Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 25, 2020

They just want you to get lost in the grass.

until Monday, everything starts to go sweet followed by Tuesday going sour

One of the hazards of playing deep deep DEEP left field… or maybe not a hazard at all…

A plot point, setting up next week’s thrilling conclusion!

Lost and Found: One little boy in the Field Of Dreams.

Too bad the video games we have today weren’t made back then. Calvin could easily entertain himself for so long, people wouldn’t have to worry.

They know you, so they avoid you like the plague!!

To riff on “Field of Dreams”…“They’ve built it (the team) but he (Calvin) doesn’t want to come”. :/

Oh I’ve been here. I got so bored I stopped watching what was going on and missed the changeover until my replacement came out to tell me.

You really don’t have a clue. Get yourself a rule book to study.

Certainly my experience with team sports: no one explained anything, you were expected to know.

This was me.

I don’t remember how this arc plays out, but I suspect he’s going to record an out for his own team.

You know you’re not wanted when your replacement never appears ….

Watch him accidentally catch a home run hit by his own team.

From what I know, grass does have a tendency to disorient…

I bet Spaceman Spiff would have a maneuver for a situation like this.

Every time that I have read this comic recently, the old commercial plays in my head where Little League advertises on Pizza Hut. Yes, I can hear that old song now.

I feel for this child.“Games” are a form of child abuse projected as a respectable and desirable activity. But they do teach you a lot about discrimination from your earliest years, so they do have some value.“No pain, no gain”.

I find baseball to be a boring game to watch on TV. However, I love going to the park. We are blessed with a minor league team. It takes about 20 minutes to drive there and $5 to park. Tickets are cheap too. My wife and I show up about an hour early have a hot dog and a beer (one of the few exceptions to my zero tolerance policy), often meet people we know and sit and watch the “kids” play baseball.

Since it’s minor league almost anything can happen. Also the park and the activities are designed for kids. We usually pick a Friday or Saturday night when there are fireworks after the game. Sometimes on the way home we stop off of ice cream. I almost don’t care who wins the game.

My favorite baseball position: Left out

Is it just me, or is the grass getting higher with each frame?

Calvin’s been blessed with an extraordinary power. Lack of sports interest. It’ll be paying benefits back to him for the rest of his life. He’ll use that time to do things of REAL importance. I know this for a fact. I’m 76, a retired Engineer, awarded 9 patents during my career. That wouldn’t have happened if I was watching the Bears beat the Cubs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zslUua_jGy4

“Right Field” by Peter, Paul and Mary

You know, that’s how I felt every time I played outfield in grammar school. Like those little kids are going to hit a ball further than ten feet. The pitcher was the busiest guy on the field and often tagged out the runner himself… ;D

Don’t worry Calvin… the teamwork skills you’re learning and the character you’re building will come in handy when you reach your teen years.

I had a boy like that on my team.

Oof, this storyline hits home for me. I can’t begin to count the number of times I found myself involved in something I didn’t want to do or know anything about and people kept doing things that I didn’t know how to react to. Ugh, my anxiety is flaring up just thinking about it.

Y A W N . . .

As someone with no clue or skill at baseball, it was always my dream that I would be forgotten out there.

Baseball is for those who don’t understand soccer.

That would be so me, only the further away I was in the field the better.

Baseball? I couldn’t agree more with Calvin.

This resonates so much with me. I was always clueless as to what the rest of the kids were doing.

again, it would have taken a few minutes to explain the rules to him at ANY point, this is something the coach failed to do, his DAD failed to do, and the other kids who pressured him into playing failed to do, all because they just ASSUMED everybody knows how to play this game, like it’s encoded into genetic memory or a natural instinct or something.

OK, even I wasn’t this bad. I knew which bag to throw to even if my arm couldn’t quite manage it, and knew to use a cutoff when one was available. And also knew when to change sides. None of which excuses the coach here: if the kid doesn’t know what he’s doing, it’s the coach’s responsibility to clue him in! That’s what they’re paid to do (yes, paid, if he’s teaching elementary school.) I’ll say it again, youth sports is a jungle.

Calvin could not possibly have hated the game more than I did as a kid. I was forced to play which does not create a love for the game.

Reminds me of the day my husband asked me (while watching a football game): “They keep saying First and Ten. What does that mean?”

If they could find you.

Been there and done that too.

Bill, the worst baseball players usually end up in right field due to so few batters being left handed. Forgive me if others already have made this point.

The part about telling you if you should do something different happens AFTER you screw up. Before that you are nobody, but after you are worse than dirt.

Perhaps Dad should refrain from trying to convince Calvin that all life on Earth arose from poodles (or some similar insanity) and practice real parenting instead.

Geez. Somebody really needs to trim the grass in that field…

Everyone had Great comments today! Now line up so we can hand out the participation awards!

That’s like my little league experience. The coaches never explained anything about how the game was played or really did any coaching. We’d practice and if you didn’t know what was going on, you were benched.