The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the green glow of the Xbox... when the Kansas City T-Bones face off against the Schaumburg Flyers next month, the first two innings of the baseball game will be played by two fans on a Microsoft Xbox.  Fans will watch the action of MVP Baseball 2005 unfold on the park's large video screen.  Then, when it's time for the third inning, the Xbox is turned off and the players take the field for actual baseball with the scoreboard set to the score from the video game.

So what we have here is a minor-league baseball publicity stunt.  The teams think they're on to something here and that everyone will want to do this kind of thing in the future.  I can see it now: wrestling matches that begin with a game of Mortal Kombat, football games that open with Madden 2006, and televised golf that simply broadcasts three hours of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.  How long until we see advertisements that MVP Baseball 2005 is the "official baseball game of the Kansas City T-Bones"?