No matter what, he just can't seem to get a break.

Hilarious!

LUCKY DUCKY!!!!!!

Love the syringes on the slugger; nice touch.

Ruben Bolling hits another one out of the park! Hilarious!

Why does the batter have bulletin board push-pins inserted into his elbow and scapula? Does this somehow increase his torque as he leans into the ball?

. . . you should go back to starting with "Wall Street Journal Comics Presents". Let 'em sue you. The publicity would be great.

Another fine strip!

Looks like Jason Giambi

Orlando is building a new arena for its losing basketball team, only about 15 years after the original one was built. It's being built with civic money for billionaire Richard DeVos, the jerk who runs the three-card-monte scheme company Amway. To do it, we had to cripple education and bus transportation.

Now the economy has crashed, and we'll have a huge arena for the town's single crummy sports team, with ticket prices that no fan can afford, and lots of lodge boxes for sale to CEO's. Thanks, Mayor Buddy Dyer.

Let's give Hollingsworth another tax break, poor bastard!

But I always wonder why pro sports continue the way they do. In reality, it isn't billionaires like Hollingsworth who make players and owners rich. Its the ordinary fans who pay $50 for a basic seat far from the field and then spend $30 on $10 worth of beer and hot dogs, then top it off with a $100 "official" jersey worth maybe $25. Then they bitch about ticket prices and salaries.

Why do sports fans keeping forking over their hard-earned paychecks to pampered wealthy athletes and self-dealing owners? I bet a one-season boycott would solve the whole thing like lighting, even if only observed my a large minority of fans.

Great cartoon.

Is black and/or Hispanic.

Another more obvious example of this unfortunate trend is the new Yankee Stadium (of course). What do you do when the House the Ruth Built (TM) is no longer suitable for New York's high rollers? Get the city to go halfsies on a bigger, badder, more intimidating version across the street. Oh, and ticket prices will have to go up (although $2500 empty seats look bad on TV) because it's the most expensive stadium in all of professional sports.

I drove by it two months ago. It looks like something Albert Speer would have built. Well, baseball and Fascism do not mix well, so I guess I'm still a Yankee hater.

You've got it there. Why do ordinary Joes see no problem with paying so much? I'm still bewildered by an NPR report from early last year, where a guy was going to liquidate his 401K to buy season tickets!

Of course, at this point, that actually looks like a smart decision. At least he got some enjoyment out of his investments, while everyone else's went down the Olde Wall Street sewer.

Hey, Lucky Ducky, try to sell that ball on eBay and feel the wrath of our lawyers!

1. i love the unrestrained vitriol of Hollingsworth in getting Lucky Ducky out of the yard..he's got murder in his eye when yelling at the mayor...

2. i also love that Hollingsworth has NO problem with the juiced up slugger (at the plate), as long as he's in comfort and Lucky's out....but then again, Manny's in 4th place in All-Star fan voting for NL outfielders....

"Losing basketball team"? The Magic is one game away from the NBA Finals.

I strongly agree with you that taxpayers shouldn't be stuck with the bill for sports arenas. But give the Magic their due. (Actually, now that they're having a successful season, this may be the impetus for their push...make hay while the sun shines, and all that. Just sayin'.)

Looking for a reason why ordinary joes spend all that money on sports? I’m pretty sure Thorstein Veblen would have called it “vicarious leisure” and “conspicuous consumption” as part of an aspiration to upward class mobility. His standard treatise on the subject is “The Theory of the Leisure Class” (1899).

Stadiums used to be named after teams (Yankee Stadium) or noteworthy local people (Shea Stadium). Now they're all named after some cold-blooded corporation. Who in their right mind would spend $100 to go sit in the bleachers of "International Widgets Corporation Field"?

Thanks, but I'll watch the game on TV.

You know, I hate high ticket prices, astronomical player salaries, taxpayer-funded stadiums, steroids and all that as much as anybody, but as for why the Average Joe would fork over $50 for a ticket and $20 for food, etc.? Because it's fun, that's why. There's still not much out there that's as fun as spending a day at a ball game with friends or family.

And for "the rest of us" there's minor league sports and "fringe" (in the U.S.) sports like soccer if you don't want to spend a fortune. And those games are fun too.

Good cartoon. But I think some of you ought to actually go to a game and see just how much fun it is, especially the Orlando resident who thinks the Magic are a losing team. (Way to prove you have no idea what you are talking about!)

Fun is frowned upon in the new regime. I'm afraid it's trumped by earnestness now. Fun indicates insufficient dedication to our Dear Leader.

Don't forget the worst thing about naming areas after corporations: The corporation can always go broke or worse. Exhibit A: Minute Maid Park, nee Enron Field.

(That place is the world's fanciest sandlot, anyway. That incline in dead center? And that stupid line on the outfield wall, where an over-the-line touch is a homer, but under, it's in play? Ridiculous.)

That's basically it in a nutshell:

New stadiums that aren't needed...

...paid for out of taxpayer money...

...while the city coffers are strained,

...have fewer seats than the originals,

...cost more for the fan at the door,

...are named after faceless corporations,

...for teams mired in doping scandals...

...and have the further gall not to win.

Yeah, "fun."

Baseball used to be the populist's sport. Now the Yankees are such a gigantic franchise the game is practically secondary to the marketing. The only reason their new stadium isn't named after businesses like Merrill Lynch is because they're a big enough faceless corporation on their own.

And I can't root for the Mets so long as they play in "Citi Field." Not only are they sellouts, but sellouts to a failed company on government life support? Jay-sus.