He bowls down the “lane” (once found in all major league parks).
The sound effect and position of the pitcher tell you he got a strike.
The umpire, catcher and batter are re-set as pins and then pop into human shapes.
Rich Hogan gagged this cartoon with Avery. The animators are Preston Blair, Ray Abrams and Ed Love. Johnny Johnsen is the background artist.
The "lane" is not in the rules that set out how an infield is to be laid out. It's more of a traditional thing, which some (but not all) stadiums used (photos from the '38 Series don't show one at Wrigley Field in Chicago, but one from the '07 Series at the West Side Grounds in Chicago show a wide lane), and a few still use them (Comerica Park in Detroit, for example, has one, but Citi Field in Queens does not). Sportman's Park in St. Louis, where BOTH teams in the '44 Series played, did not have a lane. So I think you can describe the lane fairly as something not obligated by the rules, but used by some teams, traditionally. It certainly would have been recognized by most baseball fans.
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