From the Vault #1 Backyard Baseball - Draft & Review

From the Vault is our series where we revisit and re-release older episodes from the podcast archive. In this episode, originally uploaded on August 24, 2022, we combine our Backyard Baseball PC episode into one complete listen. First, we draft our favorite kids from the game’s roster, then follow it up with our full review of the classic backyard sports title.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Hey everybody, before the episode starts, I was just wanting to quickly clear up what this even is. So as we stated in our Yoshi's Island episode, we originally started this podcast way back in 2021. So we have a decent backlog of older episodes, and a lot of you all, uh the older listeners have said that they want to listen to those older episodes again. So what we're gonna do while we're playing longer games, for instance, we're on Metal Gear Solid 2 right now, we're gonna be putting out one of these a week. The Metal Gear episode has been recorded and it should be out fairly soon, probably within this week. Now I wanted to say where these are older episodes, sometimes the quality can be hit or miss, a little questionable. The cheesy ass intro song is gonna be intact, and sometimes in these older episodes we talk about news of the day. For instance, this is uh 2022. I don't think we talk about news in this one, but some of them will be a bit outdated and won't really be relevant to today's time. But for those of you who want to listen to them, I'm gonna make sure that they are available again. So anyway, I hope you all enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Hey everybody, welcome into the bonus episode. Um, this episode is right before our backyard baseball episode. With me today, we have Tanner and we got Carter. And you have myself, yeah, you have myself Jared. Um, we're putting this uh little bonus episode together to start our baseball our backyard baseball episode off. What we're gonna be doing today, um, first of all, I'm gonna explain how you can get this game right now. It's a little bit difficult to get. Uh, you could buy the disc probably off eBay or something like that, but like as Carter, I believe we've mentioned earlier, like in a different episode, how this is like so old that you can get it for free now and it's not too illegal. It's not sound about I think it's in the public domain. I think it's not illegal at all. Right. So you can Google Backyard Baseball and you can download it. I downloaded mine from something called myabandonware.game.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Oh, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Sounds sketchy.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

I found mine from a Pirate Pay. Uh okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Well, I don't know. I don't know this shit, but I got it from myabandonware.com. It's 112 megabytes. I downloaded it, and then I had to download a software called Scum VM. That's that's what sounds catchy. Well, yeah, I know that name is fucking awful, but it's S-C-U-M-M-V-M, ScumVM, and that's where you can play this backyard baseball file from. But yeah, I'm pumped. We're here to talk a little bit about backyard baseball and draft our team. Are you all ready for this?

SPEAKER_05 2:46

I'm fucking pumped, man. That's what I was telling you before we started this. I'm like, this is one of another one of your great ideas with this game. Like, we could have gone the traditional route and just recorded the podcast and stuff, but we're putting a little spin on it, and I think this will be a lot of fun because if I'm not mistaken, Jared, I've never played this game, but there's 30 kids in it, correct?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Exactly. I was about to say that. There's 30 kids, as you all may or may not know on a traditional baseball team. There's nine kids on each team. So what we're gonna do is me, Carter, Tanner, we're gonna spin a wheel here in a second to determine our draft order. We're not gonna do a traditional like snake draft. That means where you go from one, two, three, three, two, one, one, two, three, three, two, one. I say we just one, two, three it because with the small amount of people we are, I think that makes the most sense. Like it would be get a little bit ridiculous of doing like Tanner, Tanner, me, Carter, Carter, me, Tanner, Tanner. Yeah. So I think just one, two, three, one, two, three will work best. But before we do that, guys, I have the actual software open now, and you might hear a little bit back like uh background music. I think we need to pick our team logo and team name. So in backyard baseball, what we're gonna do is there's a season mode, and you get to kind of create your own team and team name, and with that, there's 10 adjectives and ten nouns. You pick one of each. Okay. I'll let you all have it. I don't care. So I'm gonna go over the adjectives first. There's blue, red, crazy, white, green, little, mighty, super duper, humongous, junior. Okay, those are the adjectives. Okay, nouns are bombers, the rockets, hornets, socks, giants, wombats, melon heads, all-stars, monsters, fishes. So we need to choose an adjective and a noun, and I say we go totally different from each other.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

Okay. Can I go first?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Go for it.

SPEAKER_05 4:49

I want the uh humongous melon heads.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Humongous melon heads. That is freaking hilarious, Tanner, because that's the default. Humongo heads. Is that really? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

You're the default.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Yes. I thought I was being clever, but soon as you open up a season, yeah. As soon as you open up a season, right now, it's got humongous melon heads for mine. And also, Tanner, you need to choose a color from black, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, purple, pink, and then like a grayish white.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

Okay, well, to go with the melon theme, let's go green.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Green. Okay. So Tanner is the humongous melon heads with a green uniform, Carter. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Let's see. I'm going with the seventh option. Seventh all the way across? Um, yeah, whatever the seventh is. I'm doing a nan random number generator to get my. Oh, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Well, okay. Mighty is the seventh adjective. Okay. But melon head is the seventh noun. So choose.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

I was going to roll again for the noun.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

How about boom? Five.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Mighty giants. Okay. I like it. And a color. The fourth color. Fourth color is yellow. So Carter is the yellow mighty giants. I like it. I like it. Let's be. I might go. So you went melonheads. Carter went giants. I'm looking at my noun first. I might go rockets and do a theme of little rockets. Just the little rockets with a blue uniform.

SPEAKER_05 6:19

It's pretty relatable.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah, little rockets. Yeah, I'll go with that. Little rockets blue uniform. That's me. So we have the mighty melon heads, right? Or no, no, no. Humongous melonheads in a green uniform for Tanner. We have the mighty giants in a yellow uniform for Carter, and we've got the Little Rockets in a blue uniform for me. I like it, guys. I like it.

SPEAKER_05 6:42

Yes, sir. Okay. Now we need our team, correct?

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Best part right here coming up. We're going to do a little drafting, boys. So what are we doing?

SPEAKER_05 6:52

We're going to be spinning a wheel based on who goes first, correct? Like out of us.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Right. So what I want you to do, Tanner, is spin the wheel to get us our best just draft order.

SPEAKER_05 7:03

Okay. So here's who's going first.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Carter is going first. Ah, shit.

SPEAKER_05 7:12

And then second is going to be Jared.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Okay. And Tanner has a third pick then. Yep. Okay, Carter, you got 30 kids. You got the list I emailed you, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yes. So with the first pick to kick off this uh backyard baseball draft, the yellow. Mighty giant select Pablo Sanchez. The most obvious pick in the game, it says.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

I've never played in this game, but I don't even know who Pablo Sanchez is.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

So each pick, I'm going to give a little bit of info. So Pablo Sanchez, if I can. Pablo Sanchez, nickname the secret weapon. It says Pablo does not speak any English, it seems, but he knows the language of baseball and knows it well. Simply put, this kid is good. This game goes by like a rating score. Pablo is a four out of four on batting, four out of four on running, four out of four on fielding, three out of four on pitching. So you've got yourself a freaking solid player, Carter. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

One of the best, if not the best. And I'll check him off in yellow so I'll know what team he's on. Same here.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

At the end, be sure to remind me, let's go over our difficulty so we stay kind of even with each other. There's several difficulty settings you can adjust, but we'll all go the same to make it like a good experience. And even if I lose, whatever I get, I get with my pick as the Little Rockets. Is that right? The Little Rockets. I'm going Pete Willer.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

Pete Willer.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Pete Willer. And as far as old Petey Boy goes, let's see. Nickname Willie. He's a tall, like slender, red-headed kid. Uh point Pete in the right direction and tell him to run. No one will catch him. His mighty swing is legendary. And if he makes contact, or if he makes contact, that is, as far as his stats goes, Carter's pick was four out of four on three attributes and three out of four on one. Mine has three out of four batting, three out of four pitching, three out of four fielding, four out of four running. So he's a fast guy.

SPEAKER_05 9:25

Jeez. Okay. So you both got really nice players. Okay, I already got my pick. I'm gonna go with Kenny Kawaguchi.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Kenny!

SPEAKER_05 9:34

Yes, sir. I love that he's in a wheelchair and he's still playing baseball. I think that's amazing. I want him on the pitcher.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

As Tanner mentioned before, like this game, you know, to be made in '97 was super inclusive to like all kids, man. And that is pretty awesome. Let's read about old Kenny Kalgucci. He is a freaking amazing pitcher. So Tanner took like care of that part of his game for sure. Kenny Kalgucci, nickname is K-Man. Don't let the wheelchair fool you. Kenny is a fantastic ball player. He is a sure-handed outfielder, and a speedy base wheeler. Attributes go as follows: two out of four batting, three out of four running, four out of four pitching, which is the first we've seen, and two out of four fielding.

SPEAKER_05 10:24

Good shit. This will likely be my pitcher then.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Carter's back up at the top.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Alright, my turn to pick again. I like the I like the kid's uh style. It looks like a rocker. I want to go with Ahmed Khan.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Nice pick, dude.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Okay. Looks like a slugger.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Yeah, man. He's like this guy with like headphones on. Looks like a decent sized kid. I mean, he's ready to bat, it looks like. Let's read about him. Achmed Khan, nickname Axeman. When Achmed isn't rocking out with his headphones on, he's a pretty solid player. Definitely a power hitter. He has a younger brother, Amir. That's all his like about me says. Batting is four out of four. Running, three out of four. Pitching, two out of four, fielding, two out of four. How about that offense? Okay, yeah, that's that's how he is for sure.

unknown 11:19

Bummer Dug.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

That was Carter's player because I'm clicking on him and clicking off of him. Bummer dude.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

I think as far as my second pick goes, I'm gonna pick Keisha Phillips. Ooh, okay. For my next one. Let's see. Keisha Phillips, nickname Flash. She's a very like tall girl. Keisha is the neighborhood clown, but she takes baseball pretty serious. Her speed and coordination make her a logical choice for the outfield. I don't know about outfield because she's like a big kid. Batting is four out of four. Running is four out of four. I didn't know that. Pitching is two out of four. Fielding is three out of four.

SPEAKER_05 11:59

Pretty solid player overall.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:01

I mean, even if even if she's not a pitcher, it doesn't even matter. Like you don't have to just put her there. So she's basically good at almost everything else. Yeah. For my pick, I'm gonna go with Mikey Thomas. I like that he his batting is insane. Like I feel like I need a solid uh offensive player.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

I like it. I like it. There we go. Mikey. There he is. Mikey Thomas, nickname Nugget. Carter's favorite basketball team. It is. I'm pretty sure Mikey Thomas's nickname is that because he picks his nose.

SPEAKER_05 12:33

Oh, good. That's what we want on the team. That's your dude. That's your guy.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

So uh Mikey has had a cold every day for as long as he can remember. Despite that, this kid can throw the ball and far. Running, though, is another story. Batting is four out of four, so you got you a good guy to put up like in probably the fourth spot of the lineup. Running is one out of four. Slow kid. Pitching two out of four. Fielding three out of four.

SPEAKER_05 13:03

So I'm gonna need him to get grand slams and nothing else.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

All right, I'm up. Dude looks pretty dope, pretty cool. I'm gonna pick my first baseman this time. I'm gonna go with Ernie Steele. Okay. Ernie Steele. Best fielder in the game.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

I love that Carter is like looking out like position-wise. Like, hey, I've got these two kids. Who did Carter pick? Pablo Sanchez, who could play anywhere. He's got Ockman Conn, who can probably play in field pretty decently, a little bit slow, but is definitely a fucking offensive weapon. Now he's looking like, hey, I need some kid who's gonna field for me. Let me get a first baseman who's gonna make sure no errors throwing in. I'm gonna go with Ernie Steele. He's a super tall kid, too, which you know ensures that nobody's gonna overthrow your first baseman. I love it, Carter. Yep. Let's go. Let's look at Ernie Steele's stuff. Ernie Steele, nicknamed Funny Bones. Everyone loves Ernie because he's so silly and a good ball player, too, with great catching and a decent arm. Ernie is a great choice for second or third base, the game says. But anyway, batting two out of four, running two out of four, pitching three out of four, fielding four out of four, which Carter mentioned. So he's not gonna cause you any errors for sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Yeah, I might plug him at third base. We've still got a whole draft to go through. That's true. That's true. I've got my offense, gotta get my defense patent up.

SPEAKER_05 14:28

I got my my pitcher and my like designated hitter. I need to get some fielders in here quick.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Yeah, that pitcher's pretty damn solid, though, Tanner. Let's see. Since you have a great pitcher, I guess I'm gonna go ahead and solidify mine. I'm gonna take and I'm gonna butcher her last name, Angela Del Vicious, which is a pretty good pitcher. She's a small, like little girl.

SPEAKER_05 14:52

She has an older brother in the game, too, Tony Del Vicichio.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

She does, she does. I wouldn't mind to pick him up too if you all don't snag him, but we'll see. Angela, nicknamed Sugar Pop. Despite her poor arm strength, Angela is a great pitcher. Well, damn, if I would have read that before, I might have not picked her. Why the hell is she a great pitcher if she has poor arm strength? Her pitches are slippier than her brother Tony's hair. So you mentioned she has a brother on the game. Damn, I may have made a bad pick right there. But anyway, um, batting is three out of four, running is one out of four, pitching is four out of four, and fielding is one out of four. So she can't be basically anything other than a pitcher. Damn, poor arm strength. What the fuck? What do you want to do? She's got a little rocket. That's the team name, Little Rocket.

SPEAKER_05 15:46

So and I think I found my pick. Like I said, I need a fielder. I'm going with uh Jocinda Smith.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Jocinda Smith. She's an athlete.

SPEAKER_05 15:54

That's what I need on my team right now. Is her what she's got. Good pick, Tanner. I was gonna pick her if you didn't. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

She's a good athlete because I can remember her on uh like backyard football, like being a I think a pretty good quarterback. Okay. Nickname MVP. Ooh, I like that. Yes, sir. Yeah. On the ball field, Jocinda is certainly one of the most valuable players with good overall skills and the best swing in town. She's always a top pick. Tanner probably got a steal in what is the bottom of the fourth round or third. We're in the fourth now. Do we have to?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

And I'm like, how is she not been picked? Yeah, we're getting that's our we're getting to go to our fourth pick.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

So okay, so bottom of the third round. Steal probably a steal. Batting is four out of four. So Tanner has a good offensive weapon again. Running is two out of four. Pitching, two out of four, fielding, four out of four. So a great batter and fielder with not too much speed, but steal seems like an awesome pick this late in the draft.

SPEAKER_05 16:56

Don't even care about the pitcher anymore because I got the best in the town.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

That's true. You don't have to worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Alright, I'm up. Been kicking the tires on a few people I want to pick. But I think I've gonna lock it in and I'm gonna take Dante Robinson.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

You asshole. I want it in next.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Gonna lock in that center fielder, Jared.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Apparently so. Damn it. Let's check him out. Dante Robinson. Nickname is Stretch. Apparently he has the same birthday as my mom, March 3rd. Dante's overall skills make him a great choice for any position. All he asks in return is an endless supply of candy and hamburgers. Batting two out of four, running four out of four. So super fast kid. Pitching two out of four, fielding three out of four. Dante Robinson Carter. I'm sad. I'm up next, right? Yep. I guess I didn't want to go this route, and I feel like my last pick left me a little bit like nervous. Like picking that Angela Del Viccio.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that right. But I guess since I have her, I'm gonna go ahead and pick Tony Del Viccio, her brother, which is this like greaser type kid. He's like a greaser from bully. Greasy. He really is Tony. Tony Del Viccio. He's got this sucker in his mouth that looks like a cigarette that he's like knowing that his little sister got drafted before him. Oh, damn. Well, I don't know if he knows that or not, but damn, that would hurt, wouldn't it? This kid, this is the type of kid that would be pissed about that. Nickname is Vec V E C. Tony's got a lot of things going for him. The biggest, which is his arm. It's a cannon. He's a great choice for playing in the outfield. Batting is three out of four, running two out of four, pitching two out of four, fielding three out of four. So Tony Da Vicious Well, I'm gonna literally pull a move that you just did.

SPEAKER_05 18:58

I'm gonna get Kenny's sister, Vicki Kawagucci, because I need some more fielders. She looks like a phenomenal fielder and a runner, but she's awful at batting. But I got some of the best offensive players, so I'm not really concerned about that.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

I like it. Keeping the siblings together. Okay. Vicki Kawagucci. Nickname is Swan. She's into ballerina, like, what's that called? Not ballerina, but like gymnastics and shit. Yeah. I'm not cultured. But anyway. Vicky's ballet classes really keep her reflexes sharp. With the best hands in the neighborhood, she's a good choice to play anywhere in the infield. Batting. Ooh, one out of four. Running is four out of four, so she's damn fast. Pitching three out of four. So she's got a little bit of an arm like her brother. And then fielding is four out of four. Pretty damn good defensive pick. Like she's stolid. That's what I'm needing right now.

SPEAKER_05 19:52

That's what I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Just can't bat for shit.

SPEAKER_05 19:54

I got fucking Mikey Thomas that's gonna knock it out of the park. I'm not worried about it.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

I'll go ahead and take a little old Amir Khan.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Solid fucking pick, Carter. Solid pick. That was his brother.

SPEAKER_05 20:05

Keeping the siblings together, like Derek says.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

I like it. That's a solid pick. Amir, Amir has always been one of my favorite backyard kids. Like, even in backyard football, backyard, baseball, it doesn't matter the sport. Like I've always wanted Amir on my team. He's a solid little athlete. Amir Khan. Nickname is Sticks. Amir likes music and root beer, Carter. So make sure you got a little bit of root beer in the cooler on game day. Oh, you know it. That's a wrap. He also likes playing in the outfield. Just make sure his older brother, Akhmad or Achmed, is on the same team. We are. Which you did, you asshole. Batting is three out of four, running two out of four, pitching three out of four, fielding two out of four. So a solid little average player, but I I'm pretty sure I've seen before the fact that you have them both, like Amir will play harder because his brother's on the team.

SPEAKER_05 21:08

Oh, damn, that's cool. I didn't even know that was okay, Jared. Who are you gonna pick?

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Besides Pete Wheeler, my first rounder, I don't have a lot of solid speed, and that scares me. Which baseball isn't necessarily like a super speed sport. Yeah, you can get away with that. I might go just for another infielder, good overall, like solid player, Ricky Johnson. Ricky Johnson.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

I was on old Ricky Johnson too. Were you? Yeah, I was thinking about it. I was like, oh, Ricky Johnson looks like a player.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

He yeah, he had a good tryout, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Looking at his height and everything, I was like, oh, he's probably all right.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

He's a big kid, looks solid, looks like an athlete. He probably had a damn good tryout here in this little league. Let's see. Ricky Johnson. Uh, nickname is Fella. Birth date is Valentine's Day, February 14th, which is a little bit crazy. Let's read it. Ricky is a bit timid, but he's not shy when it comes to baseball. Excellent. That's why I need you, Ricky. This kid has a great feel for the game and good coordination. Batting two out of four. Running three out of four. Pitching three out of four. Fielding two out of four. So basically, I just got like a decent runner and maybe like a relief pitcher from Angela Del Viccio, unless she can't throw for shit like I'm afraid of.

SPEAKER_05 22:37

And you can relate to this kid from being timid. So you you can like bond with him a little bit. Like, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

He's timid like me. Yeah, he's not like a super aggressive kid. Ricky, just go in there, son. I see you in practice. You're doing excellent. Hit the damn ball. Get the first. That's all that's all you gotta do, Ricky.

SPEAKER_05 22:57

And I can't believe she hasn't been taken yet, is Stephanie Morgan.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Fuck!

SPEAKER_05 23:01

Like I'm staring at her for this past round. I'm like, okay, when is it gonna happen? She's just an overall solid ass player. Like I could put her anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

She's wearing a baseball uniform in her picture.

SPEAKER_05 23:12

Yeah, she's ready for the game. She already has the uniform and everything, where some of these kids are just wearing street clothes. Like, how could you not pick her?

SPEAKER_01 23:18

It's a good pick, Tanner. Stephanie Morgan. Nickname is Bubbles. Stephanie loves playing shortstop, and that's where she should go. Put her in the outfield, and all she'll do is daydream all day guaranteed. So she's pretty much dictating where you should put her, Tanner, whether you're gonna listen or not. Okay. Batting is three out of four, running three out of four, pitching two out of four, fielding three out of four. So a pretty a really good solid player this late in the draft. Again, Tanner, good pick, I think. Yeah, he's picking third, but he's may have the best team.

SPEAKER_05 23:55

I'm getting some gems that you are leaving behind.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Yeah, well, I thought like this this sort of drafting is probably the best for this small amount of people. Just like it still works out good.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Yeah. All right, I guess it's my turn now. It is. Um, this is a tough pick.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yeah, we're getting into the nitty-gritty. These these kids left after this round. How many rounds have we been? Four or five?

SPEAKER_00 24:17

I think five. This is my sixth pick. I'm a sixth player.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Okay, so you have six, so I've got one, so I should have six two. I'm just looking at it. Okay, so we all have five so far, right? Yep. Yeah. After this pick, we're getting really into the kids that didn't do too well at tryouts.

SPEAKER_05 24:37

So I'm gonna feel bad for the three who aren't gonna get chosen. They can be the water kids of the each of our team.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Okay, Carter, who are you two on with? Want to get my catcher locked in. I'm gonna take Annie Frazier. Annie Frazier. Damn it, man. That's who I was looking at. Annie Frazier.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Let's look at little Annie. Annie Frasier. Nickname is Flipper. Annie's a well-rounded player. She's not too keen on running, so she likes playing catcher. She also likes animals and ice cream. Hey, welcome to the team. I need to be stocked up. Batting three, running three, pitching one, fielding three. I figure everybody knows at this point it's out of four. Solid player.

SPEAKER_05 25:22

Like even the lower tier characters are still good. They're just not like exceptional at any one thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Yeah, I mean, that that right there, if you're not putting her a pitcher, you have a three out of four in everything else. That's a good player, man. On to me, let's go with the guy I used to call Jeff Elkins, which is our producer. Let's go with Dmitri Petrovichy. Petrovich, sorry. Dmitri Petrovich. Kind of the bigger, geekier kid. If anything else, I think my team will outsize you all. Like I've got all the big kids. Intimidate us. I don't know. Okay. I guess it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

You can tell this kid didn't expect to get drafted.

SPEAKER_05 26:03

He cannot believe it.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

He don't think well, I'm I I've got faith in him, I guess. Um, nickname is Paste. Uh hopefully he didn't eat glue like in kindergarten and get that name. Um, anyway, anyway. Demetri is Demetri's a solid player who doesn't make many mistakes. He has the best baseball card collection in town. And he brought his slide rule. So he's got like a little math slide rule thing in his pocket to baseball practice.

SPEAKER_05 26:37

He's measuring out the field to get the right hit, like calculations.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

I guess. Let's hope, man. Uh batting's a three, running's a three. He's faster than I thought. Pitching is a one, he won't go on the mound. Fielding is a two. So he's a solid offensive player. Batting three, running three. I'll take that.

SPEAKER_05 26:56

I'm gonna go uh Maria Luna because I don't need a pitcher. Like I said, she sucks at pitching, but everything else, she's pretty damn good. My team's relatively small, I've noticed, but we have the talent. We don't need the size. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Maria Luna. Nickname is Pinky. What Maria lacks in baseball smart. She makes up for enthusiasm. And in case you don't or didn't know, Maria's favorite color is pink, and that's what she's decked out in. Yeah, you did get a solid player. Batting three, running three, fielding three, pitching one. As long as she's not on the mound, you got yourself a player. That's exactly what I need. Back to the top with Carter. How many more do we have? Two more here. Okay, so we have seven, eight, nine.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

We got three more picks across the board. All right. Well, I'm hoping you all don't mess this up for me. You're going with a twin. Yep. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go with Sidney Weber this pick. Sidney. Try to get the other one, but if you all pick the other one, that's okay. But that would mean we both have a bad player at that point.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

So the thing is, are we gonna tank to make Carter's pick bad with little Sidney?

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Yeah, but I think even if they're together, it says they're a dynamic duo on the field when they're on the same team. But if they're separated, then pretty much you just kind of canceled it out.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Okay, so Sydney Weber. I'm pretty sure that they get little boosts if they're with their sibling or their best friend or whatever. And I'm pretty sure these twins are like super boosted. Nickname is Little Smokey. Sydney and her twin sister Ashley are quite the dynamic duo on the s on the field, sorry, when they are on the same team, that is. That's what her bio says. Batting is two, running three, pitching three, fielding two.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Nothing solid, but maybe if they're together, they're alright.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

We're not playing against each other directly.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

No, no, we're just drafting our teams.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

But we kind of are a little bit competitive.

SPEAKER_05 29:02

Yeah, because we can affect who has what player. And also, I I think, like you said, this has a season mode, right, Jared? Oh, yeah. Whoever we're doing, that's why we're drafted. How about that?

SPEAKER_01 29:12

What is it, Carter? I mean, Tanner.

SPEAKER_05 29:14

I said whoever does the best in their season is the winner. Maybe like that. Like whoever has the most wins is the win.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Oh, that'll be Jared.

SPEAKER_05 29:21

That's what the whole point of this draft is.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

I'm gonna try.

SPEAKER_05 29:25

All right, Jared. Who you going with?

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Let's bring him on. Bring your bring your fucking banjo on. Marky Du Bois coming on the hill. Marky Du Bois, boy.

SPEAKER_05 29:42

I love his nickname. That is the most West Virginia nickname I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Marky, Marky Du Bois. Hey, Marky, get your ass over here and get in line. It's Cool. Are you gonna are you gonna stretch boy? Coody, what the hell are you doing? Hey, Cootie, get over here, buddy. Well, or should I call you your nickname, Cootie? Hey, Cootie, get over here, Cootie. Let's see, the only time Marky wears shoes is to go to school and church. I can't even read this. He really doesn't like them or socks either, but he does like playing baseball, and he's pretty good at it too. Well, welcome to the little rockets, Marky. Welcome, bro. Well, that might be his problem because batting is a three, pitching's a three, fielding's a three, but running is a one out of four. Put them damn Nikes on, you motherfucker, and run to first.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Man, these moms are gonna be mad at us.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Yeah, I'm gonna take the old school coach approach and you motherfuckers get on the fucking line right now. We're about to run.

SPEAKER_05 31:01

My bottom of the seventh pick is gonna be Sally Dobbs. Sally Dobbs.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

So you let Carter get the fucking twins, you asshole.

SPEAKER_05 31:09

Oof. I didn't think about it. Shit. Well, it's too late now.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Yeah, you fucker. I want like I kind of had faith. I thought, well, I'll pick this redneck and hey, you could have done it. Tater will take one of the little blonde.

SPEAKER_05 31:21

Instead, you could have got the twin.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Well, I thought you would. Who'd you pick Sally Dobbs? Let's read about Sally. She's somebody. I mean, you you weren't looking for her, but yeah, she ends up being on the team. Sally Dobbs' nickname is the boss. Sally's team leadership makes her a valuable addition to any team. She's a hot shot on the mound, but a cold duck in the batter's box. I don't like that. Batting is two, running is three, pitching two, fielding three. So a little solid.

SPEAKER_05 31:56

We're getting deep.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Yeah, we're getting deep. That's not a bad pick.

SPEAKER_05 32:01

All right, Carter, go ahead and uh take the other one. I will take Little Smokey again.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

They have the same nickname?

SPEAKER_05 32:08

Yep. Do they?

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Ashley Weber.

SPEAKER_05 32:11

They have the same everything, same stat, same everything.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Holy shit, her nickname is Little Smoky 2. Batting two, running three, pitching three, fielding two. Ashley and her twin sister Sidney are quite the dynamic duo on the field when they're on the same team, that is. Which Carter got. So congrats, Carter. Ah, we're getting into the nitty gritty of kids. Left we have Billy Jean Blackwood, uh, Jorge Garcia, Lisa Crockett, Gretchen Hasselhoff, David's daughter. Reese Worthington. Carter as a kid. Reese Worthington, that little fucking blonde kid. Uh Kimmy Ekman and Ronnie Dobbs and Luann Lu. Has Luann Lu been picked?

SPEAKER_00 33:02

She's been taken. She has now. No, has she been? Yeah. Carter took her. No, I didn't. Oh, oh, my bad, my bad.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Okay. Yeah, I've I've been saying, like, I'm keeping a solid like draft board here. It's just like a fucking fantasy football draft to me.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

No, I wanted to take her when I took uh Annie Fraser a few picks ago.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Annie Fraser rainbow shirt. I'm looking through these kids. There's still some big kids left, if that's what I want to go with. Just be the big fuck. Like we could beat you all's ass in the room. I might go with little Luann Lu. I think I am. She's like the smallest one left. And since you said Little Rockets. Luann Lu, nickname Lulu. Luann is the youngest ball player in the neighborhood, but probably one of the fastest. I'll take some speed. I like speed. She says her teddy bear is her lucky charge. So she's holding a teddy bear. Small girl. Batting two, running four, pitching three. Carter's right, she can pitch. Fielding one. Won't won won.

SPEAKER_05 34:10

Well, God, we really are at the bottom of the barrel here. I'm gonna go, uh, I'm gonna get the brother. I'm gonna go with Ronnie Dobbs. Ronnie!

SPEAKER_01 34:19

I didn't even know they had a sibling there.

SPEAKER_05 34:21

Yeah, Dobbs and Sally. Ronnie and Sally.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Ronnie Dobbs. Nickname is Spud. Ronnie likes to be treated like a big kid. Ronnie likes to be treated like a big kid. And once you see him in action, you'll think he deserves it. Okay. Ronnie's strong arm is a bit of a surprise for such a little fella. Uh batting three, running.

SPEAKER_05 34:45

Press me, I'll treat you like a big kid, alright?

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Anything else, Ronnie? You're a fucking little kid. Are you in preschool, Ronnie? Grow the fuck up. Play some fucking baseball. Get out there, Spud. Spud. Grow the hell up, Spud. Batting three, running two, pitching three, fielding two. So pretty average. Not bad. Alrighty. This is the final ninth pick.

SPEAKER_05 35:10

Carter, who are these shit asses are you?

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Carter's gonna pick himself.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

I'm gonna pick Reese Worthington. He did pick himself.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Little Reese. Little Rich gets Reese. Reese Worthington. Oh fuck. Carter's gonna know who this is based on his nickname. Nickname is Big Toe. This little guy has a small strike zone, so pitchers have a hard time pitching to him. He doesn't like running too much, though, so you shouldn't put him in the field. So I don't know what you do with him. They're like, his mom's like, don't put him in the field, but he's got a little strike zone. He might get walked to first. So you gotta put him somewhere though.

SPEAKER_05 35:56

My mom is batting good uniforms for the team, so that's why he's on.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Reese Worthington. That Worthington name sounds rich as shit, don't it? Batting two, running three, pitching one, fielding three. Still not terrible. My final damn pick. Well, I'm gonna take the biggest kid. I don't know if it's gonna help or not. My team's gonna be bigger than your all's, and you're gonna have to deal with it. Come on down, Billy Jean Blackwood. Final pick. Billy Jean! She's just some girl that I just picked on my team. Billy Jean Blackwood. Nicknamed Crazy Legs. Billy Jean's height makes her a great choice to play first base, so that's probably where I'll put her. Because she's got good reach. The problem is she doesn't catch very well. God damn. Not good. You read the beginning of that bio and you think, man, I got a piece to the puzzle. And then the fact she's dropping every damn ball thrown to her. I just don't know where to put it.

SPEAKER_05 37:06

She's definitely not gonna be on first base. I don't know where you put her.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

Oh, God, dog.

SPEAKER_05 37:11

Alrighty, for my final pick of the night, I'm gonna go with Lisa Crockett.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Lisa Crockett, nickname is Mad Dog. Mad Dog 2020. Sponsored today's episode sponsored by Mad Dog 2020. Nah, no one knows much about Lisa, but they do know this. She is all business. She has a mean left hook. Batting two, running three, pitching three, fielding two. Solid little player. All these in rounds weren't great. They didn't have any fours, but they're they were like solid picks that I think can still play.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Yeah. They can fill a team out for sure.

SPEAKER_05 37:46

So who are the kids that got left out, Jared? That would be Kimi Ekman, Jorge Garcia. Sad.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Hey, let's read each, let's go ahead and at least give these kids their thing. So you just said Jorge. Nickname is Bonkers. Jorge's a good ball player, but he can't see very well without his glasses. His depth perception is a little bit off, even with his glasses, and so he does not like playing in the outfield. Everything's two on this kid.

SPEAKER_05 38:15

Running, batting, low average, just not even yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:20

And then Kimmy Ekman, redhead girl.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Okay, Kimmy Ekman, uh, nickname is Twinkletoes. Kimmy, the candy monster, has a lot of heart and a little skill. So a lot of heart, a little bit of skill.

SPEAKER_05 38:34

She's got a good arm and she didn't get drafted.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Yeah, that is kind of sad. She's probably damn way upset. Um, she's got a good arm and can hit for power two. Batting is three, running one. She's a slow kid, pitching two, fielding two. So she could bat. That's probably somebody we left out that probably could have played.

SPEAKER_05 38:54

Maybe next year. And then lastly, we got Gretchen Hasselhoff.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

What does Gretchen left?

SPEAKER_05 38:58

David's not happy.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

She's solid too. We left her. Jabberjaw is her nickname. Gretchen is fast and smart. She's a good outfielder, but her arm is a pretty weak, so it takes her a few tries to throw the ball back. Maybe we did save ourselves by not picking her. Batting two, running three, pitching three, fielding one.

SPEAKER_05 39:21

Yeah, these kids, I feel like if they practice a little bit more, they may be on the team next year. But yeah, guys, we got a pretty solid team. And whenever I do post this, I'm gonna have all of our each of us should uh individually post our team on Facebook just so people know who I was on the team.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

Yes, a hundred percent. Before we stop this episode, are we all gonna go on the same settings in our season?

SPEAKER_05 39:45

Yeah, let's all go hard, because I mean where this is a kid baseball game, I'm sure it's gonna be fucking like easy-ish. So let's go on hard there.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Okay, so what we'll do is so there's a couple different settings we can mix up and let's make sure we're all together. You can either do league play, regular, or t-ball. Of course, we're going regular, right? We're gonna click on swing spot, and what that does is it gives you kind of like a bubble of where the pitch could be, but it could be anywhere in that bubble. There's something called pitch locator that gives you an X in the bubble. Let's not turn that on because it becomes way too easy. Okay, and then for difficulty, like you said, Tanner, you got easy, medium, hard. We're going hard. Oh, yeah. Let's just go all out. Oh shoot. Hard and then innings. I say we go six instead of nine, and errors on, of course.

SPEAKER_05 40:39

Alrighty, guys. Let's see how our team uh works out. So for the real episode, we'll go in depth about our players and how they performed on the field.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

So yes, baby. Yeah, good ass.

SPEAKER_05 40:51

Let's do this, guys. Welcome back, guys, to season five, episode four. Today we're gonna be talking about another community game, Backyard Baseball from Jared's sister Watch. This episode is just gonna be me and Jared because we recorded this episode once before, and honestly, it just wasn't up to snuff. Like, I don't think it's up to like I guess our standards now.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Terrible episode.

SPEAKER_05 41:25

Yeah, it just wasn't that good. It just the the the mood wasn't right for some reason. And that can happen sometimes with podcasts. I mean, that wasn't the first time we've ever had to go back and re-record one. I think the earliest one we've ever had to do that was Super Mario Kart back in season two. Yeah, I remember I remember that one just no, no, no, that one, Jared. I don't know if you remember this, but we tried to do a video podcast and we were like, let's put this on YouTube with uh us like uh recording ourselves. And my internet is so awful that like I would be two minutes or a minute behind you all, and it I couldn't keep up with what y'all were saying. It was horrible. So we just had to go the like traditional route with just voice for that one.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Yeah, we for we forgot you had dial up, so I really do, dude.

SPEAKER_05 42:08

I have something called access cable, and we pay like 70 a month, and but it's still awful. It's just so slow.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Yeah, it's it's sad, like what like internet companies when they have a monopoly on an area, like what they can do as far as like speeds and price go.

SPEAKER_05 42:24

They for sure have a uh monopoly where I live, because I live in a very rural town in Tennessee, and it's just not that good. The only other thing I could get is ATT. And I've heard horror stories about ATT, so I only want to go down that route. Even last season with Glover, we didn't even release that one. That one was just like, I don't know. There's not that much you could talk about with Glover. But this episode with Backyard Baseball, I was like, we gotta go back and do it justice because not only is this a game that me and you both like a lot, this one still has a fan base, unlike Glover. Glover to me is just one of those oddities from the N64 that people look back on it like, oh yeah, I remember that. But people don't really give a fuck about it.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Yeah, I'm I'm still sad about Glover, and I was sad about backyard baseball, but I'm I'm glad we're coming back to save one of them.

SPEAKER_05 43:07

Yeah. Because uh, yeah, this wasn't your pick, but it might as well could have been, because this was your sister's, and you two both played this game together a lot growing up, right? Like backyard baseball.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Well, we played the backyard series a lot. As far as like I don't know what made her choose backyard baseball, like kind of randomly, because I see myself and you know, backyard baseball is what, 1997 PC?

SPEAKER_05 43:30

Yep, this was the first one ever in the backyard series.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Watch is born in 1999, so I see myself as like in 98, 99, 2000. She's an infant when I'm playing this game.

SPEAKER_05 43:42

Yeah. She had the one, I don't know if you remember this, it was a backyard football on the GameCube. I remember always seeing that in her collection all the time. 'Cause I was looking at the backyard series just for a little bit of homework. I wanted to see like how broad it was. Yeah. It had baseball, basketball, football, soccer. Hockey and skateboarding, which I didn't even know. I was only aware of baseball and football. I didn't know it had that many. Now which of the other ones did you play?

SPEAKER_01 44:08

We had backyard, I had backyard baseball PC. I went back and picked up backyard football PC way later on, but it was not very good, if I remember right. But we had backyard football on GameCube in like the 2003, 2004 time. And that was a really fun game, too, which I was heavily into Madden then, and I really liked kind of getting my like just drafting a team of kids, just like what we did this week. Like that's what I would do constantly. Draft a team of kids, play through a season.

SPEAKER_05 44:44

Also, that idea wasn't new to the podcast. Like you've been doing that even back then when you were a teenager.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

Well, I guess we had a certain spin on it where like Me, you, and Carter drafted against each other, which reminds me, if you haven't listened to our previous episode, go back to it.

SPEAKER_05 45:01

It's a fucking funny ass episode. I love that episode, man. You were so drunk off your ass that you just brought this whole wave of comedy to it.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

I I love Yeah, I might have drank a little bit too much uh right before the draft of Backyard Baseball.

SPEAKER_05 45:16

I I could honestly tell Jared that it was starting to kick in towards the end because there's this one little part of that that your laugh sounds like the Joker in it. I'm like, what is going on? You're so gone.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

Yeah, yeah. And some of the stuff I said about like uh what's his name? Uh Du Bois. What's his first name, T? Oh, Marky Du Bois. Yeah, I was like, it's your fucking Nike's on. And I was like, God dog, was I really that fucking wasted to sell some little cart? That's golden shit, dude.

SPEAKER_05 45:44

I'm missing drinking alcohol. I need to start drinking alcohol again for the podcast because back in the day, we were supposed to do a one-year anniversary of like the history with the podcast, but back in the entire first season, I had to get shitface drunk before every recording. I would be so nervous. Like there was a time in the Banjo Kazooie episode, which was our second episode ever. It's no longer up anymore. But um, I had a panic attack like right before as we were uh recording it. Because I like for some reason I thought I was like on fucking national television or something, and I froze up and I couldn't say anything. My words were I was getting tongue-tied.

SPEAKER_04 46:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:18

But uh, we had to like take five, and I uh got some beers, and then I was good to go. I'm like, okay, I'm ready now. It just completely takes all my fear away whenever I'm drunk.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

Uh well, you know, as long as you keep it under control, a couple drinks of alcohol, knocks the edge off, does you good, man.

SPEAKER_05 46:33

Mm-hmm. I haven't drank since season two, so I I'm basically good at this point. That's that's my favorite thing about the podcast, is it's sort of brought me out of my shell, at least when it comes to like spreading my voice out there to like people I don't know. So, yeah, yeah, anyway, you said that you were drafting back in the day or we put our spin on it. What was it?

SPEAKER_01 46:51

Well, like I would go through and like I really enjoyed picking a team and like selecting kids to like play certain positions, but I'd never done anything like this where we well, I take that back. I hadn't done backyard baseball or a backyard sport like this where we take like backyard kids and draft against each other. Back in the day, one of my favorite, favorite, favorite things to do with like the kids that I grew up with, like Carter on the podcast. I mentioned Shorter a lot, Austin Steffi, all our buddies. Like I love to get a Madden franchise going on, and then us or back like which is on the wheel right now, ESPN 2K5, like when they had rights to the NFL. Sometimes we would all get together at my house and we would draft a team, which took forever because if you have more than five, six people, like the draft stopping, and then you're like looking who you want to take. So like drop drafting to me against people is is no mystery or it like it's not something new as far as backyard goes, drafting against you. I had a blast because I enjoy the shit out of that, though.

SPEAKER_05 47:57

Like, even with uh Arcanum, the RPG game that we have on the wheel, you did a similar thing to where it's not drafting necessarily, but it's like assigning us a character, a role, that like role-playing aspect you love because sports games in a lot of ways is an RPG. Like you're you're you have a character, you're raising their stats, you're trying to make them like improve them as they go along and get better and better. So, yeah, it's a lot like that. Yeah, but uh wasn't the 2000s, man, like the fucking peak of sports games. Like, that's just what it sounds like to me.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

Like in that mid-2000s era, yeah, it really was like I can think back, like we're on Backyard Baseball, and I know we have a 2K5 episode coming up, but I can literally like even when I got my memory card out just to test out my PS2 before this season on some of our games, like there's still profiles of people saved from 2006, 2005, like that were at my house that like you know, made a profile on my memory card and drafted a team for us to carry on a whole season together. And I'll be honest, like when you get that many people and everybody has to come by, like it didn't stick back then. We might get through six, seven weeks of a like a real season back then. But me and Carter and you know, who we refer to as the producer Jeff, like uh we have been through multiple seasons in college football video games, just us three together in like a league. And there there's no other than ARC.

SPEAKER_05 49:34

We don't speak its name here.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

Okay, other than ARK Survival, is that the right like what's the real name?

SPEAKER_05 49:39

Ark Survival Evolved is the one. With Arc 2 on the horizon, I'm getting scared for my future.

SPEAKER_01 49:45

Well, other than ARK Survival Evolved, there's no better online experience that like I totally dive into than a sports franchise with multiple friends like in seasons going forward. ARK's its own thing, and that's number one, and it's way up on like a it's on a pedestal. You can't touch it, it's just on a whole other level. It's so high, like nothing else could touch that. Like, honest to God, if if you, Carter, Jeff, said, like, hey, we're getting on ARC, we're going hard, we're gonna start a tribe together. I'm fucking there. I might even call in to work. I might call into work the next day.

SPEAKER_05 50:28

That game permanently stays off my hard drive just for my own health. I just I can't do it. I never have got to experience what you just said, but just the sound of it sounds so enticing to me.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

That's just so fun to me. And like I guess it's carried over into adulthood some because now we have like a fantasy football league that we draft fantasy football players year in and year out with like some close friends. But it just like it's so much more fun video game wise to like sit down with some friends like what we did. I had a blast when we drafted, and like I was really looking ahead, like, okay, I just took this player, probably gonna be a decent first baseman. I have nobody quick for my outfield to get out and catch some fly balls. I need to start looking at speed. Like, that's how I was thinking that whole draft. I enjoy the hell out of like doing that.

SPEAKER_05 51:16

Like, the more effort, but not not even the more effort, the more you like get into it, the funner it's gonna be. Like if you go into it with like a like a too cool attitude, like, yeah, I mean, this is a game for kids in the 90s, whatever. I mean, yeah, obviously it's it's not gonna be very fun, but the way that we approached it, like this is life or death. We're gonna fucking draft these kids. This is our little minor league, and we're gonna take each other's path. That's literally how we went into it. And like it's one of those things. I really do think that that draft will be a highlight whenever we eventually, whenever we get old and end the podcast, that will be one of those episodes we look back fondly on. Like, man, I'm happy we did that. Like, that was a lot of fun. And I've never seen anyone else do that before. Like, with it's particularly with this game, because I think that was a fresh idea. In the past, we've done things that everyone's done. I mean, hell, we've talked about Mario 3, which everyone has talked about that game to death. There's nothing new that we brought to the table with that game, I really don't think, besides talking to Caleb Cook about it. But with this game, I think we really did do something new with it. And I think that's really, really cool. But yeah, I mean, that's literally what you're saying, drafting uh teams, even that that's what you do in the game. Like, I mean, and I love that for a kid's game. It isn't just like pick your team and like preset teams. Like if they could have gone the easy route and did generic kids for like five teams and gave them some name, like the the humongous melonheads, and then they're just these little generic kids. But each individual kid has their own theme to them, their own backstory, they're all a different ethnicity, all that kind of stuff. So, like you said, like this game was super heavy at its time when it comes to including everybody because my pitcher was in a wheelchair, which is wild, especially for back in the 90s. Like he's a damn good ball player, he was one of the best on my team. Yeah, but um, I love that. And uh Carter wasn't as big on the game because whenever we did our first recording, he wasn't loving it as much as we were, but I just seen something in this game that I guess he didn't see in a way. I there was a big amount of charm to it. He said that the game graphically looked like a flash game in the 2000s. I don't see it like that. I see this honestly as like a mix between Hey Arnold and Doug, like kind of like that Nickelodeon art style, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 53:21

That Nickelodeon's 90s, like kids' vibe.

SPEAKER_05 53:24

Yeah. Yeah. I love the art style in this game. I think it looks almost timeless. I think what holds it back is the PC rendering, I guess. I don't know what you would call it. It it looks like these like really, really slow, choppy um animations that the characters will do. But I think honestly, if you put like a fast forward times or 0.5 on it and it sped it up a little bit, it would be perfectly fine. It wouldn't bother me at all. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:47

That little first like uh recording we tried, you talked about the humongous series and how you had had some like uh experience with them in the past. I can see like I can see those logos and some of those games. I'm less familiar like with them than you, but those were still kind of like you know, pretty popular titles back in our time.

SPEAKER_05 54:07

Oh, yeah, dude. They they just had a huge re-release on the Switch of all of their classic PC games because they had four major mascots, and I I was looking at them, and they're kind of like those uh point and click adventure games. Have you ever heard of that one, uh really dirty one called Leisure Suit Larry? That was back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

Yeah, like that's not them, is it?

SPEAKER_05 54:27

No, no, no, no. But that's like the style of game it is. Like you're looking at the screen, that would be a big ass jump going from Leisure Suit Suit Larry to backyard baseball. It's kind of like that, but um, that's what they were known for.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

Yeah, like no, imagine seeing an advertisement in backyard baseball for like Lee Leisure Larry coming this summer.

SPEAKER_05 54:56

They do a little Easter egg, you see Leisure Suit Larry in the baseball thing walking again. That that's scary, kids. Don't don't go in the band with him. Kick his ass out, get him out of there. That was another detail I love because you had a kid on your team, I believe. Was his name Ricky Johnson?

SPEAKER_01 55:12

Ricky Johnson, dude. The dude get did me awesome. Like his whole profile is like, hey, he's not a baseball player, but he's out here like willing to try or whatever. But like he's an athlete. So like I put him at first base right off the bat. And I guess what you what you're about to say, sorry I cut you off, but like if you look at like the uh if you go into season mode and you look at the animation, there's like a crowd there. There's like a young kid sitting in the front of the bleachers and an older man like sitting in the second row that look exactly like Ricky Jarring.

SPEAKER_05 55:48

I'm pretty sure that he has the Hey Arnold football head shape. Yeah, they have the same, because you can tell that that's like his little brother and his dad in the stack.

SPEAKER_01 55:56

Yeah, that's what I thought, like either either dad, little brother, or grandpa, little brother, like right there. And it was so hilarious because they're right in the bleachers, like the right side of the bleachers up the foul line, which is right where first base is. They're watching him during the game. Yeah, they're they're giving him hell. Like, Ricky, come to hell on. Like, no, he was a great player for me, dude. I'm glad I got him. I forgot what round I drafted him, but to me, he couldn't bat worth a shit, and like his speed wasn't tremendous, but his fielding, I don't know if he ever dropped a ball thrown to him like to first base. He was automatic.

SPEAKER_05 56:33

Yeah, and like because like all these kids are and some of them are iconic. Um, obviously, we just passed Pablo Sanchez's birthday. Uh then talked all about it. But I love how even in the other backyard games, like even besides baseball and basketball and football, they carry over these kids, and they even it's like a little lore that they share amongst these series of games, amongst these kids. Yeah. I'm pretty sure one of the worst players in the game, he his name is Jorge Garcia. He didn't even get drafted uh amongst us. He has a two in everything. So two pitching, two running, two batting, all that. He's a god-awful player. But uh the developers noticed that, like no one was drafting him to his team, so they made him a damn good basketball player in the basketball game. So they wanted to give him a little bit of love. Like he's good at basketball, but just not at baseball.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

I didn't know that. Like, that's kind of cool. But like I have noticed like Pablo's great at all games, but but back to that, where we did the original game, there's only like the rating system. If you listen to our draft like episode, like it's out of four. In later games, they did it out of ten to kind of add something.

SPEAKER_05 57:39

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 57:40

Yeah, yeah. And I'm pretty sure in almost every other game, other than that first initial load of like backyard baseball, backyard football, everything's out of ten. So it's like six out of ten fielding or whatever. Like here, you only had like a very vague out of four, like four out of four pitching is the best pitcher, which there was only two. Even like me and you and Carter kind of talked about that. Like, you could even tell like a difference. Like, if somebody was three out of three running versus three out of three running, they weren't the same speed. Like, there's a lot of variety that hides behind those that that rating system that we use to draft.

SPEAKER_05 58:19

And even with some of the descriptions, I'm not I can't remember which kid it was. I know it was a girl. One of them was like, it was on my team. It said something like if she's out in the outfield, she's gonna be daydreaming, but if she's uh in the inner field, then she's gonna be on her game. If you didn't read that uh description and you put her in the outfield, you wouldn't know. There's no indication that she sucks in the outfield. It's like some of the times you gotta look past the stats and look at the descriptions of the characters, and they'll tell you a little bit more information. Yeah, there was one uh someone on my team that was always a shortstop. She was like, she loves shortstop, and that's where I kept her.

SPEAKER_01 58:51

Period. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And even even to Pablo Sanchez, like Carter drafted him first pick overall because that's how he lucked up when Tator spun the wheel. Like, apparently in this game, Pablo sucks kind of at fielding. Like he'll make a ton of errors as far as the ball coming to him and dropping the ball. Like, of course, he's he he's like a great batter, great like speed on the like across the bases and on the field, but like he'll drop a ton of balls, and Carter like complained of that because Carter thought, man, this kid's our my best kid. I think Carter put him at first base there in the beginning of his season, and he was dropping balls left and right, air, air, air, and kids getting safe at first. So he finally like moved him kind of away from that. And I'm pretty sure he had four out of four fielding. Yeah. So the game, like, I don't know like what that rating system is. Obviously, it's it's kind of like it's kind of correct, but there's there's more details beyond that.

SPEAKER_05 59:45

That they don't really go into. I mean, maybe they did in the manuals, maybe there was a character bio for each one that you could read. I'm not I'm not really sure. Right.

SPEAKER_01 59:52

I kind of like the idea that there's some just uh like some vagueness to it, like you know, you don't totally know until you get in there.

SPEAKER_05 59:59

Some experimentation because you can change the kids' positions on the fly. Because that was the thing I had no clue was because with Kenny Calgucci, I'm like, dude, I struck the jackpot, I got the fucking best pitcher on the planet right here. But midway through some games, he would just be tired and be throwing uh balls left and right, and I was just like, man, okay. So kids can't really carry in this game. They probably can when it comes to batting, but when it comes to pitching, you want to have a reserve pitcher, a good a decent reserve pitcher, so you can give your pitcher relief from time to time. But uh that that was a big stat that I didn't think would be like that important is speed. But dude, I think it's one of the most important skills in the game because like I had a player on my team, her name was Jocinda Smith. She was amazing at everything but running. She sucked at running, like she could hit the ball far. She never got a home run, but it came close. But no matter what, she was so slow that they would just throw it to first base and get her out every single time. So her all of her skills were useless because she could never make it to the base. Yeah, speed is super important. Yeah, even when it comes to fielding too, like to get to the ball, they have to be fast. So that that speed skill, I mean, and even on the draft episode, you're like, speed isn't everything when it comes to baseball. We slept on speed, dude. If I would have known what I know now, I would have got more speedy characters.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

Yeah, well, like back to so everyone knows. I don't think we really said what we did, but like what we did was we had a draft episode in which me, Carter, and Tanner drafted a team of nine kids. There's 30 kids on this game, which, if you're familiar with backyard baseball, you might know that. We did the first version of the game. That's what we reviewed this time. So there were no pros like sprinkled into these like made-up kids. All the OG backyard crew. So we drafted, we picked a team, and then we went through like the season mode, which I ended up getting to spend a little bit more time than Carter and Tanner did, and my team actually made it to the world championship or whatever and won, which was awesome. And we played on hard mode, which gave kind of a challenge, but back to some of the stuff Carter said, I could definitely see some flaws throughout our season. The difficulty, even though it was set at the like the hardest difficulty. I mean, it wasn't like I lost one game during the regular season against like a regular local team. Like I never lost in the playoff thing. But there were some small.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:22

I remember you said that you lost because uh you weren't paying attention during the thing. Like that was one of the only reasons you lost.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

I was watching TV and not really paying attention, and the other thing was they used a power-up, like a batting power-up. You get pitching power-ups throughout, like while you're pitching. If you get any strikeout at all, you can get like a super pitch power-up. Everybody, every character has the normal, well, I guess five pitches. They have basically a heater, like a fastball, a slow ball, which is a change up to me. They have a curveball like left and a curveball right, and then they have the intentional walk, which is just a ball. So like you can throw those five pitches. Well, if you strike someone out, your character will earn a power-up pitch, and it comes up on the other side. We haven't talked about this a lot, but like you have like every character has like an endurance thing, so they have a certain amount of stamina that drains throughout the game called juice in the game. So you have like you have this juice gauge on the side of your thing. Every pitch you throw takes a little bit of juice away. Every time you run on offense, like after you bat, take some juice away too. So you have to kind of monitor, like Tanner said, like it's good to have a backup pitcher just in case. Well, anyway, you earn these like super pitches. There's a fire pitch, there's a super slow motion pitch, a screwball which goes around in circles. I don't know, there's a crazy pitch, but anyway, if the other team is able to hit off of one of your special pitches that you earned on a strikeout, they gain a special bat.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:05

And for the I didn't know that's how it worked.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:07

Oh, you didn't? No. Yeah, so you gain a special bat. And there's only four of those because there's only four types of regular bats, and based off of those four regular bats, there's a special. So there is a an aluminum bat, which matches up with the power bat. There is a screaming line drive, which matches up with the regular line drive. There is a like undergrounder, which matches up with the grounder, and I think there's a crazy bunt which matches up to the bunt. The crazy bunt just goes every which way. Right. I think that's it. But it's kind of random on what bat you get. I don't think it's what you hit the crazy pitch with. It might be. I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:51

I remember getting the aluminum bat the most. That was the one I seen all the damn time. Probably because I did power hits all the time. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:57

Well, maybe that's it. Maybe you do get the special to whatever you hit the crazy pitch with. But anyway, the game I lost, like, as soon as they hit one of my like wild pitches, I knew right then. I was like, God dog, I'm screwed. Like, it because they hit like a three-run Homer in the bottom of the fifth, and we only played six innings, and it brought them up like three to one. And because we were playing on hard, offense was pretty tough for me. Batting was tough, and base running because I was so slow. You're so right. Speed is key here. It really is. Who was your like as far as like drafting and stuff goes, Tanner? Your first pick was Kenny Kawagucci, which you mentioned. Mine was Pete Willer, which is the tall, like redhead, fast kid.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:40

Who was your Carter's was Pablo Sanchez?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

Yeah, and Carter got the first pick overall, so he took Pablo, which is a no-brainer. Who was somebody you got like later on in the draft that like stood out that did better than you expected? Anyone you can think of?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:54

Oh, yeah. And this one, I kind of couldn't believe it. He was kind of like my um unsung hit. Hero of the team, and that was Ronnie Dobbs, the kid who wanted to be like treated as a big kid. He was phenomenal. Like everything he would do, he was fast. He caught the ball almost every single time. He got a few homers from time to time. Like I was super impressed with him. Um Ronnie Dobbs. The one that I drafted that which was my last round pick, I should have known, was Lisa Crockett. I mean, she was the biggest snooze fest ever. She nothing she did was good. Every time she was up to the bat, I was like, Well, this is an immediate out. Right. She's so bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:33

Yeah, my last round pick, I'm pretty sure it was my last pick, was Billy Jean Blackwell.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:38

I think it was. Yeah, because you're one of the biggest kids on your team.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:41

She was the tallest. Like, if you look at all their heights, I'm pretty sure she's the tallest in all of them. Yeah. But like, I don't know, like, she was awful. Like, I'm pretty sure her batting average throughout the season was, which it isn't terrible with like real baseball, but it was between like 0.1 and 0.2, like 100 and 200. There were some kids on my team that had like a 500-sum like batting average. Like Pete Wheeler, my leadoff. I could literally, his speed, if I buttoned it down, and if they didn't have a freaking cannon of an arm at pitcher, even if it went straight to the pitcher, he's safe every time at first. Like it was a no, like I'm pretty sure his batting average was like 575 in the regular season until we like moved away from our little local tournament to the World Series.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:28

Now, was there ever a time that you thought to yourself, like, I need to shake up my approach when it comes to batting? Because I would say eight out of ten times I would do the power hit just trying to get a home run. Would there be some times where you went for a bunt or you went for a grounder or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:42

I noticed some of my kids like they didn't respond, like their power hit was trash, and like I would go for that either line or grounder. On my speed kits, there was one like Pete Willer leadoff. Every now and then I would just like feel it like in the middle of the game. I was like, you know, if it's if we're back up to the front and it's like third, fourth, fifth inning later on in the game, and it's a low scoring, like one to one or zero zero, I would bunt sometimes with him just to get on base and see if I could steal second to put a runner in scoring position and then on like go ahead and score. And there was another small girl, I can't think of her name. I think it's Lu Ann Lu. It's the little girl that like uh holds anywhere.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:24

She's the fastest in the game.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:25

Yeah, yeah. Sometimes with her, I was just like, don't even worry, especially if it would come up to an to an inning where she's like leadoff, she's button a hundred percent, and she's like automatic first and then automatically next pitch stealing second for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:41

See, that's that's the thing about this game, dude, is like you you learn these kids and their pros and their cons, and you get attached to your little team that what you have. Like there's even the characters that you don't necessarily like, like you you remember the little catchphrases and their personality traits and stuff. Like that's that's why, because I remember whenever I told Watch that her game won, and I sent her our draft picks, she was critiquing all of our picks. She's like, Why would you go for Lisa Crockett? Like almost 20 years down the line, she still remembers these kids' names. I didn't grow up with this game, but she did, and she remembers all these fucking kids. There there was one thing that while I was because we primarily played league play, which is the game's bread and butter, that's the game's main mode. But there's something called pickup mode on the other end, which is basically you just pick up and play and play against a computer. It's not nothing too crazy. But uh something that still stood out to me, and I have no idea why they didn't, or maybe I do. I think I do know why. But um, there's seven different yards that you can play in, whereas the league play, you're primarily playing on that one like generic looking baseball field. I'm like, it kind of got repetitive seeing the same old field over and over again. But it looks like on the pickup window that I guess it's like appealing to the backyard side of backyard baseball. It looks like sometimes they're in a sand lot or they're like in a kid's backyard, yeah, or something like that, and they made their own little makeshift uh baseball field. And I thought that was just so cool to see.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:01

Yeah, that is awesome. But uh, real quick, like once you enter the playoffs, like if once you get past the local games, you get to go to a field, and it is I'm pretty sure it's a little bit bigger than the uh regular play. Yeah, yeah. So once you hit those, like the other like series of four against the big dogs, like it the field changes. But you're right, Tanner. I used to obsess over like seeing some of those fields and just thinking like of how kids are. It reminded me so much of Hey Arnold, like you're saying. Oh, yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:32

It has that recess Hey Arnold vibe to it, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:35

Like it's a straight out of Disney or or Nickelodeon. Right. You're a little bit younger than me, but there's a Hey Arnold episode where they basically like reconditioned some like abandoned junkyard thing to be like a baseball field. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah. And like when you said Hey Arnold a while ago, like you're dead on. Like, that's the vibes that this game gives. Back to it. Like, you're you're right. Like, it looked like little makeshift fields in certain like kids' yards. I'm pretty sure some of those, there's at least I think there's two fields that have the kids last name in them that like I'm pretty sure it's supposed to basically represent like their backyard.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:14

I see it here because I I'm looking at it. It says the Steele Stadium, which is Ernie Steele, and Eggman Acres, which is Kimmy Eggman. I love that they named their little fields after themselves, like their last name.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:25

Yeah, no, I love it, dude. Um, me and Carter got to kind of touch on the on the draft episode how we did backyard sports in real life. So Carter was right, like it was real intricate. We had a full-on football season, and we drafted for teams basically out of a hat. We wrote every kid's name down and like put them in folded pieces of paper, shook them up, drew like three to four out of a at a time out of a hat to determine your team. Well, each of us on the little street we lived in, there were like four really good yards that were big enough to have a football game, and like each team that like pulled out of a hat determined, like, hey, this is your home field, like home field and practice field. Man, I love that shit. Yes, that was legit, dude. Like, you think I'm like carrying on, but Carter's right, man. We took that shit serious for like a summer or two. I'll never forget, man. I was such a geek. My mom tried to get me into like collecting stamps, like first, second grade, and I had like a huge stamp collection. When this backyard football thing came into like it was it was because of this game. But I don't know, when we got that idea, I opened that three-ring binder, opened it up, popped them out, took all the stamps out, threw them in a fucking closet, got a three-hole punch, punched like printer paper out, so I could keep track of like records. Stats and records and shit. Stats, records, scores, like roster, whose field was where. And then on my team, me, Andrew, Alfrey, and Austin, I kept plays. Our plays are in this playbook, but I guess I was also trying to like represent the league as like the I don't want to call it president, but keeping everything straight. We literally had four fields within like a little street.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:17

Was yours named the the Cook Stadium or something?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:20

I'm pretty sure our home field was called the circle. There's basically a circle of grass. There's houses on one side of it and houses on the other, and then just in the middle is this the circle. It was the smallest field. So like we hated to play at our own home field just because it fucking sucked. But uh there was a great field. There was a kid named Sean who had a freaking awesome field. Carter's home field was in a kid named Victor's yard, which was big and nice, but the trees above it had, I don't want to say pine cones, it had some kind of nut that would get in the yard that made like sometimes like you'd get tackled into those, which hurt like hell. We had this whole, I'm serious, Tanner. Like this was legit serious shit. Like I know.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:08

I could just this is like the origins of like what we did on the podcast, like how serious you can get into something that's so little or so nine. I have something similar to that, dude, because uh back on the Mario 3 episode, we talked uh how I would walk with Corey to his street, Myrtle Street, and it was run by kids. The two older kids there, one of them was named uh David Chabwell, and then the other one was the one who gave me those Mario games, his name is Daniel Stakely. What we did was at the start of the spring semester, I I would have been in uh fourth grade or something. What they did was they would recruit these younger kids, because they were in seventh, eighth grade, and then kids my age, fourth, third grade, and they would both recruit their own little armies. And what they would do is they'd be like, okay, guys, we're gonna train until we get to the summer. Then once we reach the summertime, we're gonna have this little war, like how kids would across the street. And what we would do, I was on David Chadwell's army, so he would make us do like drills, like sprints, push-ups, practice with these little like fake guns and stuff. Like we were acting like we were these little like army men, and this big war came in June, whenever like both of our armies were like like prepared, like we went through boot camp and shit. I I just love like when kids have like that kind of imagination and shit, like that's your world. You get off school, you're like, Well, I gotta go uh do drills for my army to work or you like you, I gotta go participate in my own little minor league baseball game. Yeah, but um, yeah, man. I mean, I've enjoyed talking about this game. I guess we haven't really touched upon the negatives or the controls because I'm pretty sure that's where that falls for me and you. Did you like how this game controlled? Because where this is a kind of an early PC game for kids, like it primarily uses just the mouse and click.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:48

Yeah, that's all it's mouse to click, space to pause, escape to basically cancel out, like or speed up. Yeah, that's that's your that's your buttons right there. There's three buttons. I didn't mind it. I guess I'm used to the style. Carter hated it, which I don't blame him a bit. I can see how like uninviting it is to someone who's never played the series and how kind of wonky it is in this old of a game because not everything's set up a hundred percent accurate, and I can see the the way the game's set up, like getting a little, I don't know, misclicked, like clicking wrong or sending some.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:24

It's not precise at all. Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:26

There you go. That's that's the words I'm looking for. Yeah, I can see the precision being off.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:30

I I think this game is primarily charm and nostalgia for people who've played it. Like if you're going into this thinking it's gonna be this simulation baseball game and you're gonna be getting heavily into it. No, I mean that's not what it is. You play this because it's backyard baseball, you love the characters, you love the atmosphere, the music, all that kind of stuff. You're not playing this to get a serious baseball game, at least in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:55

No, no, you're you're 100%. Like, this is not uh this isn't MLB the show or no. No, even back in like back in the day, this isn't baseball simulator 1000, like where you're like uh looking for something so precise. Now it does take some of those like key aspects of successful baseball games like in the past and like builds on them in its own way because it keeps stats pretty damn well down to the T as far as batting average, basis stolen, ERA for your pitcher, like all those stats that baseball fans like, it does keep that. And I always thought that was really cool because during your season you could click and look at like the record book or whatever it was and see how other teams' pitchers were doing, see how many triples there were in the league, like you know, because Pete Willer, my fast leadoff hitter, he led the league in solemn bases and triples, and I love to like keep track on that. Like, let's see if he's still doing it. Like, I I'm a little stats geek.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:59

Oh, yeah. I mean, that was definitely an amazing addition there. Like, even the presentation of the game, I think, is flawless. Like, whenever you go to your team screen, it shows like like how kids would do it on their minor league baseball teams. It's like your entire team that you chose in this like group photo, and they're all smiling at the camera and you see everyone who's on your team.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:18

A little league picture, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:20

And like even whenever you create your team, like we did on the draft, you can do the color and then they give you some preset names, so it's not just like this generic name or whatever, you can give it some sort of customization. Right. Where it's unique to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:32

Yeah, I think this game would be really awesome, and I've seen apparently some people have done it, but like to see some people maybe hack or like you know, mod this a little bit to where I don't mean to say hack, but mod it somewhat to where there's like if if we could have had this online league together where we're playing like AI, like computer teams and us in the regular season, that would have been a blast.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:59

Oh, fuck yeah, that would have been incredible. That's what I was saying. Um I hate that this series went down kind of a Natsumi route, I guess, just to tie into what our fan base knows of us. The last game that came out was uh 2015, and it was only on iOS and Android.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:13

So you can before that, like I'm pretty sure uh console was 2010. So it's like 2010 they did one last game, and it took them five years to release some bullshit on the phone.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:27

Yeah, it's that's really sad because they had something unique here, and if they would have kept this original art style and this original like style to it, like that mid-90s Nickelodeon flavor to it, I think it could have really performed well. If it would have kept them original kids and stuff, because even the one back in uh 2010, it says the cover athlete was uh David Ortiz or Ortiz or however you say it. Yeah, so they were still doing that MLB thing that I'm just I'm not a fan of. I think it kind of takes away from what it is. It's like it's they're trying to compete with MLB the show when it's nowhere near that. But yeah, what we're gonna do, uh are are you ready to move on, Jared? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, this was a lot of fun, and this was definitely an improvement over what we had before. I'm gonna go ahead and uh segue into our scores from the last episode, and we already know what game we're gonna be playing this week. You all don't, so you're all about to find out. Here we go. And Carter was not a fan of this game, as you're about to find out. Okay, I'll go first, guys. Um, I'm not gonna lie, I really did enjoy this game. I'm a sucker for these mid-90s PC games, especially Humongous Entertainment, because I grew up heavily on Pajama Sam and Freddie Fish, which they share like the same art style, that kind of mid-90s cartoon, Nickelodeon Hey Arnold vibe, and I'm all over that. The draft was one of the funnest episodes that we've ever done, which helps this game a lot, really. I had so much fun drafting my team, and I'll always remember the uh the ones that I drafted. I really do think the only thing that holds this game back the most is the gameplay, which I don't even entirely blame the game on. It was the first one that they ever made. They wanted to make it simple for kids and just use the mouse. I completely understand that. I just wish that they would have took this template and art style and the kids and all that and evolved it on the consoles instead of just going the whole MLB players as kids route. But I'm not gonna hold that against it. I still think this game is extremely memorable. People still remember this game and remember it fondly. Um I'm gonna give it a 7.8. I really did enjoy this game. Uh, what about you, Jared? What did you think of it?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:30

I had a good time.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:31

Like I said, any sports game where you get to like I know technically on here you don't quote unquote draft, but the fact that we drafted together and like tried to build a team and go through a season, I eat that shit up. I'll do any sports game that's like that. So I had fun. Like we mentioned, as far as cons goes, there there is a lot of them. The AI is terrible. Carter mentioned it. The base running, like, even if you were to throw it to first and it gets there a half second before they're like, they just got to first and you're throwing it to first, they'll just keep running the second sometimes, and then it's such an easy out. And like Carter said, we had the game on hard. It should have been a lot more difficult than what it was. I guess I understand it's a kid's game, though, but it's a little bit repetitive after you do three, four, five games in a season, which I guess that's what baseball is, but you're gonna get the same, same old, same old. And it's it's easy. Like, even though we had it on hard and I didn't have the best kids, I was still like if I'd play a game or two, I'd get in the groove of things and I'd just be whacking the ball, waxing them.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:39

So overall, I'm gonna give it a 6.0.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:42

Might as low. Well, it could be lower. Um it's about uh I played this game and um I had a lot of fun learning the characters and everything, and the draft was awesome. Like that was a fun episode to do, and it was fun drafting our kids. And honestly, I like keeping up with their stats and everything, but uh after like after we drafted, then I had to actually play the game. I'd say two or three games into it, I was just like, okay, I think I've seen everything, and I truly have. I don't know, just I wish there was some way to control the kids on off. Like there was a ball hit to my to the first baseman, and he walks out beside the base, grabs it, and he stands there until the pitcher runs to first base, the runner's safe, and I'm like, what the hell? How can I not make him run to first and get the out? So yeah, like I said, I like the characters and everything, but the gameplay, like even the mouse clicks are off, it's just not good. And I had written this score down. I wrote it down as a 4.5.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:36

Ooh, you're hurting my heart, Carter. I think this is the farthest split we've ever had.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:41

And that is as a uh 32-year-old man who has not grown up with this game.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:46

So I didn't either. I guess I I value other things in games. It I guess I can get past shitty gameplay with if it has a little bit of charm to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:55

Oh gosh. That's a 6.1.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:58

Okay, that's fair. That's like above average game.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:02

That's about what you gave it, Jared, wasn't it? Let me do the math here. Jared, he gave it a 7.8. I should have gave it what a 4.4. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:10

Maybe the draft episode is just like clouding my memory, and it's not as fun as I thought it was.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:16

The draft episode was fun. Like I had a lot of fun drafting the team, but just playing the actual game was like a little bit kind of like it was a job to get through those games. I was at work and I was just like hoping somebody would call me.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:31

I just can't not get I can't not play something like that. Like I said, I'm a I'm a fucking sucker for any type of sports game where you got a team. Like, I don't want to say I become attached to the team, but like anything that tracks your stats and has numbers and that I'm comparing with somebody else like you two, I'll eat that shit up. Like I I can't not play it, even though I hate it. Like I don't hate it, but it was very repetitive and hard.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:58

It was like a job for me to push through. I wish they would have just uh honed in the gameplay a little bit or added just a little bit to the defensive side of the ball, and this would have been a whole lot better game. Like the potentials there, just I don't know. It just it just wasn't anything like for a baseball competitive game, uh, it just didn't do it for me, I guess. Yeah, I can say I'll never play it again after this podcast. So and uh all you listening, if you want to play along with us, uh you can get your Carter warned you t-shirt at your local magic market. Until now.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:32

Well, alrighty, let's move on to the wheel. We got six games left. We got NBA courtside from Caleb Cook, NFL 2K5 from Jared, Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup from me, Carter's picks, NBA jam in top gear, Mike Tyson's punch out from Dave Mathis.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:51

It's not gonna be Carter's, it's not the last of the season.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:54

Yeah, it's gotta be the last two episodes for Carter's to win. Alrighty, guys, here we go. Three, two, one. Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:11

I knew it. I knew it wasn't top gear and I knew it wasn't NBA Jam.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:15

So the wheel doesn't want to pick Carter's games for some weird reason.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:20

Hey, I'm pumped for Quidditch, though. I picked that game up and uh I fired it up, and it looks like it's gonna be okay. Well haven touched it.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:27

I don't remember hardly a thing about it. I had it when I was a kid and I barely played it. Uh here's the thing. Back in the Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets episode, we took the Hogwarts quiz, and I'm a Gryffindor, Carter's a Ravenclaw, and Jared's a Slytherin. So you start out and you're at Hogwarts, and you gotta pick your Hogwarts team. So we're gonna be going with those. But once you beat the other three remaining houses, you then move on to basically the big leagues, like the uh basically the NFL of Quidditch. Yeah, pretty much. So what you do is uh you pick a a country of like I think eight different countries. So I'm gonna do real quick, and Cardi, you can pause the episode if you want, is I'm gonna put these countries on a wheel and I'm gonna see what country we we play. Okay, I got the teams on the wheel. So here we go. This is uh these are gonna be our teams. So let me go through the countries here. First up, obviously we got England, which is where Harry Potter takes place. Then we got the United States of America, repping our country. Then we got Japan, Germany, France, Australia, it just says Nordic, Spain, and Bulgaria, which uh fans of Harry Potter will know that the Bulgarian seeker is Victor Crumb from The Goblet of Fire, which is one of the competitors. So that that's the seeker of that team. So here we go, guys. Uh let's do Carter first. Let's do the classic ABC order. So, Carter, this is your team.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:47

Yeah, let me go first. My game sure as hell don't go first. I'm just kidding. We gotta give him something.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:53

Carter's repping Japan, the Japanese Quidditch team, baby.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:57

I love it, Hino Motors. Let's get it.

unknown 1:28:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:00

Mon Hideo Kojima. Catch that snitch.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:03

Alright.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:03

Three, two, one.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:05

This is for Jared. The Dragons.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:10

USA.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:11

I knew it. I almost said it before you said it.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:13

You're United States, Jared. And the cool thing about this game is each uh team has their own Quidditch pitch, which looks like to how that country, like I guess the stereotypes of that country. So it's really, really cool. The United States one looks awesome. And then my team is going to be.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:29

Of course it does. America. EA games challenge everything. Australia. Oh boy. Goodbye, Mike.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:40

Alrighty, guys. So this one is the what the fuck game of the season. I have no idea if this is going to be good or bad. So I'm really, really looking forward to this one. We're going to get in depth about us playing Quidditch in high school and uh the positions we played.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:54

What's your history with Quidditch?

SPEAKER_05 1:28:56

Yeah, like did you play it growing up, Jared?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:59

Yeah, Concord.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:01

You were the best beater that they had.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:03

I just hate it that we hadn't we always had those shitty ass brooms in high school. Couldn't get the good stuff. I don't care about Quidditch around here, though.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:10

Yeah, they could at least had the Nimbus 2000 ones. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:15

We had the Nimbus 100s in 1975, the hand-me-downs.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:22

All righty, boys.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:28

Let's do it.