Calvin's elementary school starts a baseball league during recess, and every boy except Calvin signs up. Calvin is eventually pressured into signing up as well, but soon discovers that organized sports are about far more than just having fun.
Tropes
- Adults Are Useless: Mr. Lockjaw, the adult in charge of the baseball league, doesn't really do anything to help Calvin out when he signs up to play, just telling him to go play in left field and assuming he knows how to do it. He also does nothing when the other kids start insulting and bullying Calvin for accidentally getting his own teammate out.
- Calvinball: The trope-namer gets introduced at the end of the arc, with Calvin wanting to put the memory of trying to play an organized sport as far behind him as possible by playing the most unorganized sport possible.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The final strip of the arc gives us Calvinball, which would be played frequently by Calvin and Hobbes during the final half of the strip's run. Worth noting that playing nonsensical games with a loose set of rules was always common with Calvin and Hobbes, but this was the first time it was actually referred to as Calvinball.
- Girls Have Cooties: Susie tells Calvin that all the other boys have signed up to play baseball, and that he's the only boy left on a playground full of girls. Calvin starts panicking about how he'll catch cooties.
- Imagine Spot: During his time playing in left field, Calvin goes into one of his Spaceman Spiff fantasies, comparing the isolation of being out in deep left field to being stranded on an abandoned planet.
- Kids Are Cruel: Calvin gets bullied and mocked for not signing up to play baseball, peer pressuring him into doing it. When Calvin makes a mistake due to not knowing the rules to baseball, the kids are gang up on him, insulting and threatening him, ultimately pushing him to quit the team.
- School Clubs Are Serious Business: Calvin doesn't know how baseball works, so he ends up catching a ball hit by his own teammate and getting him out. Calvin's teammates freak out on him and throw a fit, acting as if the outcome of the game actually matters for something beyond just personal pride.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Calvin gets peer pressured into joining the school baseball team, but almost immediately makes a great running catch on a deep fly ball, showing some genuine talent and ability for a six year old...only he didn't realize the inning had rolled over and the teams had swapped places, meaning he caught a ball hit by his own teammate.
