. . . HOW TO PLAY BASEBALL clearly refers to the May 15 and May 18, 1912 diamond debacles featuring the Detroit Tigers against the New York Highlanders and then the Philadelphia Athletics, happening about a month after Tiger Stadium and Fen-Way Park opened and the Titanic sank. In the brawl against New York, Ty Cobb entered the bleachers to confront a double amputee heckler, and was suspended indefinitely. During the game against the A's, all the Tigers went on strike in baseball's biggest labor dispute ever. Tigers management then paid a random priest in the crowd $50 to throw a baseball for the first time in his life against the Philadelphia Nine. What followed was history's worst-pitched Major League game ever, as Father Allan allowed 24 runs on 26 hits. No priest has been allowed to pitch in the majors since. Commissioner Ben Johnson, considered the Benedict Arnold of the sport, threatened to ban ALL the Tigers for life unless they ended their strike. This incident enabled Pete Rose to break Cobb's record for career hits, and gave the future instigator of the 1919 Chicago Black Socks scandal--Philly boxer turned Tiger scab Billy M.--all the inside information he would need to hoodwink new commissioner Kenny Landless, aka baseball's Genghis Khan.

How to Play Baseball gets off to a slightly slow start. The narrative explanation was very interesting, especially for someone like me who has never played baseball in her life, but it wasn't as funny or as crisply paced as the rest of the cartoon. When it does get going, complete with a suitably ferentic pace, it is non-stop hilarity with the ending and the scene where the player gets hit on the head and walks around in a daze standing out. The sound effects also add much, especially the screeching tyres and wobbling guitar chord. The animation is clean, smooth and very colourful, and the whole different personalities with Goofy as various characters, as with How to Play Football, is a masterstroke.

Overall, a great cartoon and one of the finer How to Goofy cartoons. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I've seen this so many times, but have never commented on it. There is something about it that is quite charming. I like that all the players and the umpire are variations on Goofy. They do a nice job of showing how the game is played and then go to the seventh game of the World Series to demonstrate. Of course, everything is exaggerated and typical goofiness, but it works pretty well here. If you watch, you'll find my utter amusement in the title of this review.