TBG 73 - Charlie Brown's All Stars with Ben Lindbergh

Ellen Adair and Ben Lindbergh discuss "Charlie Brown's All Stars," grading it on the 20-80 scouting scale. Ellen welcomes Ben, who discusses his lifelong love of "Peanuts" and getting to meet creator Charles M. Schulz! They introduce and summarize the cartoon (8:31) and review the 20-80 scouting scale (11:45) before hearing about Ben's fictional scouting director and real-life experience with the Sonoma Stompers (12:51). With Amount of Baseball (15:35), Ben favorably considers that there is more baseball in this 25 minute cartoon than hockey in six episodes of "Heated Rivalry," and discusses the "Effectively Wild" tradition of dubbing films "baseball movies." Ellen finds this cartoon does the little things right. In Baseball Accuracy (19:31), they discuss the lack of an opposing team and float competing theories, whether it is magical realism charged by Charlie Brown's emotional life, or perhaps baseball ghosts. They also discuss the very long hang time for the ball in the initial sequence, and the implications for Charlie Brown's range. Ellen dives deep into the stats Linus provides, considering them on an imagined per-game basis. They discuss clutch-ness and the power of belief at various levels. In Storytelling (38:20), they discuss various non sequiturs, editing oddities, and the interlude to Snoopy's imaginative plane. They also examine the depiction of various different kinds of baseball fans, and the lack of hustle on Charlie Brown's team, and some inconsistencies in character point of view. An intermission with Ben Lindbergh features his answers to the Nine Things (56:20) , including his choice three baseball players and three baseball moments--no spoilers! Our intrepid scouts return with the Score Tool (1:28:20), enjoying the music provided by the Vince Guaraldi Sextet. In Acting (1:31:40), they discuss the quality of the distinctive charm of the performances, which as a whole are truly creative of a style rather than interpretive of life. Particular shout-out to Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown, Christopher Shea's liquid l's, Sally Dryer's pronunciation of "uniform," and Director Bill Melendez as decades of Snoopy and Woodstock. In the Delightfulness of Catcher Character (1:38:22) the scouts parse a fondness for Schroeder with his excellence as a lovable team leader or helpfulness to his pitcher. Delightfulness of Announcer (1:43:21) offers no announcer, but some discussion of the possible existence of an official scorer. Lack of Misogyny (1:44:26) balances Charlie Brown standing up to a misogynist league policy with the blame for the all-gender ridicule of Charlie Brown landing solely at the girls' feet. No spoilers on the following segments: Yes or No (1:50:49), Six Degrees of Baseball (1:56:01), Favorite Moment (1:58:11), Least Favorite Moment (2:00:31), Scene That We'd Like to See (2:05:34), and Dreamiest Player and Favorite Performance (2:12:06). Find Ben on Effectively Wild, Hang Up and Listen, Button Mash, and the new Plot Hole or Not Hole on YouTube. The (evergreen) Ella Black episodes of Effectively Wild are 2309-2311. Find Ellen on @ellenadair.bsky.social and @ellenadairg on IG.

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