Backyard Baseball to Be Adapted Into Animated Special, First Look Revealed in Photo

The 1997 video game "Backyard Baseball" is getting adapted into an animated special.

Backyard Sports, the iconic video game franchise that got rebooted last year, released a new look Tuesday at the first "Backyard Baseball" special.

Deadline's Katie Campione reported the special, which is titled Sticky Situation, will be produced by Lighthouse Studios and feature voice acting from Tiffany Haddish and Arturo Castro.

According to Campione, the program's logline reads: "It's Opening Day at Steele Stadium. But team superstar Stephanie 'Bubbles' Morgan is in crisis. She's lost her gotta-have-it, never-play-without-it lucky bubble gum! With just 30 minutes until game time, the Backyard kids embark on a wild mission to track it down and save their season."

The upcoming release of the animated special was first announced earlier this month at New York Comic Con, per IGN's Adam Bankhurst and Michael Peyton.

The production is being funded in part by Dave & Buster's, where it will be released on a yet-to-be announced date in "early 2026," per Bankhurst and Peyton.

The special will also be released on the Backyard Sports YouTube channel, Campione reported.

Backyard Sports is owned by Playground Productions. The company is led by CEO Lindsay Barnett, a former elementary school teacher who hired a private investigator to help her figure out how to acquire the rights to the Backyard Sports franchise one and a half years ago, per Campione.

Barnett told Campione she and her team then "were able to reverse-engineer and CD-ROM hack to make the original games playable on modern devices."

Backyard Baseball is the oldest game in the Backyard Sports franchise, which later added other sports including soccer, football, basketball and hockey.

Playground Productions owns the rights to these other sports as well. Campione reported the company hopes success could lead to further adaptations, potentially included a "scripted series."