Joey Gallo jumped at the chance to join the MLB The Show Players League. He knew how much fans have missed live sports during the coronavirus pandemic, and he knew the opportunity video games represented for Major League Baseball.
"They should have done this a long time ago," the Texas Rangers slugger said of the league, which begins its televised postseason schedule Friday. "When I saw basketball doing it, I thought, why aren't we doing this?"
What Gallo didn't know, though, was just how incredibly good he'd be.
When Gallo got word from his agent that MLB and the players' association were organizing an official Twitch league to livestream the critically acclaimed baseball simulation, MLB The Show -- similar to what the NBA had done with NBA 2K -- he recognized it as a unique way for the league to reach out to its fans, and for his fellow players to flex their personalities.