Prototypes of the gang were depicted with baseball equipment as early as 1947 in Lil' Folks. The origins of the team, as well as how Charlie Brown became its manager, would never be fully explained in the strip. The first time any character plays baseball is on March 6, 1951, when Charlie Brown was playing it with Shermy (technically, though, they were not actually seen playing together), although on March 1 of the same year Shermy and Charlie Brown were musing about a sign with baseball gloves on their hands, so they were presumably going to play baseball. On April 20, 1951, Shermy is telling Charlie Brown he can't be on a team, so this might be the origins of the team that lots of the characters in Peanuts play on. Soon after, some of the other characters started to appear on the team, such as Schroeder and Lucy.
As the team's manager, Charlie Brown takes his role very seriously and usually serves as the team's pitcher, with other characters of the strip comprising the rest of the team. Though Charlie Brown has seemingly more knowledge of the game than his teammates, his pitching skills are poor, and his efforts often give up tremendous hits which tend to knock him off the mound, leaving him with only his shorts on. However, he shows up for every game with very rare exceptions, and stays even when it starts raining causing everyone else on the team to go home. Charlie Brown fills the void of a coach for his team, designing their plays and instructing them on the game where necessary.
The rest of the team is also poor. It includes Lucy as the right fielder, who might just be the worst player in all of baseball. She almost always misses very easy catches before giving Charlie Brown a lame excuse as to why she missed it (but in the TV special It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, and a series of strips from March 1972, she manages to hit a home run after Schroeder agrees to kiss her if she does so). Her first relation to baseball was a Sunday comic(August 25, 1952) in which she is skilled in catching. The team also includes Snoopy as the shortstop, who tends to fall asleep during the game; in at least one strip, a claim is made that he cannot throw, although he can catch the ball rather well using his mouth. He is shown to be one of the better players on the team. The catcher, Schroeder, doesn't know how to throw, and he hides this inability by having something to say to Charlie Brown when walking to the pitchers mound to give the ball back. Although Charlie Brown was seen catching a ball from the direction of home plate in the comic strip on May 9, 1973, Schroeder is never seen throwing the ball back. Every time that "Pig-Pen" hits a ball he is unable to run as the air he exudes is too dirty for him to see. Linus is one of the more skilled players, but in some earlier strips his blanket messed him up by stopping him from running bases in some way. Frieda, Violet, 5, Shermy and Patty are terrible at catching. The ball almost always falls in the middle of them. Rerun, who played on one occasion in a series of strips in March and April 1973, gave the victory to other team because of gambling. Rarely, Sally, Eudora and Roy are shown as players for the team, but always make excuses for leaving. Woodstock and other birds rarely substitute for players who are unavailable, but can't use the baseball bat. Because of this poor team, it 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.
The final baseball-themed comic strip from December 27, 1999.
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 Charlie Brown is ostracized. This is in keeping with the general poor treatment Charlie Brown gets as the team blames all their failures on him.
No matter how many times their team loses, Charlie Brown remains optimistic at the start of each season, and always says his team is one away from the championship.
The final baseball-themed strip was on December 27, 1999. In it, Charlie Brown practices his "Joe Torre look".
Wins[]
Charlie Brown's team tell him that they won the game without him in the strip from April 26, 1958.
Although the team is always referred to as "win-less", even by Charlie Brown sometimes, the team has won a few games over the years, mostly when Charlie Brown is not there. As such, Charlie Brown always finds the latter fact deeply dispiriting.
Their wins are as follows:
April 26, 1958: It is the first game of the season, and Charlie Brown ends 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.
March 19, 1964: Charlie Brown is diagnosed with "Little Leaguer's Elbow" after his arm becomes sore from erratic pitching, and has to stop pitching to allow it to heal. As a result, Linus substitutes for him as pitcher, and, as revealed by Lucy, the team doesn't lose a single game following Charlie Brown's resignation.
June 10, 1965: Charlie Brown has been 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 is hit on the head with a line drive, and has to sit on the bench. After the game, Lucy comes over to brag that the team won.
August 1, 1967: Upset with his team's poor performance, Charlie Brown decides to go home and lie in a darkened room in the strip from July 28, 1967. In his absence, his team wins a few days later.
August 16, 1968: Charlie Brown gets very nervous when he notices the Little Red-Haired Girl in the stands. He shakes too much to be able to pitch, so Linus has to take over. After the team wins, the Little Red-Haired Girl runs over and hugs Linus.
April 23, 1969: Five of Franklin's team members are unable to make it, so the game is forfeited, letting Charlie Brown win again.
Strip from April 19, 1973.
In April 1973, Lucy convinces a reluctant Charlie Brown to let her infant brother Rerun join the team. Due to the opposing pitcher's inability to pitch to Rerun, the team scores a rare victory. The win is eventually stripped from the team by the little league president, as Rerun had gambled a nickel on the game with Snoopy. Rerun's excuse is that he was new to the world, and did not know gambling was wrong.
Apart from the forfeits, all of these wins happen when Charlie Brown is not there. However, Charlie Brown leads his team to victory on two occasions.
March 30, 1993, Hitting against Royanne, 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, leaving Charlie Brown feeling crushed.
One more win occurs for the team on August 1, 1969. Snoopy is in the field and notes "that's the third out, the game is over." If a baseball game ends with three outs, the team in the field has to have won.
While baseball was initially an on-again, off-again game played, 1954 was the first official season. Baseball games are officially played usually from March-August each year, but sometimes a later or earlier game may be played, although rarely.
1954 season: March 24 - September 18 (no final game; just practice)
1955 season: April 6 - August 9 (Linus strikes out)
1956 season: March 25; April 1 - August 18 (There is still snow on the ground, so practice starts again in April. Charlie Brown struck out the last game)
1957 season: March 18 - August 18 (Practice; Charlie Brown is tied up)
1958 season: March 30 - August 3 (Linus finds a baseball in the tall grass; Charlie Brown drops a fly ball and everybody calls him the goat.)
1959 season: April 13 - September 7 (Charlie Brown calls the first meeting, only Snoopy shows up; Charlie Brown strikes out the last game and Lucy and Patty follow him home while shouting at him)
1960 season: March 27 - August 21 (Calling the meeting, everyone is more interested in TV that day; Linus sings Rain, Rain, go away and becomes scared)
1961 season: April 2 - August 27 (Practice on the pitcher's mound; Lucy has chips in her glove)
1962 season: March 18 - August 7 (Linus wears glasses; Charlie Brown walks home depressed at another loss)
1963 season: March 24 - August 25 (Practice with Linus; Schroeder has chicken pox)
1964 season: March 7 - August 31 (Charlie Brown injured his arm to start; he writes a letter to Joe Shlabotnik reassuring him)
1965 season: April 4 - August 22 (Practice in rain; Practice in heat)
1966 season: March 27 - September 6 (Charlie Brown gives an inaugural speech about who comes in second; Peppermint Patty gives up on helping the team)
1967 season: March 6 - November 20 (Charlie Brown promotes "vigorous training" to a sour response; Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown back down on their trade talks)
1968 season: February 23 - August 16 (Charlie Brown works out the schedule; Charlie Brown starts shaking when the Little Red Haired Girl watches him pitch, so he gets taken home; Charlie stops shaking and can pitch, but it is too late, the Little Red Haired Girl hugged Linus instead who pitched)
Snoopy tries to tie Babe Ruth's record
1969 season: February 6; March 26 - August 16 (Charlie Brown has to lower the height of the pitcher's mound to regulation; Linus diagnoses the team with hyponatremia and they all drink a special concoction made by him; Snoopy in a superstar)
1970 season: March 30 - August 2 (Lucy misses a fly ball; Thibault borrows Charlie Brown's glove and won't give it back; Charlie Brown psyches himself out over the Little Red Haired Girl.)
1971 season: March 9 - August 24 (Peppermint Patty helps Charlie Brown on the schedule; Charlie Brown speculates on first-round draft choices)
1972 season: March 13 - August 31 (Charlie Brown eulogizes about the number one sport, Linus corrects him; he then bids farewell to his pitcher's mound at the end of the season)
1973 season: January 29; February 22 - August 20; November 19 (A testimonial dinner; speculation on being a pinch hitter; Snoopy fails to beat Babe Ruth's home run record because of Charlie Brown; Charlie Brown puts his glove away for winter as Sally mishears him. Meanwhile with Peppermint Patty and Marcie, Thibault bullies Marcie because she is a girl who plays baseball, so Marcie beats him up.)
1974 season: March 31; April 7 - August 17 (Marcie hates baseball; Peppermint Patty arrives to play Charlie Brown's team; Lucy has her cap pulled down for a bad idea)
1975 season: March 10 - August 17 (too cold to play; too hot to play)
1976 season: March 8 - November 4 (Peppermint Patty gets a trade with Snoopy with a broken leg; Charlie Brown bids farewell to his mound again)
1977 season: March 13 - July 19 (Charlie Brown coaches the Goose Eggs, later to play his home team; Lucy has Liv Ullmann's glove)
1978 season: March 26 - May 12 (the pitcher is crabby at Easter; Charlie Brown puts a baseball glove over Lucy's head)
1979 season: March 16 - August 24 (Lucy interviews Snoopy for the school paper; Charlie Brown thinks about distances on the diamond)
1980 season: March 16 - August 30 (Linus misses the ball game; Charlie Brown throws his glove in the closet for winter)
1981 season: March 24 - August 30 (Charlie Brown sells popcorn for Peppermint Patty's game; Lucy suggests having a tree on the mound to bump his head against)
practice in the snow
1982 season: March 30 - August 23 (Charlie Brown is desperate for a runner on second; Spike bought the diamond and allows the team to resume playing there)
1983 season: March 14 - October 15 (Peppermint Patty gets Charlie Brown as mascot for her team; Charlie Brown's baseball glove complains in the closet)
1984 season: March 12 - August 15 (Lucy blows a big bubblegum to float away; she says she looked good in the team picture)
1985 season: March 10 - October 5 (Charlie Brown drops a fly ball; Linus gathers data on the season)
1986 season: March 1 - September 19; October 20 (Lucy interviews for the school paper; Lucy says if the ball goes to her she goes home; Charlie Brown reads to put the glove away where the dog can't get it)
1987 season: February 27 - March 7; March 23 - September 26 (Practice in the snow; How to get ice cream off your cap; The weather report is to be a long winter after another lost game)
1988 season: March 1 - August 31 (Lucy says just to wait until next year; After losing to the Tigers, Lucy says "One to three y'all hear..")
1989 season: March 12 - August 27 (The incompetent team practices; Shoeless Joe Beagle)
1990 season: February 11; March 5 - September 14 (Charlie Brown plays ball with a snowman; Linus gives statistics for 1989 year; Charlie Brown strikes out thinking of Peggy Jean)
1991 season: March 17 - September 1 (Snoopy blows away in the wind; Lucy catches a ball with a pepperoni pizza)
1992 season: March 4 - September 18 (Charlie Brown looks for his baseball glove; Lucy is hit on the head with the ball)
1993 season: March 15 - August 8 (Charlie Brown is drawn to the field for destiny; Schroeder has a conference on the mound)
1994 season: March 7 - September 15 (Charlie Brown feels a fresh feeling of defeat in the air; Lucy doesn't know what hit her on the head in the field)
1995 season: March 12 - September 14 (Sarcastic remarks from managers; Lucy sneezes and drops a ball)
1996 season: March 24 - October 7 (Snoopy carries Lucy away after she drives Charlie Brown crazy; Charlie Brown plans to face the next season after spending winter in the beanbag chair)
1997 season: February 11 - September 4 (Lucy requests to be put down for left field again; Lucy and Charlie have tickets with assumed risk)
1998 season: February 15 - September 5 (Snoopy and the birds are groundskeepers; Rerun cheers on the "T-Shirts" for Charlie Brown's team)
1999 season: March 20 - September 12 (Linus puts down "you-know-who" for Left field; Lucy has a mental error on the field; Schroeder appears for the last time while asking Lucy about a fly ball; they play for the last time.)
Players[]
The team's roster has a strange, but diverse, set of players. Charlie Brown has mentioned this a few times. The players are as follows:
Most of the time, the other team is not shown. The only other teams that are known are Peppermint Patty's team, which includes Peppermint Patty, Marcie (who might be just as bad as Lucy), Franklin, Thibault, and José Peterson. Another known team is Royanne Hobbs' team. Royanne Hobbs' team has appeared while they were playing in 1993. They also played The Goose Eggs in March and April 1977.
On one occasion Franklin had his own team. On April 23, 1969, Franklin says that his team cannot make the game and forfeits, meaning he must have had his own team.
Trivia[]
According to the strip from August 19, 1960, Charlie Brown's baseball team only scored 6 runs and made 11 hits in entire year while making 300 errors.
The team began playing earliest in March 1987, making jokes regarding the cold weather involving Snoopy coming in on a ski lift and Lucy chattering "Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire". The practice fell apart and the season began at the end of March.
