USIES = ISSUE

AEATB = ABATE

ORHUGC = GROUCH

REBLAR = BARREL

CARTOON ANSWER:

WHILE ON A HITTING STREAK, THE BATTER REACHED FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD ON A – – –

SSEABEGRUARL = REGULAR “BASES”

Happy Thursday, Jumble fanatics! The clue words presented to us this morning by Mr. Hoyt were all old friends, but that didn’t mean that they were pushovers. Sorting through all of the vowels in ABATE took a few extra seconds making it my pick for the most difficult anagram of the day. The anagram for ISSUE was the exact same one we saw on 12/16/17 and was no trouble at all. BARREL was the oldest word in the lineup and made its last appearance in gameplay on 9/12/16.

With the World Series in full swing, it was only fitting that Jumble artist, Jeff Knurek, entertained our eyeballs with a baseball themed cartoon. Looking closely at the jerseys worn by the players, today’s cartoon featured a matchup between the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox. Since the Jumble cartoons are drawn well in advance, I’d venture a guess that Jeff prognosticated that these two teams would be battling it out for the sports highest honor, but only half of his vision was correct. It would have been amazing to see a repeat of the 1918 World Series though!

The cartoon sentence informs us that a batter from the Cubs is on a hitting streak and has managed to routinely swing his way to first, second and third base. The two characters in the Cubs dugout are elated by the sluggers performance and offer up words of praise in their dialogue. The Red Sox players on the field were drawn with looks of defeat on their faces as they seem to have realized that the game is slowly slipping through their fingers.

There were several details within the cartoon that were visually entertaining. The Cubs coach holding a roster was drawn in intricate detail which leads me to believe that it’s a caricature of an actual member of the staff. The jerseys worn by the Red Sox players have the iconic Red Socks on their sleeve, but it looks almost as if Jeff has fashioned them into a “J”! Now that’s impressive! My favorite detail was the ivy covered outfield wall which is synonymous with Wrigley Field.

The letter layout for the final solution contained 12-letters. I immediately noticed that the first five letters spelled out BASES which left REGULAR to come into view shortly thereafter. If the letters were jumbled a bit more, I’m sure that it would have made for a very difficult solve.

A big thanks to Jeff for having the Red Sox being featured in today’s Jumble cartoon! This panel will rank right up there as one of my all time favorites. Have a terrific Thursday, and I’ll see you tomorrow!