I love this game for 6 reasons. First, it is simple and easy to learn. No fancy joystick combos to learn, just two simple thumb controls on screen. Second, it has enough realism to be believable; the physics of the ball as it moves is amazing. Pitches twist and drop as expected, and the ball bounces realistically, even foul balls into the stands. Third, the stats are plentiful so if I want to obsess over my batting order I have lots of data to look at. Fourth, the animated players are cute, kind of cartoonish, but they hit, field, run, and slide like real players do. I manually pitch every game I play so I know my pitchers’ strengths and weaknesses very well, and they’ve become “my team” for sure. Fifth, I can practice pitching and batting outside of game play. Sixth, I can automate any or all aspects of the game play, or take complete control of each pitch and at-bat. I find that my manual pitching is now much better than AI pitching, so I must have learned something about pitch selection and throwing. The only caveat is that the initial team members do not improve with playing experience, so I paid to upgrade my starting fielders to Bronze level right away. Later, I updated my pitchers too. Now my team improves with each game, and I’m on my way to another promotion to the next league. Well worth the cost of Bronze promotions.