Don't forget to use the spoiler title

Yuki's scenes were just too hillarious. The way she blocked only the balls flying to her but not reacting otherwise, the last throw of the game which seriously scared the other team's runner and left even Haruhi speechless was another funny moment. The way they rigged the game was funny as hell. Lucky for the other team that it turned out like that in the end. And seeing Haruhi like that in the end was truly nice. :)

But my favourite scene was without a question:

http://i3.tinypic.com/w9ffcg_th.jpg http://i3.tinypic.com/w9ffok_th.jpg

Though the slide of the baseball-team had me down as well:

http://i3.tinypic.com/w9jxg3_th.jpg

Next week going back to the beginning again. Hopefully they won't switch that way every other week. Could wear out the effect...

I've got also to mention the music, it offered quite some variety this time compared to the earlier episodes. The track played during Kyon's and Itsuki's conversation was quite fitting and sent shivers down my spine. That techno track afterwards when Yuki influenced the game was another outstanding track. Same for the one which came up when Kyon started pitching. Now I need to get my hands on the OST even more. :)

Itsuki is here! But the story jumps way too far into the future

I personally didn't think that the jump to the future was all that bad, especially since this episode had me laughing the entire way through. I agree with Keitarou that the best scene was where Haruhi bites Mikuru's ear lol.

...in Haruhi's mouth. What will they think of next, lol. Mikuru serving tea in a naasu costume...and in a meido costume. Cue the stampede of otaku.

Other bits I loved: Haruhi's sunny enthusiasm when she announced that they were going to take part in the competition. And Kyon's resigned disgust. Mikuru flushing and fainting with Haruhi's mouth on her ear. The sound when Haruhi dropped Mikuru on the floor. Yuki in the field catching everything that actually hit her and nothing else. Yuki's amazing and wonderful gait rounding the bases. And especially Haruhi's smile to Kyon near the end: being on the receiving end of that would make all the pain worthwhile.

The only thing I didn't like was seeing Haruhi slide into third (?) base with bare legs. Ouch. And actually, Haruhi's signs from third didn't work for me: her arms seemed too long.

The popularity of the show was demonstrated by the fact that this was as fast as I've ever seen a raw appear in Japanese cyberspace, and as fast as one has ever downloaded for me.

Just WHAT was up with Haruhi's random moving when it was Mikuru who had the bat at one point (and Itsuki was explaining *something* to Kyon)? All I know is that I couldn't stop laughing at it the whole time she did that.

The big jump into the future wasn't really disturbing, the humor definitely made up for it, plus it's not like we hadn't already been introduced to Itsuki and the other characters.

It has everything I could wish for. Nice animation, fun character interaction, some juicy plot bits and some fanservice for good measure. One of the things that stuck out in this episode is the good soundtrack this series has and how well it enhances each scene. Incidently, it also shows Kyoto Animation knows their anime classics. One of my favourite scenes was when Kyon started to pitch in the latter half of the episode. The background music that played during that part should be easily recognized by anyone who has seen the anime adaption of Adachi Mitsuru's baseball/romance classic "Touch" (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go watch it, it's very good and completely fansubbed). Another great piece of BGM was the track used during Kyon's and Itsuki's dialogue when they discussed the emergency situation, which resembled a gregorian chant and nicely created an ominous atmosphere. On the moe side of things, gotta love Mikuru's ear nibbling scene. Operation cheerleading and Haruhi's smile at the end weren't bad either.

I wasn't sure how well this episode's jump ahead in events would work when I first heard about it last week, but it worked well for me, even without having read the novels beforehand. The episode is fun and even though not all characters and mysteries have been established yet, it more than well enough made me want to keep following the series to see how everything will fit in. 10/10 from me.