Looney Tunes Review: "Baseball Bugs"

Baseball's coming! Though technically, it's already here. We are still in spring training, but the regular season actually started with the two games in Tokyo on March 18 and 19 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, with the Dodgers winning both games to start the young season at 2-0. For those of us in North America, the season is still a few days away, and to get you ready for the season, let's talk about one of the more popular Looney Tunes shorts: Baseball Bugs.

The short innocently begins at a game between the Gas House Gorillas and the Tea Totalers, and it's a slaughter. The Gorillas were slaughtering the Tea Totalers, using power, cheating, and intimidating umpires in their game. As a result:

No, this isn't a re-enactment of Emmanuel Clase's performance in last year's postseason. The Gorillas literally conga lined around the bases, and the crowd was cheering, though one certain someone wasn't. Bugs Bunny was not thrilled. He loudly booed the Gorillas and said they were dirty cheaters, and he even said he could beat the Gorillas all by himself. Apparently, the Gorillas heard that and took it personally. So the Gorillas accepted his challenge, and as a result, the Gorillas were facing the one-rabbit band known as Bugs Bunny.

Bugs threw a pair of fastballs to start, but he decided to "perplex them with his slow ball." Bugs' eephus pitch strikes out the side all at once, and it's later the rabbit's turn to bat. Bugs smashes the first fastball he sees, and circles the bases, but is stopped at home plate by one of the Gorillas. However, all it takes is Bugs displaying a pin-up to distract his opponent, and he scores his first run. Bugs hits another fastball, but one of the Gorillas snatches the ump away and replaces him. He attempts to call Bugs out, but a battle of wits results in Bugs getting his way. We see Bugs hitting dinger after dinger against the Gorillas, and as for the mound, one of the Gorillas hits Bugs' fastball, but Bugs tags him out at the plate.

So after all of this madness, what was the score?

Yep, Bugsy was winning 96-95 and it was the bottom of the ninth. Two outs, Gorillas batting, and they had a man on. One of their hitters decides to chop down a tree to ensure a walk-off victory. Bugs throws his biggest heat, but it gets clobbered. Knowing that it could mean the game, Bugs leaves the park to catch that ball. He takes a taxi, but learns that the driver is one of the Gorillas. Bugs finds the ball hovering over a tall building, takes an elevator to the top, climbs the flagpole, tosses his glove up... and makes the catch! The Gorillas player receives the out call from the ump, and later from Lady Liberty to end the short.

Baseball Bugs was theatrically released on February 2, 1946, and was directed by Friz Freleng (credited as I. Freleng). This is one of my favorite Bugs shorts, and has to be among many fans' favorites. This short marked the first time that Bugs was actually in a sports setting; we would see Bugs in the boxing ring two years later in Rabbit Punch, and he would actually wrestle in Bunny Hugged. The conga line scene in this short would be used as a meme to mock bad pitching, and parts of this short were reused five and a half years later in another Freleng-directed short, His Hare-Raising Tale.

This was a crazy one, with Bugs humiliating that big team of bullies all by his lonesome, with his fastball pitching, timely hitting, and of course, his wits. I loved that this short had the honor of kicking off the entire Looney Tunes Golden Collection. There were six DVD sets, but this short was the first cartoon of Volume One, Disc One.

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