Gil Gets His Dig(g)s In

One of our Central City protestors (the Tommie Smith/John Carlos descendant) gets a name and becomes as central to the plot as any Milford girl.  The “other item” Gil was shaking Skip down for must have been her name and digits. I leave it to the readership to discuss the propriety of what Skip and Gil have done. Suffice it to say it doesn’t leave a very good taste in my mouth.

I’m assuming Gil’s convo with, I’m assuming, Ryan will pick up tomorrow with, I’m assuming, what Gil said to Ms. Diggs after appreciating her “taking a stand” that wasn’t written here.  Odds are it will involve some gentle variation on “keep your ****in’ mouth shut.”

From the Pantheon of Mysterious Objects Dept.: Diagonally striped thing above and to the right of the GIL mug (or is it below and to the right? I can’t tell); backdrop of P3 (they’re standing outdoors, presumably; is it a huge backstop, more Prairie Style Windows, or what?).

Misadventures In Plot Advancement

Man, our bespectacled Dafne summoner is about as useful as Rubin when it comes to advancing the plot. At least we got a score. Do you suppose any of the kids on the Central team know what’s going on?

Bonus point: As pointed out in the comments, it is awesome that the Valley Conference is old school and uses wooden bats.

Wild Thing, you make Mudlarks sing

I would think one of the school officials at the game would put an end to the sign-toting girls attendance at this game and excuse them from the premises, cardboard sign being folded and disposed of in the giant trash bin they have at these events that invariable gets overfilled with all the various empty plastic bottles and other concession items that collect during the course of several games until finally they topple to the ground and are walked around for a few days before being disposed of.

Predictably Gil is napping in the dugout and oblivious to the carnage of wildness Ryan displays until the horse is out of the barn. I recall Bob Uecker announcing in Major League: ” Ball 4, Ball 5. Ball 8.” Ah who gives a crap??”

How one of the pitches wasnt a hit-batsman I’ll never figure. Maybe Ryan needs special glasses, so he cant read signs as well. Then he’ll pitch better. Hey, that would be a better plot then what we have here.

 

 

Signs, Girls, or Girls with Signs

Ryan got a jolt yesterday because he remembered seeing Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker. His secret thoughts might lead us to believe that’s not really Patty, however. My guess is that the ‘Cane remembers her because he hit her but didn’t know who she was when he did.

This begs the question: If ‘Cane hit some rando girl in Central City, how does Dafuq reach the conclusion that the girl he hit was his girlfriend? Why do I get the feeling that this little show by granddaughter of Tommie Smith (or John Carlos) and her entourage will lead Daftpunk down the road of true investigative journalism to uncover info that will, at least in part, exonerate young Van Auken? Maybe because I don’t have much else to hang my hat on today after yesterday’s big reveal.

Speaking of hats: Take a closer look at Ryan’s today and in yesterday’s P3. The rest of the Milford crew wear that big, indistinct, Miramax Films-like sans-serif “M” but the cap Ryan wears clearly has serifs on the block “M”. It’s almost like he’s not on the same team. What says his teammates will treat him that way once they learn more about his backstory? They’ve been known to do that, y’know; just ask Barry Bader.

So, I Took A Little Vacation From The Blog…

May 30, 2017

And this is what I come back to… Nothing wrong with the first two panels of Tuesday’s strip and I even get a kick out of The Bucket supporting the baseball team, confident in the knowledge that they”ll more than make back their advertising spend through increased sales of milkshakes and french fries. But, boy howdy we swerve back to the Volcano hit a girl plotline and I got just about nothing.

May 31, 2017

I am trying to imagine that part of Ryan’s shock is coming not from the sign, which looks about a third the width of the one they were holding in panel three of Tuesday’s strip, but also the incessant clacking and clanging of those bracelets.

The Dreaded Call to the ‘Pen

Today we get another one of those frequent time dilation events that tend to happen in the Thorpiverse.  Sometimes this isn’t such a bad thing: when several days are spent on a single play or sequence of events in a single game, the pacing of a typical high school sports season gets thrown off.  Other times, it feels really forced, especially when the events of the stretched out game could have an impact on the events of the speeded up games.

That’s what’s happening here. It feels like Ryan Van Auken’s lost cool that led him to getting yanked from his first start is being completely glossed over. We can only assume everything went Ryan’s way and that his dumpster fire of a temper has been left smoldering, only to be touched off again by, perhaps…

… a mysterious phone call, such as the one a young Stephen King is fielding in the Milford High Journalism Office(!).  On the basis of one exposé, Dafne Dafoe Dafonte Dafunk has gained a reputation as a hard-hitting reporter, one who’s ready to blow the roof off a subject once given a hot lead.  Wanna bet this call’s from the Fun Girls from Mount Pilot* – er, Central City – with the juicy backstory as to why Van Auken’s now plying his wares in Milford?

*One of The Fun Girls was named Daphne. Coincidence?

Chill, ‘Cane! You still got the W

Having been yanked from the game by Gil, Ryan Van Auken looks startled as he trudges into the Milford dugout.  And no wonder: judging from the motion lines Whigham drew in, Ryan’s glove arced over his left shoulder before hitting the back of the bench in front of him.  He must have thrown that shit before he walked in the dugout!

Bobby Mitchell (not the one who integrated the Redskins) earns the save when a levitating Barry Bader wills the ball to rise vertically into his outstretched glove.  Awful nice of Gil to put stripes down the sides of the Mudlark unis; gives Barry a way to relate to his old man. But what is that leaf-like object hovering over Barry’s rear end?  An actual tobacco leaf?  An indicator of his preferred kinks?  Or something else?  Talk amongst yourselves.

Mount Van Auken

When we were introduced to this Ryan Van Auken chap, we learned he was a former hothead who’s reformed into a semi-normal tempered guy at best. Of course we know that whatever is said about someone in this strip, the remainder of the storyline will consist of that person displaying the opposite behavior whenever he/she is involved. Which invariably is day after day after day. Why tell us anything and then not contradict it, so to speak.

So here goes a missed ball/strike pitch, which by the way the catcher stuck his glove out practically over home plate to catch it; if the batter swung its easily catchers interference. So kind of a moot point there. And of course the team cant play over the bad call as ALL teams must do as no umpire is perfect until they have robots behind the plate sometime in 2035 or whenever. P1 shows the OF 2 feet from the fence for a ball he has NO chance for; he’ll need a cast-iron jockstrap any second now. And Gil comes out to calm down his suddenly upset pitcher, who does what they all do and tries to convince Gil he can handle the moment. Gil, just get  a reliever up and do your job and move along.  Its game 1 of a 30-game, 5 game a week season, where a lot of teams play doubleheaders every week. And you’re worried about 1 game and 1 pitcher. Thats what happens when it takes a week to PLAY 1 FREAKIN GAME!! We over analyze what should be a small portion of a season.