Backyard Baseball Field Ideas

Posted : admin | On 11-05-2021

Baseball

Baseball Diamond. Most homeowners are not going to have the space to install a regulation-size baseball field in their backyard, but a small diamond might be an option if you have some extra land. If not, you can also downsize your diamond dreams and opt for a batting cage and an area of lawn large enough for some serious games of catch. How to Make a Backyard Baseball Field. Play Baseball Games Baseball Videos Baseball Tips Baseball Training Better Baseball Baseball Field Basketball Court Layout Basketball Scoreboard Lifetime Basketball Hoop. Find 20 Smart Ideas How to Make Backyard Batting Cage Ideas for you. It is a good time and here are some of the best 20 Smart Ideas.

Available Platform: Windows

Backyard Baseball is a baseball game created by Humongous Entertainment and released for Windows and Macintosh in 1997.

Year1997
GenreSports
Rating

91/100 based on 4 editorial reviews. Add your vote

PublisherHumongous Entertainment
DeveloperHumongous Entertainment
OS supportedWindows XP, 2000 & Windows 7, MacOS 10.6-10.14
Updated2 November 2019
TAGS

Game Review

Ideas

Backyard Baseball is a baseball game created by Humongous Entertainment and released for Windows and Macintosh in 1997.

It's the first of a long series of successful titles, the last one of which was released in 2015.

The idea of a videogame about kids playing baseball was developed by Nick Mirkovich, illustrator and animator. He presented the concept to the legendary Ron Gilbert (not only the creator of Maniac Mansion but also the founder of Humongous), and after a while, he approved. The design team was made of Mirkovich, Richard Moe (a programmer), and Mark Peyser (a graphic designer).

Download Backyard Baseball

Ideas

The game created by the trio was brilliant and totally unique. High-quality hand-drawn cartoon graphics, fluid animations, excellent gameplay, and, most importantly, a fantastic character design. The baseball players, 30 kids, were designed with their own look&feel and personality. Vaguely inspired to the Peanuts, they are also a great example of diversity: 15 boys, 15 girls, all in different sizes, colors, and races.

Somehow the kids remind me of movies such as The Bad News Bears (an amazing 1976 movie with Walter Matthau), and 'The sandlot', except that in the game, there are many more girls :)

Anyway, the kids in Backyard Baseball are so cute it's impossible not to fall in love with them. For each one of them, composer Rhett Mathis created a specific theme song. This was probably one of the most memorable elements of this game.

As you could expect from a sports sim, there are also top players. In this case, the real star is a short kid called Pablo Sanchez. Even if he looks like the worst player, he is the greatest one, and everybody loved him. Believe it or not, Pablo Sanchez is one of the most beloved videogames characters ever created.

Curiously, Backyard Baseball was developed using the SCUMM game engine, the same used in many graphics adventure. It's a great example of the flexibility of the engine invented by Ron Gilbert. Apparently, creating a sports sim was totally possible. The basic mechanic is indeed quite simple. Still, the game supports different fields, tournaments, different stats for the players, and even a sort of Mario Kart-style power-ups.

Backyard Baseball is simply one of the most popular videogames ever created. So what are you waiting for? Download and play it!

Review by: Manu
Published: 3 November 2019, 5:13 pm

Backyard Baseball Field Ideas Images

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Fun Baseball Activities


Build Your Own Baseball Field

To build our own baseball field like the one shown at the bottom of this page, this is what I did:

  • Removed brush and mowed the lawn down in a bigger area to accommodate longer hits by my Little League age kids. I used a machete and riding lawnmower but in retrospect I wish I had rented a brushing mower.

  • Hung up 10 foot & 7 ft wide sports netting (available at this sports net link at ebay) in areas that I did not wish to mow down. I placed some old snow fence I had in the far back. In a city lot, one could place netting closer in if space was limited. Also, for more limited space, use a T-ball in place of a hard ball - it will not travel as far when hit but provide much the same practice.

  • Used our shed for a backstop however the back of a garage would work well too. Also set up a pitch back net for times when a catcher was not used.

  • I covered obstacles (like the well pump covered by a bucket in several photos shown below), to avoid injury.

  • I mowed behind the shed (our backstop) to make it easier to find fouls hit behind.

  • The playing field, with bases arranged for the game of Two Bases, is shown below.

Notes About Our Back Yard Baseball Field

The only measurement that should be exact is the Little League 46 foot distance from plate to pitchers mound. Otherwise, a batter will not learn correct timing. All other base placement is arbitrary but try to match the Little League distances if you have the room.

The kids play off the net if balls bounce off the nets. Also, you can make rules for balls that go over the net or somehow get lost.

If balls are pitched to a catcher, a mask and protective gear are a must! Also, to reduce risk of injury, a softer T-ball works well. For small numbers of kids, a pitch back net may be used instead of a catcher (see the game First Base). So far our kids have only used the pitch back net and the pitcher covers home if needed.

How much it would cost to build a baseball field like this?

The netting I got cost around $180 on ebay. The snow fence was around $20 when I originally bought it. The posts were made of diseased & dieing small trees from our 35 acres. If you had the extra space (old farmer's field), you would not need the netting but it is still nice for smaller numbers of kids. Add in a 'bit' of my labor. Mind you this is not a full size field but it does offer much the same infield fielding practice as a regular little league field.

CLICK ON EACH IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW



Here's the new field with an extra row of snow fence at the back. Also, the fence has been moved back behind the tree. All set for the older kids!


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