The Simpsons/Homer at the Bat

Homer at the Bat
Season 3, Episode 17
Airdate	February 20, 1992
Production Number	8F13
Written by	John Vitti
Directed by	Carlos Baeza
← 3x16 Bart the Lover	3x18 → Separate Vocations
The Simpsons — Season Three

Homer at the Bat is the seventeenth episode of the third season of The Simpsons, and the fifty-second episode overall.

The corporate softball season is about to begin, but when confronted with how lousy the Sprinfield Nuclear Plant team is, Mr. Burns hires several major league baseball players as ringers.

Also Starring: Maggie Roswell (Nurse, Woman with Burning House)

Special Guest Voices: Marcia Wallace (Mrs. Krabapple), Wade Boggs (Himself), Jose Canseco (Himself), Roger Clemens (Himself), Ken Griffey Jr. (Himself), Don Mattingly (Himself), Steve Sax (Himself), Mike Scioscia (Himself), Ozzie Smith (Himself), Darryl Strawberry (Himself), Terry Cashman (Himself)

Plot Overview

Homer signs up for the nuclear plant's softball team and claims that he has a secret weapon that will ensure that they won't be the worst team in the league (which prompts Lenny, Carl and Charlie to sign up as well). At home, he shows Bart his secret weapon, the "Wonderbat," a homemade baseball bat crafted from a tree branch that nearly fell on him during a storm.

In the team's first game, they manage win 7 to 5 when Homer hits a home run using his "magic bat." The team continues their winning streak into East Springfield, Fort Springfield and other parts of the city, leading to copycats on the rest of the team, like Charlie who starts playing using his sister's wooden leg. The team's winning streak brings the team to Shelbyville and the rival power plant in the final game of the city championships. Mr. Burns decides to take matters into his own hands and place a million dollar bet on his team winning against Shelbyville.

In order to win his bet against Aristotle Amadopolis, the owner of the Shelbyville power plant, Burns decides to hire nine professional baseball players to work "token jobs" at the plant and play on his team as ringers. Unfortunately, his first picks are all players that retired and died years ago, so he sends Smithers to find more recent players including: José Canseco, Mike Scioscia, Ozzie Smith, Don Mattingly, Steve Sax, Roger Clemons, Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey Jr. and Darryl Strawberry.

Before the day of the game, eight of the nine players manage to get incapacitated in one way or another. Steve Sax is arrested and convicted for every unsolved murder in New York City, Mike Scioscia comes down with radiation poisoning, Ken Griffy Jr. overdosed on nerve tonic and caught gigantism, Jose Conseco spent all night saving a woman's things from a fire, Wade Boggs got into a barfight with Barney over Britain's greatest prime minister, Ozzie Smith got lost in the Springfield Mystery Spot, Roger Clemons was hypnotized into believing he was a chicken and Don Mattingly was kicked off the team because he didn't shave off his sideburns.

However, at the game, Darryl Strawberry does show up and continues to play Homer's position in Right Field. In the last inning, Burns pulls Strawberry out of the game and puts in Homer, a right-handed hitter, to hit against the left-handed pitcher. Homer is confused by Burns' elaborate coaching hand signals and, while distracted, is hit by the pitch and knocked unconscious. With the bases loaded, Homer's walk gives them the run they needed to win the game.

Notes

Title Sequence

• Blackboard: I Will Not Aim for the Head
• Couch Gag: The family leaps towards the couch, but bonks heads with each other. Everyone is knocked unconscious except for Maggie, who turns on the television on the couch.

Trivia

The Show

• Baseball or Softball?: Although it was stated several times that the team was playing softball, they seem to actually be playing baseball. Among the differences are the pitcher pitching the ball overhand and 9 innings instead of softball's 7.

Behind the Scenes

• Cut Scene: In the previews for this episode, a scene appeared which did not make it into the main episode. In the scene Wade Boggs and Barney get into a burping contest, in which Barney wins hands down.
• Original Script: In the original script for the episode, José Canseco was going to miss the game because he woke up in bed with Edna Krabapple. Esther Haddad, Canseco's wife at the time, objected to this scene and it didn't make it into the episode. However, Maggie Roswell was credited in the episode anyway.
• Crazy Credits: The credits at the end of the episode are played over sepia colored scenes from the episode and a song called "Talkin' Softball," a parody of a song by Terry Cashman called "Talkin' Baseball." Cashman wrote and sang the parody in this episode.
• Press: This episode got an above average amount of press due to the use of several professional baseball players to voice themselves. An article was written by John Walters in the Sports Illustrated issue from January 27, 1992 and an article from Rocky Mountain News both showcased the episode and its ties to baseball.

Allusions and References

• The Natural: The sequence in which Homer tells Bart about his magic bat is a direct parody of the 1984 Robert Redford baseball film, The Natural. In the movie, Redford sees the tree that his father died under get struck by lightning and decides to craft a baseball bat from it. He etches a lightning bolt and "Wonderboy" into it, much like Homer's bat (which he named, instead, "Wonderbat"). The musical cues when Homer went to base were also similar to the cues from the movie. Several other bits are used from the movie as well, including both bats being destroyed, the hypnotist and the explosion of the scoreboard after the main character hits the home run.

Quotes

• Lyrics to Talkin' Softball
  Well, Mr. Burns had done it
  The power plant had won it
  With Roger Clemens clucking all the while
  Mike Scioscia's tragic illness made us smile
  While Wade Boggs lay unconscious on the barroom tile
  We're talkin' softball
  From Maine to San Diego
  Talkin' softball
  Mattingly and Canseco
  Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen jaw
  Steve Sax and his run-in with the law
  We're talkin' Homer...
  Ozzie, and the Straw
  We're talkin' softball
  From Maine to San Diego
  Talkin' softball
  Mattingly and Canseco
  Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen jaw
  Steve Sax and his run-in with the law
  We're talkin' Homer...
  Ozzie, and the Straw

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