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The trio lit up the high-octane Velocity-Trailblazers clash with breath-taking strokes

Annesha Ghosh27-May-2022It didn’t matter if a wicket had fallen off the previous delivery. Kiran Navgire was going to muscle a first-ball six anyway.The uncapped Indian batter had already hit a record 35 sixes in seven innings in T20s this domestic season. On Thursday, in her maiden appearance in the Women’s T20 Challenge, she added four more of those to her tally with a blistering 34-ball 69 that included a 25-ball fifty, the fastest in the tournament’s history, and set up her side Velocity’s entry into the final.”The way she batted, she took the final dream away from us,” Smriti Mandhana, the opposition captain, said after the 27-year-old Navgire dashed Trailblazers’ hopes of qualifying on a superior NRR to Velocity. “Somewhere I was a little sad that she was hitting against us but little happy as an Indian player that she was hitting hard and far and it was really good to see someone in women’s cricket hitting into the stands.”Mandhana’s team-mates, S Meghana and Jemimah Rodrigues, were no less a juggernaut with the bat themselves during the high-stakes clash at Pune’s MCA Stadium that had nearly 2500 ticketed spectators, the highest in the tournament so far, in attendance. Making her debut in the tournament, in a must-win game at that, Meghana joined forces with Rodrigues to get the defending champions off to the kind of rapid start they needed.Related

• Jemimah Rodrigues: The low moments 'prepare you for something greater that's coming'

• An identity crisis, and the promise of a brighter tomorrow

• Dhoni fan Kiran Navgire hopes to be a big hit in the Women's T20 Challenge

• Legspinner Maya Sonawane is the Paul Adams clone you've got to see to believe

Having lost the toss, Trailblazers had been after a tall total to defend. Only a win by at least 31 runs could have helped them overtake Velocity on NRR and Meghana’s 47-ball 73 proved the perfect tone-setter for her side to motor to 190 for 5, the highest total across the tournament’s four seasons.

“I believe this will be very close to my heart for a long time because the last few months haven’t been very easy for me. A lot of things to learn, lots of ups and downs, but I think that’s life and these times make you stronger”Jemimah Rodrigues

Despite losing her fellow opener Mandhana for 1, Meghana, replacing Hayley Matthews in the opening role, remained unfazed and played aggressor’s role to perfection. Making superb use of the crease and charging down the ground at will to muscle four towering sixes and seven fours, she added 61 in her 113-run stand with first-drop Rodrigues. Fresh off a 21-ball 24 in a losing cause, Rodrigues, by contrast, altered between relying more on touch and timing to hammer seven fours and a six in her 44-ball 66.”The thought processes was only what my team requires me to do I need to be there,” Rodrigues, the Player of the Match, said. “I knew [I could do that] because I was batting well. And even the way Meghana played – I think we were going really well. We were backing each other, supporting each other. When she was striking, I was rotating the strike. In between she was not getting the boundaries, [so] I was getting those odd boundaries.”Kiran Navgire scored a 34-ball 69 against Trailblazers•BCCINeither Meghana nor Rodrigues’ rapid fifties nor Trailblazers’ 16-run victory mattered much in the scheme of determining the finalists of a three-team, four-match tournament itself devoid of much meaning. With a big international season ahead, the pair’s innings could, however, go some way towards breathing new life into their stop-start international careers.”This knock was very special for me, very important, especially coming at this time,” Rodrigues, who was overlooked for the New Zealand tour and the Women’s World Cup earlier this year, said. “I believe this will be very close to my heart for a long time because the last few months haven’t been very easy for me. A lot of things to learn, lots of ups and downs, but I think that’s life and these times make you stronger.””Honestly, I didn’t think too much about the future,” she added when asked if her fifty on Thursday could improve her chances of a spot on the Commonwealth Games squad. “But, yes, definitely that will obviously be playing in my mind because a very important season is going to start now with the Commonwealth and the [T20] World Cup, so I definitely wanted to be in the best touch and the best form and it’s nice to score those runs. It gives you more confidence scoring runs and going back into the Indian team.”Meghana and Rodrigues, both capped top and middle-order batters who have spent more time on the bench than on the field for India in the recent past, made the kind of statements with the bat they needed to. Navgire, a relatively unknown prospect, showed why it might be imperative for the Indian T20I think tank to give her the chance to mould herself into a wrecking ball of a middle-overs accelerator or finisher in the international season ahead.Three days ago, South Africa and Velocity batter Laura Wolvaardt had spoken highly of Navgire’s skills. “I have been watching her in the nets in the last couple of days,” Wolvaardt had said after Velcoity’s win against Supernovas where Navgire didn’t get a chance to bat. “We did a power-hitting drill [at training] and she hit the biggest sixes that I’ve ever seen a woman hit.” On Thursday, Mandhana echoed Wolvaardt and described Navgire as an “exciting” talent with “great, great things to come for her going forward in the Indian set-up.”India are likely to play a bilateral series against Sri Lanka in June. The Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where women’s and T20 cricket make their debut, is set to be played in July-August. The 2023 T20 World Cup, in South Africa, is scheduled for February. With a slew of major events lined up, neither the platform to showcase why the national squad might be richer for Meghana, Rodrigues, and Navgire’s presence, nor the timing of their knocks, could have, therefore, been bigger or more opportune.Two internationals with a future as uncertain as their past in the Indian side, and an uncapped, unheralded player with no big-game experience lighting up a high-octane clash… the seemingly identity-less Women’s T20 Challenge hasn’t felt this relevant since the summer of 2019 when, in Jaipur, Shafali Verma announced herself to the world.

Haryana’s strike bowler talks about how he found consistency and had a dream 2019-20 season

Hemant Brar26-Apr-2020″I felt I was not good enough to play red-ball cricket anymore.”In February 2019, Haryana allrounder Harshal Patel had doubts about his abilities in long-form cricket. He had taken only 23 wickets from nine games in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season. After Haryana’s regular captain, Mohit Sharma, was sidelined with a bad back midway through the tournament, Patel was handed the dual responsibility of leading the side and its bowling attack. That compounded his dejection when he failed to pick up wickets, and made him feel he was letting his side down.Haryana finished the season with three wins, two draws and four losses, including an innings defeat to Assam. They were fifth among the ten teams in Group C.”I had always enjoyed playing red-ball cricket, so my performance that season was something that bothered me a lot,” Patel says. “As a team, we were losing against weaker sides, by an innings at times, and that hurt even more. Being the main fast bowler of the team, I felt if I cannot deliver, I should start thinking whether I am good enough to play red-ball cricket anymore.”He missed the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that came next, due to a tear in one of his glutes, but recovered in time to join the Delhi Capitals for the IPL, where, after being benched for the first two games, he had figures of 2 for 40 and none for 37 in the next two. “It didn’t show in my figures but I was pretty confident my performance was going to get significantly better,” Patel says. Unfortunately, his campaign was cut short when he fractured his hand, which added to his frustrations.Fast forward to now and Patel has not only been stellar in this season’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he also seems to have got his confidence back with the red ball. In the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy, he took 52 wickets in nine games, breaking left-arm spinner Rajinder Goel’s 36-year-old record for the most wickets in a season for Haryana.The turnaround didn’t come about by chance.Something the Capitals’ coach, Ricky Ponting, said to Patel during last year’s IPL provided a lightbulb moment.Patel has been handy with the bat in the shorter formats, and also in four-day cricket. This Ranji season he made 292 runs at 22.46, batting mostly at No. 8•Haryana Cricket Association”Ricky told me that I was brilliant at preparation but needed to get better at performance,” Patel says. “That sort of cleared things for me because I always felt I was pretty confident in practice but probably 10% less confident in the match. On the field, I was getting worried about not being able to execute my plans.”He talked about visualising what might happen in the game and going through those scenarios in the head. If you are prepared for all those scenarios, then you are more likely to succeed and not succumb to the pressure.”While Patel’s 2019 IPL ended prematurely and he started the next domestic season with an indifferent Vijay Hazare Trophy, he reaped the benefits of the new-found wisdom in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. His 19 wickets at an economy of 7.04 were the joint second most in the tournament, one fewer than the table-topper, R Sai Kishore, took. Patel shone with the bat too, making 374 runs at an average of 31.16 and a strike rate of 165.48.He opens the innings for Haryana in T20s, where his primary job is to take the pressure off other batsmen by scoring quickly. This season, though, he tweaked his approach. “Earlier I used to try smacking every single ball, but now I have realised that’s not sustainable. So I tried to play more low-risk shots”Patel emphasises range-hitting during training, but he is looking to be calculating too. “I know I am not Andre Russell that I can hit every ball out of the ground. So I need to understand what areas bowlers will try to bowl to me and how I can exploit that without taking too many risks. For example, I never used to play the cut, but now I am pretty confident playing it.”He has been watching Virat Kohli as well. “If you see what he does, it is pretty exceptional,” Patel says. “Like, where there is a single, you try for two, where there is a double, you push for three. If you are fit enough and can do that over a period of, say, five, seven, ten overs, you end up adding probably another eight to ten runs to your tally. Now that is a massive, massive margin. That’s a margin of victory and defeat. So that’s something I have incorporated into my game.””Ricky told me that I was brilliant at preparation but needed to get better at performance”•Delhi CapitalsWhen it comes to his primary trade, bowling, he has been experimenting with a number of slower balls. “I have been trying the knuckleball but it hasn’t worked for me so far,” he says. “I have a brilliant offcutter which I am pretty confident of bowling to right-handers, to left-handers, with the new ball, with the old ball, fuller, shorter. I can bowl that ball in probably 15 different ways. I used to bowl a really good back-of-the-hand slower ball as well. I stopped bowling that because I was pretty confident of my offcutter, but now I have started bowling it again.”After the struggles of the previous Ranji season, Patel sat down to figure out what exactly was going wrong with his bowling. “When you are not bowling well, you try to make a lot of adjustments without having the patience to bowl in the channel throughout the day,” he says.Along with the likes Jaydev Unadkat, Saurashtra’s strike bowler and captain, Patel stands out as one of the sharper minds in Indian domestic cricket. Self-analysis has helped him keep improving.”I watched every single ball I bowled in the previous season. I made a pitch map of that and realised I was lacking consistency. The pattern showed that I was bowling too full, and when I tried to correct that, I was straying on the pads.”To make sure he set that right, Patel went back to the basics.”I realised I didn’t need any technical changes. I told myself I was just gonna bowl good length at fourth stump. Every single thing I did during practice was targeted towards achieving consistency. I recorded every single ball from practice sessions and tried to achieve at least 80-85% accuracy.”His efforts paid off. Among the bowlers from the Elite Group teams who took at least 30 wickets, no one struck as frequently as Patel (every 27.1 balls) this season, while only Unadkat (13.23) got his wickets cheaper than Patel’s 14.48. He had his best batting season too, tallying 292 runs at 22.46, with two half-centuries.Haryana play their home games in Lahli, considered the fastest track in India, but Patel says his performances haven’t had much to do with the conditions. “People think you just go bowl in Lahli and you get wickets,” he says. “It’s not like that. Last season I had 23 wickets from nine games. I played five of those games in Lahli. If you don’t bowl well, you don’t pick up wickets anywhere.Patel analysed every ball he bowled in the 2018-19 Ranji season on video to improve•Haryana Cricket Association”I know when I am bowling well and when I’m not. Of course, when you get 52 wickets, sometimes you are gonna get wickets off bad balls, and that happens everywhere. The only important thing for me is whether I bowled well, whether I won the game for the team, whether I contributed to the team’s victory. That’s my only gauge to measure how I performed.”***”Earlier, once my spell was over, I used to hang out at fine leg and not worry about a thing.”But captaincy has helped Patel enhance his overall awareness during games, just like it has with Unadkat. “As a captain you have to be present all the time,” he says. “Not only be present in the game, you also have to be proactive. You need to make decisions and every decision you make has consequences.”Haryana narrowly missed out on qualifying for the knockouts, but Patel has been trying to develop his leadership skills, using methods not many young Indian cricketers might adopt. “I have read a lot of leadership books – . Then the all-time great book by Dale Carnegie, . There’s another book – by Jocko Willink, a former US Navy SEAL – called , which is something I strongly believe in: that everything that happens around you is your responsibility.”Patel is a man of diverse interests. If he was not a cricketer, he says he would have taken up medicine. His other passion is strength and conditioning, which he wants to take up professionally after retirement. He also wants to learn to surf and scuba dive, and get into mountaineering.It doesn’t end there. “The other day I was watching , and I was like, ‘I want to be an astronomer.’ Then I realised I knew little about maths beyond basic arithmetic. I cannot even think of stuff like calculus or probability.”But I believe you don’t have to be formally educated to be educated. If you are genuinely curious about something, there is enough information on the internet. There are enough free courses, enough paid courses, that you can opt for.”I was desperate to learn guitar. So I followed a few online lessons. But it requires a lot of dedication, plus you need to be okay with failing, and at the moment I am okay with failing at very few things.”This thirst for knowledge, to have new pursuits, might make Patel come across as lacking focus. The truth is, he is anything but. “Right now my only priority is to become the best cricketer I can be.”

A look at the numbers from his Test career

Sampath Bandarupalli08-May-202512 Hundreds scored by Rohit Sharma in Tests, each coming in a win. No other player has ten or more hundreds in this format, with all coming in wins. Warwick Armstrong (6) and Darren Lehmann (5) are the other players with five or more Test centuries, all of which came in wins.9 Hundreds as an opener in Tests for Rohit. He was elevated to that role for the first time in October 2019, and since then, no other opener has scored as many tons. Overall, only four batters have scored more Test tons than Rohit in this period.

Milwaukee Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski was brilliant in his major league debut on Thursday night against the St. Louis Cardinals, as the flamethrower went five innings without allowing a hit.

Misiorowski took the mound in the sixth to continue his no-hit bid, but after throwing three straight balls to Cardinals outfielder Victor Scott, Misiorowski rolled his ankle between pitches as he walked back to the mound.

Misiorowski left the game as a precaution, but not before going five-plus innings, allowing no hits while recording five strikeouts and four walks. He also threw 14 pitches of at least 100 miles per hour.

Misiorowski told reporters after the game that he was cramping up which caused him to roll his ankle, but that he's O.K. and isn't dealing with anything serious after his first start.

The Brewers went on to win 6–0.

Two contentious first half refereeing decisions made headlines at Anfield on Saturday. The VAR first saw no reason to chalk off Murillo's opener, despite Liverpool's players protesting that an offside player interfered with Alisson's line of sight. Moments later, Igor Jesus' effort was disallowed for handball, despite replays showing the ball did not touch the striker's arm.

• Murillo's goal stands at Anfield

  The Brazilian centre back opened the scoring with a low driven effort after Liverpool failed to clear their lines from a corner. Forest forward Dan Ndoye appeared to obscure Alisson's view of the shot while in an offside position, triggering protests from the Liverpool players.

  However, a post from the official Premier League Match Centre account said the goal stood, as Ndoye was not considered to be impeding the Liverpool shot stopper. 

  The tweet read: "#LIVNFO – 33’

  The referee’s call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Ndoye was not in the line of vision of Alisson and did not make an action that impacted an opponent." 

  The decision will anger Liverpool fans, after Virgil van Dijk's goal during their 3-0 defeat to Manchester City earlier this month was ruled out, after Andry Roberston was adjudged to have interfered with Gianluigi Donnarumma.

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  Igor Jesus goal ruled out for handball

  Just moments later, the VABR was called into action once again. This time, with Forest on the attack, Ibrahim Konate's clearance struck Igor Jesus, allowing the Brazillian to turn the ball past his compatriot in the host's goal. However, the goal was ruled out as the on-field referee ruled the ball had struck the striker's arm. Despite the replau showing the ball did not clearly strikeIgor Jesus' arm, the on-field decision stood. Again, the Premier League Match Centre account shared an immediate message. Their post read: 

  “#LIVNFO – 35’ The referee’s call of no goal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Jesus accidentally handled the ball before scoring.”

• Immediate reaction to Anfield controversy

  Speaking in the aftermath of Murillo's goal, former Arsenal defender Martin Keown said on BBC Radio 5 Live: "If you follow the mantra of last time when Robertson ducked out the way of the ball (against Man City), and here the ball goes through the legs of the player in front of Alisson. Why did that go against us last week and the opposite against us this week?" 

  John Bennett, the BBC's Final Score reporter at Anfield for the game, said: "The Liverpool fans around me can’t believe Murillo’s goal wasn’t disallowed due to Dan Ndoye being offside in front of Alisson when the ball went in. But the VAR felt he wasn’t in the keeper’s line of vision, which is a huge talking point.

  "Then Igor Jesus had a goal disallowed for handball but it’s very hard to see if he did handle it on the replay. Both managers have been unhappy with the referee & Forest coach Ian Woan was booked. The second half will be intense for both teams and the officials."

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  More VAR controversy for Liverpool

  Despite the VAR officials ruling in their favour later in the half, the Liverpool fans will feel especially hard done-by in light of the controversy in their recent defeat at the Etihad. 

  The high-spirited debate around the quality of officiating in the Premier League will only intensify in light of this latest drama at Anfield. The Reds went on to lose the game 3-0, as goals from Murillo, Nicolo Savona, and Morgan Gibbs-White gave Sean Dyche's side one of the most impressive wins of his Premier League career. Now, Slot and his men will be looking to find a way to put a chastening defeat behind them. 

Napoli have opened initial talks to sign Freiburg’s fast-rising midfielder Johan Manzambi as he is advancing in his standout Bundesliga season. The 20-year-old Swiss talent has emerged as one of the league’s most complete midfielders, attracting interest across Europe. With no release clause and a contract until 2030, Freiburg hold full control, but Napoli are pushing.

Manzambi wanted: Napoli move early for Freiburg starlet

Napoli have officially held initial discussions over a potential move for Freiburg midfielder Manzambi, who has become one of the Bundesliga’s most eye-catching breakout performers this season. reports that the Italian giants have positioned themselves strongly in the race, with Manzambi’s rapid rise pushing him toward the summer transfer market spotlight.

The 20-year-old has become a regular starter under coach Julian Schuster, delivering mature, high-impact displays in central midfield. With two goals and three assists across 15 appearances so far, Manzambi has been central to Freiburg’s attacking sequences, and his profile has naturally drawn the attention of clubs across Europe.

AdvertisementFreiburg hold firm

The report describe Napoli’s interest as “the most concrete” so far. The Serie A side reportedly view Manzambi as a key part of their long-term plans and have already opened conversations regarding a potential future deal. However, Freiburg hold all negotiating power with Manzambi is contracted until 2030 and does not have a release clause, meaning only a major offer would force the club to consider a sale.

Manzambi joined Freiburg’s U19 setup in 2023, earned promotion to the senior team within a year, and has now become one of the Bundesliga’s most intriguing young midfielders, a trajectory that has not gone unnoticed in Naples.

’s report indicates that Manzambi has received “numerous transfer offers”, but Napoli have moved fastest and with the clearest intent. Their scouting department has closely monitored his development, especially his ability to operate as advanced midfielder, a versatility that has made him invaluable to Freiburg.

With Kevin De Bruyne sidelined for months after recent injuries, Napoli see Manzambi as a dynamic midfield presence who can fill multiple roles. In his breakout season, Manzambi has shown an impressive blend of physicality, awareness, and attacking instinct.

Bundesliga moments drawing attention across Europe

Manzambi’s rise has unfolded during a turbulent yet compelling season for Freiburg. His header from a corner against Bayern, giving his side a shock 2-0 lead before the champions roared back to win 6-2, was a major highlight. The Swiss midfielder’s early-season form has mirrored Freiburg’s resurgence under Schuster, and he has become a reliable figure despite his age.

His versatility has allowed him to seamlessly fill defensive, central, and attacking midfield roles, prompting analysts to describe him as one of the Bundesliga’s most complete young midfielders. Napoli scouts are leading at this stage, but more Premier League and Bundesliga clubs are expected to join the conversation as the summer window approaches.

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Getty Images SportNapoli pursuit continues

While Napoli are pushing early, Manzambi’s current focus remains with Freiburg, meanwhile, preparing for a decisive run of games in the Bundesliga as they seek European qualification. With the club holding a contract until 2030, they are under no pressure to sell, meaning any bidder must make a substantial offer to test their resolve.

Napoli plan to advance talks in the coming months, particularly ahead of the summer window, when they aim to strengthen their midfield after key injuries. For now, Manzambi’s performances in Germany will dictate the tempo of negotiations, with every strong display increasing his value and widening interest.

Over the past few months, Playground Productions has been busy bringing Pablo Sanchez, Stephanie Morgan and the beloved video game franchise back to Eckman Acres and the rest of the neighborhood ballparks.

While the old classics continue to be rereleased, a next-generation video game is on the way.

Playground Productions recently told that the new video game project, which will be officially announced later Tuesday, is "deep in production." While the featured sport of the new game is unknown and the release date has yet to be announced, Playground Productions CEO Lindsay Barnett and chief product officer Chris Waters have a specific vision for how it will look.

"Being able to be in position to bring back a franchise that I love, I want to make sure that we are putting in the work to bring back that nostalgic feel," Barnett said in an exclusive interview with . "And make it authentic to the people who loved it in the 1990s. That’s definitely the design language and what we’re going for [in the new game]. … We want to make sure this game is accessible for little kids who want to play this and also [difficult enough for] adults who want to play it."

The franchise's original video game, , was created by Humongous Entertainment in 1997, introducing the world to an iconic cast of 30 fictional kids. Over the next few years, the franchise added soccer, football, basketball and hockey games to its repertoire and partnered with the MLS, NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL and MLB to feature professional athletes in the games as the kid versions of themselves.

After the brand fell silent for about a decade, Playground Productions purchased the publishing rights and initially announced its intent to reboot the franchise in August. On Oct. 10—exactly 27 years after the game's initial drop—the original was rereleased and opened as the top-ranked sports video game on Steam.

The next-generation project currently in production will mark the franchise's first new release since 2015, although it'll feel more like the original classics when the series was at its peak.

"What we can say is we are eternally grateful for the Humungous Entertainment team and the legacy they left, especially those early games in terms of the design language, in terms of the accessibility, in terms of how could be played by everybody," Waters said. "There was so much love in terms of the animation, in terms of the design. And then it drifted in later years. We really want to pay homage to those early games in terms of the look. … So we’re not going to stray too far from what we think makes those games really special to fans."

Playground Productions has yet to disclose if professional sports leagues and athletes will be featured in the next-generation game under development.

"We have these 30 characters, plus our announcers, that we want to showcase," Waters said. "And so first and foremost, that’s our priority. In terms of other partnerships, whether it’s professional athletes, whether it’s leagues, those are conversations we’re excited to have."

"We want to make sure that it’s a really authentic experience for our fans," Barnett said. "We also have a good understanding of what people loved about the original games. The greatest road map that we have as producers and creators of this next iteration of this franchise is taking a look at what worked in the past and making it even better for the future."

The story behind the reboot

Revamping the franchise has been the dream of Barnett, the founder and CEO of Playground Productions, for many years. Like millions of other kids in the 1990s and early aughts, she grew up an avid player of the video games.

But even Barnett didn't know she'd actually be able to bring it back to the mainstream.

When the global pandemic struck in 2020, Barnett was a public school teacher in Chicago. Adjusting to life as a full-time remote teacher, she noticed many books that she would read to her students were getting turned into television shows and movies on streaming platforms. That reinvigorated her long-term goal to create a children's and family production company, and the chase to track down Pablo Sanchez and the series began.

It didn't come easy. Rights to the franchise changed hands so many times over the last decade-plus that it became quite the unexpected scavenger hunt.

"It became a much bigger journey," Barnett said. "I thought it was going to be something you could Google search and get an answer to who owns the brand. It wasn’t that simple. I wound up hiring a private investigator to track down the rights. Six months later, the PI came back and said we found the rights to this. It began a very long negotiation and relationship with the former owners. It was really crazy that was the process of getting this—didn’t think I was going to become Nancy Drew."

While Barnett worked to find the rights, the games gained media attention earlier this year when former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce mentioned to his brother Travis Kelce on their podcast that he was determined to bring back the series. That news excited the massive fan base, but at the time, Barnett was still trying to cross the goal line on her acquisition.

"It’s actually really funny," Barnett said. "Every friend or family that knew of the journey I was on was reaching out being like, 'Did you see Jason and Travis talking about on the podcast?' And I was like, 'I haven’t signed the deal yet, guys. I need to close this!' It was so nerve-wracking for me. The sellers were amazing and, ultimately, were true to what they said they were going to do.

"Jason and Travis are awesome fans of the brand. … It’s so fun to see all of the professional athletes who are at the top of their games who are reaching out and saying how much they love this brand."

Add Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. to that group. Before Playground Productions officially announced the relaunch of the franchise, they wanted to plant a bat during MLB Players Weekend in August. Witt, in the midst of his first career All-Star season this summer, took them up on the offer and used a Pablo Sanchez-themed bat in a game against the Cincinnati Reds.

And, of course, he homered.

A few days later, Playground Productions made its highly anticipated announcement.

"It just felt like destiny, the timing of everything coming together," Waters said. "Bobby is such a great ambassador for baseball and is such an incredible young player. Just an example of how much this game captured the imagination and probably inspired a lot of these guys to go play baseball."

Despite there not being a renowned video game newly released in nearly two decades, the fan base lived on. Before the Playground Productions relaunch, there were online communities that continued to play the games together in Discord leagues or live streamed classic game play on Twitch. Mega Cat Studios, the developer in both the rereleases and the new game currently in production, hired some of those engineers who would mod the game in their free time.

Between those developers, Barnett—the self-described obsessive fan—and Waters—who sports a Pablo Sanchez tattoo—it's clear the long-absent franchise has found the right owners. This relaunch is run for fans, by fans.

"Every single ambitious and optimistic dream has been exceeded because of this brand," Barnett said. "And that’s really the power of Pablo and Sunny Day and Pete and our developers. They have done such an amazing job. We just can’t imagine this getting any better. But it just seems to be getting better every day."

Other developments

In addition to the new game currently in production, Playground Productions is officially rereleasing on Nov. 27. Just like the relaunch in October, will be available for purchase on Steam and via Steam Deck.

Four more titles—, , and —will follow suit in the future.

Playground Productions is also working on making the rereleased games mobile-accessible, bringing the beloved PC games to phones and tablets in the near future. They are also about to go into production on an animated project that will be available to watch in 2025.

"Right out of the gate, I think what the fans said is we love this game, we want this game back, and we want more of it," Waters said. "We’re working on the games but other verticals in entertainment and animation. I think it’s made us even more bullish about our future and what the appetite is for content."