Editing 1593: Play-By-Play

{{comic
| number    = 1593
| date      = October 21, 2015
| title     = Play-By-Play
| image     = play_by_play.png
| titletext = The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Beret Guy]] comments on a {{w|Baseball|baseball}} game in a way that demonstrates that he has never seen one previously. Moreover, his naïve way of speaking reveals that he is not aware of his lack of knowledge and does not consider it possible that, as is probably the case, his audience is much more familiar with this sport and its rules. His unworldly way of talking makes one even wonder if he has any notion of the way people experience sports at all.

{| class="wikitable"
! Text
! Explanation
|-
|"We're on part 5 of a hitting game."
|Part of baseball is hitting the ball with the {{w|Baseball bat|bat}}. A baseball game is divided into rounds, called {{w|Inning|innings}} with each team getting a chance to bat.
|-
|"The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far."
|Every hitter uses a bat that fits his physique, within certain {{w|Baseball_bat#Baseball_bat_regulations|limits}}. These limits are to mostly ensure that carrying a larger bat does not automatically mean successfully batting the ball further.
|-
|"Wait - he missed!" "Oh good, they're letting him try again."
|The {{w|Pitcher|pitcher}} tries to throw (or pitch) the ball in such a way as to make it hard for the hitter to hit the ball, but still have the ball go through the {{w|Strike zone|strike zone}}. A swing and a miss is counted as a strike, regardless of whether the ball passes the strike zone; so is a pitch that goes through the strike zone but is not swung at, as is swinging and getting a foul (which is when the ball is hit but goes in the wrong direction) if the hitter has not accumulated two strikes already. A hitter is out upon accumulating three strikes (a {{w|Strikeout|strikeout}}). In this case, the hitter swung at and missed the first pitch, and so has one strike but not a strikeout, so the hitter is allowed to "try again".
|-
|"The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow. Rude."
|Cheering and heckling is so commonplace that the players on the field are unlikely to react to it.  While most would think the cheering and heckling to be rude, Beret Guy is amazed at how rude it is of the batter to ignore those who are obviously just trying to talk to him.  "Chair shelves" refers to {{w|bleacher}}s.
|-
|"This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them."
|The pitcher strikes out every hitter, who then has to leave the batting area and gets replaced by another hitter (until three outs after which the teams switch sides). Or, he keeps {{w|Base on Balls|walking}} hitters, making them leave the batting area and go to first base. That the thrower is throwing at the batter is the only thing in Beret Guy's commentary that eliminates {{w|Pesäpallo|pesäpallo}}, a Finnish ball and bat game from being the game Beret Guy is observing.
|-
|"It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in."
|The other players of the team do not pitch, they wait until the batter successfully hits the ball into the field.
|-
|"That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!"
|Any {{w|Baserunning|baserunner}} (a player standing at a {{w|Baseball field|base}} waiting to run to the next base) can attempt to run to the next base when the pitcher is delivering a pitch (called {{w|Stolen base|stealing a base}}). The pitcher can throw the ball to a defense player to {{w|Tag out|tag out}} the runner before he reaches the next base. Thus, an attempt to steal a base is most successful if no one notices. That the players are running to "pillows" instead of posts eliminates {{w|Rounders|rounders}} from being the game being observed.

The "second pillow" implies that the runner in question stole second base, which is the {{w|Stolen base#Plays involving baserunning|most commonly stolen base}}. However, someone who knows little to nothing about baseball, such as Beret Guy in this case, would not likely be aware which bases are considered "first", "second", and "third", since the bases are not laid out linearly.
|-
|"Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that."
|Successfully stealing a base, an infrequent event, usually receives a lot of cheers, especially if the offensive team is the home team. This may be a reference to [[1552: Rulebook]].
|-
|Title text: "The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail."
|A pitcher throwing pitches that get hit too often is undesirable, and will be substituted by a {{w|Relief pitcher|relief pitcher}} who will come out of the {{w|Bullpen|bullpen}} (the area next to the playing field where relief pitchers warm up; the "thrower jail") to join the game. Substitution decisions are made by the manager of the team (the "king of the game", though this name wrongfully suggests that one "king" controls both teams, possibly because Beret Guy has not seen the other team's manager do anything of note, and so does not realize there is another manager).
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beret guy is sitting with headphones with a microphone on, looking out of the frame, hands resting on a table.]
:Beret Guy: For those just joining us, hi! We're on part 5 of a hitting game.

:[Zoom out with Beret guy shown from the side sitting at a desk.]
:Beret Guy: The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far.
:Beret Guy: Wait - he missed!
:Beret Guy: Oh good, they're letting him try again.

:[Zoom in again on Beret Guy still seen from the side.]
:Beret Guy: The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow.
:Beret Guy: Rude.

:[Beret guy looks straight out.]
:Beret Guy: This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them.
:Beret Guy: It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in.

:[Beret guy turns his head to the side.]
:Beret Guy: ''That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!''
:Beret Guy: Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that.
:Beret Guy: Yikes. Hopefully they can fix that once this game is over.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Baseball]]