By Kim J. Harmon

All ready to throw that first pitch on your Playstation 2 or XBox console? Throw it with MVP Baseball 2005, the best of the new crop of baseball games saturating the market.

Although this won’t be true in the future, gamers have a wide variety of new games to choose from this spring – including Major League Baseball 2K5, MVP Baseball 2005, MLB 2006 and MLB Slugfest 2005.

With ESPN set to become the only software developer licensed by major league baseball, this will probably be the last year that gamers will be scratching their heads and trying to choose between different titles.

But MVP Baseball 2005 - in apparently its final version - is the best. Besides its unique pitching meter and superb player models, MVP Baseball 2005 offers insanely deep Dynasty and Owner modes that will give even the most fanatical gamer way too much to do.

In each mode, you can manage a team through its 120-year history, right down through the minor leagues.

But in the Owner mode, you are also responsible for creating and upgrading a new ballpark, setting ticket and concession prices, and making sure the organization turns a profit.

Besides that, all the unlockables (legendary players, teams and throwback jerseys) make this game a must have.