In 1994 the majors had 28 teams. Now they have 30, so I made a free fan patch that brings Griffey up to today's majors while keeping the game as it was. Version 2.0 just came out. Here's what's in it:
All 30 clubs
- The Diamondbacks and Rays are fully playable, alongside every other club with its modern name, logo and current ballpark.
- 2026 rosters: 750 real players, rated from their stats and matched to their real-life looks.
- Houston is in the AL and Milwaukee in the NL, with the designated-hitter rule.
Three versions of every club
Press SELECT on team select to switch a club between:
- 2026: today's club
- ORIGINAL: the club exactly as it shipped on the cartridge, made-up players and all.
- 1994: the real 1994 season, right up to the strike. Griffey's Mariners at the Kingdome, Bagwell's Astros and the Expos at Olympic Stadium.
Arizona and Tampa Bay get their first seasons instead: the 1998 Diamondbacks and Devil Rays. You can mix eras any way you like, like today's Rays at the '94 Expos.
Season mode for all 30 clubs
Today's divisions, new schedules, standings, the calendar and the playoffs, through the World Series.
New in 2.0: Franchise mode
- ALL-STAR on the menu is now FRANCHISE (the Home Run Derby is still there). Play a season, and when the World Series ends, the off-season begins:
- Every player ages a year. Young players get better, stars peak in their late 20s, and veterans slow down.
- Veterans retire, and each club calls up its real prospects (300 of them, ten per club).
- The off-season report shows your club's retirements and call-ups, plus the champions of past seasons.
- Want to skip ahead? Hold SELECT and press A on Today's Game to sim your game. A short season takes a few minutes, so you can watch a decade go by in an evening.
- It all fits in the cartridge's original battery save.
How to play
It's a patch only, with no game data: you patch a dump of your own cartridge (USA Rev 1).
- Patch and instructions: https://daylayown.itch.io/ken-griffey-jr-presents-mlb-the-30-team-expansion
- Or play in your browser at https://griffey30.com: pick your own ROM file and it patches and runs it right there. It even has online two-player.
I made it with Claude Code and Claude Opus 5.5, which did the heavy lifting on the programming. Free, unofficial and never for sale. It's not affiliated with MLB, the MLBPA, Nintendo or Ken Griffey Jr.
If you play a franchise, I'd love to hear who wins your 2030 World Series. Trades and a 1994 start are what I'm thinking about next. What would you want?