The Perfect Game

Summary
Francine becomes excited for Mr. Ratburn's coolest assignment yet - he has asked Francine and her class to design their very own model cities!

Plot
In the introduction, Arthur, Buster, Francine and Muffy are in Elwood City Stadium. The Grebes have a chance to pitch a perfect game, but the other team scores a home run in the last inning. Francine is still upset on the way home.

The Perfect Game

Mr. Ratburn shows slides of famous cities and assigns the kids to build city models.

Arthur is teamed with Francine. She only cares about designing a stadium in which the Grebes could have pitched a perfect game. She and Arthur split the buildings for the city between themselves.

Arthur collects old cartons and bottles as building materials. Meanwhile, Francine becomes obsessed with her stadium called Frenway Park, which is designed solely to allow the Grebes to pitch a perfect game (e.g. the walls are too high for the other team to hit home runs). She has a dream about it.

When Arthur shows Francine his part of the city, she still has not started building. Francine gets a hat box from Muffy, who shows her her project, which is being built by George.

Francine wants to ask Adil for advice on building a dome like the Hagia Sophia, but it is night in Istanbul. She asks Arthur for help, but she is so fussy about the stadium that she makes Arthur build the other buildings on her list instead.

Francine has another dream which exposes her design flaws (e.g. the Grebes cannot hit home runs either).

While adding a dome to the model, Francine accidentally breaks the stadium wall. She and Arthur have an idea. They get more materials from the city dump and present a city model to the class, in which the stadium is a historic ruin.

At the end, the kids watch another baseball game. This time, Francine is delighted by the number of home runs and has ideas for improving Elwood City Stadium, causing Arthur to shudder.

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * Francine Frensky
 * Oliver Frensky
 * Catherine Frensky
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Buster Baxter
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * George Lundgren
 * The Brain

Minor

 * Lefty Paz
 * Henry Thomson

Cameo

 * D.W. Read
 * Binky Barnes
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Unknown Female Adult Rabbit (Number 4)
 * Maria Pappas
 * Mrs. Pappas
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Alex
 * Fern Walters
 * Arthur lookalike (The Perfect Game)

Mentioned

 * Adil Akyuz

Trivia

 * Francine mentions that there have been 17 perfect games in the history of Major League Baseball. This was indeed true at the time of this episode's original airing in April 2009, with the most recent one then being in May 2004. As of 2021, there have now been 23 perfect games, with the most recent in August 2012. (between Seasons 15 and 16 of Arthur)
 * The Crosswire Motors logo can be seen on the stadium in the last scene.
 * Timeline:
 * Muffy's strawberry hat is a reference to the strawberry parade, previously featured in "My Club Rules" and "How the Cookie Crumbles."
 * Francine mentions Adil. Despite being Arthur's pen pal ("Dear Adil"), this is the second episode (the other being "Is That Kosher?") in which Francine attempts to contact him.

Production notes

 * After Muffy and George present their model, D.W. is heard saying "woah." This line is delivered by her voice actor from Seasons 1-3, Michael Caloz, instead of Robert Naylor.

Episode connections

 * Oliver calls Francine "master builder" while she is planning her model city. Similarly, "The Master Builders" is the title of a Season 21 episode, in which Francine and her friends build things together.

Cultural references

 * The, the in Istanbul and the Colosseum in Rome are shown on slides.
 * Frenway Park alludes to . It is the home of the, who were represented by the Grebes in "The Curse of the Grebes."
 * Francine mentions the in Mexico City.
 * George and Muffy's model includes Sagrada Família in Barcelona and the in Istanbul.