Backyard Baseball

Backyard Baseball is a series of baseball video games for children which was developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari. It was first released in October 1997 for Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. Later games were featured on Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Wii, and iOS. It is part of the Backyard Sports series. There have been eleven different versions of the game since 1997. Some of the game titles that were created include Backyard Baseball, Backyard Baseball 2001-2010, and Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers.

Backyard Baseball
The current Backyard Baseball logo
Genre(s)Sports
Developer(s)Humongous Entertainment
Publisher(s)Humongous Entertainment
Infogrames
Atari
The Evergreen Group
Platform(s)Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Wii, Windows, iOS, Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Macintosh
First releaseBackyard Baseball
October 10, 1997
Latest releaseBackyard Sports: Baseball
2015

The original game consisted of 30 neighborhood kids from which the player must build a team.[1] Over the years, the idea of "Pro players as kids" became popular, and the original statistics and looks of the players changed. Some of the professional players that were available included Chipper Jones, Frank Thomas, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Ichiro Suzuki, Sammy Sosa, Jim Thome, Albert Pujols, Nomar Garciaparra, Ken Griffey Jr., and Barry Bonds. As the game progresses, there are some professionals that become available or "unlockable" including Randy Johnson, Derek Jeter, and Mike Piazza.

In Backyard Baseball, players take a managerial role by creating a team of different players to compete against opponents. In the different installments, one could choose to play a one-off exhibition game or a seasonal league, followed by the "Backyard Baseball League" playoffs, which contains the American League and National League divisional series, the AL and NL championship series and finally the "Backyard Baseball World Series". Series games will vary per game.

This game has various playable modes and they include: Single Game, Batting Practice, Spectator, and Season Game.

In 2013, The Evergreen Group acquired the intellectual property from Atari.

Legacy

Pablo Sanchez, one of the fictional playable characters in the game, has been regarded as one of the strongest athletes in video game history.[2][3][4]

The game has also been noted for its diversity (gender, race, disability, etc.) of characters, both in ratio of white to non-white and male to female, as well as skill level and the distribution of the best characters.[5]

Players

In Backyard Baseball 2001, the Backyard kids are joined by 31 MLB pro players, many of which were all-stars during the 1999 Major League Baseball All Star Game. Eventual Hall of Fame players featured include Barry Larkin, Vladimir Guerrero, Jeff Bagwell, Larry Walker, Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter, Mike Piazza, Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Ivan Rodriguez, and Randy Johnson, who are all playable characters to choose from.

Several of these players would be featured in multiple releases including Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez.

Installments
Title Year Platforms Cover athlete
Backyard BaseballOctober 10, 1997[6]Macintosh, WindowsOriginal characters
Backyard Baseball 2001June 6, 2000[7]Macintosh, WindowsCal Ripken Jr.
Backyard Baseball2002Game Boy AdvanceMike Piazza
Backyard Baseball 20032002Macintosh, Windows
Backyard Baseball2003GameCubeAlex Rodriguez
Backyard Baseball2004PlayStation 2
Backyard Baseball 20052004Windows
Backyard Baseball 20062005Game Boy Advance
Backyard Sports: Baseball 20072006Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, WindowsAlbert Pujols
Backyard Baseball 092008Nintendo DS, Wii, PlayStation 2, WindowsDavid Ortiz
Backyard Baseball 10 2009Nintendo DS, Wii, PlayStation 2
Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers2010Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, WindowsOriginal characters
Backyard Sports: Baseball 20152015iOS, Android; published by Fingerprint Network

References
  1. Kram, Zach (2017-10-10). "How 'Backyard Baseball' Became a Cult Classic". The Ringer. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  2. "Pablo Sanchez: The Origin Of A Video Game Legend". www.wbur.org. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  3. "The 25 Best Virtual Athletes In Video Games". Complex. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  4. Carson, Dan. "The 15 Most Unfair and Terrifying Video Game Athletes to Play Against". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  5. Delayo, Mike (10 May 2019). "The Inclusive Legacy of Backyard Baseball". Fangraphs.
  6. "Contact: Mike Salvadore, Communications Manager". Archived from the original on 1998-05-25. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  7. . 2000-05-19 https://web.archive.org/web/20000519222456/http://www.humongous.com/. Archived from the original on 2000-05-19. Retrieved 2023-06-19. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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