Jeremiah Estrada is a gamer.
Yes, that means he’s a guy you can call on with no outs and the bases loaded and expect him to keep the game in check.
But he’s also the sort of gamer who wheels his PlayStation 5 from city to city in a suitcase for downtime in hotel rooms.
He is Exhibit A of what happens when millennials and zoomers become Major League Baseball players.
Estrada excels between the lines, but he did not watch as much baseball as he played.
For real and virtually.
He poured hours in the “junkyard” mini-game into the Manny Ramirez-adorned EA Sports”MVP Baseball 2005″ as a kid. An early highlight of his professional career arrived in May 2024, when Sony San Diego Studio boosted his virtual card in “MLB The Show” from a 57 to a 99 for five days after he set an Expansion Era record with strikeouts in 13 straight plate appearances.
Estrada could not wait to use a usable Estrada in the game’s live mode.
Truth be told, that’s not exactly the game that he’s playing a ton when he gets downtime.
“That’s a game to get the players you have to grind for it,” Estrada said. “Going home and giving myself maybe an hour of playing time, there’s not much time and I’m not trying to waste my time grinding for a card.”
But he does still play.
The sports game of choice when he wants to boot up a quick game for an escape? “Rocket League.”
“I play with my best friend,” Estrada said. “We play every day. It’s a hard game. It’s soccer with cars and I’m nasty at it.”
Here’s a look at the other sports titles that Padres played as kids — and in some cases still play:
‘EA Sports MVP Baseball 2004’
“Oh man, just a great game. First off, it was really easy to hit homers. Homers are the most fun thing to do, so I enjoyed that. It’s like a highlight of childhood. You just remember playing those games and playing with your buddies and doing the home run derby stuff. It was one of those games that I loved.”
— Gavin Sheets, first baseman / left fielder
‘FIFA’ franchise
“I’m the FIFA god. I play every day … online with a friend. Normally it’s me and a friend and we play against other people. I like a team, so we play together instead of me alone.”
— Xander Bogaerts, shortstop
‘Madden NFL’ franchise
“Not even a specific year, but I was a big Madden guy growing up. I love the franchise mode. During COVID, we did (an online franchise mode) and did a full redraft. So every player was totally different.”
— Michael King, starting pitcher
‘MLB Slugfest’
“It’s a regular baseball game, but you can fight people in it. … If you’re 2-for-2 in the game, you’re, like, on fire. If you’re out, you run into the game, you can punch the guy and knock the ball out. If you go 0-for-4, you’re mad and you can start fighting people.”
— Tyler Wade, infielder
‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’
“I played that on a PlayStation when I was younger. I really enjoyed that, but I didn’t play a lot of sports videogames growing up. (Now) I play Call of Duty still. I used to play Halo when I was younger.”
— Nick Pivetta, starting pitcher
‘Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘08’
“I used to play with my dad all the time. It was fun. My dad doesn’t play video games, but that was one he would love to play. I’d play with my brother too. It was pretty fun. … It was on the Wii. so you’re literally swinging. I thought it was pretty fun. It was different.”
— Jackson Merrill, center fielder
