Star Spangled Comics #124 (1952)

Robin is delivering a lecture to the Gotham Police College. He recounts a story in which he was captured by a gang of criminals and thrown down into a dungeon. As he is laying on the floor he can see a trap door leading to freedom high above out of his reach. The walls are slick as marble and he has to find a way to climb and reach the trap door to get out. The gang has inadvertently left a bag next to Robin containing old sports equipment and they conclude that the contents would be useless in helping Robin escape. Robin examines the contents of the bag and sees that the contents include a golf ball, an old baseball, an unstrung tennis racket frame and a baseball shoe. At this point Robin pauses his presentation and asks the cadets to figure out how to escape using the items listed in just 10 minutes. The readers are also invited to work on the solution. Ten minutes pass and Robin reveals the answer. He breaks off half the tennis racket to use it as a frame for a makeshift slingshot. He then unravels the rubber winding in the golf ball to stretch out across the slingshot in lieu of a rubber band. He takes the cover off the baseball and unravels the yarn that he will need to reach the trap door. He attaches a spike from the golf shoe to the baseball yarn and launches it at the pull down ring attached to the trap door above using his slingshot. He snags the ring and pulls it down using the baseball yarn to scale the walls. Once he reaches the top he attacks the gang of criminals and turns them in.