MLB The Show online league taps baseball stars for esports event

Major League Baseball is the latest to announce a virtual gaming event that will involve real-life sports stars and live broadcasts. As with NASCAR and the NFL before it, MLB will use virtual games to make up for the lack of a proper gaming season, which has been delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak. A total of 30 players will participate in the online league, which will run for a total of 29 games.

The new series of virtual games is called 'MLB The Show,' and it will involve more than two dozen baseball stars, including World Champions and All-Stars, who will compete with each other over the course of around three weeks. According to MLB, each player will play a total of 29 games against each other with the top eight players ultimately heading to the 'postseason.'

Each of the virtual baseball games will involve three innings, so multiple games will be playable in a single day. Every game will be streamed online in its own video stream, according to MLB, which says that it has tapped Heidi Watney and Robert Flores from MLB Network to host during the game transitions.

Once these 29 games are complete, the top eight players from MLB The Show will proceed to the postseason starting on April 30, during which time there will be a 'best of three' during the Division and Championship Series. This will all lead into the World Series with a 'best of five' competition to finally end up with an online league champion.

The series kicked off today, April 10, and will run through the end of the month. Fans can tune into the games through the MLB social media accounts on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, as well as the MLB.com website and each club's own social media accounts. If you'd rather root for a particular player, you can also watch their own stream on their YouTube or Twitch accounts.