We’re talkin’ softball…
It says a lot about the way The Simpsons has gone that most people would accept that the vast majority of the show’s best episodes were made well before the turn of the millennium.
Thankfully for fans of the show’s glory years, most of those episodes still hold up well more than two decades on and one of them is going to receive a special honour at the Baseball Hall of Fame later this year.
At this point, you’ve probably determined that the episode in question is ‘Homer at the Bat’ as opposed to some of the other episodes that reference a sport known as America’s pastime, with Major League Baseball set to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the episode in May.
Clip via letsbepandas
Not that fans of the show will need reminding, but the episode featured some of baseball’s biggest stars – Wade Boggs, Ozzie Smith, Ken Griffey Jr., Jose Canseco, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, Steve ‘Saxxy Boy’ Sax, Mike Scioscia and Darryl Strawberry – who had been roped in as ringers by Mr. Burns to play for the nuclear plant’s softball team.
Due to a series of extremely unfortunate events, however, most of the players were ruled out of action and Burns was forced to revert to his original line-up, with Homer proving the hero in the end.
According to the Associated Press, the episode will be celebrated at the Hall of Fame event on May 27, with two of the players who appeared on the episode, Wade Boggs (laid unconscious on the ballroom tile) and Ozzie Smith (vanished off the face of the Earth) due to take part in a round table discussion with a number of Simpsons staff on the day.
Surely Don Mattingly has shaved those sideburns by now…
Clip via eman 4240
