Grand slam

Spring Training is well underway for Major League Baseball so is there a better time to explore the source of this Goofy player?This Goofy, decked out in his Blue Sox uniform, can be found at the Grand Slam Pool of the All-Star Sports Resort. While the canon wasn’t from the short, this is clearly Goofy from the 1942 cartoon How To Play Baseball. In this short, the first of the Goofy ‘How To’ series, Goofy is seen playing the roles of players on both teams and umpire. Although two tutorial cartoons, The Art of Skiing and The Art of Self Defense, had been released the year prior to How to Play Baseball, they didn’t specifically fall under the ‘How To’ banner of shorts that from 1942 through 2007’s How To Hook Up Your Home Theater.

In How To Play Baseball, the basics of equipment and positions are covered in the setting of a World Series between the Blue Sox and the Gray Sox. A three run lead for the Blue Sox is erased in the bottom of the ninth on a single play which ends in a play at the plate which is too close to call. Obviously, the cartoon ends with a bench clearing brawl!