What Did Baseball Stars Do First?

First battery backup in a baseball game on any console, and the first NES sports game with battery backup at all: the cartridge's memory chip stored cumulative statistics across a created league and a season of up to 125 games. First create a player feature in an NES sports game: players could name their players and their teams, build a roster of 18 (five pitchers, eight batters, five pinch hitters), and improve six batting abilities or eleven pitching abilities with earned money. A front office economy: winnings scaled to the prestige ratings of both teams, free agents cost from $5,000 to $2,980,000, a player had to be fired before one could be bought, and trading a player for a better one diminished the better player's attributes. The game also hid a first of a quieter kind: a hidden feature let players hire female baseball players, alongside the built in all women Lovely Ladies team.

The influence is documented, not just asserted: David Littman, a producer on EA's NHL series, stated that the popular GM mode in those games was originally inspired by Baseball Stars. The irony is documented too: SNK's own Neo Geo sequel, Baseball Stars Professional, dropped the created and editable teams entirely. Both stories are told in full on the history of Baseball Stars.