We Love It's Guide to…
Draft cartoon kids and MLB legends, then pitch, hit, and field through quick games or a 14-game season.
Released 08 Jul 2025
Mix Kids and Pros
Power-Up Pitches and Hits
Customize Team Uniforms
Backyard Baseball 2001 is the second Backyard Baseball game, and the fourth overall game, in the Backyard Sports franchise. Build your roster from iconic Backyard athletes and legendary MLB players. Strike out opponents, hit homers, and earn hilarious Power-ups. Play ball!
Developed by Mega Cat Studios · Published by Playground Productions
Choose from 30 Backyard kids and 28 MLB players reimagined as children, then assemble a team to take the field. You can customize uniforms and pick a home ballpark.
Play baseball by pitching, batting, fielding, running the bases, and choosing when to use batting and pitching power-ups. Difficulty settings offer three levels, and batting practice with Mr. Clanky introduces the hitting controls.
Jump into a random pickup game, take turns drafting players for a single game, or guide a team through a 14-game season. The top two season teams advance to a best-of-three playoff, followed by further championship rounds.
Players in this sample often celebrate the game’s nostalgic appeal, memorable characters, and approachable baseball play. Several also enjoy building teams and playing through seasons, while some newer players say the controls are easy to learn and the roster adds variety. Reviews also mention frustrations with technical problems, the small game window, or aspects of batting and controls, so the praise is not universal.
Relive the second baseball game in the Backyard Sports franchise, now enhanced to run on Steam. Whether you're picking your dream team, playing a pick-up game, or diving into a full season, step up to the plate and experience the game that made baseball fun for everyone!
Backyard Baseball ‘01 teams up the Backyard kids with Backyardified MLB legends. Create your own Backyard team, customize your uniforms, and strategize to win the Championship. Play a single pick-up game or play through an entire season. Backyard Baseball ‘01 features intuitive controls for all ages!
Enjoy baseball like it’s 2001!
30 Charming Backyard kids
Legendary MLB Players
MLB Team Marks
Hilarious Bloopers
8 Classic Ballparks
9 Pitching Power-ups and 4 batting Power-ups
Lively commentary from Sunny Day and Vinnie
To get into the swing of things, choose a batter and face Mr. Clanky for some batting practice. This is where you’ll learn just when to click to make your chosen batter hit the ball!
Play with the legend himself, Pablo Sanchez. Build a roster from a cast of 30 hilarious child athletes and 28 legendary pros that made Backyard Baseball ‘01 a sports classic. Returning MLB players include Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Cal Ripken Jr., Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Randy Johnson, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Bagwell, Jason Giambi, Chipper Jones, Jeromy Burnitz, Mark McGwire, Shawn Green, Vladimir Guerrero, Kenny Lofton, Jason Kendall, Barry Larkin, Marty Cordova, Mo Vaughn, Raul Mondesi, Curt Schilling, Alex Gonzalez, Juan Gonzalez, Larry Walker, Carlos Beltran, Tony Gwynn, Ivan Rodriguez, and Jose Canseco.
Game Modes include:
Choose from three modes of play (Easy Mode, Medium Mode, Hard Mode)
Random Pick-up: A quick way to jump right in! The computer chooses a random team for you and itself and the game starts immediately.
Single Game: You take turns with the computer choosing players from a random pool of characters.
Season: You pick your home field, create a team, and manage the team through a 14 game series. The opposing teams are computer generated. At the end of the season, the best two teams advance to the BBL playoffs (best of 3). If you keep winning, you’ll compete in the Super Entire Nation Tournament and Ultra Grand Championship of the Universe Series!
At our core, we are fans first – not just of video games, but of the Backyard Sports franchise. Fans have asked for accessible and legal ways to play their original Backyard titles for years, and we are excited to deliver.
Without having access to the source code, there are hard limitations on the experience we can create. As an example, we can’t use the original 32bit code to support modern macOS, as even with an incredibly clever wrapper, macOS can’t execute the binaries.
Backyard Baseball ‘01 runs well, looks better than ever, is stacked with Steam achievements, includes new bonus features to test your mettle, and creates a new installation for digital preservation within the Backyard Sports catalog that allows the next generation of fans to fall in love with the game.
| Platforms | Windows |
|---|---|
| Achievements | 24 |
| Age ratings |
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| Controller required | No |
| Website | Official website |
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