Gamer Wins $1M For Pitching Virtual "Perfect Game" 142
A few months ago, 2K Sports announced a unique contest to promote a new game they were working on, Major League Baseball 2K10. They said whichever gamer was the first to pitch a perfect game and provide proof would win $1 million, with the contest running for two months. Reader yukk tips news that the two months have now passed, and 2K Sports has announced a winner. It turns out the prize was won on the very first day, by a player who had put less than an hour and a half of effort into it.
Re:A 1.5 Hour baseball game (Score:1, Informative)
Actually the shortest MLB baseball game [answers.com] ever was 51 minutes
Re:Misleading (Score:2, Informative)
FTFA:
2K Sports kept the contest open for two months and couldn't believe what they saw when they reviewed the time code on McGilberry's perfect game. Was it really possible that a gamer threw a perfect game in the first 24 hours the game had come out?
Looks to me like they kept entries then reviewed them once the 2 months were up.
Re:$1 million for 1hour and a half of occupation (Score:3, Informative)
It could have been an hour and a half playing Major League Baseball 2K10 after having spent years with earlier-year versions of the game.
According to Kotaku [kotaku.com], this version of the game has different pitching controls from the previous versions.
Although according to the same article, he spent two weeks prior to the game's release playing the demo and practicing for the contest.
So, yeah - not like he only spent an hour and a half on this. He practiced.
Re:Perfect game in less than 90 minutes? (Score:2, Informative)
There have been 16 perfect games in MLB since 1900. That is about 1 every 7 seasons, not every season.
Re:Did anyone else submit a no hitter? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:$1 million for a perfect game? (Score:2, Informative)
Not likely. In 2008, average salary for a starting pitcher was $4,429,366 [ap.org]. There are 162 games during an MLB season (not including playoffs) meaning a pitcher only makes $27,341.77 per game. Even if you assume he only gets "paid" for the games he plays (there are typically five starting pitchers on a team) then he only gets $138,417.68 per appearance.
Even the highest paid starting pitcher currently in the league only makes $23,000,000 per annum making his per appearance fee $718,750. Of course there's also performance bonuses and endorsement deals and what have you, but I don't have numbers for those.