Julio Franco's Career, In Pixels

How long has Mets octogeniarian Julio Franco been around? So long that his career actually spans the whole era of video game baseball. From the Atari 2600 to Bases Loaded to MLB 06, Franco has been around for all of it. The great minds at Progressive Boink — those responsible for the genius that is The Dugout, which provides us with pretty much the first belly laugh we have, every day — has put together a retrospective of Franco's career, set to all your favorite video game baseball hits of the '80s, '90s and today.

Want to know how Julio got his start? He describes life in 1986, with RBI Baseball. "I don't know, I just didn't take care of myself," he confesses. "I gained weight big-time. Fans used to point at me and be like, 'Hey, isn't that the cartoon astronaut from the opening credits of Reading Rainbow?' It hurt a lot."

The whole retrospective ends with a stirring video of Franco homering off video Mark Prior, to some damn stirring tunes, if we so say ourselves.

Go read this, then read The Dugout, and come back in an hour or so. We'll still be here, happy to wait.

The Dugout [Progressive Boink] Julio Franco, A Life In Pictures [Progressive Boink]