Who's on First, Charlie Brown

Rating:
Summary: A Crackerjack Peanuts Collection!
Review: This is one of the most exciting bookstore finds I've made in a long time. It includes, I think, every single baseball-themed strip ever created by Charles M. Schulz.

Charlie Brown and Baseball are a classic combination, and when The Library of America recently published their excellent collection of American baseball writing, I thought that Schulz would have been right at home among America's classic baseball writers. Who can think about baseball without imagining the visual gags of Lucy getting bonked in the head with fly balls, or Charlie Brown literally getting his socks knocked off by line drives up the middle? Such images are as much a part of the collective consciousness as "Casey at the Bat" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." But there are not just single-strip gags, there are also ongoing stip-by-strip stories. The one about Charlie Brown's hapless team nearly winning a game, only to have Chuck load the bases in the ninth inning, then balk in the tying AND winning runs is not only funny, but as poignant as any baseball story I've read. Every fan knows such heartbreak. It might as well be the "fan interference" at Wrigley Field, or a routine grounder to a RedSox first baseman. The volume includes, too, the great and forgotten stories of Charlie Brown's baseball-inspired nervous breakdown, and his quest for a card representing his hero, Joe Schlobotnik. These strips find Schulz at his best, capturing his own love for the game and mixing great humor with the gentle sadness that pervades his work.