Backyard Baseball's Stereotypes

If you grew up in the 90's and had access to a computer, you probably played some version of the Backyard sports series. Personally, I started with Backyard Baseball 2001.

Humongous Entertainment, the game's developer was very aware of social stereotypes. Understandably, this may have gone over your head.

Allow me to educate you on the fine arts of being politically incorrect.

1) Pablo Sanchez  

The first pick for my team no matter which version of Backyard sports games, Pablo Sanchez was exceptional in every game. He could pitch, catch, and hit a home run everytime. After every home run, his latin-styled music would play as he rounded the bases.

Because of his hispanic name, the developers decided to make sure he could speak no english. They did include a cheat however. If you hold the shift key while viewing his profile, he speaks in english.

Oh, and he's the shortest player in the game.

   2) Pete Wheeler

   Simple Pete. Basically Forest Gump in a video game.

   He's really fast, really dumb, and not much else.

   The game's developers must have thought, "We have some great characters, but we need a redneck!"

3) Kenny Kawaguchi

Let me start this one out by saying I feel bad for Kenny. At least his name is an alliteration. Moving away from the race card, Kenny's stereotype is of a different flavor.

Kenny is the only handicapped player in the game. Instead of making him really good, maybe giving some hope to some handicapped children who play the game, Humongous decided to make his attributes realistic. His speed is lacking, has virtually no power, and is a lackluster fielder.

At this point, they must have felt (slightly) bad for him because they made him a good pitcher.

Those are only the most obvious.  Humongous did a great job including every race. Kids need to be educated as early as possible about what they should expect when encountering every type of person.