Charm City - 2059.3 - The Ballad of Backhouse

[DaveB]

So what if I told you a player who has amassed 709 Home Runs, 3,063 hits, and 1,987 RBI in his professional career is seen by some as a long shot for the Hall of Fame? You'd probably be thinking that I'm crazy, but such is life if you're 37 year old born Adam Backhouse. Backhouse was born in Brisbane Australia in January 20th, 2022 to parents Liam and Abbie Backhouse and is the only child. When Backhouse was born only 36 of his countrymen had graced the presence of MLB and Australia wasn't scouted as heavily today as it was when he was growing up. "When I was younger I watched my baseball hero Charles 'Cricket' Puckett win awards here in the states and it was exciting, but watching the game with my mum and dad...You know seeing all that grass and the fans on television the excitement when Cricket hit a big home run...man it was awesome" said Adam Backhouse. "Every free second I had I spent watching and playing baseball as much as possible. My friends didn't understand what I saw in the game, some of them still don't ::laughs::. Seeing players like Puckett put into my mind that you know that could be me when I get older" continued Backhouse".

"My hometown of Brisbane didn't have a high school that offered baseball, cricket is huge in Brisbane and we only had cricket teams. I had to learn how to hit something with a wooden stick by playing that game. All that time playing cricket really helped my hand eye coordination which allows me to make contact quite often which has helped me once I started playing baseball" said Backhouse. Backhouse was a 3 time letter winner while playing cricket in high school. "When I hit that ball I was able to hit it harder than most of my teammates. I like to attribute that to watching baseball when I was younger, but I think it's just the talent my parents gave me.

By Chance:

"I often get asked by my fellow countrymen "How did you get into baseball with so little exposure here?" It actually happened by chance. My father, who is an auto mechanic, was called out to work. It was the middle of summer so I tagged along. When we got to the location my father was doing his thing and I noticed whose car he was working on. It was former Major League player Mark Hutton" said Backhouse." Hutton pitched in the majors for parts of 4 seasons and had become a roaming scout for the now defunct United Middle East Baseball Association. "Here I am a 15 year old absolutely geeking out meeting Mark Hutton. My father was like "Boy what is your problem?" I had to explain who it was" said Backhouse. After Hutton's car had been finally repaired he provided the Backhouse family information on an area of Australia where baseball players can go to be discovered and the advice that has stuck out to Backhouse. "Mark told me that you aren't going to be discovered in Brisbane Australia by taking walks and being a slick fielder. If you're going to make it you're going to need to hit your way into the pros" said Backhouse. With that the journey began.

The Journey:

After hearing about where to go to play baseball the Backhouse family sent their son the Majuro Bruins Baseball academy and he started playing in 2058. "I was terrible. I had a .448 OPS as the teams DH. I thought my life was over" laughed Backhouse. "After the season Mr. Hutton reached out to me to see how I did and I told him. We sent him some tape of my at bats and he reviewed them while giving pointers that seemed to help" Backhouse continued. Did it ever help. Backhouse exploded in 2039 hitting .500 with 20 homers in 41 at bats. The performance was good enough for the Istanbul Bosphorus to select him with the 2nd overall pick in the 2039 UMEBA draft. Adam told me "I was so excited to be drafted. I knew it was going to be hard to leave home and my friends, but I knew I was on my way. It wasn't the BBA, but it was pro freaking baseball. I had no idea how difficult it was going to be." The difficulty showed by Backhouse hitting with a .385 OPS in 64 games in 2039, and .597 OPS in 107 games in 2040 with the Bangkok Avengers. 2041 it clicked though. Backhouse said "I owe so much to Mark Hutton. Again like when I was with Majuro I struggled, Mark was able to review my tape and see where I was going wrong and what was going right. It wasn't hard to see the wrong because it was almost every at bat, but with his knowledge and the help of our coaching staff I was able to have it click". It really started clicking in 2042 as Backhouse had a 1.143 OPS in 49 games and was promoted to the UMEBA. Backhouse continued his tear posting a .908 OPS with 23 homers in 79 games and in 2043 he continued hitting 46 homers and a .931 OPS before adversity struck again. He was traded to the Jerusalem Hebrew Hammers. Backhouse remembered "When the trade was announced my heart sunk. I never had a team give up on me and here I was being traded. In hindsight though it was a great move for me. I feel like I really blossomed as a player in Jerusalem. Made some great friends and connections." While playing for the Hammers Backhouse hit 288 homers with 3 Player of the Year Awards over the course of 6 years in Jerusalem. While playing in the UMEBA/GBC he hit 357 homers and had 1,479 hits. "It was announced around the time I was leaving that the UMEBA was going to be rebranded some teams were going to cease playing and I was at the end of my contract. My agent asked if I wanted to continue in the GBC and my answer was no I wanted to be my generations, Charles Puckett" said Backhouse. With that the it was onto the BBA.

Welcome to the Show:

A lot of players reach their peak years in their mid to late 20's Adam Backhouse entered the BBA as a 28 year old. He signed a 6 year 77.5 million dollar contract with the Calgary Pioneers on April 5th, 2050. With the Pioneers Backhouse continued to show that he was a force at the plate. Before opting out of his contract with the Pioneers after the 2053 season he posted a .309/.318/.564/.882 slash line with 173 homers and 774 hits. He led the league in RBI's in 2050, his first season in the BBA. After opting out Adam moved as close to home as possible, signing with the Hawaii Tropics where he continued producing. He posted a .307/.320/.553/.873 slash line with 141 homers and 628 hits in parts of 3 seasons. During his time in Hawaii he led the league in homers in 2055 and 2056 and led the league in RBI's in 2055. After his contract was up in Hawaii he moved to Mexico. In Mexico, after being a durable player Backhouse saw his first hiccups health wise. He missed a significant portion of 2057 with severe hip strain. "I was never able to really gain my footing in Mexico for whatever reason. It started off great as I was the player of the week in 2057, but my hip started bothering me and I was just never able to do make their contract justifiable" said Backhouse. At the end of 2058 Mexico City opted out of the contract with Adam Backhouse 2 years into a possible 6 year deal.

Familiar Acquaintance:

"After 2058 I was wondering if I was done playing ball stateside. In late January and early February my agent received a call from a familiar name, Dave Burcicki about coming to Charm City. I'll be honest I didn't want to go because I want to be an everyday player. After some negotiating they were able to convince me to join the team" said Backhouse. GM Dave Burcicki for this interview "It wasn't an easy decision to make in regards to Backhouse. I actually spoke to Rob in Yellow Springs and suggested that he sign Adam as I felt he wouldn've been a nice fit for their rebuilding team. For whatever reason they didn't connect. It was getting late in the off season I looked at our roster and felt like we needed a bat vs left handed pitching since Ted 'Long Ball' Benson left via free agency. Little did I know we would sign both sluggers. I knew Backhouse dating back to my days as the GM with Jerusalem. I knew he's a great player and an even better human being. If we could sign him he'd be excellent depth since we had question marks at DH. I knew we wouldn't be able to promise him every day at bats though. Thankfully he came aboard." Though the season is still young Backhouse has shown flashes of his former self posting a .292/.300/.483/.783 slash line with 4 homers in 25 games. "You know this guy's stats in the BBA might not be that of a Hall of Famer, but if you put together his entire career between the UMEBA/GBC and the BBA he's a Hall of Famer and I'm proud to say I've been his GM for a few of the great years he's had.

[Dington]

Awesome. Should be a player spotlight piece. Caleca nominee.