A New Season
The
Peanuts gang is ready for another baseball season, maybe.
By
C. Philip Francis
“Hi, Manager. I’m ready to go.” As he turns to see his rightfielder and long time nemesis, Lucy, Charlie Brown closes his opening day reflections with, “…an iceberg.”
Lucy
does spend her life making her neighbor friend miserable.
She once explained why she
muffed a flyball when, “…the dandelions got in my eyes.
When the sun reflects off the bright yellow dandelions, I can’t see the
ball.”
Charlie
replies, “That’s the worst excuse I’ve ever heard.”
Lucy
answers, “Be patient. I have
twenty-three new ones.”
Cartoonist
Charles Schulz’s comic strip “Peanuts” was first published on October 2,
1950, and often showed his long time adoration of baseball in his drawings.
The readers never see any members of the opposing ball club or any
parents. We suffer along with
Charlie and his team as they meet failure such as losing the game, striking out,
or even picked off third base as has happened to the round-headed pitcher.
Charlie
Brown’s ballplayers are unlike most other teams. Charlie is both manager and player, a role that has not been
seen in baseball for many years. Charlie
is the team’s star (?) pitcher along with a lineup that includes such playing
luminaries as Lucy in right, piano-playing Schroeder behind the plate, Linus and
his blanket at second, and Snoopy the dog covering shortstop.
The
manager and his gang usually find tough times by losing with scores (could it be
because of Lucy?) of 40-0, 123-0, and even an incredible 200-0, and apparently
the league does not recognize the so-called mercy rule.
That means the game is over when one team is ahead by 10 runs or whatever
number that has been previously determined.
But in any case the Peanuts team does not give up.
A
new season begins with no losses, and this could be a winning year.
In one Peanuts segment Charlie got his squad out on the field early,
maybe too early. Linus thinks so
when he tells the manager as the snow begins to fall, “Look, it’s snowing!!
Winter isn’t over yet.”
Manager
Charlie yells back, “We have to start now.
We need practice! Don’t go
home! Come back!”
As Linus and Snoopy walk away, Charlie stands alone as the snow turns him
into a snowman.
Later
on Charlie was seen checking out the ballfield when Schroeder came by to ask,
“Well, how does the field look this year?”
“I
think groundskeeper Snoopy is doing a good job. The infield looks great, and the outfield has never looked
better. I think it’s because of
the new automatic sprinkling system.” At
that point Snoopy whistles and his many little bird friends begin pouring water
over the grass with tiny water cans.
Manager
Charlie always gives his all, but sometimes it is not enough.
With his teeth clenched tight he winds up and throws the ball over the
plate. Back comes the baseball
through the box stripping the sad hurler of his socks, shoes, cap, and his
favorite sweater. Lucy comes in to
help by saying, “…and we found your cap two blocks away, and one of you
shoes three blocks away, and one of your socks two blocks away, and…”
“ALL
RIGHT!” Charlie yells back.
Maybe
that’s the problem, bad pitching. In
one panel backstop Schroeder complains to his batterymate, “One finger will
mean a fastball which isn’t very fast anyway.
Two fingers will be your curve which doesn’t curve at all.
Three fingers will be your changeup which hasn’t fooled anyone yet.
Four fingers is a pitchout, but we won’t use that one.”
“Why
not?” Charlie asks.
Schroeder
says as he walks back to the plate, “Because everything you throw looks like a
pitchout.”
Our
favorite ball team does not use the designated hitter so Charlie Brown does go
to bat. Unfortunately, because of that he often ends the game by
striking out. But not always.
On March 29, 1993 Manager Brown became a national hero when he amazed his
cartoonist, the readers, and the entire ballteam by hitting a home run in the
ninth to win the game.
Although
Charlie Brown’s team usually loses all of their games, and after the season
ends he has been known to sit in his beanbag chair, think of the next spring,
and say, “…I’ll burst forth like a bird from an egg, and face the new
world.” That is what spring and a
new baseball season is all about.
Cartoonist
Charles Schulz notified his many readers of the Peanuts strip on January 3, 2000
that “…I am no longer able to…how can I ever forget them…”.
Mr. Schulz, neither can we. The
country was saddened on February 12, 2000 when the originator of the Peanuts
Gang died after a three-month battle with cancer.
The strips continue to be printed in many newspapers as Peanuts Classics.