One-on-One with a Millionaire

I can think of some pretty ridiculous ways to win a million dollars: a cheeseburger eating contest, bubble gum blowing contest, Justin Bieber look-a-like contest. But while those all seem pretty wild, none of them seem as strange as paying someone a million dollars to play a video game.

Yet that’s exactly what the folks over at 2K Sports did last week when they awarded 24-year-old Wade McGilberry of Semmes, Alabama a million cool ones for being the first person to pitch a certified perfect game in MLB 2K10.

“I never thought I'd actually win a million dollars playing a video game,” McGilberry said. “It's all still sinking in for me.”

It may be hard to grasp for McGilberry because he accomplished the tough feat almost immediately. Wade threw a verified perfect game on the first day of the competition, in only his seventh attempt.

Now if you’re sitting back at home thinking, “Man, I could take this guy on. He’s probably no better than me.” Think again. McGilberry can pitch. Trust me, I know from experience. You see the other day, I got a chance to meet McGilberry in person and take him on for an inning of MLB 2K10. We went head-to-head at Citi Field before a Mets-Giants game.

Here’s a quick recap of how things went:

Strikeout. Strikeout. Strikeout.

12 pitches. One foul tip. Yeah, it was ugly. I even had the heart of the Mets’ order up in my half of the inning. So trust me, McGilberry earned his million bucks.

If you want to see how it all went down, check out the video of me flailing and failing against the newly crowned millionaire at the top of this post.