Book Cudgel – Worlds of Power: Bases Loaded II: Second Season

If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering how you could adapt something like Jaleco’s Bases Loaded II: Second Season to a youth novel. If you’re not like me, you might already have a collection of baseball fiction and just clicked your tongue. Okay, well, I have another question for you. How did something like this end up more readable than Mega Man 2?

I thought I was being too hard on Mega Man 2. I thought, benefit of the doubt, that maybe I just wasn’t that familiar with youth novel writing, and it was standard. That, perhaps, you had to write poorly for the kiddos. Clearly not, because this damned baseball book is Hemmingway compared to it. I might go as far as saying it’s an enjoyable read. I wasn’t expecting that.

Still, Bases Loaded II: Second Season is a weird pick for a novelization. It’s part of the Worlds of Power series published by Scholastic and based on a variety of NES games. If you’re not familiar with the Bases Loaded series, they’re baseball games. Just baseball. Not MLB licensed baseball, so the team names are made up in the book, but it is supposedly the major leagues. I wasn’t sure how you could turn that into a narrative, but I was amused to find out.

WRITE POORLY FOR THE KIDDOS

Bases Loaded II: Second Season is a decent NES baseball game. In Japan (where Jaleco is from), it’s known as Moero Pro Yakyū ’88. The big feature in it is that you play a pennant season in your division before moving onto the World Series, and I’ve read modern critics saying that the 130 game season felt like a grind, but I doubt that was much of an issue in the ‘80s. I doubt that would be an issue for anyone who wants to casually play a baseball game, in general. But if you just want to see the end, yeah, I suppose that would feel like a slog.

The novelization follows that slog. It was written by Peter Lerangis, who normally writes under the pen name A.L. Smith, but, as with all books in the World of Power series, writes here under the pseudonym F.X. Nine. It takes the form of journal entries by the Jersey team’s catcher, Jose Dion, as his team tries to find its footing after starting out as the season as the worst team in the entire league.

That could be any baseball story, but what it takes from the game is not only the teams, but also the player names on them. I think Lerangis maybe tried to tie in the “biorhythm” mechanic in a subtle way, but it’s not overt. And while the teams are all from the game, he gave each one its own moniker, and they’re rather fun. The protagonist team is the Jersey Giants, which isn’t that special, but they play against the Philadelphia Cheesesteaks and the Boston Beans.

NOW I’M HUNGRY

Most of the novel is just quick rundowns of various games. Weirdly, it’s charmingly entertaining. It doesn’t dig too into the details, just offering a few key highlights and observations by Dion.

You guessed it. For the first time in Republic League history, a team had hit five homers in a row.

Five!

Well, I’ll spare you the gory details of the rest of the game. We lost, 27–3. It shames me to even mention it. By the eighth inning or so, almost all the fans had gone home. Even the players’ wives had left the stands.

Worlds of Power: Bases Loaded II: Second Season

The above passage technically isn’t true to the game. The game follows a 9-run rule, also known as the “mercy rule,” where if one team gets ahead by nine runs, the game is called for them. Actually, the author deviates in another amusing chapter.

What inning is this anyway?

Okay, I just looked at the scoreboard. It’s the thirty-second. Thirty-two innings ago I was feeling full of energy. Now I wish there were beds in the dugout.

Worlds of Power: Bases Loaded II: Second Season

Bases Loaded II always calls the game at the end of the 12th inning. But, really, this isn’t turning a beloved hero into a real boy for no reason whatsoever. Complete benefit of the doubt – as if that’s needed – Lerangis may never have seen a game with a nine point disparity or one that went on to the 12th inning. He may have only read the instruction manual, but really, that’s all you would need for a novelization of an NES game that is baseball, just baseball.

UPDOG

So, with the Jersey Giants being the worst team in the league, you’re probably expecting that it’s an underdog story. Well, yes and no. While the novel is largely just game descriptions chapter after chapter, hints start getting dropped early as to something deeper going on. It’s not exactly the deepest plot. It’s fairly predictable once you pick up on the clues, but this is a youth book, so it’s more subtle complexity than the little SOBs would probably appreciate.

There are also a number of sub-plots that crop up between the players. Not a whole lot and they don’t add up to much, but they are sometimes fun. There was this strange aside about a dude’s nutritional concoction, which the author naively named “Whoopee Juice.” Clearly, he never watched The Newlywed Game. Or maybe he did, and this was just sly humour meant to go over the head of the younger audience.

Rubin put the glass down with a satisfied ‘Aaaah!’ There was a lumpy gray ring around his mouth. He had left about an inch of the Whoopee juice in the glass. ‘Sure does hit the spot. Anybody want to try some?’

‘Sorry, Rubin,’ Angel said, bolting up from the bench.

‘Gotta go home,’ Jacobs said, heading for the door.

‘Mmmrrbblllglchh,’ Siano said, heading for the sink.

Worlds of Power: Bases Loaded II: Second Season

Good times. I love a good Mmmmrrbblllglchh. Unfortunately, I’m terrible with names. And there are 21 players on the team. So, while Lerangis may have given them defined personality traits, I have no hope of remembering who they’re associated with.

YOU’RE WHO AGAIN?

Anyway, the overarching plot I mentioned? Well, you start getting hints early. In fact, the first clue comes in the sixth paragraph.

If my manager found out I was writing this, he’d probably trade me. Old Pappas doesn’t have much of a sense of humor. He’s off figuring out strategies on that laptop computer he always carries around.

Worlds of Power: Bases Loaded II: Second Season

The manager doesn’t really engage much with the team during a game. Mainly, he just reads off the laptop, and it comes up a whole lot. Then the team’s owner (named, and I’m not kidding, Japes Throttlebottom) doesn’t seem all that worried that his team is absolutely tanking. When they wind up on a hot streak, the owner then doesn’t seem enthused that they’re winning.

That’s probably enough information for you. Can you guess what the twist is? Yeah, the team owner is deliberately trying to make the Jersey Giants lose. This gets confirmed two-thirds through the book when Dion sneaks into the locker room and overhears the guy talking to a programmer dude about it.

So, Dion tells everyone on the team and they ditch the laptop and start winning with gusto. As it turns out, they aren’t the underdogs, they were just being sabotaged. They secretly kick so much ass that the other teams have permanent cleat marks on their pants. Despite having sucked so bad early on in the season, they’re able to claw their way back up to the top of their league.

The left fielder frantically threw to the shortstop, and the shortstop threw home.

They were too late. Farrar came across standing up. We had won the game, 1–0. We had also done the impossible — climbed into a first-place tie!

My teammates ran out of the dugout and lifted me into the air. They meant well, but all I can remember is the pain.

Worlds of Power: Bases Loaded II: Second Season

WHERE ARE YOUR PARENTS?

Can you guess why Throttlebottom was undermining his own team? He was betting against them. Now, listen, this might make sense if you’re completely unfamiliar with sports betting or you are actually a prepubescent reader (Hi, how did you find my site? Where are your parents?), but this is absolutely daft.

I’m not a gambler, but I’ve played enough video games to know how betting odds work. If a team is consistently losing, their odds go down, which means you won’t win as much if you bet against them. If the outcome is obvious, you’re not going to win much at all. So, Throttlebottom might win something, but I imagine it pales in comparison to what he would be making if he filled the stadium. He’s not going to put butts in seats by making his team a laughingstock.

What would have made more sense is if he sabotaged his team for a few games, then let them win one and bet on them for that game. Fixing the odds would then work in his benefit.

So, okay, I know children aren’t necessarily going to get that. They’ll just see the dude as a bad guy and that’s enough tension for them.

Actually, you know what? It’s possible that Throttlebottom is betting on his team to lose the season. But the story starts off in Spring Training with them losing games, wouldn’t that affect the odds going into regular season? All right. I don’t know enough about this. You win this time, Lerangis.

YOU WIN THIS TIME

‘I’ll take care of Pappas!’ Throttlebottom thundered. ‘He’ll follow whatever the computer says. You just make sure to program the worst possible strategies. Remember, the Giants must have a losing season. I’ve got my life savings on this bet and I’d better win!’

Worlds of Power: Bases Loaded II: Second Season

Okay, I maybe don’t have enough evidence to condemn the plot. Considering how badly edited Mega Man 2 was, you might be surprised to know that this one is pretty clean. You can tell since my spell checker isn’t bitching about every quote I paste into this. However, there is one glaring mistake.

So, of course, the Jersey Giants fight their way to the top, have a big showdown with the Boston Beans, and win the pennant. This brings them to the championship series; a seven game showdown against the winner of the Western Division, the L.A. Raycatchers. Except, after a single chapter, Lerangis forgets about the Raycatchers and reverts to their former rivals, the Boston Beans. Guy is so certain that the final boss is the Boston Beans that he uses player names from the team.

Hah! Checkmate, Lerangis. Or Lerangis’ editor, I guess. Or both, probably.

Also, I’m confused on this whole betting thing again. Listen:

‘Calm down, Benny,’ Throttlebottom said. ‘You’ll get your money tomorrow. That is, if you do me a small favor. Now, the odds are still against the Giants, are they not? … Good, I thought so. All you have to do, Benny, is loan me the money I owe you —’

The voice started screaming again.

‘Just listen to me!’ Throttlebottom demanded. ‘Bet that money on the Giants — to win!’

Worlds of Power: Bases Loaded II: Second Season

Is he changing his bet? Does that… work? I guess if he was resigned to lose his season bet, he could still win on the championship game. But that just sounds like betting on black and red, like, at the very best, your net positive isn’t going to be very impressive. This is why I don’t gamble.

BET ON BLACK AND RED

So, Dion is all bummed that Throttlebottom won’t be getting his comeuppance since, if they win, the dude, uh, doesn’t go bankrupt? Anyway, they don’t throw the game. Actually, the last chapter is a bit of an anti-climax. It’s just another description of the game being played, and they win without much in the way of theatrics. Well, okay, they get a triple play to end the game, which would be pretty exciting, it’s just, I don’t know, exciting in a normal baseball sort of way. I’d expect, like, the team’s star pitcher to be put out by a long drive to the groin or something.

Then Throttlebottom gets arrested because the team manager called the cops on him. He had recorded a conversation that revealed his plot. I’m not a lawyer, but I’m convinced that would be illegal. Sounds like a painful court case, though.

The book closes with Lerangis recommending some baseball books that you might like if you enjoyed this baseball book. That’s pretty cool, but I’m not going to do that.

I just think it’s ironic that Bases Loaded II: Second Season wound up being so much better than Mega Man 2. I’m not saying it’s great, but it’s actually well-written. Being for kids, it’s simplistic, but it’s simplistic in a way that doesn’t compromise the creativity and storytelling. It has nutritional value, unlike Mega Man 2 where I think most kids could come up with a better plot in their imaginations while playing the game. Or even before going to sleep at night. I know that’s when I’d do my best creative hallucinating.

So, I’m shocked. I picked this one up after Mega Man 2 thinking it would be awful, and it’s not. Not that I’m recommending it for a book cudgel of your own, but my expectations couldn’t be lower after Mega Man 2. Peter Lerangis actually wrote four of the ten World of Power books, the most of any of the authors. I’m interested to see him take on games with less narrative play, such as Ninja Gaiden and Blaster Master. I can’t wait to read Blaster Master’s opening cutscene written in prose.