I have never really been one to follow professional sports. I have never been able to find myself invested enough in a particular team to care about the outcome of their game or season. This fact about me is really odd when you consider the fact that I teach Physical Education. Usually, when people try to get to know a physical educator, their first question is typically something like, “So, what are your favorite teams?” Once I respond with “I don’t have any.”, I am shown a face that says “But, the NBA/NFL/NHL is all I had in common with the last PE teacher!” As you might expect, I have never been a very big fan of sports games either. Well, except for one.

Backyard Baseball is easily my favorite sports game of all time. Backyard Baseball is the first sports game by Humongous Entertainment, the creators of Putt-Putt and Spy Fox. Backyard Baseball starred a huge group of kids just playing pickup games of baseball in their backyard, a la Sandlot. It was followed by Backyard Soccer and then Backyard Football. Backyard Football was a particularly notable addition to the Backyard series, because it included some of the NFL’s best players as kids playing alongside they Backyard crew. I became a huge fan of Barry Sanders because of this game. I even asked my mom to by me is jersey! Keep in mind, I had never seen him play an actual football game. I’ve only seen him make 80 touchdown runs off of the great blocks of Dimitri “Paste” Petrovich as a little cartoon kid. If you showed me a picture of Barry Sanders, I would have no idea who it was. It was the closest I had ever gotten to be a fan of professional sports.

After the inclusion of the pro athletes as kids in Backyard Football, the Backyard series started incorporating cartoonized versions of pro players as kids into the other sports. Almost every release thereafter touted its ability to play with the pro-players as kids. The series also had to backtrack to other sports and incorporate the juvenile pro athletes. That means the repeat sports started getting years attached to the end of the title all while the original roster was slowly being replaced with proathletes. These professional athletes invading my cartoon baseball game did not sit well with me.

The original roster of characters is my favorite part of the game. Each character had such a different personality (except for the twins, Sidney and Ashley Webber).Their personalities were evident through their dialogue, flavor text on their baseball cards, and even their nicknames said something about them. I shudder at the potential reasons why Not only that, this was (is?) the most diverse and inclusive cast of characters I have ever seen in a video game.

There is a lot ot unpack in the idea that this cast of characters is inclusive. There is no denying that this cast is very diverse. *I can’t speak to saying what ethnicity a lot of the kids are specifically, but I can tell you that growing up in Gardnerville, Nevada I did not have the pleasure of playing at recess with anyone named “Achmed.”* There is a lot of contextual storytelling going on in this game. I am not just referring to the idea of these kids creating a robot. All of these kids are willingly playing together. It is Backyard Baseball. These pickup games are not happening during recess or during Physical Education class. These games are occurring on the kids’ own volition. Through the use of a drafting mechanic, it is apparent that this activity is all lead by the backyard gang.

Even if you believed that maybe this was a Little League scenario, would parents let a kid who calls himself “Vinnie the Gooch” provide color comentary?

So, let’s operate under the condition that all of these kids are here under their own will and not because their parents were good at baseball and want them to follow in their footsteps. That means that everyone available to pick have become friends in the various backyard areanas. If not friends, then at least tolerable acquaintances due to a mutual admiration for baseball. That mutual admiration has allowed a wide range of kids participate in these games.

Here are a couple of examples:

Pablo Sanchez

This kid is easily the best kid on the entire roster. You messed up big time if you did not pick him first. His stats are out of this world! But, after reading his bio and hearing him talk, it is cery clear that he cannot speak english. The fact that Pablo cannot speak any english says so much about the other characters. It tells me that all of the other do not care if he can’t speak english. He speaks the language of baseball, and that is enough for them. As a physical educator, I have taught several English Language Learners. In Physical Education class, the language barriers are virtually nonexistant. Instead of communicating verbally, we communicate physically. Being able to associate physical movements to words and phrases can even help in the aqcuisition of a new language for the student. They are able to make connections the are not able to connect in a Phys Ed environment as opposed to a classroom environment. So, as a PE teacher, I totally believe that a transfer student from Spanish speaking country can be picked first for pick up games of baseball. I imagine the kids at school begging Pablo to come play in their Backyard Baseball Leaugue when he first moved to their neighborhood.

Kenny Kawaguchi

One of the first thing you notice about Kenny is that he is in a wheelchair. Your first thought, along with the kids he is playing with, was probably along the lines of “He can play baseball?” You bet he can! He’s a dang good pitcher too. I love the fact that this is another instance of the kdis disregarding an obvious difference and speaking only in the language of baseball. Sure he is in a wheelchair, but he sure can move along those bases! All of the other kids he’s playing with do not care that he is in a chair; they only care that he can play ball. Like I mentioned before, I do not play a lot of sports games. But, I can’t think of many other sports games with disabled athletes included in their main roster. This makes this it an even bigger travesty when you consider the fast he got bumped out due to an ever expanding roster of young professional baseball players.