Backyard Baseball 2001

As coach, you pick from either the 30 fictitious Backyard Kits, 31 real major league players portrayed as kids, or both. Pick a Backyard Sports team or create your own, or pick from 30 licensed MLB teams (with uniforms and logos). Play a single game, or an entire season (winning pennants and trophies and maybe getting into the Hall of Fame), or even online against other BB2001 players. There’s even batting practice, from Tee-ball to Hard difficulties, and a Spectator mode to let two teams duke it out while you watch. And, as with Backyard Sports titles, there are power-ups: pitches like the Big Freeze, Corkscrew, or Elevator.

The game features pretty simple menus, baseball cards of all the players, rosters and schedules, a system of “Good & Bad Days” that alter players’ stats (one person may not like Tuesdays, or be much better when a particular person is on the other team, etc). Players do move differently on different fields, slower on sand and faster on turf.