My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #964

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #964 from the issue of October 20, 2025, we are looking at a baseball park's outfield. Two groundskeepers watch an outfielder chasing a fly ball into a wild environment with waiting bears. The grounds crewman who is holding a rake speaks. My entry appears below. The drawing is by Ed Himelblau.

"We might be in for some overtime."

These captions didn't get out of the batter's box.

"Those bears are bad news."
"I call that one the Green Monster."
"What's YOUR favorite postapocalyptic sport?"
"Uh-oh. He's approaching the warning track."

October 28, 2025 Update:  The Finalists

November 9, 2025 Update:  I voted for the caption from East Hartland.

November 15, 2025 Update:  The Winner

05096

W. B. Park: Delay of Game

There's not a lot of action to be seen on the baseball diamond in an original illustration by W. B. Park. The several spider webs are apparently a commentary on the slow pace of some baseball games. Park died in 2021, but this watercolor may have appeared decades before the advent of the pitch clock.

W. B. Park's signature

W. B. Park
eBay listing ended April 30, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204871090360?_skw=%22W.+B.+Park%22&itmmeta=01K0X707V7BY38PS5KGPD4MX0R&hash=item2fb344c0b8:g:QEoAAOSwgBBmh2mh&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1ffhgd%2BZSzgKguu3JcQlui72P9oJl4diQjwdf4RRszns3U7dbl7PS3QN8mC73PzxP4WQYpN5KdnbIhaRx%2Bp6Goid5AP2ibsdtWYr2ZL%2FXJk0cpk7Z4ChCcucZgwl6Tm0rwr0eoVNkUlGyUcPZrfK3iM9vMe9xU%2FhPMia0shOlvydMdckMd2J39BX4oReIsB7xJibIw7HkWSmjbQMSy7zlXL7QHkzZThgVoeUX42sceZAhjXl9dXCeMjmW8ONiQjxcQ%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9j9gKeHZg

W. B. Park
eBay item description 

Note:  If you should know where and when this was published, please come forward—and don't balk.

05011

Abe Birnbaum: Sandlot "Baseball Game"

An original illustration by Abe Birnbaum (1899-1966) depicts boys playing sandlot ball. It was sold in Seattle on May 11 with the title "Baseball Game." Birnbaum's work is celebrated for his many New Yorker covers and spot drawings. 

Abe Birnbaum's signature

Abe Birnbaum
District Auction sale of May 11, 2025

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ABE-BIRNBAUM-BASEBALL-GAME-COLORED-PENCIL-DRAWING-19-c-1EF4D6E840?utm_term=new%20yorker&utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=keywordalerts&utm_content=341704&utm_term=341704

Abe Birnbaum
District Auction item description

Note:  I have no idea whether this was Abe Birnbaum piece was ever published, but I'd love to hear from anyone with the official stats. 

04940 

W. B. Park: Charles, By the Clock

It just so happens that the very first of the original New Yorker cartoons offered by eBay seller Henning Fine Art in its current run of works from the estate of W. B. Park had been published with an exceedingly long caption. The words are not spoken but instead delivered in the form of a detailed minute-by-minute summary of the action in mock-documentary format. It's practically time-stamped. I recall that it sold in the same range as Park's other New Yorker originals, around $205; in other words, there was no surcharge for all the outsize prose.

     8:28: Charles stood up and strode into the kitchen. Everything was in readiness. He selected a fresh piece of stone-ground whole-wheat bread and balanced it carelessly in his left had. Behind him the electric wall clock hummed quietly. The peanut butter spread easily across the bread, Charles expertly turning the knife this way and that, guiding the creamy paste around the surface. The grape jelly proved more of a challenge, but he was equal to it. At precisely 8:30, he settled back into his chair, back into his reverie, back into the doubleheader.
W. B. Park
Original art
The New Yorker, October 3, 1988, p. 99

Detail, left

Detail, right, with W. B. Park's signature

W. B. Park
eBay listing c. mid-2024 archived on Worthpoint

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/original-yorker-illustration-drawing-4741038895

8:28: Charles stood up and strode into the kitchen. Everything was in readiness. He selected a fresh piece of stone-ground whole-wheat bread and balanced it carelessly in his left had. Behind him the electric wall clock hummed quietly. The peanut butter spread easily across the bread, Charles expertly turning the knife this way and that, guiding the creamy paste around the surface. The grape jelly proved more of a challenge, but he was equal to it. At precisely 8:30, he settled back into his chair, back into his reverie, back into the doubleheader.
W. B. Park
The New Yorker, October 3, 1988, p. 99

     8:28: Charles stood up and strode into the kitchen. Everything was in readiness. He selected a fresh piece of stone-ground whole-wheat bread and balanced it carelessly in his left had. Behind him the electric wall clock hummed quietly. The peanut butter spread easily across the bread, Charles expertly turning the knife this way and that, guiding the creamy paste around the surface. The grape jelly proved more of a challenge, but he was equal to it. At precisely 8:30, he settled back into his chair, back into his reverie, back into the doubleheader.
W. B. Park
Original art
The New Yorker, October 3, 1988, p. 99

With an advertisement for DeBeers and a cartoon by W. B. Park

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1988-10-03/flipbook/098/

Note:  Here then in the archives is an original cartoon by George Booth, possibly unpublished, with another of those very long captions you've been hearing so much about. 

04841

John Cheever's The National Pastime, Limited Edition

The National Pastime is John Cheever's reminiscence about baseball and family. It was published in The New Yorker issue of September 26, 1953. In 1982 the piece was published in hardcover as a limited edition. Copy 272 of 330 was recently sold on eBay.

John Cheever
eBay listing ended September 1, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155867712770_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01J9T2QP6CF36KWP5C5R7QTSKT&hash=item244a708d02:g:KwcAAOSwvXhlRWhe&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKm%2F0xIV%2B0vYkz2g%2BoUDsEY3XdQv8YbXo0lBD7A%2FazMXsp2VJ51XN0Xh1Umo%2Bgy9L0%2BpYidyoxntqNr9tulgLFq8ak

X4RtIQXpDwNgm%2FDrJBV2tdia6nHofnjQu6jaRiQX7DVSO2zXBBYJ3XRUOzqvAdxPSrP5ZSTF3t18SvBHZiDwV7ZGCwPTQMoof1dYNvJ2mSni70Ib8SFjww2FOYaiZOIku%2FEWP4Ws%2BfffR50NP4ZSXlCNhnR%2F2%2BPr7wC5ghmkgsfM42g8s4u395YZcNECvkXBdTiZy7QH3UqZVr%2FY%2BFpA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6Lj3sLOZA

John Cheever

eBay item description

Note:  The cover illustration is by Vance Gerry, who signed the artwork VG. 

Thanks to David from Manhattan for making the identification.

04766

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #891

It's time for the home opener in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #891 from the issue of April 1, 2024. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Mick Stevens.

"Get back in the bullpen."

April 12, 2024 Update:  The Finalists

April 27, 2024 Update:  I voted for the caption from Chicago.

May 5, 2024 Update:  The Winner

04609

Barney Tobey: The Baseball Scout's Discovery

An original published cartoon by Barney Tobey from the 1940s was sold on eBay in October. Set in the business office of a baseball team, its humor reflects some broadly accepted sexist attitudes towards women at the time. The sale price for the artwork was a best offer somewhere below $324.99.

"One of our scouts discovered her sitting next to him in the stands one day."
Barney Tobey
Original cartoon art
IAC?, April 1940s

Caption

Barney Tobey's signature

Barney Tobey
eBay listing ended October 25, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154403168724?hash=item23f32561d4:g:JtEAAOSwdZJgVzcA

Barney Tobey
eBay item description

Note:  I don't know what IAC stood for in the 1940s or where this drawing may have been published, but I'm willing to learn. Those in the know should enlighten me. 

04562