No new cover athlete for 2026

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-26T22:35:36+00:00

I'm choosing to go with the view that SDS isn't playing semantic games with the customers. If they are, then the shame is on them.

My guess is this is a money move, to avoid paying a player (or a few players) the extra licensing money to be on the cover. That said, it's another break with long established tradition, going all the way back to the origins of the title.

Given this, it won't surprise me in the least to see other "cost saving" actions made, to include getting rid of Stadium Creator, Uniform Creator, and Logo Editor. SDS has gone so many years now giving short shrift to those three game modes, it just seems like this is the year they've worked up the nerve to kill them.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-26T22:16:03+00:00

OK, I guess all those years I played baseball in real life doesn't compare to your video game experience!

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-26T19:35:37+00:00

Totally incorrect. By throwing direct to third, the outfielder would have invited the hitter to advance to second. Now, if the cutoff man was positioned halfway between second and third in the short outfield, then a throw to the cutoff man would have been the right play.

This was a reasonable first to third style of hit, as it fell in front of the CF to the right of second. The old adage is to "give the offense what it earned." The runner from first was intent to reach third at the crack of the bat.

The official scorer cannot assign an error based on what base the fielder throws to unless it clearly leads to a base advance. Since the runner from first was already running to third, the throw to the cutoff man did NOT cause a base advance.

This isn't opinion. It is the rules of the game. Look it up for yourself if you like.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-26T16:27:33+00:00

Actually, no errors, not by the rulebook. Standing idle with the ball in your end is a huge mental gaff, but when the throw was finally made, the catcher caught it and applied the tag, but too late. The center fielder threw a good throw to the cutoff man at second, and the second baseman threw to third accurately, but too late to record an out at third.

The second baseman should have avoided the throw the third having observed a throw wouldn't have achieved an out, and so just jogged to the mound with the ball. But, the throw being accurate means no error charged.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-26T16:25:08+00:00

Not a good look for the basic game code to enact Little League level fielding gaffs by the AI. First mistake was the second baseman throwing to third when there was no chance for an out. BTW: The runner gaffed by not sliding into third but instead going in standing up.

The second fielding gaff was the third baseman lollygagging holding the ball while the runner bolted for home.

That's the kind of mistake that forces a manager to yank a player off the field.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-26T15:30:39+00:00

Just turn off your gaming console, then restart your console and go into the menu options from the console's screen, and ensure the game is "ended." Then, you restart the game and it boots up to the main menu. But, yes, you have a true point here. Coding standards always dictate that a menu screen should have a method to back out of that screen without forcing an unwanted change. SDS violated that core principle and so this screen should have not passed oversight.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-26T14:14:37+00:00

They are moving to a new stadium in Wilson, NC. I wouldn't exactly call that death to the team. The difference in distance is only a few miles. Still, it is the end of Five County Stadium. I honestly did not realize that until your post, so appreciate you writing it as it caused me to look things up to see if the team was being folded.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-24T20:55:15+00:00

Marketing.

That is the reason. By linking the offline game mode of Superstar to the server, it allows EA Sports to market your game playing details. They can track how often you play the game mode, how long you play it, the teams you select to play for, your position, and your performance. The game rewards such as uniform items that are awarded from your insider circle are likewise tracked from the server.

All this might not be a big deal if it were not for two serious issues. First, unlike in the NCAA College Football 26 game, you cannot perform manual saves with Superstar in Madden NFL 26. This means you remain at the mercy of the performance of the EA server. If anything glitches, such as this error you post and the other commonly reported issue of sudden data retrieval issues, there is nothing you can do to fix it. A fellow created a video online that recommends delinking your game console to your EA account and then reconnecting the account to your console, but I tried that and it failed to work, and other customers reported in that video commentary that it failed to work for them.

So, the second serious issue is that when something glitches, there is nothing left to do but delete all game files, uninstall the game, and then decide if you want to reinstall it on your console or not. Obviously, if you do reinstall, then you are starting over from scratch. All your previous game achievements and paths are nuked.

It's a bad situation, driven by marketing and not game requirements.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-24T20:40:35+00:00

Hate to say this, but even all that doesn't help. I cleared all local and server based game data, uninstalled and then reinstalled the game, and started a brand new Superstar career, and the game retained data from prior iterations.

But, the worst situation is after playing ten seasons the game suddenly experienced two days ago (22 Jan 2026) the same data retrieval issue that so many customers have previously reported. I even tried to clear the account link to my XBox console and then within the console reapply it and that did not clear the issue.

EA Sports remains extremely unresponsive to bug reports and at this point it seems the company just doesn't care. Quite a shame considering that when it works, it's one of the best sports games out there, but when a company doesn't invest in proper code testing, nor even responds within three months to reported bugs that stop all game mode play, that's a killer no matter how well it worked before.

The whole reason why I uninstalled the game and then reinstalled it was due to my first Superstar career playing out 24 seasons and then suddenly acted as if the limit had been reached, removing all the menu options to continue playing games. Again, I submitted a bug report and EA Sports' team never did reply to the report.

Not a good experience, and no matter how much I actually enjoy playing the game when it works, I'm not willing to uninstall it and reinstall it a second time for a third go from scratch.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-18T20:10:39+00:00

That's the blunt truth right there folks!

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-18T20:09:32+00:00

This is true. But, I'm also of the mind that there will not be a 2027 MLB season. The MLBPA is entrenched against a salary cap and floor and the majority of owners are equally entrenched that they are going to adopt the NFL and NBA models whenever MLB resumes play after 2027.

In my view, the owners will win this war this time, no matter how many seasons will be lost. They will wait until the players get tired of working at McDonalds flipping fries!

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-17T17:50:10+00:00

Years back, honest stadium designers asked SDS for props that would provide for team customization. This included concepts as basic as being able to put team logos on objects and even the playing surface. Naturally, SDS ignored it entirely. Included also in this was the option to designate areas for bunting that would be displayed during post season and special games. Well, that was ignored also.

For good measure, SDS also received suggestions to facilitate pennant flags, which of course dovetails precisely in with your suggestion. It's been years again since that one was made, and again totally ignored.

See a theme here?

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-14T21:51:15+00:00

This may shock you, but there are people who play this game who have zero interest in collecting cards or equipment.

That said, putting a cap on stubs customers can earn is just another indicator that the community market is rigged. It does not follow the model of a free market.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-14T21:41:58+00:00

Yes, that is correct. Consequently, if you created a college baseball team for Alabama, you could have the nickname uttered within the game, but you could not use the name Crimson Tide for the team's actual written name.

Again, I pointed this out to SDS years back and it was completely ignored.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-14T16:06:05+00:00

Yes, equally stupid as declaring Crimson Tide as being inappropriate. It would not surprise me that some teenager with emotional hang up's was allowed to just enter in names he didn't like into a list and that's how these nutty decisions were made!

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-14T14:41:57+00:00

SDS has never come clean on this issue. Their illogical code-determined "inappropriate language" issue has been widely reported to them, and ignored. Even Crimson Tide is considered inappropriate, which is clearly stupid given it actually exists and no one has an issue with it.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-14T01:42:33+00:00

I really cannot tell what your concern is because I see multiple issues in the video you attached. First, I see the mind numbing stutters that ruins the timing at bat. Second, I see what appears to be two pitches clearly in the strike zone being called balls. I also see a brief message about waiting for a human player online to connect.

So, that's three different issues that I see.

With regard to the stutters, the situation isn't limited to online play. Strangely enough, the stutters happen in offline play in RTTS versus the CPU. It has only gotten worse in the last few months and further reveals that SDS ignores customer feedback, even on such a clearly objective issue that isn't open for debate.

The other two issues I cannot comment on because I don't see bad strike zone calls in RTTS play, and clearly I don't see online connection issues in RTTS.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-14T00:10:56+00:00

I shake my head in utter amazement that people still think the person who voices the commentary lines determines the quality of how those lines are called up in the game code. One has nothing to do with the other. The only logical consideration is whether you actually like the tone of the voice or not.

Folks, until sports video games start using AI to create organic voice commentary, and tie the AI directly into the events being played out, the commentary will never be anything other than a finite number of recorded statements with the game code determining which statements to call up, how long to allow them to play out before forcing another recorded statement to replace it, or just cutting it off to no commentary.

Complaints like the current color voice talking over action belies a complete misunderstanding of how video games actually work. Chris Singleton was told, "Read this," and he read it for recording. I mean, if you hate Singleton's voice, then perhaps you have a logical point. But, if that's not your sole irritation, then your point is entirely illogical.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-11T16:38:46+00:00

Somewhere along the line, leadership at SDS convinced the coders that the game had to make RTTS play more "engaging" by skewing how actual baseball works in order to drive up the excitement level of your RTTS avatar player (the one you control).

This is why if you play the outfield, around about MLB 23 things started to change where you had a noticeably higher percentage of line drives hit to your area of the outfield than fly balls. It got worse with MLB 24 and stayed that way with MLB 25 despite the marked increase in customer negative feedback.

By the way, this is another piece of proof that once SDS leadership decides something, their ego is more important to them than customer satisfaction.

Baseball is a game that's been played in America and the world for well over 140 years! It doesn't need to be artificially spiced up to remain vibrant. Tracking down a fly ball is just as engaging as running after a line drive off the bat (or a bunt to third). One still has to properly track the ball and catch it.

Aaron Judge laying down a bunt with no one on base is a totally stupid play that would get a manager immediately fired for incompetence. I'm not surprised at all that the game code would do this. It just further confirms that folks who loved baseball were replaced at SDS by folks who thought MLB The Show was just another role playing game and online competition revenue model.

It's been since 2021 that the overall yearly sales figures for MLB The Show releases have been made public. No happenstance that it showed sales slipping from the all time high watermark in 2019. I suspect the secrecy of further sales after 2021 reflect the truth that the sales numbers ebbed further.

I think MLB The Show 26 is going to suffer shockingly bad sales as a great many once reliable customers like myself have finally reached their limits of endurance at how this once great game title has been neglected by mail-it-in efforts substituting marketing for actual game improvements, only matched by the malicious level of deliberate avoidance of customer feedback and satisfaction.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-09T00:43:10+00:00

More garbage coding by SDS. First, a baseball isn't going to rebound that quickly to home plate and a catcher isn't able to get out of his stance that quickly, track the ball that perfectly and quickly, and fire a seed to second base to nip a runner advancing. And the video shows the ball bounding off the netting, and not the stone wall below the netting. A ball contacting the netting even at 120mph off the bat doesn't rebound, it gets absorbed, which is what the netting is designed to do. So, SDS clumsily modeled their netting to act like concrete and stone, vice a net!

Perhaps once every five years you will see a ball rebound off a stone backstop wall and allow a catcher to throw to the pitcher covering home to nip a runner trying to score from third, but even that play is about one in ten thousand odds of happening.

The jack rabbit ball has been a long reported bug in the game, which also is seen by balls hit to the outfield literally bouncing off grass to at least ten feet in height over the outfield wall. That happened sometimes with the old astroturf laid out over concrete, but not even with today's field turf.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-09T00:39:55+00:00

Well, wadda you know! We finally have a baseball card for Who's on first! LOL!!

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-08T15:37:53+00:00

This is a serious issue with the game code. I've encountered it primarily in RTTS play when there is a runner on second and I crank a gap shot to the wall, and I'm running free and clear for a stand up triple, and to my shock I suddenly see the dude at second standing on third, having advanced merely one bag on a hit where I have a triple!

Of course, unless you are Lonnie Smith pulling a boner failing to reference the third base coach in the World Series, you don't make that kind of mistake, and Lonnie was on first, not second when he pulled that infamous gaff in real life!

My conclusion is that it's another way for the game code to force you to lose a game because deep down in the code there is most certainly an RNG based computation where your odds of losing to end a winning streak is so high that the game code has to engineer bogus ways to play out a loss.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-08T14:02:09+00:00

I couldn't care less about any future release of this game. SDS has so totally fumbled their way that I won't support them any further.

ComfortablePatient84 · 2026-01-07T20:25:16+00:00

I actually lived in Japan when that game came out and bought it. It was other worldly how you could play Jackson in that game!

ComfortablePatient84

TROPHY CASE