It Happens Every Spring...

Look, baseball season may be over, but I'm going through withdrawal.

So I'm going to be looking at comic book baseball from time to time, because it's my blog, dammit.

The Midvale Sinners (yes, really) are about to clinch the pennant, and the owner (also owner of the Midvale newspaper) is congratulating his top sports reporter, Ray Hale, for making the team into a winner--because apparently in those days sports reporters, and not mangers, were responsible for a team's success...

See?

Now they congratulate each other:

Ah, a problem has arisen:

Someone has threatened to kill star first baseman Dick Manners if he plays!!

Manners vows to play anyway. But his fiancee finds Hale, and tells him that it's gamblers who are threatening her boy:

Well, Hale leads the police in throwing those rotters into jail. But still, they're not taking any chances...

But as soon as the game begins:

Who shot him?

Whaaaaaaaaatttttttt?

Dames blow their brains out over movie actors and slug-nutty ball players? "It has happened before."

So remember, aspiring baseball super-stars--deluded ladies will obsess on you, pretend to be your girlfriend, frame some organized crime figures, try to kill you, and then kill themselves. IT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE!! It happened to Derek Jeter at least once a season...

From Crime Smashers #15 (1953)