MLB 2003 includes so many options that to really get in depth with the game, you just have to play it. For starters, the game includes the normal Exhibition, Season, and Playoff Modes. You will also be able to play with and as the best players in the game during an All-Star Game, as well as swing for the fences in the Home Run Derby. But what makes
MLB 2003 stand out from the other baseball games out there are the unique Spring Training and Franchise Modes of play.
In Spring Training, it is your goal to bring up top prospects and build up their stats, eventually leading them to the Majors, and hopefully to stardom. The Franchise Mode is a subset of playing a normal Season. Unlike the Franchise Modes in other sports titles, MLB 2003's Franchise isn't about playing multiple seasons. There's more depth to it than that. Instead, the game's rosters are reset so that you start your Franchise with players from the bottom of the barrel and have to earn points to trade for the cream of the crop. Points are earned in various ways, including getting hits and, more importantly, getting victories. But if you get in a slump and hit a losing streak, your points will deplete faster than Harry Carey's beer glass.
The single hardest thing to get used to with MLB 2003 is the controlling scheme offered. The controller's button layout is much different than that of any other baseball game I have played in the past. Not only are the face buttons' layout opposite from what you would think they would be, but the act of throwing to a particular base is much, much different. Instead of using a single button in combination with the D-pad to throw to a base, you simply push one of the four face buttons relative to the baseball diamond. Although this method does seem to work for the most part, there is a problem with an aspect of it. When fielding a ball, you can turbo using the O button. However, if you fail to release the button before fielding the ball, chances are that your player will automatically throw to first, which is corresponding base for the O button.