Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott for April 22, 2023

A messenger Zoe. No don’t think so. A antagonist yep that’s you.

with a sister like Zoe, who needs frenemies?

Malicious “messengers” aren’t worth your attention. If you aren’t sure of the malice level, their deflecting “I’m just sayin’!” is a dead giveaway. They aren’t just saying. They’re zinging to hurt.

Zoe is the mistress of dishing it out.

Hammie will get you for that, Zoe!

Ah, brotherly and sisterly love. I remember it so well.

Ah… The ol’ golden sombrero…

Great form.

Maybe next game. Next season?

Zoe is about as helpful and encouraging as boil on your butt.

You probably shouldn’t taunt Hammie, he’s a kid with poor impulse control and a baseball bat…

He’s achieved the ‘Golden Sombrero’…

All good swings come to an end.

Way to rub it in!

Hey Zoe, why don’t you go play somewhere ………….. far far away.

This is why T-Ball is superior.

(Not that I haven’t seen kids strike out swinging at a fixed target.)

When I was a kid, I struck out almost every at bat. My coach couldn’t understand, I had great mechanics; but I was always a hair below the ball. After the first 8 games, my brother told me to bat left-handed, and just connect with the ball. I became a solid hitter after that. Coach asked my brother what he did, and he said, “He’s like me, he sees best out of his right eye, and he can track the ball easier with it on top.”

My brother figured it out by closing his left eye at first, but later learned how to shift which eye to focus from I figured out that part later.

Interesting method of stacking the dialogue in panel one.

Hammie, think of the ball as Zoe’s big yap. You’ll be in the majors in no time!

There’s a saying “If you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all.” If Zoe were to adhere to that, she would seldom, if ever, talk again.

Strange use of language. You would think that a strike was for hitting (striking) the ball and a miss for missing it.

Haha! XD