''Backyard Baseball'' is a series of

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

video games for children which was developed by

Humongous Entertainment Humongous Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company is best known for developing multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently '' Putt-Putt'', '' Freddi Fish'', '' Paja ...

and published by

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, Cali ...

. It was first released in October 1997 for Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. Later games were featured on Game Boy Advance,

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia o ...

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wi ...

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

, and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

. It is part of the ''

Backyard Sports ''Backyard Sports'' (originally branded as ''Junior Sports'') is a video game series released for consoles, computers and mobile devices. The series is best known for starring kid-sized versions of popular professional sports stars, such as Albe ...

'' 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''. The original game consisted of 30 neighborhood kids from which the player must build a team. 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 Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones Jr. (born April 24, 1972) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves from 1993 to 2012. The Braves chose Jones with the List of first ov ...

, Frank Thomas,

Alex Rodriguez Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez (born July 27, 1975), nicknamed "A-Rod", is an American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman, businessman and philanthropist. Rodriguez played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the ...

Alfonso Soriano Alfonso Guilleard Soriano (born January 7, 1976) is a Dominican former professional baseball left fielder and second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, and Chicago Cu ...

, Ichiro Suzuki, Sammy Sosa,

Jim Thome James Howard Thome (; born August 27, 1970) is an American former professional baseball corner infielder and designated hitter, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 22 seasons (1991–2012). He played for six different teams during the ...

Albert Pujols José Alberto Pujols Alcántara () (); born January 16, 1980) is a Dominican-American former professional baseball first baseman, designated hitter and third baseman who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "The Machine", ...

, Nomar Garciaparra,

Ken Griffey Jr. George Kenneth Griffey Jr. (born November 21, 1969), nicknamed "Junior" and "the Kid", is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played 22 years in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent most of his career with the Seattle M ...

, and

Barry Bonds Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Giants ...

. As the game progresses, there are some professionals that become available or "unlockable" including Randy Johnson, Derek Jeter, and

Mike Piazza Michael Joseph Piazza ( ; born September 4, 1968) is an American former professional baseball catcher who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1992 to 2007. He currently serves as the manager of the Italian national baseball te ...

. 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 The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

and

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

divisional series, the AL and NL championship series and finally the "Backyard Baseball

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Wor ...

". 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. 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.

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 The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...

. Eventual Hall of Fame players featured include

Barry Larkin Barry Louis Larkin (born April 28, 1964) is an American former professional baseball player. He played shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1986 to 2004. He briefly played in the minor leagues before making hi ...

Vladimir Guerrero Vladimir Alvino Guerrero Sr. (born February 9, 1975), nicknamed "Vlad the Impaler", is a Dominican former professional baseball player who spent 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right fielder and designated hitter. He played for ...

, Jeff Bagwell,

Larry Walker Larry Kenneth Robert Walker (born December 1, 1966) is a Canadian former professional baseball right fielder. During his 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played with the Montreal Expos, Colorado Rockies, and St. Louis Cardinals. I ...

, Derek Jeter,

, Tony Gwynn,

Cal Ripken Jr. Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. (born August 24, 1960), nicknamed " The Iron Man", is an American former baseball shortstop and third baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1981–2001). One of his posit ...

, 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

Installments

References

External links

Official ''Backyard Baseball'' website
{{Humongous , state=collapsed 1997 video games Humongous Entertainment games Infogrames games Atari games Major League Baseball video games ScummVM-supported games Baseball genres Classic Mac OS games Video games developed in Canada Video games developed in the United States Video game franchises Windows games