The Backyard Baseball Project

So in the past few days, you might have seen some pictures I've been putting up of GM's for a Backyard Baseball 2001 fantasy draft. And a lot of you are probably confused and don't know what I'm talking about. Maybe some of you saw it because your friend was tagged in the picture and you are just discovering this blog for the first time. Well do not fear, in this blog post I will layout everything that is being planned.

So you remember the Backyard Sports series right? For anyone that was inbetween the ages of three or four years older than me, and three or four years younger than me, these were the best games ever. It was the best 4-12 game in the world. We were the Backyard Sports generation. To those that don't understand the Backyard Sports craze, first of all I feel sorry for you. Second, I will explain it.

The Backyard Sports franchise started in 1997, with the release of Backyard Baseball. The game featured 30 cartoon fictional kids with unique personalities that you could pick from and build your team. You would play against other teams in a regular season and try to win the World Series.

The game featured several power-ups that you could get from doing things such as turning a double play. There were four hitting power-ups. The first was a crazy-bunt. The crazy-bunt was always a fun won to pull. You put your bat out like you're typically laying down a bunt and your opponent was in for a nasty surprise. The ball would bounce around everywhere in the park, normally ending up in the outfield while the ball made a laughing sound. There was the under-grounder. The under-grounder had you hit a ball right in to the ground and dig a hole, which would pop out some place randomly on the field seconds later. Thirdly, you had the screaming line drive. The name pretty much explains it. Using that power-up, you could smack an uncatchable hard-hit ball in to the outfield that would most likely get you a double or a triple. Yep, those were all great power-ups.

Of course there was no power-up that will ever top the aluminum power bat. Using the aluminum power bat, if you made contact with the ball, you were guaranteed a home run. These were a rare commodity. I recall intentionally walking players on the other team so that I could turn a double play and get a power-up and only hope that it was an aluminum power bat.

As a pitcher, you could earn pitching power-ups by striking guys out. There was more of a variety of pitching power-ups. Some examples include the spitball, fireball, elevator ball, super slow-mo ball, and the corkscrew curve ball. The negative to throwing these power pitches was that you would lose a lot of your pitcher's stamina, or "juice" as they called it. You could gain a juice box power-up that would recharge your pitcher's stamina back to full.

Anyway, as I ramble on, the early Backyard Baseball games were a huge part of my childhood. I spent so much time playing them, as did every other kid on my block. The game was like the film The Sandlot, where a bunch of neighborhood kids play baseball together. What was very exciting as a youngster was when they came out with the feature of being able to play as 31 MLB players as kids. There were 31- one from each team except for the Reds, who had two (Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr.). Some say this was the best thing to happen to the series, some say it was the worst. Others like me don't think it had an immediate impact.

The first Backyard Baseball game started a big franchise. Many games came from it including my personal favorite Backyard Football. Even my dad played Backyard Football. He got himself hooked on it, and on the days he worked from home he would find himself playing it for over an hour or two when he needed to be doing work. The games were so much fun. I can't do them justice just by talking about them.

But anyway, let me explain what I'm doing and what brought you here. With the NFL Draft approaching, there was an idea to bring together six Backyard Baseball gurus. Yes, six of my friends from high school that are passionate Backyard Baseball fans, are joining together for a Backyard Baseball 2001 draft. The six GMs will be drafting teams of nine against each other. I will not be drafting, however I will be doing pick-by-pick analysis. Each GM will also come up with a team name and will select a home stadium. Both Pros and Backyard kids will be available in the draft. One of my favorite parts about the Backyard Sports games was picking the players. All the players would be sitting on a row of bleachers and when you would click on one, you would see their player cards showing their skills and ratings, along with a brief player bio. They would also talk to you and tell you why you should pick them. This was a fun feature, and I think the games started to jump the shark once this was removed.

Well I'm bringing it back. Yes, there will be a six team Backyard Baseball draft and the GMs will not only draft but show us their lineup cards. There will be more to this project as well. We'll just roll with it and if I have any new ideas I will include them. I am really excited to bring you this project and I hope you guys are as equally excited to see what happens.

If you just discovered this blog and you would like to stay up to date with all the latest on this project, please like my Facebook fan page. Also, let me hear your thoughts. Are you excited about this project? What was your favorite Backyard Sports game? Do you like the game with or without the pros? Comment below, hit me up on Twitter @vellvita7 or let me know on the Facebook fan page. As always, thanks for reading!