Thank-you Sony is my main message after its seminal PlayStation-exclusive baseball sim MLB The Show finally got a UK release.

Baseball has always been, and probably always will be, a minority sport in Britain, with most people putting cricket as their favourite bat-and-ball game.

I was previously in the same camp, with America’s national pastime barely registering on my radar.

Your Local Guardian: MLB The Show

I’ve always had a fondness for both watching stateside sports and playing them in video game form, but my attention was always split between ice hockey, American football and basketball.

A while back my proud Michigander wife got me interested in baseball and following her beloved Detroit Tigers, so I’ve been converted.

As a fledgling baseball fan and a very keen gamer, I’ve been disappointed in each of the past few years since getting a PS3 when the critically acclaimed MLB The Show series has failed to make the transatlantic journey on its annual release in the States.

This year for 2013 Sony has surprisingly decided to release it here, and it's proved to be every bit as good as I was hoping for.

The easiest way to describe The Show for players unfamiliar with it is to say it’s the baseball equivalent of EA Sports’ Fifa football franchise.

This means it gets a new version each year with a range of additional features along with updated players and teams (this obviously won’t mean much to UK gamers for this release).

Your Local Guardian: MLB The Show

It also means it provides a very authentic simulation of its source sport backed up by fantastic production and masses of options.

While Fifa is the ideal benchmark to use, I actually think in the grand order of sports games The Show has a slight edge on realism over EA’s football game and other leading sports titles such as NHL, Madden and NBA 2K.

From what I’ve seen of it, I think The Show manages to capture the tempo, look and subtleties of its central sport a touch better than anything else has managed on consoles thus far.

Playing Sony’s sim is like watching a Major League Baseball game on TV and playing in one at the same time.

It starts with the impressively lifelike models of players and coaches, and the details applied to the stadia.

Your Local Guardian: MLB The Show

It then extends into the smooth animation and believable movements of the batters, pitchers and fielders. Players are presented as individuals, with little gestures and nuances nicely replicated.

It’s completed with the very slick broadcast-style presentation coupled with the seamless commentary which seems more contextual than anything I’ve heard in a sports title before.

All through the action the game just seems to get the ‘feel’ of baseball spot-on. Differences are slender, but this is a better representation of baseball than other games so far have been of their particular sports.

Your Local Guardian: MLB The Show

A multitude of menus and settings allows The Show to be customised to suit gamers’ particular needs.

For those new to baseball, you can dip your toe into the water using the beginner settings which simplify a lot of the mechanics.

At this level pitching becomes a very basic process and batting, while still requiring some skill and good timing, is also easy to get to grips with. I was striking batters out with ease early on and also hitting homeruns in my first game so The Show can be enjoyed by novice players. Fielding duties can be left to the Ai to keep things as straightforward as possible for learners.

Unless I’ve missed it somewhere, it’s a shame there isn’t a proper tutorial to play through, although the game is still very accessible.

For anyone already educated in the ways of baseball, you can immerse yourself in a vast wealth of strategies and stats, getting as deeply involved in the game as you want.

For serious baseball addicts, or those newbies who get hooked, there are various season, franchise and career modes which allow you to get well and truly embedded into the experience.

Your Local Guardian: MLB The Show

The release of MLB 13 The Show, available as a massive 21GB download on the PlayStation Network, is unlikely to transform baseball into a popular sport in this country.

But I still very much hope the game gets enough interest to convince Sony to stick with making the series available to UK players.

It deserves to do well because it’s a really high-quality game that the developer, Sony’s San Diego Studio, has clearly put a lot of effort and dedication into. They clearly get the sport and what fans want from it.

It’s an incredibly polished, comprehensive and authentic sim that offers varying levels of complexity to attract and entertain players whether they have just a passing interest in baseball, are seasoned followers of the sport or just want to play one of the very best sports games there is.

Verdict: 9 out of 10

Available now for PS3.