Being that following baseball is one of America's most popular hobbies, it is easy to be a nit-picky stickler for many diehard baseball fans in regards to updated rosters and the accurate depictions of their favorite teams. '989' has successfully pulled of a fantastically updated roster (for the year 2000) and made the stadiums themselves look surprisingly similar to their real life venues. The visuals are pretty good and the sound design is great with two of the most recognizable commentators for the sport lending their voices. Some of the crowd sounds can become annoying if you pay attention as you will hear a loop of some vendor asking who wants hotdogs. Each aspect of gameplay is done well from guessing a pitch area at bat and the outfield controls are intuitive allowing you to focus your efforts on appropriate strategies for the situation rather than trying to get your player under the ball just right. I enjoyed the blooper real during the end credits. In conclusion, this is one of the best baseball games for the playstation.
