Charlie Manuel loves him some ‘Punch Out!’

There’s nothing like a conversation about old-school video games to get everyone excited. Mention Tecmo Super Bowl in a group of 20-to-30 year old guys and you’ll get bombarded for an hour with stories of QB Eagles, ridiculously long punts and braggadocio about 106-0 wins and 14 safeties in a game.

Tecmo may be the gold standard of Nintendo sports games, but one that wasn’t far behind was Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! (You must spell this game’s title with the exclamation point.) The plot of the game is this: You’re a 10-year-old (or so) named Little Mac and you fight guys three times your size, culminating in the final fight against Mike Tyson.

And yesterday, as the Phillies were photographed for the upcoming game MLB ‘07 — MLB ‘06 is due out next week — Charlie Manuel shared his fondness for the 1980s classic:

Most, too young for the Atari revolution, first played a version of the ricochet game “Breakout” on a personal computer before graduating to the wonders of Nintendo staples “Super Mario Brothers,” “Donkey Kong” and “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.”

“You got to fight Bald Bull,” recalled manager Charlie Manuel, a “Pacman” fan who, at 62, owns a “Tetris” game.

Yep. You got to fight Bald Bull. (Twice.) Go get ‘em, Fightins!

Phillies have video games on their minds [DN]