Custom Player

==Overview==
The Custom Player is the user's chance to create their own character for Backyard Baseball 2001 and 2003. This feature did not exist in the original Backyard Baseball, but had been used before in the original Backyard Football. In the game, the player is designed to have one of the 12 heads commonly seen on the generic kids. They are also given a maximum of 24 baseballs to use on their player card for skill ratings, but with Save State Hacking, it is possible to give the custom player maximum skill ratings (in fact, it is even possible for them to get an 11th baseball in the running category).
==League History==
A number of custom players have been used in the rBBL, some out of necessity, some for enjoyment, and others as the sole custom player throughout the entire league. In the set-up of the rBBL, it is possible for each team to have their own special custom player, but only one custom player can exist throughout the league on a specific coach's file. To get a custom player on the other team, sometimes replacement generic kids are used.
===Season 1===
In Season 1, custom players were used out of necessity. Generic players were not used this season, so for an 8 team league with 9 players, 72 total players were required. These 72 were made up of 30 Backyard Kids, 31 Pro Kids, 8 custom players, and 7 additional Carlos Beltrans (which left 4 kids undrafted). Knowledge of the custom player customization was in its infancy, so custom players received a maximum of 24 baseballs for their skill ratings, just like in-game. Each coach created a custom player (two, if they owned two teams that season) and there was a special round of the draft dedicated to drafting the custom players. For file building purposes, each custom player had a similarly skilled generic kid to take their place on files not for their specific coach.
The following players were custom characters used in Season 1. Their ratings are listed as batting/running/pitching/fielding.
* Norman Wells, Devil Rays. 10/8/4/2. A power hitting archetype.
* Matt Wheeler, Monsters. 6/8/2/8. Supposed smarter brother of Pete Wheeler
* Goldie Glove, Fishes. 6/7/1/10. With a name like that, she should surely be one of the best fielders. The Goldie Glove Award is named after her.
* Sparkles, Bombers. 3/3/10/8. An ace pitching archetype.
* Lou Zerr, Diamondbacks. 6/6/6/6. Designed to be not very good at anything, but also bad at nothing.
* Ace Wilson, Expos. 4/4/10/6. Another ace pitching archetype. The Ace Wilson Award is named after him.
* Barry DeJay, Braves. 5/10/3/6. Based on color commentator Barry DeJay from Backyard Basketball.
* Tom Dubois, Melonheads. 10/3/8/3. Supposed brother of Marky Dubois. A power hitter and a power pitcher.
The most notable custom player performance from Season 1 was Ace Wilson, who pitched every single inning and recorded 123 strikeouts, a record which stood until Season 6. The most successful player from the bunch was Barry DeJay, who batted 0.629 and won the Season 1 World Series with the Braves.
===Season 2===
In Season 2, with more knowledge of Save State Hacking available, it was decided to give one custom player that would be used throughout the league who would be identical on every file. That season, the custom player was Manuel "Manny" Sanchez, 9/9/9/9, supposed older brother of Pablo Sanchez. He was great at everything, but never the best. However, this still made him an excellent player, and he led the 13-1 Fishes in HR, RBI, and runs created.
===Season 3===
In Season 3, each of the 12 coaches had 2 teams, and they were allowed to create a custom player to put on one of their teams (GSchlim received two customs). The coach could make their player's skill ratings whatever they wanted, but based on their skill, the team would have to select that player in a certain round of the draft. That is, if the coach made an extremely talented custom player, they would have to forfeit their first round draft pick, but if they made a slow, pitcher-only custom player, that would perhaps be worth a 6th or 7th round draft pick. With multiple custom players in the league, a generic substitute had to be used on other coaches' files.
The following players were custom players used in Season 3. Their ratings are listed as batting/running/pitching/fielding.
* Ned Sommers, Red Sox. 8/7/6/7. He was worth a 5th round draft pick.
* Tommy Pickles, Indians. 6/10/1/10. Based on the Rugrats character. He was worth a 3rd round draft pick.
* Steve Bartman, Hornets. 6/7/3/7. Based on the infamous fan from the Cubs-Marlins 2003 NLCS game. He was worth a 6th round draft pick.
* Splash Gilligan, Athletics. 10/10/3/10. He was worth a 1st round draft pick.
* Inder Weggin, Bombers. 7/9/2/7. He was worth a 4th round draft pick.
* Barry DeJay, Marlins. 5/10/3/6. Based on color commentator Barry DeJay from Backyard Basketball, brought back from season 1. He was worth a 4th round draft pick.
* Noah Syndergaard, Mets. 7/7/7/5. Based on the real life Mets pitcher. He was worth a 5th round draft pick.
* Rufus Xavier S., Melonheads. 8/8/1/5. He was worth a 6th round draft pick.
* Melanie Altuve, Astros. 8/9/4/5. Supposed little sister of real life Astro Jose Altuve. She was worth a 5th round draft pick.
* Ryan James, Rockies. 7/7/3/6. He was worth a 5th round draft pick.
* Sparkles, Dodgers. 2/4/10/8. Brought back from season 1, with slightly different ratings. She was worth a 7th round draft pick.
* Maggie West, Fishes. 5/5/4/7. Based on JibboDaHibbo's wife. She was worth a 7th round draft pick.
* Jay Hawk, Giants. 6/5/10/8. Based on crazyei8hts himself. He was worth a 6th round draft pick.
===Season 4===
Starting with season 4 onwards, the theme of one custom player for the entire league was put into place. Several options are given to the league, and the coaches vote on which player to use, and that player is thrown into the draft pool where they can be selected by anybody at any time in the draft.
In season 4, the custom player for the league was Danny Green, supposed cousin of Jay Green, and perhaps slightly based off of NBA player Danny Green. He had skills of 6/7/8/10, thought of as a slightly better version of Ernie Steele. He was drafted by the Tigers and set an unbreakable league record of a 0.00 ERA (minimum 28 innings pitched).
===Season 5===
In season 5, the league-wide custom player for both the Lulu and Paste leagues was Babe Ruth, based on the Great Bambino himself. His skills were 10/8/8/4, indicative of not only his slugging prowess but his early MLB days as a pitcher. Fittingly enough, in the Lulu league, he was drafted by the Yankees and in the Paste league, he was drafted by the Red Sox. In both league he was among the league leaders in home runs.
===Season 6===
Keeping with the theme of legendary ballplayers from season 5, the season 6 custom player was Jackie Robinson, based on the color barrier breaker himself. Jackie had skills of 7/9/5/8 and a stipulation that he must be played at second base. He was drafted by the Red Sox and joined by perhaps a long lost relative of his, Dante Robinson. The Red Sox made the playoffs but lost in the first round.
===Season 7===
Season 7's custom player was Shohei Ohtani, based on the Angels' pitcher and designated hitter. Shohei was drafted in the second round by the Braves. In twelve games, he batted 16 for 37 with five home runs and 13 RBI. He also pitched 71.3 innings, with 85 K's and 6 runs allowed.
===Season 8===
For Season 8, Vissery was allowed to create the custom player, in recognition of his hard work decompiling the game code and discovering the attributes. Vissery created Ruby Diamond, a short girl with a fantastic arm and a lock to play catcher, since many of the most likely players to play catcher are not well-suited for the role. Her final skills were 6/6/4/7, but she had 100 arm strength and 96 throwing accuracy. She was drafted by the Monsters, who used her catcher lock to displace speedsters Stuart Sullivan and Star Moonbeam from catcher duties. Ruby didn't have a great season at the plate, batting 0.444 with 1 home run and 4 RBIs, but she was a menace to opposing base stealers.
===Season 9===
In Season 9, an old favorite returned, as Babe Ruth was invited back into the league. He was drafted by the Athletics with the 7th overall pick, and was used as the team's only pitcher and main slugger. At the plate, Babe led the team with a 0.688 batting average and 11 home runs, and finished second with 25 RBIs. On the mound, he was even more useful, pitching all 84 innings, posting a 1.36 ERA and 0.71 WHIP, and striking out 101 batters.
===Season 10===
Since two leagues were in operation for Season 10, this allowed for two custom players for the first time since Season 3. In the 2001 league, the custom player was Ted Williams, who played for the Expos. He was designed to have a better-than-perfect rating in contact and vision. The Expos struggled as a whole, but Ted did lead the team in batting average at 0.545. In the 2003 league, the custom player was Willie Mays, who played for the Royals. Willie fared much better than Ted, batting 0.610 with 7 home runs, 21 RBIs and 20 runs scored.
=== Season 11 ===
Once again, two customs were used for the two leagues of Season 11. In the 2001 league, the custom player was Vinnie the Gooch, named after the Backyard Baseball color commentator. Unique to Vinnie the Gooch, he was the first custom player to have a built-in boost or nerf. Vinnie had a slight stat decrease at Tin Can Alley, based on one of his commentary lines, "alleys are scary!". Vinnie was drafted by the Athletics, and he had an okay year, batting 0.450 with 3 home runs and 14 RBIs. In the 2003 league, the tradition of "pro legend" continued with Rickey Henderson as the custom player. Rickey Henderson was a maximum 100/100 speed, but he was only a 1 height, which proved costly in the field. Rickey had a tumultuous season on the 0-14 Yankees, batting 0.619 but only scoring 5 times and commit a league-worst 15 errors.
=== Season 12 ===
After Vissery made a discovery that coach files can hold up to 10 custom players, it was decided that 10 custom players would be used in Season 12, shared across both leagues. Past champions of rBBL would be called upon to make custom players, who could be drafted by anyone. The following customs were used in Season 12:
* Bowser Koopa, created by Kiiiiiiiiiiiiis. Based off his Super Mario Sluggers counterpart, Bowser had almost a perfect bat, with 95 power and 100 contact, but he had the lowest possible speed, at 1/100.
* Freakshow, created by Freakshow55. Based off of himself, Freakshow was a decent hitter with above average speed, but he was excellent on the mound and in the field.
* Hat Kid, created by MelloMathTeacher. Based off of the character from A Hat in Time, Hat Kid was a good hitter with great speed, but was not a very strong fielder.
* Jack Wilson, created by jyknight. Based off of the real life shortstop Jack Wilson, he had a weak bat with average speed but he was a defensive whiz.
* Jemina Winner, created by Loba. She was an original character with high speed and a strong arm, very similar to Kathy Wolf.
* Maxeen Wojciechowski, created by Vissery. She was an original character whose player card looked strong but she had some hidden weaknesses, such as no throwing accuracy, a terrible eye, and very low aggression. 
* Mike Shamrock, created by Emery92. With a name inspired by wrestler Ken Shamrock, Mike was a power hitter with 100 power but only 25 contact.
* Rainbow Callahan, created by crazyei8hts. Based off of the Backyard Football character, Rainbow had above average hitting and speed but didn't have a great throwing arm.
* Tequila Mockingbird, created by GSchlim. Designed to be "Angela, but better", Tequila is a great pitcher with a left hook rated at 123/100.
* Will Ferrell, created by Wizard. Based off of Will Ferrell's one-time appearance at MLB Spring Training, Will is a tall kid with a power bat and decent stats everywhere else.
The season 12 custom players were a hit, as all but Maxeen made the playoffs in at least one of the two leagues. The newfound discovery of 10 custom players seemed like it would stick around for seasons to come.
=== Season 13 ===
In Season 13, ten custom players were employed once again. The format for awarding custom players was different than last season. The first eight spot went to the top performers in the previous season, while the remaining two were given away in a raffle drawing. Any coach who opted in to having the chance to select a custom kid was added to a wheel, which was spun to chose two winners. As it turned out, the winners were cantwait2fly and Scatty, both newcomers in rBBL. The following is a list of custom players that were selected for Season 13:
* Hans R. Dirtywashum, created by crazyei8hts. Similar to his pick last season, Hans is a character original to Backyard Football. He is a tall kid with elite speed and good contact.
* Christopher Robin, created by personizzle. Christopher is based on the Flash game Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby, where he was the final opponent and used a variety of pitches. Befitting his pitching prowess, he has 100s in all pitching power-ups and even 150s in a few, along with the best stamina around.
* Jimmy Knorp, created by AnjouPays. Based on the two-time Whiffleball World Series champion, he is a well-rounded player, having 9/10 in every stat except for a 7/10 in running.
* Jack Doyle, created by psanchez55. Originating from Jomboy Media, he is a strong pitcher with a powerful bat but low contact.
* Deirdre Labrutto, created by The CRK. An original character, she has a great bat and amazing speed, but struggles in the field.
* Maple Leaves, created by Vissery. An original character, she has superb stats everywhere except in batting, with a 3 in power, 2 in contact, and 1 in eye. An additional caveat was later added that she could not use batting power-ups.
* Ham Porter, created by QuestionMonkey. Based on the character from the movie The Sandlot, he has the arm and aggression built for a catcher, and also has good power.
* Baby Tron, created by Loba. Based on the rapper with the same nickname, he is speedy and has a good glove.
* Cadeinn, created by cantwait2fly. While the character's origins are unknown, he is one of the fastest players around and has a good bat, although he struggles on the mound and on the field.
* Viktor Vaughn, created by Scatty. Based on the rapper MF Doom, he has relatively good speed and an elite glove.
Category:Players
Category:Generic Kids