Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for March 17, 2015

Safe to predict, Calvin won’t be going out for little league.

Oh, did I mention, Calvin’s a big sissy?

That’s quite a curve ball.

What goes up, must come down. Right back at ya Calvin.

I was lucky when I was a kid: we lived a half block from a vacant lot. We kids would gather there one Saturday afternoon a week and my Father would throw balls. We shared a brand new shiny black bat he’d gotten at Murphy’s Hardware. He was the only neighborhood Father that had a decent arm (and patience).

I can just see his parent’s therapy bills for this kid.

He’s not scared of it, until his wild imagination kicks in. Haha

That is close to how I feel on baseball so I know how Calvin is. Baseball thrown I have hard time with the view. And I despise sports.I remember in grade school 4 or 5 of us including me decide who would be last in line as no one wanted to bat the ball. Teacher caught on fast. I still do not like baseball.

I have not played baseball for 50 years (I’m 66), but the pleasant sights, sounds, and smells flood back in memory when going outside on a fresh spring day after winter — the smack of a baseball into a newly oiled glove, the crack of a (wooden) bat driving a ball, the basepaths and dirt for sliding, the mound from which the pitcher launches the start of each play….

First time I played baseball I got hit in the right ear. Still don’t hear well on that side.

Never had a baseball bite me….but I’ve had a few head-butt me….

Interesting, very interesting! Makes you wonder if Watterson had a bad experience with a baseball in his younger years…

I was in a one-room school from First through Third Grade, and all eight grades played softball during recess, I was hit by a baseball atleast once that I remember.

No, I don’t feel the least bit of nostagia for those good old days. Nor am I interested in sports today. I don’t see the point of it.

In my second year of Little League(my first year, I was the kid they put in right field. For those that don’t know what that means, it’s the field where the least number of balls are hit), my father was the coach. He and the next-door neighbor, whose boy was also on the team, were trying to find what positions I was good at. They had me get into a catcher’s crouch and a ball was pitched to me. Hit me right between the eyes. As they picked me up and dusted me off, I heard “well, he’s not a catcher.” That didn’t put me off baseball, though. As it turned out, me and the neighbor boy, my best friend, became the number one and two pitchers on the team and we had a great year, won the championship!

I enjoyed sports as a kid. I was terrible at them, but it didn’t stop me from trying to play them.

I brag that I am a well rounded athlete. My golf score, bowling average and batting average are all the same: 122.

That might be a faceball, not a baseball.

whatever happened to the word AFRAID?

Has anyone considered that Calvin might be on acid?

If baseballs did this it might be worth watching the stupid game. Otherwise, it is so slow that it is boring.

I was always scared of getting hit in the face by the ball too. I did once when some boys were playing football in the school yard.

Idiots.

xxx

I was afraid of the ball too my first year or two of organized baseball. Then one year, in the new town of White Plains, I had a coach who took one look at me, a fat little kid at that time, and said “You’re going to be a catcher.” I panicked and actually confessed my fear. He repeated that I would catch. Then he got the equipment and started to put it on me. First the shin guards. He threw a ball at them, it bounced off, and I had to admit it didn’t hurt. Then the same thing with the chest protector. Finally he put the face mask on me and said “I’m not going to throw a ball at your face, but watch.” He put the ball up to the mask to demonstrate that it would not fit anywhere through the bars. He told me just to always face the ball and I wouldn’t get hit. He had an assistant coach who had caught in either semi-pro or minor league ball, and who worked with me on positioning, setting a target, receiving the ball, and throwing. I absolutely loved it! I could never hit a lick, but I loved playing that position. The catcher is in on everything; every play (=every pitch), sees the whole field. If you’re still out there, Mr. Michel (sp.?), thank you. I love baseball to this day.

TAKE YOUR BASE!

We played soccer, not baseball so much. I have one bad eye. Because I didn’t wear glasses as a kid, I don’t have binocular vision. Objects like baseballs or hockey pucks, moving at high speeds towards me scare me too. Soccer was easier, and much more demanding. You do a lot of running playing soccer, and you don’t need any equipment, just a field and a ball.

A lot of late updates today.

Last comment (kidding) Agreed, FrugalnotCheap.