For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 31, 2016

Well, Elizabeth Patterson ain’t no Lucy van Pelt who just obliviously lets a fly ball go past her.

Nobody wanted me on their team, either. Just cause I was diagnosed 20/40 in one eye and 20/200 in the other! What stinkin’ ball were they talking about?

I wondered why the ball was getting bigger, then it hit me…

That would be me!

Honestly, who has played ball, and NOT have that happen? (Okay, maybe not turn your back on it, but…)

But Rose…. that was me!

I was pretty good up at bat, but they would always tell me that if I wanted to bat, I had to take my turn in the field also. Boy were they sorry!!

And this, kids, is how the designated hitter was born.

I preferred “kick ball”. That big, red, rubber ball….it was easy to catch and easy to kick!

They made me pitch, and I couldn’t throw to save my life.

That was me, exactly!

That was me too! I hated softball with a passion. Luckily, I only had to play in gym class.

Any game with a ball that came toward my face I hated – my astigmatism made it hard for me to judge distances, and I ended up with so many broken glasses. The other day, my nephew lobbed a baseball at me and I caught it! May have been the first time in 50 years!

Me, too. Hated softball/baseball in gym class. Standing around bored, and I couldn’t see well enough to catch the stupid ball the few times it came near me. When I did manage to hit it with the bat, I run to the base and some kid would yell “forced play” (still don’t know what that means) and it wouldn’t count. Let me put a word in here for music for kids. No one sits the bench in band, orchestra or choir!

MiHornNo, you get your own, individual chair! (Stool, if playing bass violin.)

@luvthempluggers

That’s me to this day; I’m 71 years young! But my one good eye was 20/50.

I be the same as Elizabeth at her age and so would my daughter. I despised any sports.

Kids like Lizzy always end up in deep centre field with no chance to catch the ball. It’s a tradition.

When I was in school, I was always chosen last for sports. When the game was softball, I was always put on shortstop. The reasoning was simple: when a ball came at my face, I stuck my gloved hand up to protect my face. I caught more line drives that way than even the best player on the team. I couldn’t hit the ball or throw worth a damn, but I sure could catch balls that were hit at my face!

I never did progress above that level. Things traveling at me are meant to be avoided, not caught.

This was not me. At all. It was every girl who played outfield behind me when I was a pitcher in a fast pitch rec league. I’m working my butt off in the heat and humidity, someone hits a simple pop fly almost directly to them. Please just catch it Claire, but … no. Sigh….

How hard is it to catch a ball? Snoopy does it with his mouth, fercryingoutloud!(OK, end of sarcasm).They’re in Canada, so hockey should be Lizzy’s game. If not that, then lacross or that game where they use a broom in front of a sliding boulder.

The assumption is that the defense has the ball.

It’s been respectfully requested by several commenters that Lynn’s notes be in bold when posted because it makes it easier for them to read. Many times the first post of Lynn’s notes is not in bold, so a second poster will will repost Lynn’s notes, this time in bold.

Hmmm…the data in this forum seems to reflect an inverse correlation between posting on FBofW and athletic aptitude.

Further studies might help to determine the exact parameters of this relationship, i.e. does this lack of athleticism apply to people who post on other comics? In other types of forums?Was it caused by reading comics?Inquiring minds want to know!

My personal, unscientific opinion is that those of us who wisely hid in our bedrooms reading pretty much anything, to avoid playing sweaty games in the hot sun, are more likely to be comics readers today than volleyball players. Additionally…. as we don’t flock to sporting events, but hide away on our computers instead, \we tend to find companionship online, instead of on the ball field. LOL.Triviaguy ….

Gosh… I thought everybody read every post before submitting one…. you know, as is requested on just about every forum where I’ve seen any guidelines posted.

You know, the ones where posting all in bold is considered shouting…and people (wrongly) assume their comments will be read, no matter the font, before being duplicated.

Sigh……

Actually, GoComics seems to encourage the impolite habit of posting before reading, by making a way to comment directly from your comics page without even opening the forum.

Those who do that will see neither the previous posting of the same comment, nor your effort to instruct them. That’s why the day Arlo bought his seemingly forgotten now) boat there were at least a dozen postings of the same tired joke about buying or selling a boat.

Even WKRP In Cincinnati’s Les Nessman could catch fly balls (for those who know that classic episode). Run into it, not from it!

Reminds me of my own early days playing softball when I was seven. BTW, that was back in 1954.

Fielding came pretty natural to me. Although I played mostly first base, and thought of myself as a first baseman, I did get put in the outfield a lot. I could catch a ball just fine, but throwing it all the way back into the infield was another matter. I was never afraid to get under a fly ball.

One time, playing first base, I was backing up to get under a sky-high pop-up, and just as I got under it the right fielder hit me from behind. The ball caught me right over an eye, almost knocking me out, and raising a sky-high knot.