Gil Thorp by Henry Barajas and Rachel Merrill for May 17, 2023

What comes after jumping the shark? Jumping the whale?

So no one thought to use the…uh…PHONE to determine if he can/wants to come to Milford?!? I feel dumber just because of reading this.

This is how you write “Milford” in Korean: 밀폳

Money about to “talk”. Better close this deal before the debt ceiling talks fail.

They’re trying to convince a Korean kid (one who’s “beloved” in his hometown, no less) to go all the way to small-town America to play baseball? After the season’s already started? (Does this author know anything about how high school sports actually work?)

Oh, tomorrow ought to be good… really good… especially if the storyline shifts back to Mimi’s hopeful lesbian golf threesome…

This story line is so far fetched and out of whack. Why would the phenom want to come to Milford to play ball when there are probably a thousand prep schools out there in warm weather he could go to.

This comic strip bus has not yet managed to run off a cliff, but the passenger side wheels just ran across the rumble strip, drove through the fence and is headed for the embankment.

P2- Coach Kim’s family all together on the left, isolating that dunderhead Lukey on the right. The Valley Tech sports budget is in deficit mode thanks to a whim, not a lark.

Kwan looks better in black and white than the various shades of blue that Milford’s opponents wear.

The family continues to speak in their native language: <“….this freakin’ goof-ball in the cowboy hat insisted on coming here…I knew that if he showed up, that there’s no way that your son would leave, so it’s all by design…”>

P4: If they aren’t impressed yet, are they aware that I beat Gil in a football game a few decades ago?

Coach Luke walks up, holds his phone up and shows Kwan videos of the “Cheerleader Pool Party, (”We have them every month") and Kwan nods and starts packing.

I am sure Kwan speaks perfect English, so Luke understands No.

Remember when Gil had to struggle with the school board about eligibility requirements because the safety on the Mudlarks’ football team was from the neighboring district? Would it have been easier if he were instead from Korea?

P4- Luke to Kwan: “< Your brains or your signature……. >”

Just a fast check shows round trip to Incheon from Chicago over $2600 round trip. I guess no budget cuts at VT. Would have been cool to have Dr. Pearl as a flight attendant.

After the Korean recruiting trip fails, Lucky Luke recruits a bunch of dwarfs to play…“…let’s see if Gil $%^&#@ing Thorp’s blind-man trained pitchers can throw a strike now…”

Wait. This Korean family has a prized horse?!

How does he know what they said in their native language?

Kyra Sedgewick is The Closer

Those ball players are definitely not happy to be added to this strip. And speaking of happy, you’ll be happy to know that today’s Mopped Up Thorp is online.

https://moppedupthorp.wordpress.com/