All-Star Baseball 2004 Gameplay Hints (GameCube)

All-Star Baseball is a baseball video game series developed and published by Acclaim Entertainment. The series began in 1998 with the release of All-Star Baseball '99. Although the announcers John Sterling and Michael Kay have been added during the ballgame from 1998-2000 for N64. The final release in the series (due to the bankruptcy of Acclaim) is All-Star Baseball 2005.

Within the individual games, there are several different modes of play, such as exhibition, managing an existing Major League Baseball team, creating a team or creating a player. Many North American cities are available for "expansion," in addition to Mexico City and Puerto Rico. The series usually features pro-athlete Derek Jeter on the cover.
(Wikipedia)

Gameplay Hints

Press R when you are running the bases after hitting a homerun. Your player will blow kisses to the crowd. If you continue pressing R, your player will jump on home plate.

Easy points
Start a two player game, with only one actual player. Throw a perfect game, striking out every batter. Save the game in the bottom of the ninth inning with two strikes and two outs. Finish the game, collect your points, and save the options. Reload the game and repeat to collect the points again. Also, change to the team that you are facing and make them play poorly, allowing your original team to score a lot of runs. In the last inning, switch back to your team and claim your team's cheaply made points.

Easy win
Start a game with and set the skill level on anything except "Manage Only". Pause gameplay go to "Controller Select". Switch the controller to the team that you want to lose. Then, go into "Team Management" at the pause screen. Change the pitcher and the fielders to the wrong positions. You can also put pitchers in as pinch hitters. Then, return to "Controller Select" and change back to your original team. The CPU may switch the players around, but you can put the wrong ones in again. You will not get any card points if you play the entire game with the losing team. Note: There is a slight chance of your game freezing if player positions are swapped too often.

Free balls
If you are down in the count or need a quick ball, pretend to lay down a bunt. Pull back while the pitcher is in his motion. This should result in a ball being thrown. Note: This only works up to two times in an at bat.

Throw hard 4 seam fastball correctly
If you have a pitcher or created player that throws a hard 4 seam fastball, always place the pitching cursor below where you want the pitch to go. The pitch will automatically rise after the pitcher releases it. However, with other pitches (curveball, slider, changeup, etc.) the ball will end up where you put the pitching cursor.

Slide step
Use this trick to do a slide step. When your pitcher is in the stretch, select a pitch, and before you press Pitch, hold the Left Analog-stick.

Pick off from the catcher
When the ball is released, hold L and the base that you would like to throw the ball to. The catcher will then snap up and throw the ball to the selected base. Note: This only works when you are pitching.

View player's energy in franchise mode
When at the main menu in franchise mode, go to "GM Office", then "Roster Management", then "Disabled List". Press X and look through your players to see which ones are tired (except pitchers). If a starting player is tired, you should bench and rest him for one game.

Better players
Select the "Extras" option at the main menu, then choose "Player Management". On that screen is a category called "Player Editor". It allows you to improve players. In season mode, go to "GM", then choose "Player Management", then "Player Editor". Note: Making a player all A+ may result in the game freezing in later innings.

Demote player without other teams claiming him off waivers
Go to the player editor and make all his stats to D- so that no teams would want to claim him off waivers. When you want to promote a player back to the Major Leagues, change his ratings back to his default settings.


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