How a video game glitch spawned baseball’s most unlikely fan club

Article content

It is easy for a middle reliever to fall into anonymity.

A demotion is almost always closer than an all-star nod. Jersey numbers are often closer to 100 than 1. Postgame interview questions more frequently focus on the mistakes that cost their team a game, not the shutdown innings that helped lock down a win.

After eight years in the majors, Washington Nationals right-hander Derek Law is accustomed to the obscurity of life on the outside. Fine with it. Jovial, even. The 34-year-old with a big smile estimates that once a year – no, once every two years – he will see someone wearing a jersey with his name and number in the stands.

So imagine his surprise Sunday at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, where he spotted three teenagers, all repping his jersey. And imagine the three teenagers’ surprise when he embraced them with open arms.

“I was like, ‘What’s going on?'” Law said.

“I think about [meeting him] every three seconds, and it still puts a smile on my face every time,” Trent Woods said.

Here was the meeting of the Derek Law fan club. Present: three 18-year-olds from Louisville, twins Trent and Trey Woods and their friend Kooper Dean. Plus the man himself, who wandered over from the visiting dugout on a spring afternoon. The teens were so euphoric that they jumped in delight. Law, in Nationals red, was so charmed, he held his cap over his heart.

What brought all this about – the jerseys, the scene, the joy? It started with a glitch in a video game.

In the “Diamond Dynasty” mode of video game series MLB: The Show, gamers compete against each other with teams composed of baseball cards. The better the player, the better the rating. The better the rating, the better they are in the video game, generally speaking. For real-life MLB players, though, the game’s creators concocted a special twist, called “Real 99s.” It scrapped the rating system and gave the player a 99 rating for his own card. In simple terms, it meant real MLB players could play with a juggernaut version of themselves.

But a glitch in last year’s version of the game meant anyone could get a “Real 99” card on their team. The three teenagers scrolled and scrolled, looking to exploit the bug, until they landed on a random player with the “Real 99” rating. It was Law.

They threw an immaculate inning with him and figured, heck, might as well become fans.

This is something Law, who played MLB: The Show when he was younger, could relate to. He remembers what it was like to love an unheralded player in real life simply because he dominated with them in the video game.

Through video game Derek Law, the trio attached themselves to a real-life happy-go-lucky presence in Washington’s bullpen. But they also just so happened to pick quite a character, too.

Law is the only reliever who has semi-reliably used the team’s popular bullpen cart since the start of 2024. He runs out to the song “High Hopes,” by Panic! at the Disco, because it was the soundtrack to a Sonic compilation video that his kids liked. TV cameras have captured him placing gummy bears on the dugout railing for good luck.

And he never, ever, ever wants to stop pitching – a trait that made him the most valuable arm in Manager Dave Martinez’s bullpen last year. That came with a price: Law hasn’t appeared under the ballpark lights at all in 2025; he dealt with “general soreness” in spring training and, by late March, had decided he wouldn’t be ready for Opening Day.

But that same month, back in Kentucky, a plan began to take shape. The three teens bought tickets to Washington’s May 3 game against the Cincinnati Reds with seats next to the bullpen. At the ballpark, they typed out messages in big letters on their phones, asking Nationals relievers to grab Law. Bullpen coach Ricky Bones threw some signed baseballs their way, but the group was otherwise out of luck.

Law wasn’t on the injured list with forearm inflammation when they bought the tickets. And they weren’t privy to his game day habits and rituals, which on this night kept him out of the bullpen.

“If we’re winning, then I usually stay in the dugout,” Law said.

And so another plan hatched. The Woods twins and Dean learned where Washington’s team bus would depart. After the game, an 11-6 Washington win, they waited outside for an hour. They never saw the Nationals board. Law didn’t see them, either, until he was already on the bus.

But as the bus started to drive away, they ran after it, arms waving. Law laughed. And then, 45 minutes later, he checked his DMs.

One of the teens had reached out and told Law they had just missed him. A stunned Law pressed them to come to Sunday’s game. They didn’t have tickets. He sent them over – Section 112, about 26 rows back.

“I started screaming and crying,” Trent Woods said over Zoom a few days later.

The Woods twins called off work at Papa Johns, telling their boss they had somewhere important to be, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“They didn’t understand it then,” Trey Woods said. “I think they kind of understand it a little now.”

They left their homes in Louisville for the second day in a row and drove two hours to Great American Ball Park. Upon entering, they made a beeline for the dugout. Right-hander Cole Henry noticed the three teens and headed back into the clubhouse. Pitching coach Jim Hickey wandered over, clearly amused, grinned and took a photo.

And then, euphoria. Law walked out of the dugout, and the trio just about lost their minds. Law removed his cap once he saw them and placed it over his heart as a sign of respect. First, he addressed the elephant in the room – one of the Woods twins, Trent, was sporting a bootleg Nationals cherry blossom jersey with No. 56 on the back. That is close but not quite right. Law wears No. 58. Law just went with it, though, and added a No. 56 at the end of his autograph.

He spent about five minutes chatting with them and signing everything they owned – their jerseys, their caps, a couple of baseballs and a Teddy Roosevelt Funko Pop. All the while, he heard their road to fandom. He was humbled. They were starstruck. He admitted it made him a little emotional – he didn’t expect fans to think of him in such a manner.

“For me, it’s probably just – he’s an MLB player. It’s so not natural for them to interact with fans that much,” Dean said. “But he was totally cool. It was just so awesome.”

“I’ve never met a famous person before,” Trent Woods said, “and the fact that he’s my first one is just awesome.”

As for Law: “I think it was just cool because I could relate to it. I love that.”