Original air date: 10/2/2021
Production code: 102b
When Molly’s softball team struggles to believe in themselves, she decides to use Scratch’s ghost powers to manipulate the game and make them feel like winners.
Tropes:
- Amusing Injuries: Libby makes the out that wins the Lemmings the game, but at the cost of her front teeth, and the team's ill-fated attempt at carrying her aloft leads to a broken arm and leg. When she is interviewed by a TV reporter, she is in a wheelchair.
- Artistic License – Sports:
- School baseball/softball seasons usually last from early spring to summer, often times going into summer break, but here it seems to be covered in about a week.
- The Lemmings play all of their games as the home team, but the scoreboard shows them batting at the top of the inning, which is when the away team is supposed to bat. This change seems to be for the purpose of the climax, where the away team is now able to threaten a walk-off victory.
- The scoreboard during the Lemmings’ first game shows a blowout loss where their opponents scored in all nine innings. When the team going to bat in the bottom of the ninth is ahead, the game ends without playing the last half-inning. This would ironically not have been an issue if the aforementioned change to the playing order hadn’t occurred.
- Baseball Episode: Or, in this case, softball episode.
- Bottle Episode: The entire episode is set on the baseball field, with a brief scene in the Ghost Realm (if that can even be called a separate place) when Scratch gets summoned for review.
- Brick Joke: The Ghost Council summons Scratch to discuss his performance, telling him he needs to make one more scare by the end of the day to meet his quota. At the end of the episode, Scratch makes his quota by terrorizing Tammy.
- Call-Back / Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Scratch sends his Scare Report to the Ghost Council, you can see that Scratch embellished the events of the previous episode by putting down that he scared the Wilder Scouts with the Howlin' Harriet story.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Played with, ultimately averted for comedic effect. With Scratch cheating, the Lemmings make it to the State Championship only to nearly lose it all when he stops, but the actual goal of getting the team to believe in themselves backfires completely: since Molly is the one doing everything, she becomes the star player while everyone else remains losers, and Libby openly admits this for everyone on the team. Without Scratch, the other Lemmings only pull off the final out by a succession of flukes and Libby's lucky catch, and whatever their newfound confidence will do for their athletic ability remains to be seen, since the episode's over. Even if the final play was their own, the team certainly didn't earn the trophy fairly, which Scratch lampshades.(Molly and Scratch are kicking back in the bleachers, watching the rest of the girls be interviewed for the local news)
Molly: We did it, Scratch. The good people of Brighton are happy because the Lemmings — even Libby — believe in themselves. And the best part is, it was a honest win.
Scratch: (Serenely) It wasn't.
Molly: The only part anyone will remember... was an honest win. - The Corruptor: Scratch initially starts cheating because he wants to defend Molly from the people insulting her. However, once he realizes that he can convince Molly to do actually something wrong and cheat with him he goes from doing it begrudgingly to being all for it.
- Down to the Last Play: The final game against the Skylarks comes down to the last pitch.
- Epic Fail: The Lemmings are leading 18-0 on the last inning when Scratch is summoned by the Ghost Council. In the short time he's gone, the opposing team somehow scored 17 points with the bases loaded.
- Everyone Has Standards: Molly cannot be scared by Scratch in normal cirumstances, but even she is clearly unnerved by whatever he did to scare Tammy.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: During a game against the Skylarks, Libby admits that they made it this far because Molly was The Ace of the team while the rest of them didn't improve at all, unaware of Scratch's involvement.
- How Is That Even Possible?: During the final game against the Skylarks, Scratch gets pulled away by the Ghost Council to discuss his Scare Quota. Despite him only being gone for less than a minute, by the time he gets back Molly has somehow blown their 18-point lead, as the Skylarks are now only a point behind with the bases loaded. When Scratch asks about it, even Molly isn't entirely sure how it happened.Scratch: So sorry, Moll! Ghost work thing. But, good news, I'm back, so let's get this baby wrapped up and— ( notices the mortified look on Molly's face, then sees the scoreboard) WHAT THE HEY?! You gave up seventeen runs, AND the bases are loaded?! How?!
Molly: (completely shell-shocked) I dunno, man, I dunno... It's a blur... of bats, and balls, and humiliation... - Hypocritical Heartwarming: Scratch objects to Molly being insulted, because that's his job.
- Idea Ding: Scratch gets this, complete with a shift to himself into his Nightmare Face look with a smug smile on his face when he realises he has a prime opportunity to convince Molly to become a cheater for the sake of helping the Lemmings win.
- Inconvenient Summons: Scratch gets pulled away by the Ghost Council just as the Lemmings are about to win the game to discuss his scare quota. By the time he gets back, the Skylarks are only a point behind in the bottom of the ninth.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Tammy is right about Molly being an incredibly awful softball player.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Deconstructed. Molly decides to use Scratch's ghostly powers in order to help the Lemmings get out of their losing streak and gain confidence, but this ends up making Molly the star player, with the rest of the Lemmings looking like bigger losers in comparison.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Andrea openly admits that the reason she's joined the softball team is because she admires the uniforms.
- Perfectly Cromulent Word: Molly talks about her intention to "enhappify" Brighton.Scratch: Is that even a word?
Molly: It's totally a word. - Reused Character Design: Tammy's design is an altered version of Andrea's early design
◊, with different hair and skin tone. - Scream Discretion Shot: Scratch scares Tammy offscreen. The focus is on Molly, clearly traumatized by whatever Scratch did.
- Spell My Name With An S: Tammy Myers, the Jerk Jock on the Skylarks team, has her name spelled with a "Y" as confirmed by closed captioning. Scratch lampshades this by asking Molly if her name is spelled with a "Y" or an "I".
- Shout-Out:
- The title is a parody of the 1952 baseball-themed novel The Natural and its 1984 film adaptation.
- The title also counts as a reference to a similar episode of another cartoon revolving around a mischievous ghost and his young human best friend.
- Scratch helping the Lemmings cheat, and Molly's moral quandary over whether or not it's the right thing to do even in service to a worthy cause, references Disney's own Blackbeard's Ghost, where Blackbeard secretly helps Godolphin College's failing track team win the Broxton Relays.
- When Scratch schemes to convince Molly to cheat, the look on his face might make one say Scratch got a wonderful, awful idea.
- Villainy-Free Villain: Tammy doesn't cheat or get violent at any point, she is just taunting Molly a few times.
- "YEAH!" Shot: When the Lemmings win, Scratch and Molly jump in the air in slow-motion with outrageous smiles and their arms raised.
