a living. I find it fascinating after years of hustling and working hard all my life, and some snarky 20-something starts playing video games on the computer and out earns me by a whole lot of a short period of time? It’s amazing to me.
Tune in here for the second part of his article: Out of The Park 21 baseball simulation and what it means for baseball. Tomorrow at FightinPhillies.com
