It's a snowy day here in January, and as Sunny Day would have said, "It looks like a winter wonderland!" And with the ranking of Pixar movies and the NHL's Winter Classic both happening recently, that naturally led to reminiscing about the "Backyard Sports" video games, and a fake-news post about what they might be up to now, sort of like this post somebody wrote about the Wishbone cast. (This BuzzFeed article totally applies to my life, haha.)
"There are those friends you've known forever and talk to nearly constantly. And there are those that you don't hear from often, but are still in contact with. Then there are the type that just seemed like they fell off the face of the earth, and you wonder, "What happened to them, anyway?" The last option is why we decided to catch up with the Backyard Kids and see how they were faring in their young-adult lives.
Everybody remembers Sunny Day, the polished, loquacious announcer of the neighborhood ball games. She stopped calling the games just after the skateboard craze to focus on school and went on to major in broadcasting at Tech State University, serving as radio voice of the Fighting T-Squares' hockey games. She could not be reached for comment on this story, but sent a polite email saying that she was very busy developing a TV series about Spy Fox.
Her longtime color commentator, Vinnie the Gooch, can often be found hanging out at Mark's Burger Joint, where Dante Robinson and Kimmy Eckman work, or riding motorcycles with Tony Delvecchio. They hung out a lot together in high school, and more or less graduated. Angela didn't have this problem at all, she took valedictorian honors her senior year, giving her speech with her tassel constantly flopping into her face. She retaliated at the cap by throwing one of her fireballs with it afterwards, spinning it neatly into the aisle where she picked it up on the way out, almost tripping over it.
"Ricky Johnson continues to play soccer and football in his spare time, and also took up skateboarding. He now works at Mom and Pop's Skate Shop.
"Annie Frazier is currently working as a cashier at Weasel Barn while she is studying for her bachelor's in education, she stated that she will be interning at Scheffler Elementary next fall.
"There are a lot of the kids now in coaching; Jocinda Smith is coach of the Hammers basketball team, Stephanie Morgan leads the Hornets in the Backyard Baseball League, Chuck Downfield is staying involved in the gridiron action as an assistant for the Bombers, Ricky and Annie both coach soccer, for the Wombats and Fishes, respectively, and Buddy Cheque is is trying to teach the Polar Bears how to play hockey out on Duksana Pond.
Some moved away over the years, like Pablo Sanchez. "He just kind of disappeared one day, nobody's exactly sure what happened to him. We sure miss him, he was a good guy, and a fantastic athlete," said Kiesha Phillips. "The Webber twins were going after careers in pro tennis last I heard. They were great people, even if I did have trouble telling Ashley from Sidney. Mikey Thomas moved during fifth grade."
According to Frazier, a lot of people attended Billy Jean Blackwood and Marky Du Bois' wedding last summer, music was provided by the Khan brothers' band. "It was fun to see everybody again, great to get to catch up and see how friends were doing."
. Always known as Jabberjaw growing up, a trait for which most people tried to avoid her, Gretchen Hasselhoff's bubbly personality is now put to use in her job as a tour guide at Shark Belly Shores amusement park. "Oh, yeah, I haven't heard from a bunch of people in a couple years, well, more like three or four, actually, but, anyway, there's Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff. The Boss is in management at our sister company Walter Weasel World, actually....it's a pain sometimes, but what're you gonna do, you know what I mean?
"Kenny and that science-y kid put their super-smart brains together and built more robots like Mr. Clanky, pretty awesome if you ask me, that company is probably gonna get super rich, and here we were growing up with the original!
"Course, not everybody's doing quite as well. Kimmy sort of got into trouble a few years ago, she's working at that restaurant in town, I think. And there was Ronny's whole deal..."
The field that once was Eckman Acres is now mostly a flower garden, and Dirt Yards is no more, briefly becoming the Paveway and now housing the Squirrel Creek Shopping Center. This well-documented construction is still looked upon with disfavor by many. Pete Wheeler works as a groundskeeper for the Parks Department, mowing the grass, mainly. He's set a local record as the only person to get a speeding ticket on a Snapper lawn tractor. The police officer who gave him that ticket? None other than the Mad Dog herself, Lisa Crockett.
The gang occasionally gets together for a pickup soccer or baseball game, but those times are rare; everyone is busy going their separate ways and with their lives. Some have kids, some are in college, some have done well, others have had harder times. But they've all been part of some great memories, and provided countless thousands of hours of highlight clips on the Junior Sports Network and YouTube. We can't let their performances on the field define their entire lives, though; instead they ought to have a chance to be ordinary average citizens of the community."
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