Bad News Baseball was developed and published by Tecmo for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989, and released in North America in 1990. It followed the rules of baseball for the most part, with the addition of some cartoonish features that made the game more attractive to kids.

Although the game lacked a season mode, it allowed a single player to work his/her way through all of the opposing teams in a somewhat cohesive manner. The player would play a game until the other player was defeated-the games could go on indefinitely until that occurs. The game kept track of what teams had been defeated by giving the player a password at the end of each victory, which could be entered into the game to return to the spot where the player was. The game also kept track of the pitcher's stamina, which meant that some rotation was necessary throughout the different games.