Schroeder (Peanuts) once mortified when he forgot Beethoven's birthday. When Charlie Brown's baseball team is required to have a sponsor to play games, Schroeder's sponsor is Beethoven. In early strips, Schroeder frequently plays the music of other composers. Once, Lucy implies that his idolization of Beethoven is excessive, and she asks him what he thinks of other classical composers such as Schubert, Brahms, Bach, and Chopin. Schroeder simply replies, "They were great too," and continues to play Beethoven. On another occasion, Lucy remarks to Schroeder "Beethoven wasn't so great." Irritated, Schroeder asks Lucy to explain her comment. Lucy replies, "You've never seen
Peanuts debuted as very young children—with Schroeder and Linus both in diapers and pre-verbal. Snoopy also started to verbalize his thoughts via thought bubbles. One recurring theme in the strip is Charlie Brown's neighborhood baseball team. Charlie Brown is the team's player–manager and, usually, its pitcher, and Schroeder is the catcher. The other characters make up the rest of the team, including Linus as second baseman and Lucy as right fielder. Charlie Brown is a terrible pitcher, often giving up tremendous hits that either knock him off the mound or disrobe him, leaving only his shorts. The team itself is also