Baseball Bugs

This is the one you remember from when you were growing up and watching Saturday morning "Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner" cartoons. I recently watched this cartoon a 15 years at least since I last saw it and laughed out loud at all the pranks that Bugs pulled out of his hat. I know I must have used some of these jokes when I was playing baseball as a kid.

And the cameo at the end of America's perennial first lady was a hoot - and Bugs goes and lampoons her on the spot!

Classic is the only word for this one.

In most Bugs Bunny cartoons, he is pitted against a foe, usually human, while formidable in their own way, are obviously not in his league when it comes to brains. In this particular one, directed by Friz Freleng, he is up against a whole team of them. Bugs calls the Gas House Gorillas "a bunch of dirty cheaters". They then challenge him to a game of baseball where Bugs has to play every position, plus having to catch up where the Tea Totalers left off, behind 96-0 or something close to this score. Many of the jokes aren't up to writer Michael Maltese's usual standards, but anyone who has ever watched this cartoon will never forget the ending sequence where Bugs has to catch the last out of the game to win it.

...if you want to see Bugs in a sports milieu. You'll see Bugs takes care of his own business as opposed to kidnapping a popular, talented athlete to do it for him. You won't see Bugs nabbing Joe DiMaggio, say, to help him against the Gashouse Gorillas. But I digress.

I think the comments on this toon are a bit too analytical. The fact is this is a classic and just plain fun; a toon that I always enjoyed as a kid (and I wasn't even a baseball fan at the time).

Notice how the Gorillas start out as the visiting team, then end up as the home team. Also, note how Bugs, when following the Gorillas' would-be game-ending long fly to try and catch it, gets off the cab that's "going the wrong way" and gets on a bus that appears to be heading in the same direction. These "bloopers" were probably due to error and/or a limited budget but they only add to the hilarious charm of this classic cartoon.

Friz Freleng's 'Baseball Bugs' has become one of the most well known Bugs Bunny cartoons of all, so much so that it was referenced in hugely popular the sitcom 'Friends' in such a way that took for granted that the audience would recognise it. Commonly known as "that one where Bugs takes on a whole baseball team and plays all the positions", 'Baseball Bugs' brings back many a fond memory from my childhood. Watching it today, it's a fairly standard cartoon largely made up of visual gags of varying quality, the best involving a highly unconventional batboy. The main reason it has become semi-legendary would seem to be entirely down to its ingenious premise of pitting the rabbit against a whole team of thuggish ball players. Freleng does some interesting things with the premise but you can't help but feel a wackier director like Bob Clampett could have made so much more of it. Another problem with 'Baseball Bugs' is the more than usually abundant use of old references that inescapably date the cartoon. For cartoon aficionados like myself, these reference points always prove interesting (and 'Baseball Bugs' includes my favourite regularly used saying, "Was this trip really necessary?", which always cracks me up) but to most people they will prove perplexing and the fact that the cartoon ends with one of these forgotten catchphrases makes for a somewhat anticlimactic finale. Nevertheless, 'Baseball Bugs' is a fun short which I always enjoy seeing and which is not wholly undeserving of its reputation as a classic, even if it does pale in comparison to the truly great Warner cartoons

We are at the Polo Grounds in New York City with the visiting team - the Gas-House Gorillas - giving the home team - the Tea Totallers - a thrashing, leading 94-0 and it's only the top of the fourth inning! Bugs emerges from his hole in the outfield and is disgusted. "Hey, I can beat this team singled-handed," he thinks, so he takes over from the 91-year-old pitcher who is getting shellacked. In fact, he takes over for everybody, being the whole team!

From that point on, it really becomes total lunacy - but one of the funniest Bugs Bunny cartoons I've ever seen (well, I'm a baseball fan, too) - capped off by a the most ridiculous catch ever made!

This was a lot of fun to watch. I hope Bugs did more sports cartoons and, if so, I get a chance to see them.