All Star Baseball 2003 is a decent baseball sim worth a look for diehard MLB fans.
The first thing that comes to mind is the ease of hitting home runs. It is so hard to gauge what is right in a game for how to hit a home run, but this one just feels too easy. Both when you are hitting, and pitching. I elected to give Jason Giambi a free pass from now on, since he's torched me for four HRs in a game, but I'm always good for two or three with Manny, anyways. (Ok so I'm a beantown fan). The baserunning is pretty good, and the fielding is all right. Nothing great but controllable.
Pitching feels tough, and if you can go a whole game giving up 2 or 3, you should definitely feel like you accomplished something. Games in the teens are not rare. I've scored 20 in an inning before, but that was definitely rare.
It almost seems like the luck (if there is any) you are having in the first couple innings keeps going or something. That is, I've scored alot of runs early and noticed it never really let up, but when I was scoreless or only scored a run or two in the first few innings, I found it to be hard to score alot that game. Some of that is pitching, sure, but the pitching doesn't vary all that much from pitcher to pitcher, except for a couple of guys in the top three or four maybe.
All in all, it's a fun experience, with decent graphics, ok game control, and nice stat tracking and franchise options. I found guys getting injured alot, but the myriad of injury possibilities coupled with the placing of guys on IR (15, 30, or 60 day injured reserve places), made for some fun calling up of minor league players. If only Nomar hadn't gotten a broken collarbone and missed the whole season, though!
With free agency, I know a 2003 game isn't exactly going to sell any more copies, but if you see a used version for a great price, and you want to find a good time with a baseball game, you may want to check it out.