It's summertime! The air is filled with the crack of bats, the thud of cleats on astroturf, the splat of chewing tobacco, and the roar of the crowd as it realizes that it just paid sixty five dollars for hot dogs and beer. Yes, it's baseball season! And what better way to celebrate America's pasttime than with that most American of publications, the comic book? Well, you could go out there and play baseball, I guess. But you might catch a grounder right in the breadbasket or a pop fly right on the skull. Comic books it is then!


And to celebrate the 100th birthday of the National League, America went straight to the top of its comic book celebrity roster, bringing out not just Richie Rich, not just Richie Rich and Casper, but Richie Rich and Casper AND Wendy The Good Little Witch, three comic book characters nobody really ever associated with baseball, to be honest. But it's what they were given, and that's what they're going to work with!


Let's start off this big baseball party with what appears to be some sort of explosion. We're three years away from Disco Demolition Night, so it can't be that.


Just an ordinary day in the enchanted forest as the ghostly trio advocates for playing "boozeball" and Casper has just pitched himself into a no-win situation with Wendy. Just back away slowly, Casper.


Peeved, Wendy threatens everybody with her novelty-sized billy club bat and uses magic wish powers to bring both Richie Rich and the National League mascot "Nat" into their universe, or timeline, or quantum environment, whatever it is the kids are calling it these days.


The conceit behind the Richie Rich-Casper teamups is that Richie always thinks he's dreaming when he meets Casper. Keep this in mind when you finally get around to reading that big stack of "Richie Rich And His Therapist" comics you've been avoiding.


But enough boy talk about outfields and arms and how Casper seems to be old friends with advertising mascots. Play ball!


Casper is just so good of a natural born ghost pitcher that he can't simply toss a slow one for Wendy. Let's use Nat's ball, which is "kind to batters." Is this somebody's subtle commentary on National League pitching stats?


Kids are hitting baseballs in a comic book, and this means that baseball is either going to wind up smashing Mr. Wilson's window, or splashing Thelma (or Velma or Zelma, I can't tell them apart)'s kettle full of magic brew.


And they are blasted away to follow that baseball wherever it winds up. The gutter of a neighbor's house? The storm sewer? The jaws of a friendly neighborhood dog? The dusty box of forgotten sporting goods in somebody's garage? Let's see.


The good news is you've gone back in time to 1876 and are about to witness the first National League game, and incidentally about to win a lot of bets on the outcome. The bad news is, you're about to be arrested by Officer O'Floodle from "Stumbo The Giant."


If this is the National League's first game, shouldn't Nat here be a baby? Or is there a baby Nat wandering around somewhere waiting to come into contact with his future mascot self and if they touch it means the annhilation of all space-time? I don't know how this works here in the Mascot Comic Universe.


Here we see the unreliablity of fiat currency in markets that are uncommon or fluid. Stay on the gold standard, Richie!


That's right, 1876 baseball was strictly the domain of all-American he-men who didn't need sissy accessories like gloves, or batting helmets, or unfractured bones.


Haw haw, girls playing pro baseball? That will never happen, says 1876 in a comic from 1976 being read in 2023 in which there are... still no women in pro baseball.


Glad President Taft could take time out from his vitally important Presidential work of (checks notes) ensuring the White House had a big enough bathtub, to weigh in (get it?) on the lack of slugging in baseball. Don't strain yourself there, Taft.


"WHAT DID YOU CALL US?" hollers an angry Boston team, nursing their painful hands swollen from catching pop flies without a glove. "HOW DARE YOU CALL US BEANEATERS, YOU GHOST CHILD?" Maybe leave this one alone, Casper.


The magic of baseball helps Wendy's wand to traverse time and space! Similarily, the magic of being stuck in a parking lot waiting to get out after a baseball game is over will also affect time, in that it will make time seem to stretch on into infinity.


1892? We're in trouble, Casper! Over in Fall River, Lizzie Border is about to go axe-murdering! Are we in Fall River?


Here's where the Harvey writers had to dig out their Big Book Of Interesting Baseball Facts to put all the amazing feats of sports excellence into context, the same amazing details that help to make baseball one of the most absolutely tedious sports.


Seven hits in seven at-bats in nine innings - seven times seven plus nine equals millions of people bored silly by all the tedious statistical numerology that surrounds Major League Baseball.


You might expect the baseball history books would record a little witch girl in a red hoodie magically sending a boy, a ghost, and a mascot into a star-spangled vortex during this game, but let's face it, most of these spectators were under the influence of laudanum or whiskey or both.


I wouldn't put anything, including witchcraft, past Durocher!


You guys couldn't concentrate on one single thing during your wishing moment? Do you WANT giant Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man? Because THIS is how you get giant Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.


Instead, it's a field full of everybody famous who ever did anything in National League history. Now I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, when is this comic going to address the 1919 White Sox scandal? And the answer is "never," because that was the AMERICAN League, a different league entirely.


Haul out the Baseball Trivia guide again, fellas, time to help some people win some bar bets. Fun fact: if you try to collect on a bar bet using this "Richie Rich - Casper - Wendy - National League" comic book as your reference, well, you might collect, but I wouldn't go back to that bar.


If YOU feel mysterious magical forces at work the next time you're at the ball game, it's probably going to be because of that hot dog and how it was passed down the row of seats by fifteen sets of stranger's hands.


From Good Little Witch to Baseball Groupie in just a few pages! That's the magic of baseball.


Look, sports medicine is still debating whether or not the sidearm pitch is more damaging to the shoulder than the traditional overhead pitch, but I guess if you're a ghost you don't have to worry about rotator cuff injury.


One more detour to watch two New York teams battle for the pennant! No matter who wins, NYC loses, as both teams would pack up for the West Coast in a few years. Dodgers fans are STILL sore about it!


Now you and me, we might think carrying around body parts encased in clear plastic is a little creepy. But perhaps we haven't the refined tastes of the ultra-wealthy.


Here's one for all you "child ghost inflation sportscaster fetish" freaks out there. Enjoy!


How much do girls know about baseball? Girls know that home runs can win games!


And with that very same homer the Giants take the pennant and the Dodgers fans start seriously thinking about persecuting witches.


So if you're walking in the woods and you come across a tree smothered in rotting souvenir pennants, you know you've found Casper's baseball tree!


When will Classic Media (the current owners of Richie Rich) get wise and purchase the naming rights for a stadium, so that we can actually attend baseball games in a real life Richie Rich Stadium, where surely the National League Centennial Banner will no doubt proudly wave?

And now it's time for the seventh inning stretch. Everybody up.

Okay, back to the comic!


Here's some those fascinating baseball facts about the National League, including the Phillies mascots "Philadelphia Phil" and "Philadelphia Phillis," who, sadly, were tragically massacred in 1978 by a green, fanatical monster.


These are some amazing highlights of the National League's first century and I want to know if the National League actually considers this here comic book to be a milestone in their history? Really? Just as important as, say. Merkle's Boner - the most famous boner in baseball history? Says so right there!

Well, before we wrap our salute to a hundred years of National League baseball, let's check out an ad in this comic, an ad for a movie that may very well be the greatest baseball film of the 1970s, and indeed, of all time.


Remember, it's a league rule! Cups and supporters! Gotta be worn at all times. Now PLAY BALL!

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