List of Backyard Kids

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Backyard Kids are fictional characters in Atari's Backyard Sports series of video games. They live in the Junior Sports Neighborhood, as stated in the first five Backyard Sports games. Here is a full list of them:

• Amir "Sticks" Khan is Achmed's younger brother. He plays the drums, hence the nickname "Sticks," as in "drumsticks."
• Ashley and Sidney "Little Smokey" Webber are twin sisters who love tennis and fashion.They always play better when they are on the same team.
• Reese "Big Toe" Worthington has asthma, but loves video games and collecting stamps. He has a crush on a girl named Clare (as of Backyard Football 1999) and likes to show off.
• Pablo "Secret Weapon" Sanchez always speaks Spanish (unless the shift button is used when clicking on his card in some games). He has an older brother named Manuel "Babe" Sanchez. He doesn't know why he's called the "Secret Weapon." Pablo is always the best in every backyard sport.
• Tony "Vec" Delvecchio is an Italian-Bronx character who always boasts. He is one of the best players in Backyard Football. He is sort of mean, though. He love sucking on lolly-pops.
• Vicki "Swan" Kawaguchi loves ballet (untl Baseball 2007) and is Kenny's little sister. She is one of the best in Backyard Basketball and Soccer. She also likes fashon. She likes the baseball stadium "Tokyo Town".
• Pete "Wheelie" Wheeler always does things the wrong way. He has a father named Wally, a brother named Leroy, and an uncle named Charlie. Apparently, he tends to annoy Tony Delvecchio. Also Pete is very fast, most likely the fastest in the game.
• Maria "Pinky" Luna has one of the largest My Precious Pony (joke on My Little Pony) dolls in the Northern Hemisphere. Her favorite color is pink. She says she's seven years old in one game.
• Marky "Cootie" Dubois has a pet frog and does not like socks, shoes, or baths. He has a crush on Billy Jean "Crazy Legs" Blackwood. In games made after Backyard Hockey, Marky is seen wearing shoes.
• Angela "Sugar Pop" Delvecchio is Tony's younger sister. She always tries to disprove her brother. She's a good pitcher and is not as mean as Tony.
• Dmitri "Paste" Petrovich loves calculations. He has appeared in all Backyard games as of Backyard Baseball 2007. He is similar to Dexter from "Dexter's Laboratory".
• Dante "Stretch" Robinson loves to eat. He has an afro.
• Jorge "Bonkers" Garcia does not like getting dirty and is obsessed with the stock market. His full name is Jorge Raul Luis Garcia III.
• Annie "Flipper" Frazier loves to watch nature and was born from hippies. She also likes animals and ice cream.
• Kiesha "Flash" Phillips is big and strong. She always wears a football uniform with the number 99 on it, except in earlier games, when she wore a yellow shirt. Kiesha is usually mistaken that since she is big she isnt fast but she is both a great hitter and a good base-runner.
• Lisa "Mad Dog" Crocket is not interested in conversations. She is also sort of mean and a stick in the mud.
• Phil "Coolkid" Hoffman has tinted glasses and a big afro. He can always be seen wearing a purple collared shirt. He is often described as the worst player in all of the Backyard sports, possibly passing Jorge Garcia.
• Ricky "Fella" Johnson is very shy. His middle name is Alexander, as said in Backyard Soccer. He is very tall and African American.
• Guillaume "Friendly" Vandame is not a great player. He is considerably overweight, which is reflected in his lack of "game". He plays better when he is on Jordan Stillman's team.
• Ronny "Spud" Dobbs wants to be bigger, like his sister Sally.
• Sally "The Boss" Dobbs is the local babysitter and Ronny's older sister. She is the tour official in Backyard Skateboarding.
• Achmed "Axeman" Khan is Amir's older brother and is even more into heavy metal than his brother. He is one of the best in Backyard Baseball and plays the guitar. He is also a good batter. Achmed, also loves to listen to music, mostly rock and he can jack homers.
• Ernie "Funnybones" Steele loves to tell jokes and do imitations. In Backyard Baseball 2005, it is mentioned that Ernie has a pet dog named Buster. Ernie is a great fielder.
• Mikey "Nugget" Thomas has a runny nose and talks to rocks. His full name is Michael Rhett Thomas. He always has a bad cold that never goes away.
• Joey McAdoo (not an original character, introduced later)
• Samantha Pierce (not an original character, introduced later)
• Arthur Chen (not an original character, introduced later)
• Kenny "K-Man" Kawaguchi is the one with the wheelchair. His is the best pitcher among the kids despite his disability. In certain games his birthdate is November 02 while in some games his birthday is November 20.
• Kimmy "Twinkle Toes" Eckman loves candy and has anger issues.
• Billy Jean "Crazy Legs" Blackwood speaks with a Southern accent and dreams of living in Paris. She adores fashion and makeup.
• Stephanie "Bubbles" Morgan's favorite sport is baseball. She chews bubble gum, giving her the nickname "Bubbles". She was lost in Backyard Baseball for a little while but makes a cameo appearance in Baseball 2007 as a costom non-playable character in the season story mode.
• Luanne "Lulu" Lui carries her pink teddy bear "Teddy" around with her. She is the youngest Backyard Kid, but also the fastest.
• Gretchen "Jabberjaw" Hasselhoff speaks very quickly.
• Jocinda "MVP" Smith has four brothers. She loves basketball, and has her own court. She also has a best friend named Alice Steinman.
• Yolinda "sharp shootin" Allen is an unlockable in backyard soccer 2002. She has a crush on Billy Jean Blackwood. Because she is an unlockable, she is not considered a real backyard kid, similar to Thor herring "lemon boy".

It has been noted by parents of players of the Backyard games that many of the characters fit stereotypes. For example the Khan brothers represent Bill & Ted and Waynes World-esque wanna-be metalheads. Pete Wheeler is sort of a Forest Gump-ish dumb southern character. Dmitiri Petrovich is a classic poindexter, while Lisa Crockett is a stereotypical antisocial type, among other personalities in the game. These stereotypes have caused a little bit of controversy among parents, but many find the stereotypes humorous despite the fact that chances are their children do not understand them.

There are some characters that have appeared in the Backyard Sports series of games, like Thor Herring "Lemon Boy", who often has full stats (10/10 in everything) except in Backyard Football 2006. However, they are not Backyard Kids, because they did not have their first appearance in Backyard Baseball (1997). They are neither Backyard Kids nor the various pro stars that have appeared in the games from Backyard Football (1999) onwards. They are just generic kids, and are often unlockable players.

It is important to mention the commentators in the games, while characters all but Abner Dubbleplay(unlockable in Backyard Baseball 2005),Barry Dejay,Buddy Cheque,and Erik Stream cannot be used in gameplay. The only commentator to appear in all but one of the games is Sunny Day, the stereotypical over-enthusiastic play-by-play announcer. She has had various partners for all the different games, who include:

• Baseball: Vinnie the Gooch (originally) and Abner Dubbleplay (a joke on Abner Doubleday and double play)
• Football: Chuck Downfield (voiced by Klem Daniels)
• Basketball: Barry Dejay (voiced by Dex Manley)
• Soccer: Earl Grey (a reference to a kind of tea).
• Hockey: Buddy Cheque (a play on body check in hockey)
• Skateboarding: Erik Stream {a play on air extreme)