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On Backyard Baseball 2001 and the zaniness of youth baseball

It was the biggest game of the season: win and advance, lose and the season’s finished. Even now, two decades later, I can still picture it as clear as if it were just yesterday, the beautifully-mowed infield grass, the bright outfield fence, Cal Ripken Jr. digging his foot in at the rubber, ready to face down Jason Giambi.

Oh, I’m sorry, did you think I was talking about a real baseball game? Unfortunately, as cool as it would have been to play ball alongside these two legends, I was actually talking about one of the greatest sports videogames of all time, Backyard Baseball 2001.