Boy. Myth. Legend.
Co-created by Rich Moe, Nick Mirkovich, and Mark Peyser for Backyard Baseball (1997), Pablo "Secret Weapon" Sanchez is the greatest baseball player to have only lived on our living room computer screens.
For inspiration, the Backyard Sports creators turned to movies and TV shows, like "Sandlot" and "Peanuts."
"We [...] talked about the 'Bad News Bears,'" Mark recalls.
"There's a character in there, and he was just a small, Hispanic baseball player on the team," Nick says. "And they tended not to really put him in. And our thinking was, 'What if he was the best player on the team the whole entire time?'"
"It would be, like, a little secret you'd have to discover," Mark says.
He didn't stay a secret for very long, did he?
(For a lot more great info about Pablo's origins, read WBUR's article here:
www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2017/06/23/backyard-baseball-computer-game-history )
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This is the master for Pablo Sanchez's theme from the original Backyard Baseball, pre-Humongous compression, by the wonderful Rhett Mathis.
The theme is based on the bullfighting song "España cañí" ("Gypsy Spain"). It's a famous and iconic Spanish piece of pasodoble music from the 1920s by Pascual Marquina Narro (1873–1948), long associated with the mythic, the legendary, and the epic—with warriors who outlive mortality and show previously undreamed of greatness.
Rhett and I worked together to try and restore Rhett's Penguin Jams for the Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo Remastered Soundtrack, and while that wasn't meant to be, he wound up sending me this in the process. I hope it's as wonderful for you to hear as it was for me.
Thank you for your support.
PABLO FOREVER!
-Tim Knox
released November 15, 2022
This composition ℗ 1997 Rhett Mathis. This recording courtesy of Rhett Mathis. Backyard Baseball is © & ™ Day 6 Sports Group. jamdee and Rhett Mathis are in no way affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected to Day 6 Sports Group or Humongous Entertainment with respect to this album. The cover art is simply an unofficial, fan-made tribute out of love for these characters and the Humongous world.
Music composed and produced by Rhett Mathis
Cover art by the literally incomparable Sophie Morse
www.sophiemorse.com
Audio courtesy of Rhett Mathis
Product arranged and designed by Tim Knox