A’s new home park in Sacramento makes its virtual debut in popular baseball video game
Baseball fans around the world can now smash home runs, steal bases and strike out the game’s top stars from the diamond at West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park.
Virtually, that is.
“MLB: The Show,” the popular series published by Sony Interactive Entertainment that is the only current video game licensed by MLB and its players union, released its 2025 edition Tuesday. It’s the first version of the game to feature Sutter Health Park, which at the end of this month will become the temporary home of the Athletics through 2027.
“The Show,” first introduced in 2006, has featured the River Cats team name and Sacramento city moniker, but hadn’t depicted Sutter Health Park prior to 2025. Previous iterations of “The Show” have used fictional ballparks rather than rendering the real stadiums used by dozens of playable minor-league teams, but the A’s temporary stay prompted an exception.
Sutter Health Park, which in the video game has a listed maximum capacity of 14,014 fans, has been home to the minor-league Sacramento River Cats since the stadium opened in 2000. The River Cats were the Triple-A affiliate of the then-Oakland Athletics from 2000 through 2014. They’ve been the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A team since 2015.
The rendering in “The Show” appears to be mostly accurate and includes a rudimentary version of the Sacramento skyline, including the Tower Bridge and West Sacramento’s Ziggurat and CalSTRS buildings.
One small divergence: the scoreboard doesn’t resemble that of the real thing, and it’s in right-center field rather than center field. It is possible this is an intentional change related to gameplay, though, to give players a more visually friendly “batter’s eye” while batting.
Some of the menu presentation for the A’s also leaves a bit to be desired. In the game’s stadium selection screen, other MLB teams include a ballpark logo. The A’s stadium reads “Sutter Health Park” in white lettering on a green background.
Elsewhere in the game’s interfaces, including on scoreboards, the Athletics are abbreviated as “ATH” rather than “OAK” as they have been for years. That’s in accordance with the real-life team’s guidance, in which the A’s will be known officially just as the A’s, not the “Sacramento Athletics” or “West Sacramento Athletics” while they play home games at Sutter Health Park for at least the next three seasons.
The game, available for Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Switch platforms, retails between $60 and $100.
This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 10:58 AM.
