‘Backyard Sports’ Reboot Means the Greatest Video Game Athlete Ever Is Coming Back

Pablo Sanchez, arguably the most powerful character in video game history, is set to make his return alongside his extensive group of friends as the Backyard Sports franchise comes back after going dark for nearly 10 years.

If you’re unfamiliar, the Backyard Sports franchise launched in 1997 with the PC game Backyard Baseball. It was a hit and quickly spawned several sequels, featuring a bunch of neighborhood kids who gather together to kill time outdoors playing sports like basketball, football, soccer, and hockey. The series hasn’t had a new entry since a pair of 2015 mobile games, Backyard Sports: Baseball 2015 and Backyard Sports: Basketball 2015.

Originally published by Atari and developed by Humongous Entertainment, the Backyard Sports brand is being revived by Playground Productions, described as “a STEM-focused family entertainment firm led by former Chicago public school teacher Lindsay Barnett.” 

A couple of years ago, one of the original Backyard Sports developers answered some questions from fans on Reddit, where he remembered the game being made in a completely different era of gaming history.

“Most of the team was 20-somethings, with no kids,” he wrote. “We didn’t bring in education experts, we didn’t do extensive focus testing, no A/B testing (because we burned our game to CD-ROM after all), etc. We just made a game we thought would be fun for kids.”

One of the series’ quirks among fans was the absolute dominance of one of its characters, Pablo Sanchez, who was seemingly good at every sport—as cataloged in a recent deep dive on the YouTube channel Secret Base. Turns out, Sanchez was extremely, unfairly good. Even better than some of the real-life pro athletes featured in the games.

Playground Productions plans to expand the Backyard Sports brand into more than just games: merchandise, film adaptations, and television projects—the works. We’ve wanted nearly 10 years without so much as a peep from the series, and now we’re about to get way too much.