any and all references to baseball in (primarily) batman comics. infodumping here instead of various discords to spare my poor friends the walls of text.
JLA: Year One #6 (July 1998). Mark Waid (w), Brian Augustyn (w), Barry Kitson (p), Michael Bair (i).
Posted just 1 day late for Jackie Robinson Day (April 15).
"Jackie Robinson" because he's breaking a barrier, get it? In fact, you could say he's breaking a color barrier…
The importance of Jackie Robinson to baseball and to the civil rights movement would be extremely difficult to overstate. He was the first Black baseball player to play in the MLB and was one of the best to do so, winning Rookie of the Year, was elected All Star for six years in a row, and won the NL MVP. He contributed to and was a huge activist for the civil rights movement.
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JLA: Year One #5 (May 1998). Mark Waid (w), Brian Augustyn (w), Barry Kitson (p), Michael Bair (i).
If you could "call" enemies the way you could call fly balls, someone would have designated priority. Centerfielders have priority over outfielders, for example.
Superman "plays" a game of "baseball" for charity.
Superman (1987 series) #558 (Jun 1998). "Another Typical Day". Karl Kesel (w), Jerry Ordway (w), Steve Yeowell (p), Denis Rodier (i)
Other than the fact that there's a "ball" and Superman hits it with a "bat" and he visits 4 locations (one for each "base"), there is nothing baseball about this. Obviously it's just for fun.
Can you really say that Superman "stretched that hit into a triple" when he's heading for "home" even as Superboy is speaking? Can it really be considered a "hit" when Supergirl catches the ball before it hits the ground? Is it possible for this blog to not be pedantic about baseball even though this is clearly just for fun even in-universe? (No.)
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Detective Comics (1937 series) #707 (Mar 1997). "Riddled." Chuck Dixon (w), Graham Nolan (p), David Roach (i).
No, I was not ready for the nonsense in this story. Boy, when I was first ranting about this to friends, I was using ALL CAPS.
The Riddler leaves behind a series of numbers and letters, as well as a reference to Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning…"
Tim, ball knower, realizes that the numbers refer to plays.
First off, this drove me NUTS.
"W" does not stand for WALK. NEVER HAS.
The symbol for walk has ALWAYS been "BB," which stands for "base on balls," as a batter is awarded first base after the pitcher throws 4 balls outside the strike zone (ball four).
"K" does not stand for STRIKE. It stands for STRIKEOUT.
Yes, there's a difference! It's "three strikes you're out!" You write down a "K" when someone is out not when someone has received a strike!
On the screen Bruce is looking at with the numbers and letters, there's also a "C" which is extremely confusing because that's simply not part of baseball nomenclature. A catcher is designated the number 2. See below.
When the batter hits the ball into play, you can easily convey where the ball went, who fielded it, etc. by using numbers. For example, if a batter hits a ground ball to the shortstop, who then throws it to the first baseman, you can call this a "6-3 groundout." If someone flies out to center field, you can write down "F8" (flyout to position 8).
From this, you can see that the string of numbers and letters Bruce was looking at makes 0 sense. Tim also notes that the numbers 1, 2, and 3 repeat most often, which is entirely wrong. Perhaps the writer assumed that 1 = first base, 2 = second base, and 3 = third base. The pitcher (1) and catcher (2) are the least likely to participate in fielding plays. That's not to say it's uncommon, but the most common plays are going to be things like F7, F8, F9, 6-3, 4-3, 6-4-3 double plays, etc.
One of my own scorecards, from the 2026 World Baseball Classic final game between Venezuela and the United States. The way every person scores a game is personal, so other's will look different.
Here's the artist rendition of what a scorecard looks like. Laughable, and I'm confused why the artist, who clearly looked at a scorecard for reference, wouldn't just copy the entire scorecard. The third inning has no plays. The seventh inning has 1 (home?) run and then ends immediately. Who knows what's going on in the rest.
Barbara states that by putting the list of plays online in some chatrooms, other fans were able to immediately identify which game this referred to. That's savant level knowledge. Absolutely insane. But of all things I'm actually willing to give that a pass, because there are probably actually real fans in real life that could do this, especially if it's a historically important game.
To my knowledge there has never been a scorecard that sold for $50k. Normally, expensive baseball memorabilia are things like home run balls, jerseys, etc.
The Chicago "Black Sox" refers to a real scandal in which the 1919 Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally losing in the World Series in order cash in on a gambling scheme. There's been a ton of pop culture covering this scandal, including the famous movie Field of Dreams. However, the 1919 World Series was set on October 1-9, which was way after the September 10 game this scorecard is apparently supposed to be for. In real life, the Chicago White Sox did not play any games on September 10, 1919.
Barbara says that the September 10 game was the final game of the Gotham Knights 1919 season, which is bizarre as that would be very early for the end of the regular season. It also lets us know that the Gotham Knights didn't make the postseason, lol.
A little confusing for the guards to refer to the Giants here, as Barbara established earlier that the Gotham baseball team is the Knights. Of course, Gotham could definitely have two baseball teams (New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles all have two teams). There's already a team called the San Francisco Giants, so I don't think this would be allowed. But the San Francisco Giants were originally from New York, and they were originally founded as the New York Gothams in 1883. So maybe it's a reference? This would be giving the writer a lot of credit…
Other random thoughts:
- Gotham's mascots look a lot like the Phillies mascot, Phanatic.
- When I see pinstripe uniforms, I think the Yankees (although they're far from the only team that wears pinstripes).
More thoughts:
- In the comic, there are signs showing "FanFest," which likely sets this issue in February.
- As one of the guards passes out, he asks "Who's on first?" which is likely a reference to an Abbott and Costello skit.
Legends of the Dark Knight (1992 series) #98, (pub. Sep 1997), "Steps", Paul Jenkins (w), Sean Phillips (p, i).
Absolutely insane dialogue tbh.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are on the opposite coast from Gotham, which means the likelihood that they're in the same league is nil. Unlike now, the Dodgers didn't even make the playoffs in 1997, and therefore it's questionable whether they're even important enough to follow this closely (for a fan in a different division).
The idea of knowing who bats cleanup (4th in the lineup) for a team you don't regularly follow and isn't exactly one of the best teams in the MLB, requires deep ball knowledge. And then to know that player's current average is even more insane. Are you really telling me overworked Jim Gordon has time to sit down and memorize the stats of a ball player from a team on the opposite coast? He just pulls this number out of thin air. I could tell you maybe approximately the average of the top players on my own favorite team, but it would at best be rounded to two digits. And I also check in on my team every day. You wouldn't be catching me memorizing stats from a different team.
What kind of writer knows or cares enough about baseball to write in a line like this but somehow make it this unrealistic? Why didn't they make it about Gotham's baseball team? It makes way more sense for Gordon to know who's batting cleanup for Gotham. Is this a case in which the writer is an extreme Dodgers fan and way overestimates how much your average person (of which Jim Gordon is not) knows about ball?
If you're curious, in real life the player who batted cleanup most often for the Dodgers in 1997 was Eric Karros, who won ROY in 1992 and received a few MVP votes in 1995 and 1996. He batted .266 in 1997. He had a 110 wRC+, which made him 72nd on the leaderboard.
I challenged myself to guess who was batting fourth for the current LA Dodgers and failed. RIP. Somehow I forgot Kyle Tucker signed with the Dodgers, and didn't realize he's batting 2nd.
