Baseball Bugs


Baseball Bugs is a 1946 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on February 2, 1946, and stars Bugs Bunny.
In the short, Bugs Bunny singlehandedly defeats the "Gas-House Gorillas", a baseball team of hulking, cigar-chomping bullies. The cartoon has been called Bugs "at his best" and is still referenced by baseball fans and observers.

Overview

Baseball Bugs was directed by Friz Freleng and written by Michael Maltese. Voice characterizations were performed by Mel Blanc, with additional uncredited performances by Bea Benaderet as Lady Liberty and the screaming baseball, and Tedd Pierce as the stadium announcer and several of the Gas-House Gorillas.
The cartoon's title is a double play on words. "Bugs" was then a common nickname for someone who was considered to be crazy, erratic, or fanatical. In addition to its adjective form being the indirect inspiration for the Bunny's name, the noun form was sometimes applied to sports fans.

Plot

A baseball game is going on in New York City at the Polo Grounds, between the visiting Gas-House Gorillas and the home team, the Tea Totallers. The game is not going well for the home team as the Gorillas, a group of oversized rough-necks, are not only dominating the Tea Totallers, a team made up of just one elderly player, but intimidating the umpire by knocking him into the ground like a tent peg after he makes a “ball” judgment instead of a “strike”. The Gorillas' home runs go screaming, literally, out of the ballpark and the batters form a conga line, each hitter whacking a ball out.
Bugs Bunny, watching from his hole in the outfield, is fed up with the unfair game and the Gas-House Gorillas playing dirty. He talks trash against the gorillas, claiming that he could win the game single-handed with an endless barrage of home runs. He loses a bit of his bravado when he suddenly gets surrounded by the Gorillas. They force him to take up his own challenge and, as a result, Bugs now has to play all the positions on the opposing team, including speeding from the mound to behind the plate to catch his own pitches.
Bugs throws his fastball so hard that it zips by the Gorillas' batter but, as he catches it, he is propelled off- screen, crashing into the backstop. In the course of his dual role, he shouts encouraging words to the pitcher before going back to the mound to make the next pitch, then returning to home plate to catch it. Next, Bugs decides to "perplex 'em with slowball", throwing a pitch so slow that three Gorillas in a row strike out attempting to hit it.
For his first time up, Bugs selects a bat from the batboy, a literal hybrid of a bat and a boy. As promised, Bugs starts smacking the ball. On the first pitch, he makes a long hit, dashing around the bases while also showing off for the crowd, only to find a grinning Gorilla holding the ball just ahead of the plate. To allow himself to score his first run, Bugs pulls out a pin-up poster, which distracts the Gorilla player. The scoreboard now shows the Gorillas as the home team, with 96 runs, and Bugs batting in the top of the fifth with one run so far.
Bugs hits another one deep, and while rounding the bases, a Gorilla ambushes the plate umpire and puts on his uniform. Bugs slides into home, obviously safe, but the fake umpire calls him out. Bugs gets in his face, actually behind the umpire mask, and argues the call, pulling his time-honored word-switching gag until the umpire ends up demanding that Bugs accept the safe call or go to the showers. Bugs gives in, and the faux-umpire gets wise too late as the board flashes another run.
Bugs slams a third pitch, and as the ball soars across the field, one Gorilla in the outfield races towards the ball with his mitt, screaming, “I got it, I got it, I got it!, only for the ball to hit him with incredibly strong impact and drive him underground; a gravestone then pops up from underground, reading “He got it”. Bugs then whacks the fourth pitch, and a burly, cigar-smoking Gorilla attempts to catch it, but the ball strikes him in the face - with the powerful impact sending him backward and smack into a large wooden sign, which reads, “Does your tobacco taste different lately?”.
Bugs hammers the fifth pitch on a line drive that bounces off each Gorilla with a ping sound as in a pinball game. The scoreboard then blinks a random series of numbers and the word "Tilted."
The story jumps ahead to the final inning, announced by a radio-style jingle, with Bugs leading 96–95, the Gorillas having lost a run somewhere along the way. Blanc's voice is now heard as the announcer as the radio booth has lost its original play-by-play man. With two outs in the last of the ninth, a Gorilla is on base and another, menacingly swinging a bat he has just fashioned from a huge tree, is ready for the pitch.
Bugs proceeds with a tremendous wind-up, lets the pitch go, and the ball is rocketed out of the stadium. Startled, Bugs desperately gives chase. He grabs a cab and is almost led astray until he realizes a Gorilla is driving it; he jumps out and catches a bus which takes him to the "Umpire State Building". He takes an elevator to the roof, climbs a flagpole, throws his glove in the air and manages to catch the ball. An umpire appears over the edge of the roof, and calls out the Gorilla player who has followed Bugs there. The Statue of Liberty agrees with the call, repeating, “That’s what the man said- you heard what he said - he said that!”. Bugs also joins her in repeating these words.

Voice cast