From the Bad Idea File

Now, I'm all in favor of any peripheral that makes video gaming a more realistic experience. Sports games in particular lose something when they're ported to a video game format. It's hard to get absorbed in playing soccer or hockey or football or whatever when the extent of your action is thumb-wiggling and the occasional index-finger twitch. This interactive baseball game, with bat and ball wireless controllers, is a great idea. Anywhere but in the main aisle of Best Buy.

Some brilliant marketing strategist set up the demo of that hard plastic game device in one of the busiest aisles of our local Best Buy, a high-traffic area perfect for increasing the game's visibility, but with a couple of major logistical flaws: swinging a baseball bat has certain spatial requirements, and people don't always look around themselves when they're playing video games. I almost got clocked in the face by a preteen trying to slug one out of the park. That's not all bad, though, because that incident put us on guard when we had to go back down the aisle when a much younger and shorter child was swinging the bat willy-nilly at waist level.