Backyard Baseball

This is one of those goofy oddball cards I've been chasing for a long time. Gamers should be familiar with the Backyard Sports series of sports games that feature pro stars as little kids playing games on the playground, in an alley or, naturally, in someone's backyard. There's a bunch of commercials for the new version of the baseball game featuring Big Papi as a little kid all over the TV right now. Back in 2000, they packed some cards inside the box of the Backyard Baseball 2001 game.

The cards were made by Pacific and are pretty similar to their base set from that year. Like anybody remembers what Pacific's base set looked like. Like anybody remembers Pacific at all. Well trust me, they look kind of similar. I'm not sure who is in the set or even if there was more than one card per box, but there's a Chipper card and a Griffey card out there for sure. Probably a Cal Ripken Jr. card too since the little kid version of him was on the cover of the game. The front of the card has a normal picture of Chipper, but the back has the kid version from the game.


This is a very cartoony game as you can see. The new version has 3D players running around, but I kind of like the old school toons. In the 2001 version (yes, I have it) there is at least one major league player for each team and a gaggle of backyard kids who play along with the pros. If you want to beat the game every time (yes, I play the game too) forget picking the major leaguers and get Pablo Sanchez to play third, Keisha Phillips in the outfield and Luanne Lui to pitch with your first three picks. Get those three and everything else is gravy. Also: the kid version of Frank Thomas is easily the best player in the game but he brags too much, Nomar Garciaparra is a nervous wreck and Curt Schilling is just plain weird. Kid Curt drones on like he's a narcolepic when he's chattering out in the field which is annoying enough. However, one time Curt went off on this bizarre monologue that sounded like something out of a Samuel Beckett play. I have no idea why the developers decided to make Curt insane in this game, but it was well done especially by the voice talent. Chipper has more of an 'aw shucks' Leave it to Beaver persona thankfully. I picked up the game used so I never got the cards, but I happened upon this one recently and snagged it. I'm a total sucker for oddballs.