MLB Slugfest 2003 is a baseball video game published by Midway Sports in 2002. It is the first game in the MLB Slugfest series. Alex Rodriguez from the Texas Rangers is the cover athlete. The game received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Maxim gave the Xbox version universal acclaim in its early review nearly three months before said console version was released Stateside. It was nominated for GameSpot's annual "Best Alternative Sports Game on GameCube" and "Best Alternative Sports Game on Xbox" awards but lost both to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4.