A major running gag in Peanuts is the neighborhood baseball team.

Contents 1 History 2 Wins 3 Players 4 Other teams

HistoryEdit

Charlie Brown is the manager of this team and, usually, its pitcher, with the other characters of the strip comprising the rest of the team. Charlie Brown is a terrible pitcher, often giving up tremendous hits which either knock him off the mound or leave him with only his shorts on.

The team itself is also poor. It includes Lucy, who might just be the worst player in all of baseball. She always misses very easy catches, but then gives Charlie Brown a lame excuse why she missed it (But in the TV special "It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown", and a series of strips from 1972, she manages to hit a home run after Schroeder agrees to kiss her if she does so). The team also includes Snoopy, who always falls asleep during the game. And it's possible that the catcher, Schroeder doesn't know how to throw, although Charlie Brown was seen catching a ball from the direction of home plate in the comic strip on May 9th, 1973. He is never seen throwing the ball back to Charlie Brown on the pitchers mound, but rather, walking up to the pitchers mound and handing Charlie Brown the ball. Because of this poor team, the team consistently loses. This is exaggerated when Peppermint Patty, as a temporary member, hit five home runs and pitched a no-hitter, but the team still lost 37 - 5. Another time Charlie Brown admits losing twenty games in a season. The worst game Charlie Brown ever played was when he and his team lost six hundred to nothing against another team. The very next day the newspaper published the score and called Charlie Brown and his team hapless.

However, while the team is often referred to as "win-less", it does win at least 10 games over the course of the strip's run, most of these when Charlie Brown is not playing, a fact that Charlie Brown finds highly dispiriting. In one comic strip both Charlie Brown and Snoopy are chasing a high flying ball-which comes down into Charlie's glove and drops out-only to be caught by Snoopy! Apparently the team wins the game as the last panel shows the team holding Snoopy aloft in triumph while poor Charlie is left out as the goat as usual!

No matter how many times their team loses, Charlie Brown always says his team is one away from the championship.

Charlie Brown always seems very optimistic at the start of each season, but after his first pitch, after the ball knocks him over he says, "This is gonna be a long season."

WinsEdit

Although the team is always referred to as winless, even by Charlie Brown sometimes, the team has won a few games over the years, mostly when Charlie Brown isn't there. Their wins are as the following.

• April 26, 1958: It was the first game of the season, and Charlie Brown ended up in bed sick. After the game, Charlie Brown's team comes into his room, and tell him, "We didn't do anything you told us. In fact, we didn't even miss you!" And as a result, the team wins the game.

• June 10, 1965: Charlie Brown was shipped off to summer camp, when he receives a letter from Linus that says, "I suppose you are worried about your baseball team. Well, don't worry ... we're doing fine ... in fact, yesterday we won the first game we've won all season."

• August 5, 1966: Charlie Brown was just hit on the head with a line drive, and had to sit on the bench. After the game, Lucy came over to brag that the team won.

• August 16, 1968: Charlie Brown gets very nervous when he notices the Little Red-Haired Girl in the stands. He was shaking too much to pitch, so Linus had to take over, making the team win, and the Little Red-Haired Girl runs over and hugs Linus.

• April 22, 1969: When Peppermint Patty's team is unable to show up, they forfeit the game, giving Charlie Brown's team a win.

• April 23, 1969: Five of Franklin's team members are unable to make it, so the game is forefeited, letting Charlie Brown win again.

• Rerun has just joined the team, and has lead the team to a victory. The team all started cheering, but the little league president didn't count that win, because Rerun gambled on that game (Rerun's excuse was, he was new to the world and didn't realize Charlie Brown's team stinks).

All these wins happened when Charlie Brown wasn't there. However, Charlie Brown led his team to victory on two occasions.

• March 30, 1993: Hitting against Royanne Hobbs, Charlie Brown hits his first home run, and wins the game for his team.

• June 29, 1993: Once again, up against Royanne Hobbs, and Charlie Brown hits a home run and wins the game for his team. Royanne Hobbs later admits that she let him hit the home run, but Charlie Brown doesn't care.

The team also had victories in two TV specials, It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown and It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown.

PlayersEdit

Charlie Brown's team has some very strange players. As he has mentioned a few times. The players are as the following.

• Manager/Pitcher: Charlie Brown
• Catcher: Schroeder
• First base: Shermy
• Second base: Linus
• Third base: Pig-Pen (or 5)
• Shortstop/Groundskeeper: Snoopy (only beagle on team)
• Right Field: Lucy. {One brief scene in a daily comic strip shows "5" as also playing in right Field}
• Center Field: Patty & Frieda
• Left Field: Violet
• Assistant Groundskeepers/Various Players: Woodstock & his friends
• Various Players/Audience Members: Eudora, Rerun, & Sally

Other teamsEdit

Most of the time, the other team is not shown. The only other teams that are known are Peppermint Patty's team, which include Peppermint Patty, Marcie (who might be just as bad as Lucy), Franklin, Thibault, and Jose Peterson. Another known team is Royanne Hobb's team. Royanne Hobb's team has appeared while they were playing.