Alabama gamer pitches his way to a million dollars

[Hellraiser]

Having occurred only 16 times since the modern baseball era began in 1900, pitching a perfect game is among the rarest feats in sports. It's the Holy Grail for pitchers, earning them a one-way ticket to sports immortality and a permanent spot in the history books.

 

But for 24-year-old Wade McGilberry, there was a more, uh, practical motivation: $1 million, which is exactly how much the Alabama man just won for throwing a perfect game in MLB 2K10 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

 

"It was actually my wife who convinced me to go for it," he said in a statement. "I never thought I'd actually win a million dollars playing a video game, it's all still sinking in for me."

 

The prize is the culmination of 2K Sports' Perfect Game competition, which ran from March 2 to May 1. Gamers were required to play the game's MLB Today mode and select the "MLB 2K10 contest," which automatically defaults to the correct gameplay settings to ensure an even playing field. While McGilberry might not have been the only player to throw a perfect game, he was the first, earning the unprecedented million-dollar prize by tossing perfection on the very first day of competition.

 

McGilberry was presented with an oversized check at his home.

 

"The game itself was fantastic -- I'm glad I bought it either way -- but I have to say, this is a nice return on my investment," he said.

 

Considering the game retails for $49.99, that's a return of about $999,950.01. Nice indeed.

[willywonka159]

On the first day?! Either he's really good, or that mode was just too easy. Did anyone here try to go for it?

[inadub]

I have 3 or 4 clan members who bought it day one and have been trying w/ no luck. Not sure if they just suck of it is in fact difficult.

[IRISH BULL]

He was on the Howard Stern Show this morning. He's giving 10% to his church.

[Prane]

I want to know what pitcher/ team he used and against who. I had no intention of picking the game up when it came out but I thought of how I would do this challenge. I would use CC and the Yanks because CC has great stamina and a killer fastball, plus the Yanks are solid defensively. I would have played against the Royals because well... they are the royals.

[GeneralSarcasm]

He played as the Atlanta Braves and it was against the New York Mets, using pitcher Kenshin Kawakami.

 

per contest rules he couldn't just plug in yanks vs pirates or something like that. You had to choose "mlb

today mode" which allows you to pick real matchups defined by the game and use specific game settings

(difficulty, etc).

[Prane]

Damn that is impressive as hell!!!

[GeneralSarcasm]

With many of the Mets’ stars on the bench with injuries, it’s possible that Wade McGilberry felt they’d be a prime lineup to carve to pieces with pitching precision. He selected Kenshin Kawakami, 34, to be his starting pitcher. Kawakami, better known as 川上 憲伸 in his homeland of Japan, has yet to assert any level of stardom in his young American Major League career. However, his pitching career in Japan was marked by no small amount of success. The crafty veteran from Japan throws a wide assortment of pitches, including a 90-plus mph fastball, slow curve, sinker, splitter and a stinging cutter. The highlight of his career to date came in 2007 when he helped pitch the Chunichi Dragons to their first Japanese championship in 53 years (they defeated the Nippon Ham Fighters in five games). McGilberry admits he relied heavily upon Kawakami’s splitter, low and out of the strike zone, to get batters to fish.