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Peanuts Coronet #51
Play Ball, Snoopy
Selected Cartoons, from 'Win a Few, Lose a Few, Charlie Brown', Vol I
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,023 books1,640 followersCharles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 10, 2020
This selection of cartoons taken from the Charles M Schulz' collection 'Win a Few, Lose a Few, Charlie Brown Vol I' has, as the title suggests, plenty of sport related cartoons included in it with baseball and American football predominating.
In the American football selection, Woodstock has a very hard time. Snoopy is always the quarterback and when he hands the ball off to Woodstock as his running back he always fumbles it which leaves Charlie commenting, 'Woodstock always has trouble with that hand-off play.' And when he throws him a pass when he is his wide receiver, the ball always hits him on the back of the head, which leaves Snoopy puzzled and commenting, ' I don't know what's wrong with my wide receiver … he keeps complaining about headaches.' In addition Woodstock is recruited for kick-off duties and when (not surprisingly) the ball dribbles forward from Woodstock's foot, Snoopy says with a quizzical look, 'A three-inch kick-off!' Poor Woodstock, he also suffers when Snoopy tosses a basketball into his nest and nearly crushes him!
One of the baseball cartoons is really funny when, after having three strike-outs in the first two innings, in the final innings of a game, Snoopy still needs one home run to equal Babe Ruth's record. Charlie Brown tells him, 'This will be your last time at bat this season, if you're going to tie Babe Ruth's home-run record, you've got to do it now.' Snoopy fails to connect on his first two balls so Charlie shouts from where he is on second base! 'C'mon Snoopy hit a home run! Tie the record! Bring me home and win the game! After the third ball action, Linus screams, 'Charlie Brown got picked off second! The season is over.' Poor Snoopy did not receive that final ball and consequently did not equal the record and all he can do is yell at the top of his voice 'AAUGHH!!'
There's plenty of cartoons of Snoopy trying to have a peaceful sleep on the roof of his kennel but he rarely succeeds. But one of my favourites is where he and Charlie Brown are watching television with Snoopy displaying a balloon with 'Z' in it. Charlie says to the apparently sleeping Snoopy, 'This is a terrible program … we should switch channels' and Snoopy, without opening his eyes, puts out his foot and switches the channel. When the alternative programme finishes Charlie remarks, at a still sleeping Snoopy, 'That was pretty good considering he never woke up!' The reason that I particularly liked it is that when I was much younger and still playing football, I would always watch 'Match of the Day' but would often nod off! At that point Linda, who did not care for football, would switch the channel! Occasionally this action woke me and I would ask where the football had gone to which Linda would say, 'You were asleep so I switched it over.' I always replied with a laugh, 'No I wasn't please put it back.'
One other cartoon I enjoyed has Sally Brown writing a report on rain which she ends with 'After a storm, the rain goes down the drain, which is where I sometimes feel is where my education is also going. End of report.' On that note here endeth this review!
In the American football selection, Woodstock has a very hard time. Snoopy is always the quarterback and when he hands the ball off to Woodstock as his running back he always fumbles it which leaves Charlie commenting, 'Woodstock always has trouble with that hand-off play.' And when he throws him a pass when he is his wide receiver, the ball always hits him on the back of the head, which leaves Snoopy puzzled and commenting, ' I don't know what's wrong with my wide receiver … he keeps complaining about headaches.' In addition Woodstock is recruited for kick-off duties and when (not surprisingly) the ball dribbles forward from Woodstock's foot, Snoopy says with a quizzical look, 'A three-inch kick-off!' Poor Woodstock, he also suffers when Snoopy tosses a basketball into his nest and nearly crushes him!
One of the baseball cartoons is really funny when, after having three strike-outs in the first two innings, in the final innings of a game, Snoopy still needs one home run to equal Babe Ruth's record. Charlie Brown tells him, 'This will be your last time at bat this season, if you're going to tie Babe Ruth's home-run record, you've got to do it now.' Snoopy fails to connect on his first two balls so Charlie shouts from where he is on second base! 'C'mon Snoopy hit a home run! Tie the record! Bring me home and win the game! After the third ball action, Linus screams, 'Charlie Brown got picked off second! The season is over.' Poor Snoopy did not receive that final ball and consequently did not equal the record and all he can do is yell at the top of his voice 'AAUGHH!!'
There's plenty of cartoons of Snoopy trying to have a peaceful sleep on the roof of his kennel but he rarely succeeds. But one of my favourites is where he and Charlie Brown are watching television with Snoopy displaying a balloon with 'Z' in it. Charlie says to the apparently sleeping Snoopy, 'This is a terrible program … we should switch channels' and Snoopy, without opening his eyes, puts out his foot and switches the channel. When the alternative programme finishes Charlie remarks, at a still sleeping Snoopy, 'That was pretty good considering he never woke up!' The reason that I particularly liked it is that when I was much younger and still playing football, I would always watch 'Match of the Day' but would often nod off! At that point Linda, who did not care for football, would switch the channel! Occasionally this action woke me and I would ask where the football had gone to which Linda would say, 'You were asleep so I switched it over.' I always replied with a laugh, 'No I wasn't please put it back.'
One other cartoon I enjoyed has Sally Brown writing a report on rain which she ends with 'After a storm, the rain goes down the drain, which is where I sometimes feel is where my education is also going. End of report.' On that note here endeth this review!
September 26, 2025
So fun
November 27, 2023
I have a 1978 printing of this book, featuring strips from the early to mid 1970s. That feeling of well established sitcom mentioned in relation to the previous book in the series continues here. The highlight is the series of strips with Peppermint Patty staying in Charlie Brown’s “guest house” and not realising it’s a dog kennel. Classics.
May 15, 2017
I think this was the first Peanuts book I ever asked my mom and dad to buy for me as a kid. I still have it.
September 11, 2020
Sometimes when it showed one of the kids essay writing, it could be a bit hard to make out.
December 31, 2020
Some of my favorite strips are in this collection.
March 13, 2015
Another wonderful collection, that’s a little looser this time, with several stand-alone double-page spreads interspersed with the longer pieces. Featuring selected cartoons (the first half) from “Win A Few, Lose A Few, Charlie Brown vol 1”, this was published in 1978 (the Coronet edition I read) and features comics from 1973 and 1974. With slightly less melancholy than normal and a much greater focus on Snoopy there is, as ever, much to like in this. My hightlights include Snoopy trying not to get stressed that he’s one home-run off tying Babe Ruth’s record in a season in the last game of the season, Woodstock getting his revenge by phone (a lot of the stand-alone strips feature Snoopy and Woodstock, which is a major bonus), Snoopy writing a lot (and having his novel ignored by publishers), school starting again, Sally taking Snoopy for show and tell, Peppermint Patty staying with Charlie Brown (she sleeps in Snoopy’s kennel) and Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Perhaps the best strip of all though is where Lucy, holding the football, asks Charlie Brown what are “the three things in life that are certain.” He gets death and taxes and realises the third as he goes to kick the ball. Funny, touching in places and heart-warmingly nostalgia, this is a great read and I highly recommend it.
April 19, 2010
The unrequited love of Lucy for Schroeder, Sally for Linus, even Peppermint Patty (and Marcy)for "Chuck" (Charles) or as we know him, Charlie Brown. All this and the heart pounding action of the baseball team...well, they do tend to always be in last place, except for that one time when there was a winning streak...the other teams failed to show up...
Oh well.
I love Peanuts comics and use a word for them that I don't use for other strips. Wisdom. Enjoy.
Oh well.
I love Peanuts comics and use a word for them that I don't use for other strips. Wisdom. Enjoy.
January 2, 2014
Love it, was given to me when I was in elementary school in the 60s.
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April 11, 2010Play Ball, Snoopy (Coronet Books) by Charles M Schulz (1978)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews