Operation Sports would not be around today without its awesome community. We have so many talented individuals who come to our site to chat about sports games and even share their own hard work so others can get more out of their sports gaming experiences. One of those members who has done a lot to try and give life to MLB The Show the last couple years is JWDixon120.
He has provided his assistance on the Franchise Fidelity to Reality Roster, and also created the Sabermetric Lineup Organizer, an MLB Contract/Free Agency Tool, and the All-Inclusive Franchise Spreadsheet. In an effort to try and highlight more of our members who have been MVPs within the community, we reached out to JW to see if he might want to chat with us, and thankfully he accepted.
I chatted with JW (real name Justin) and asked him some questions to learn more about his past, how he got so into making tools for MLB The Show, and some other random topics. Let’s jump into that interview now.
OS: JW, thanks for doing this, first off please give us a little background about yourself.
Justin: A general background about me: I have loved sports ever since I was old enough to hold a ball. I owe my love of sports to my father. Like many kids, I dreamed of becoming a professional athlete, but the furthest I made it was junior college ball. Growing up, I always thought my best sport was football, so ironically, I ended up playing baseball at the JUCO level. After that ended, I began my professional working career but continued pursuing my gaming passion in my free time.
OS: You’ve been a member of OS since July 2012. Do you remember why you first signed up on the forums?
Justin: I officially signed up in 2012, although I’d been visiting the forums ever since I first started surfing the internet as a guest (I’m a younger guy). I signed up primarily for the OS NCAA Rosters, which was likely the same reason as many others. From there, I fell down the rabbit hole of NCAA Teambuilder threads, MLB roster threads, general discussions, etc.
OS: Do you want to give a little more backstory on your history with sports video games and how you got into them?
Justin: I’d argue my background in gaming is similar to many others. My dad was a huge sports fan and, consequently, a sports gamer. As a kid, I remember watching him play some of the greatest sports games ever made, like Tiger Woods 2004, NCAA Football 05, and MVP Baseball 04. I started playing sports games before I could even read! I would create players in-game and adjust each piece of equipment by sight because I couldn’t yet read the labels. I spent hours sitting next to my dad, watching games and learning how to play. Whenever he landed a 5-star recruit in NCAA games, he would change the player’s name to match mine or my brother’s. He doesn’t play as much nowadays, but he recently told me that after Rory’s Masters win, he claimed his own Masters title in EA Sports PGA Tour that very Sunday night.
OS: How has your relationship with sports games changed over time?
Justin: It’s remained mostly the same. To this day, around 85 percent of my gaming time is spent playing sports games. Over the years, FIFA and MLB The Show have typically been my most played, but more recently, it’s shifted primarily to MLB The Show and modded Madden. There’s no feeling quite like turning around a franchise in a sports game. As a kid, I loved the arcade-style gameplay, trying things like MVP Baseball‘s hitting mini-game or trading for Tom Brady in Madden. Now, I’ve become almost exclusively a simulation-style player, as evidenced by the various tools I’ve created over the years to enhance that experience.
OS: You’re a Braves fan, so are you Atlanta through and through, or do you have favorite teams from elsewhere?
Justin: I’m located in the Gulf region of the U.S., right in the heart of Braves country. Here are my teams:
- Atlanta Braves – Weird vibes here. Unfortunately, I’m a diehard fan and have experienced the roller coaster of the last three years. Luckily, I attended a playoff game during their 2021 World Series run!
- New Orleans Saints – Misery since 2009, basically, lol. I attend about two games a year and was there for Kyle Rudolph’s OT touchdown that ended our season in the wildcard round a few years ago.
- New Orleans Pelicans – Misery forever, pretty much.
- Ole Miss Rebels Football – Are you sensing a trend? However, it’s been nice lately. Can’t complain too much about our football situation.
- Southern Miss Football/Baseball – Meh, baseball is good, at least.
- Bayer Leverkusen – I adore this club. Funnily enough, I became a fan through FIFA. In FIFA 15-16, free kicks were incredibly fun, and Leverkusen had Hakan Çalhanoğlu, arguably the best free-kick taker at the time. I started using them in career mode and never looked back. Now, I find myself waking up at 7 a.m. on Saturdays to catch Bundesliga matches. Last year, I traveled to Cologne to watch them in person during their historic title-winning season!
OS: The Braves aren’t off to the best of starts, but since you’re a Braves guy, who’s winning the World Series this year?
Justin: Even with the parity in MLB, it’s hard not to go chalk with LAD, right? I don’t think my Braves are set up to win in October this year, but if I had to root for another team, it would be DET or KC.
OS: Any personal favorite sports games of all-time?
Justin: MVP Baseball 04, FIFA 13 & 15, MLB 13: The Show, NCAA Football 14, Fight Night Champion.
OS: Plenty of classics in there, and I’ll always go to bat for the story mode of Champion. What are your go-to sports games these days?
Justin: Typically, the newest versions of MLB The Show, OOTP, Football Manager, FIFA/EA FC, Madden, NBA 2K, and Rocket League (does that count?).
OS: Rocket League definitely counts, we voted it as the second-best sports game of the decade.
OS: You’ve done stuff on OS like the All-Inclusive Franchise Spreadsheet and Franchise Fidelity to Reality Roster project. What got you into doing stuff like that?
Justin: I’m a huge numbers/stats nerd, which is a big reason I love baseball. It’s one of the few sports where stats can truly tell the full story. As mentioned, I love games like OOTP and Football Manager and have always wished there was a way to marry the detailed stats of OOTP or FM with the gameplay of MLBTS or FIFA. For years, MLB The Show lacked advanced stats and in-depth tracking, leading me to take matters into my own hands. Thankfully, recent iterations of MLB The Show have improved, but there’s still a long way to go.
OS: What’s the biggest thing you’d change about modern-day sports games?
Justin: An issue stemming from Sony/Microsoft restrictions, but the ability to export save files would be wonderful. This could create a system similar to NCAA Football 14, where creators developed database tools, roster editors, etc. The ability to quickly import roster ratings and export franchise stats would be phenomenal. Essentially, some form of dev tools would be incredible, but sadly, it’s unlikely to happen.
OS: You do so much for the community, would you like to plug anything or give a shoutout to anyone on OS?
Justin: Here’s a Discord server originally created for our FFTR Roster, now evolved into a general MLB The Show and MLB season discussion: https://discord.gg/JcmX2fG4
Also, I love discussing my projects or stats. Anyone can reach me at jwdixon on Discord. Lastly, I’d like to shoutout fellow roster creators Cycloniac, who does fantastic work with TrueSim, and TheBleedingRed, a pillar of the Madden modding community. And to you, Chase, for writing a few articles about my tools last year, that was really cool!
I want to thank Justin once more for giving me some of his time to answer some questions, and I hope to do more of these in the future. Cheers!
Published: Apr 23, 2025 12:24 pm