All of the strategy and such in game when you are pitching can be handled by a simple press of a shoulder button. This gives you access to quickly shifting your infield and/or outfield as well as allowing you to visit the mound to confer with your pitcher, get your bullpen going, or make a substitution. All of this is accessible while pitching without ever having to press pause. 

From an audio perspective the crowd is both intelligent and loud as the games go on. When playing the Yankees vs. Red Sox series at Fenway Park , many chants could be heard geared towards direct players. When A-Rod was up to bat chants of “OVERATED” could be heard loud and clear. Whether this is true or not is up to speculation but regardless the fans are knowledgeable and stand behind the home teams. The announcers are also extremely knowledgeable. If you have ever played the offerings on the older consoles the three-man announce team is back again and they are spot on with calling the game as they stay fresh and accurate throughout adding a great TV-style presentation to the franchise.

For game modes The Show packs a whole heap of offerings. You can play through a season mode, or if you want control over such things as ticket and concession prices you can take on the franchise mode. Beyond that The Show also features an online mode which has updated rosters and allows for head-to-head play. There is unfortunately no online leagues, maybe next year…

The Road to the Show mode is back once again on the PS3 with more additions in terms of what you can do to customize your character. More names are stored as well as harder goals to truly test your patience. Some of these can get extremely difficult though and one has to wonder if the developers may have tried to make it harder than it should be instead of making it more fun as it was in the past.

MLB ’07 The Show is the first 1^st party Sony offering on the PlayStation 3 and for the most part makes a very solid conversion from the PS2 over to the PS3. This is a great start to the next-generation for this baseball franchise with only positive improvements to come. The graphics may not be better than MLB 2K7 but thanks to the game play MLB ’07 The Show is the premier choice for Major League Baseball on any next-generation console, especially the PlayStation 3.