Metaball
Metaball
[Megan runs towards a bouncing soccer football.]
[Megan kicks the soccer football upwards.]
[Cueball leaps towards the ball as it falls towards a basketball hoop. Hairbun also stretches her arm up.] Ponytail (offscreen): Out!
[Ponytail walks toward them consulting a piece of paper divided in sections:] [Megan (offscreen):] What do you mean , out?! Ponytail: The ball clipped the corner of the baseball zone. Infield fly rule. [Megan (offscreen):] Aw, maaan ...

In the first two panels of this game Megan kicks a football (also known as a soccer ball in some regions), but the surprise comes in the next panel when it turns out she tried to kick it into a basketball hoop where Cueball is either trying to catch, stop or dunk the ball. Hairbun is also reaching an arm up after the ball. But then Ponytail yells " Out! ". When Megan asks Ponytail why the ball is out, Ponytail explains it is due to the infield fly rule that was invoked when the ball crossed into the baseball zone - a very complicated rule to understand for baseball outsiders.
They are playing a ball game that incorporates the rules of many games that use a ball . The rules seem to be based on the location of the ball . Ponytail is holding a map which divides the area into zones. Each time the ball enters a new zone, the rules change to become the rules of the ball game represented in that zone.
The name "Metaball" is the combination of the prefix " meta " and the word " ball ". Not long before this comic there was another comic with "meta" in the title: 1447: Meta-Analysis . The entire joke is meta in 917: Hofstadter .
Megan is out according to the rules of baseball, because the football that she initially kicked in the football zone in an attempt to score in the basketball hoop (in the basketball zone), clipped the corner of the baseball zone. And suddenly her high kick turned into a pop fly and Ponytail (presumably the referee (and creator/ruler) of this game) invoked the infield fly rule which forces the batter out. In this case that would be the kicker Megan as she is the last to have touched the ball.
In baseball the infield fly rule can be invoked by the umpire (i.e. the referee in baseball, Ponytail in this case), to prevent an infielder from intentionally dropping a fair ball when runners are on multiple bases, forcing the runners on base to advance and allowing the infielder's team to quickly perform a double or triple play by throwing the ball to where the runners are trying to get and performing force out on their base. The infield fly rule, once called out by the umpire, forces the batter to be out whether or not the infielder tries to get the batter out. While complicated, and difficult for outsider to understand, the rule has been in baseball for a long time and makes sense in context.
The title text continues the comic. After Megan is ruled out, even though Cueball misses the catch, the ball now enters the golf section of the field, meaning that the players would have to hit the ball into a golf hole to score. Given that the ball is much larger than a standard golf ball, this would prove difficult. However, before they get this far, the situation changes as the ball rolls into a separate section of the field called the ice hazard.
On a golf course a hazard is either a bunker (with sand) or a water hazard . If the latter type freezes over it could be called an ice hazard. However, in this Metaball game this section of the course is apparently used to play some form of ice hockey . And since the game has been held up when Megan was called out, they will now have to restart the game with a face-off (a skirmish between two players of opposing teams to restart the game). It can be argued that an ice hockey puck can be considered a ball, since ice hockey has evolved from, and is a variation of, older stick-and-ball games. And since they play both baseball, basketball and golf with the association football, they could also continue playing ice hockey with this ball instead of a puck.
For the record there are several other versions of hockey that are played with a ball ( ball hockey for instance) and at least one of these is played on ice (see broomball ). In these games face-offs are also used. It seems likely that Randall has chosen some of the most popular sports of the US - and then used a soccer/football instead of an American football .
Given the timing of this comic with the US collegiate basketball tournament , we may assume Randall is writing as a response to that. He has previously given an opinion on sports (see for instance 904: Sports , 1107: Sports Cheat Sheet and 1480: Super Bowl ).
This concept is very similar to Calvinball from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by American cartoonist Bill Watterson .
[Megan runs towards a bouncing soccer football.]
[Megan kicks the soccer football upwards.]
[Cueball leaps towards the ball as it falls towards a basketball hoop. Hairbun also stretches her arm up.] Ponytail (offscreen): Out!
[Ponytail walks toward them consulting a piece of paper divided in sections:] [Megan (offscreen):] What do you mean , out?! Ponytail: The ball clipped the corner of the baseball zone. Infield fly rule. [Megan (offscreen):] Aw, maaan ...
