Baseball team plans Xbox playoff

Two baseball teams have agreed to put down their bats and pick up their Xbox controllers next month for a play-off with a difference.

According to the Kansas City Star, the first two innings of the match between the Kansas City T-Bones and the Schaumburg Flyers - scheduled for July 16 - will be played out via MVP Baseball 2005 on Xbox.

The console will be hooked up to the ballpark's 16 by 24 foot video screen so the crowd can cheer their teams on, and once the virtual innings are up players will take to the field for the remainder of the match - with their game scores taken into account, of course.

Bryan Williams, director of community relations for the T-Bones, says he got the idea from his six-year-old niece.

"It just grew and grew and took off," he explains. "Everybody in the world is going to want to do this after us."

Only in America. Because they don't have baseball anywhere else, obviously.