Futurama/A Leela of Her Own

A Leela of Her Own
Season 4, Episode 9
Airdate	April 7, 2002
Production Number	3ACV16
Written by	Patric M. Verrone
Directed by	Swinton O. Scott III
← 4x09 Futurestock	4x11 → 30% Iron Chef
Futurama — Season Four

A Leela of Her Own is the tenth episode of the fourth season of Futurama, and the fifty-third episode overall. This is widely regarded as the worst episode of the series. When Leela is signed to the New New York Mets as a novelty act, she manages to walk every player by hitting them. But with the help of Hank Aaron (one of them), can she get high enough so that she won't go down as the worst Blurnsball player ever to play the game?

Guest Stars: Hank Aaron (Himself), Bob Uecker (Himself), Dave Herman ( ), Phil LaMarr (Hermes), Lauren Tom (Amy), Dawnn Lewis (Jackie Anderson), Tom Kenny (Abner Doubledeal)

Plot Overview

At Planet Express, Fry is staring out a window with a pair of binoculars at their new neighbors, a couple of Signoids who are opening up a pizzeria. Bender, Fry, and Leela decide to go try their pizzeria out, only to find the toppings are unedible and the surroundings are disgusting. Fry decides to help them learn how to make real human pizza. After instructing them on how to make pizza without bees in it, he sets out to teach the immigrants how to play Blernsball in the park with the Planet Express crew. During the game, Leela manages to hit every batter but insists on pitching anyway. She is a total failure at the game but she draws a crowd anyway. Based on the draw she creates, she's signed to the New New York Mets in order to bring out the freakshow crowd since they're so terrible that it doesn't matter anymore.

At Leela's first game, the Mets are down my 15 and the crowd is starting to leave when they put Leela in as pitcher, announcing her as a "one-eyed woman," causing the crowd to come back where she quickly beans a run in. Bender gets Leela promotional deals with Bean-Bay Beans and attempts to milk her blurnsball career for all its worth. At an autograph session, Jackie Anderson (who appeared at the game) registers her disgust with Leela's antics. Back at Planet Express, Leela declares to becomes to best Blernsball player ever. But when she finds out that's statistically impossible, she settles for not the worst Blernsball player ever.

At the Blernsball Hall of Fame, Leela seeks out the worst player ever to play the game to find out how to not suck so badly at the game. There, she meets Hank Aaron (two of them). Hank Aaron XXIV decides to teach Leela how to pitch without hurting anyone. His advice to her is that she keep her eye off the ball and she manages to pitch a strike. At the last Mets game of the year, Leela desperately attempts to get into the game, but he won't let her play while they're winning. When she drops Hank Aaron's name, she's put into the game pitching against Jackie Anderson. Leela gets two strikes, but Jackie Anderson gets a grand slam Blern on the third pitch, cementing Leela as the worst Blernsball player ever.

Notes

Alien Language Sightings

• No alien letters make an appearance in this episode.

Referbacks

• 1x05 - Fear Of A Bot Planet: Blernsball first appeared in the first season but without any coherant rules. The version in this episode is much more close to normal baseball.
• 2x12 - Raging Bender: The events that take place in the Ultimate Robot Fighting League are mentioned. The owner reappears as the owner for the NNY Mets.
• 2x16 - The Deep South: On Hank Aaron's uniform, instead of a tomahawk as the Atlanta Braves' logo, there's a trident. This is a quick reference to Atlanta being underwater from the second season.
• 2x18 - The Problem With Popplers: Fishy Joe makes a reappearance to buy out the Signoids' pizza franchise.

Trivia

The Show

• Opening Caption: Scratch Here To Reveal Prize
• Stadiums: The two ballparks that are shown (Fenway Park and Shea Stadium) are designed so that they're almost exact copies of the original stadiums.

Behind the Scenes

• Hank Aaron: Originally Hank Aaron turned Futurama down when they asked if he'd like to do the show. But, after managing the get Bob Uecker on the show, they called Hank Aaron back and he agreed based on Uecker, a former teammate of his, being on the show.
• Blernsday: The name of the game "Blernsball" comes from early in the series where it didn't seem like they were going to get their episodes done on time so David X. Cohen drew a new day onto the calendar called "Blernsday."
• Cut Scene: Originally in the script, the beginning of act 2 was a tour of the stadium where she met the manager and other things like that.
• Nearly Cut: The writers originally cut the "And I've seen Mr. Belvedere naked" line but it was resuggested with out any previous knowledge by Bob Uecker during the recording session.

Allusions and References

• A League of Their Own: The title of the episode is a reference to the movie A League of Their Own, starring Tom Hanks and Rosie O'Donnell. The movie was a true story about the women's baseball league's start during World Ward 2.
• Seinfeld: The beginning to the episode is similar to the Seinfeld episode, Seinfeld/The Cafe, where Jerry attempts to help the new international café but ends up driving it out of business.
• Jackie Robinson: Leela's rival, Jackie Anderson, is a reference to the first black major league baseball player, Jackie Robinson.
• Mr. Belvedere: Mr. Belvedere was a show in the mid 80s television show about a family with an English butler, in which Bob Uecker starred.
• The Natural: The scene where Jackie hits the grand slam blern is a direct, nearly shot-for-shot, reference to the movie The Natural.
• Mean Joe Green: The final bit with Leela and Jackie is a parody of the Mean Joe Green Coca Cola commercial where a kid gives Mean Joe some of his Coke and Mean Joe throws the kid his jersey from the game.

Memorable Moments

• Leela beaning all of the Signoids with her lousy pitching
• The final hit by Jackie Robinson that scores the grand slame blern.

Quotes

• Leela: Come on skipper, it's my last chance to prove I'm not the worst player ever. Please put me in.
  Skipper: No. We're actually winning this game. You only go in as a joke when we're eight runs behind. Or when our other pitchers sneak out early to beat the traffic. Come on! Lets see some fundamentals out there! [The clown honks his horn.] And not clown fundamentals!

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