Video: D-Jays Create Nintendo Game Highlights

To celebrate their clinching of a playoff spot earlier this summer and to get their fans pumped up for the upcoming postseason, the Dunedin Blue Jays have gone old school.

In fact, they've turned clock all the way back to '80s with the Nintendo-inspired highlight video they unveiled this week on YouTube.

The video includes 8-bit highlights from their June 20 win over Clearwater, when the D-Jays clinched the Florida State League's North division and a trip to the playoffs.

It's an updated version of Nintendo's 1987 classic R.B.I. Baseball, complete with Dunedin players and commentary, and even a modern, computerized soundtrack featuring the players' actual walk-up music. Vince Caffiero, the team's coordinator of community relations and gameday operations, worked around the clock for a few days creating the video with editing software and Photoshop.

"It was really nerdy," Caffiero admits, but once he got started, he said he had a blast making the video as accurate as possible, even following the game's precise box score and play-by-play.

The video had more than 3,000 hits as of Wednseday afternoon and even got noticed by USA Today, which posted about it in its Daily Pitch baseball blog Wednesday. Caffiero was also interviewed about it on 590 The Fan sports talk radio in Toronto, home of the parent Blue Jays organization. And the response from the players, he said, has been great.

"I think for a lot of them their dream is to be on a video game, but they were probably thinking more along the lines of MLB2K or something from today," Caffiero said.

The D-Jays will host Game 2 of their best-of-three, first-round playoff series at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5 at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium. For tickets and info, visit the team's official site.

Related Coverage: