Customer Reviews

The New Yorker Book of Baseball Cartoons

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a funny and wryly amusing collection of 100 baseball cartoons that first appeared in "The New Yorker." Although illustrators are credited, no dates are given. (This would have been helpful in discerning which jokes are relatively old, and which just sound old.) Some of the material is fairly trite, deriding such easy targets as umpires and over zealous fans. Most of them are quite funny though, including a picture of seven infielders gathered close to home as one fan explains to another "They expect him to bunt," and another showing an umpire pondering how to call a play with a wonderful Jack Benny-like expression and the equally Benny-esque caption "I'm thinking!" (with 'thinking' underlined).

A major problem is the formatting, all the `toons are given equal size, and hence equal weight. A number of these are just "throwaway" jokes, pictures and captions without much weight or originality. As a small illustration added--like a condiment--to a large text, these are appropriately lightweight and amusing, but as large pictures they don't compare to the more creative and funnier efforts here. After a while, the similarities begin to inoculate you against the humor. A better format might have been to present these in the size in which they originally appeared. However, this would make a good gift for baseball fans and those who live with them. Overall, it's an excellent coffee table book that doesn't take up the whole coffee table.

Everyone will find favorites in this collection, whether they are about kids and baseball or overpaid, over-egoed pros. One favorite part for me is the running motif of umpire jokes. The New Yorker's cartoonists are simply the best. I loved The New Yorker Book of Golf Cartoons, but this is even better.

Many of the gags are good, a few are belly-laughers, but overall this collection is full of old-timey jokes -- men in fedoras type of jokes. Funny, I guess, but hasn't anyone at New Yorker done a gag about baseball in the past 50 years? C'mon, there are baseball fans under the age of 50.

Baseball fans will love this collection of cartoons that capture the essence of baseball in the American psyche. My two favorites in the collection appear on pages 34 and 72. The one on page 34 features a man wearing a religious collar standing in the stands and yelling, "Thou hast eyes to see, and see not!" On page 72 a player is being tagged while sliding into home. The umpire says, "I don't know when I've seen a more magnificent slide. You're out!"
Fans, owners, players and the role of baseball in the American society are all presented in a delightful and amusing manner.

I love baseball as much as I love a good joke, so this collection was a "double" for me. Being a New Yorker collection, a few cartoons are Yankee-specific, and the Mets are lightly ribbed, but any baseball fan will appreciate this look at the sport's many sides. My favorite cartoon shows a player telling the media, "Hey, I'm just happy to be making an obscene amount of money." If only real players were that honest!

The New Yorker Book of Baseball Cartoons benefits (or suffers) from (depending on your fan allegiance) having a Bronx perspective on the sport. For Yankee fans, this will be a four-star book. With cartoons from over eight decades, many of the cartoons harken back to baseball as it was . . . rather than how it is now. Somehow, that didn't work as nostalgia for me. I have to assume that The New Yorker has a more recent selection of cartoons on this subject that could have captured the contemporary game better . . . but there are too few of those. As a result, many cartoons are sources of curiosity rather than humor.

I did find myself laughing in a few places. Here are some of the better efforts:

A woman stands over a man watching a baseball game on television and says, "Oh, no! Not already!" That reminds me of my wife's reaction when I turn on the first preseason football game every summer.

A happy woman speaks to her scowling male escort as they reach their seats in full stands, "See, Grouchy? We haven't missed a thing--the score is still nothing to nothing." As you can see, the battle of the sexes is a frequent topic in the book.

In "The First Straw" a groom turns to his bride as they drive away from the church and asks, "Mind if I put on the game?"

A woman watching a game on television speaks to a man as he returns to the room, "I think you missed something. The ball went up into the air and somebody caught it and the crowd's yelling like mad."

With no caption, you see a sign in the outfield that says "Hit This Sign and Abe Feldman will give you A SUIT absolutely free" as an outfielder catches a fly ball while being shadowed by a man in a suit and hat . . . and two gloves.

The umpires take some kidding . . . and give some out. As one ump comments to the batter, "I don't think I'd say anything about eyesight if I had your batting average."

A wealthy matron smiles at two of the players while speaking to a manager of the Yankees, "Sometimes we sell them, lady, but only to other teams."

A father speaks to his son who is praying, "Never mind mentioning all twenty-five of them. Just 'God bless the Mets' will do."

Two men are behind home plate in the stands. One of them is behind a tall beam. The other one says, "High inside. Ball three. Count is now three balls and two strikes. Here comes the pitch."

A gondolier in Venice has on a baseball uniform. He says, "I was sent down to the minors and from there to Europe, and one thing just led to another."

Unfortunately, I didn't leave out very many of the best ones. Most didn't even make me crack a smile.

As usual, there is no introduction. Surely, Yogi Berra could have been pressed into duty for such an obvious application of his well-known wit and wisdom.

Play ball!!