Marc Normandin

Maine

Newsletters on sports labor and retro video games (@RetroXP_MN), regular at @baseballpro and @PasteMagazine. Bylines at @DefectorMedia, @Polygon, more. he/him

Articles

Manfred Just Doesn't Understand

1 day ago | baseballprospectus.com | Marc Normandin
Gradius Origins Is a Good Start to Giving Gradius the Respect It Deserves-But It's Not Enough

2 weeks ago | pastemagazine.com | Marc Normandin

Let’s start here: Gradius Origins is a great, and overdue, idea. A package consisting of not just some early, classic Gradius titles, but multiple versions of them—no small thing for a series like Gradius, which released multiple games after the original Gradius before officially reaching the game we know of and consider as Gradius II. A series where Salamander (Japan) and Life Force (North America) are the same, except not, and also Life Force (Japan again) is different still.
Are The Pittsburgh Pirates Really In Dire Straits?

2 weeks ago | defector.com | Marc Normandin

Defector has partnered with Baseball Prospectus to bring you a taste of their work. They write good shit that we think you’ll like. If you do like it, we encourage you to check out their site and subscribe. This story was originally published at Baseball Prospectus on March 26.
Happy 25th, Resident Evil—CODE: Veronica. Now Where's That Remake?

3 weeks ago | pastemagazine.com | Marc Normandin

Poor Resident Evil—CODE: Veronica. At no point in its now 25-year history has it ever seemed like Capcom was giving it the attention it merited.
Transaction Analysis: Mariners Raleigh Around Their Backstop

4 weeks ago | baseballprospectus.com | Rob Mains |Carlos Marcano |Marc Normandin |Ginny Searle

The Mariners now have a second franchise player in the lineup for much of his career.
speX ’25: Week Zero

4 weeks ago | baseballprospectus.com | Rob Mains |Ginny Searle |Marc Normandin |Carlos Marcano

Which pitchers posted second-half speX scores, and why should you sign on right away?
100,000 Leagues Under the PECOTA: 2025

4 weeks ago | baseballprospectus.com | Carlos Marcano |Ginny Searle |Marc Normandin |Rob Mains

Flip a coin 10 times and you’ll probably come up with a combination of heads and tails. Probably. But not always. On rare occasions, you might get heads 10 times in a row. The odds against it are 1,024 to 1. Your chances of getting 10 consecutive heads are small, but not vanishingly small. It’s entirely possible. You want to know what’s almost impossible? The odds of winning Powerball are one in 292,201,338. Your chances of getting heads 28 times in a row are better. But people still play Powerball.
Konami Needs To Rerelease These Classic Games

1 month ago | pastemagazine.com | Marc Normandin

Despite how it often feels, Konami has done a pretty decent job of bringing some of their old games into the present. Not a great job, maybe not even a good one, but they’ve done better than plenty of others out there. You can mostly thank the existence of Hamster’s Arcade Archives series for that, however: there are nearly 60 Konami games on that service, including the most recent add as of this writing, 1983’s Juno First.
Season Preview: Kansas City Royals

1 month ago | baseballprospectus.com | Patrick Dubuque |Russell A. Carleton |Marc Normandin |Mario Delgado Genzor

Building off 2024 seems possible. Likely, though, is another question.
The Force Behind Baseball's Rising Tide

1 month ago | baseballprospectus.com | Patrick Dubuque |Matthew Trueblood |Marc Normandin |Russell A. Carleton

Replacement-level hitters and pitchers are improving, but the latter are getting help.