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1[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px_homer_at_the_bat_promo.jpg]]
2
3'''Original air date:''' 2/20/1992
4
5'''Production code:''' 8F13
6
7A BaseballEpisode where Homer and his homemade bat carry the power plant's softball team into the championship game. However, Mr. Burns hires a team of Major League Baseball players to guarantee a victory and win a million dollar bet.
8--------------------------
9!!This episode contains examples of:
10* AlliterativeName: Steve Sax.
11* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Darryl Strawberry is this to Homer. As Homer puts it, Darryl is bigger, stronger and faster than Homer, and he already has more friends around the plant than Homer does.
12* AnachronismStew: Burns's initial team of ringers is full of this, which is part of the joke. For instance, Cap Anson played between 1871 and 1897, Mordecai Brown between 1903 and 1916, and Pie Traynor between 1920 and 1937. And as Smithers implies, Jim Creighton died in 1862, before the next-oldest player had even started his professional career!
13* AndTheRest: When Mr. Burns introduces his {{Super Ringer}}s:
14-->'''Burns:''' Now, I'd like to introduce the new members of our happy power plant family. Our security guard, Roger Clemens.\
15'''Clemens:''' Hello.\
16'''Burns:''' Our janitor, Wade Boggs.\
17'''Boggs:''' How you doing?\
18'''Burns:''' Our lunchroom cashier, Ken Griffey Jr.\
19'''Griffey:''' Hey, what's up, guys?\
20'''Burns:''' Our new-- well, uh, [[NotEvenBotheringWithAnExcuse we'll make up jobs for these fellas later]]. Say hello to Steve Sax, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry, Ozzie Smith, Mike Scioscia, and Jose Canseco.
21* AnimationBump: [[https://frinkiac.com/gif/S03E17/301890/308763/ The "super slow mo" footage of Homer swinging his bat.]]
22* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Eddie and Lou pin all of the unsolved crimes in Springfield on Steve Sax solely on the basis that he's from New York and they heard about an open murder case in that city. Ignoring the fact that their reasoning is InsaneTrollLogic to the n-th degree, they are nowhere near the same jurisdiction, so they would not legally be able to arrest Sax for the New York case. Given that Springfield runs on BadCopIncompetentCop rules, it's not unexpected.
23* ArtisticLicenseSports:
24** ZigZagged; Homer gets hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and the score tied, sending him to first and forcing in the winning run for his team. This is accurate, but Lisa's comment that the incident counts as a hit is not; when a batter is walked or hit by a pitch, his batting average is unaffected.
25** Softball is pitched underhand, Roger Clemens [[DamnYouMuscleMemory would be useless]].
26* AsHimself: Wade Boggs, José Canseco, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey Jr., Don Mattingly, Steve Sax, Mike Scioscia, Ozzie Smith, and Darryl Strawberry are the ringers Mr. Burns hires, basically most of the big name baseball players of the early '90s.
27* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: While screaming in the Springfield Mystery Spot, Ozzie Smith pauses to take a picture of a giant E=[=MC2=] equation floating by.
28* AuthorAppeal: The episode was written by John Swartzwelder, who is a big baseball fan, as were many of the other writers on the show's staff at the time - at the recording session, all the guest stars spent a few minutes recording their lines, then about an hour signing autographs for the writers.
29* BackForTheFinale: Ozzie Smith appears on the ending group photo in astral form, due to being trapped in another dimension.
30* TheBadGuyWins: Mr. Burns plays dirty in his bet against his Shelbyville rival and shows little regard for his own employees, hiring a bunch of ringers to replace the players on his company's baseball team. Even though it backfires and most of the ringers aren't able to make it to the final game, resulting in him wasting nearly half a million dollars, Burns still wins the bet and makes a net profit he doesn't deserve when his team wins.
31* BaitAndSwitch: When Homer chokes on a donut, Lenny looks for a first-aid chart and appears to find one for the Heimlich Maneuver, but he's actually making note of a notice for softball sign-ups. (Fortunately, Homer manages to cough up the donut.)
32* BaseballEpisode: The episode has become one of the most famous instances of this trope and is one of the show's most popular episodes. Steve Sax admitted that people like talking to him about the episode more than his playing career and its popularity even [[http://nypost.com/2017/05/26/homer-at-the-bat-why-hall-of-fame-is-honoring-the-simpsons/ resulted in Homer being inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.]]
33** Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey Jr., and Ozzie Smith are also in the same hall as Homer, while Mike Scioscia and Don Mattingly went on to become managers. Scioscia managed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim from 2000 to 2018, while Mattingly did so for the Dodgers (2011-2015) and the Miami Marlins (2016-2022). Scioscia also managed the U.S. national team in the 2020 Summer Olympics; they won silver.
34* BlackComedy: "Mike Scioscia's tragic illness made us smile." Said illness being radiation poisoning from working at the Springfield nuclear plant. [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS22E3MoneyBART But he does get better]].
35* BluntYes: Homer finds himself on the receiving end of several of these in a row.
36-->'''Homer:''' [[CaptainObvious You're Darryl Strawberry!]]\
37'''Strawberry:''' Yes.\
38'''Homer:''' You play right field.\
39'''Strawberry:''' Yes.\
40'''Homer:''' I play right field too.\
41'''Strawberry:''' So?\
42'''Homer:''' [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Well, are you better than me?]]\
43'''Strawberry:''' Well, I've never met you, but... [[KickTheDog yes]].
44* BreadEggsMilkSquick: When Homer tells his coworkers about his "secret weapon" for the softball game, they each have an ImagineSpot about what it might be. Charlie imagines Homer with a giant catcher's mitt for easy fly balls, Carl imagines Homer with [[SpringJump springy shoes]] that allow him to hop from base to base without getting tagged, and Lenny imagines Homer [[CruelAndUnusualDeath incinerating opposing players]] with a [[DeathRay death ray gun]].
45* BrickJoke: The episode's chalkboard gag has Bart writing "I will not aim for the head." Homer is hit in the head by a pitch near the end of the episode.
46* CallBack: When Ken Griffey Jr. tries the nerve tonic for the first time, he claims that [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E10FlamingMoes "it's like there's a party in my mouth and everyone's invited!"]] Behind the scenes, Griffey hadn't seen the episode, so the line confused him.
47* CameoCluster: Mr. Burns "hires" several (then, at air) top baseball players as ringers for the plant's baseball team, including Wade Boggs, José Canseco, Darryl Strawberry and Ken Griffin, Jr.
48* CameraFiend: Ozzie Smith seems to have a hobby of taking pictures of whatever interesting things he can find. Even while he's trapped in an alternate dimension and screaming in terror, he can't resist pausing for a moment to snap a photo of a giant E=[=MC2=] equation.
49* CaptainObvious: After Mr. Burns introduces the major league ringers to the plant workers and announces his intent to have them play for him, Lenny worriedly points out to him that if he plans to use the major leaguers, he'll have no further need of the plant workers, to which Burns responds with a glorious "Well, ''duh!''"
50* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: Barney and Wade Boggs argue over who was the greatest British Prime Minister; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pitt,_1st_Earl_of_Chatham Pitt the Elder]] or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_John_Temple,_3rd_Viscount_Palmerston Lord Palmerston.]] The debate gets so heated that Barney punches out Boggs, then punches out Moe for sarcastically agreeing with Boggs.
51* CheatersNeverProsper: Oh yes they do. Despite losing most of his {{Super Ringer}}s, Mr. Burns still subverts this trope by winning the championship and his bet with Aristotle Amidopolous.
52* ChekhovsGun: Burns puts the team on a nerve tonic even though he notes that it's been known to cause gigantism in rare cases. This is ultimately what eliminates Ken Griffey Jr. from the match as he suffers gigantism after overdosing on it.
53* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Jose Canseco didn't make it to the game because he encountered a burning building and saved the owner's baby and pet - and then the woman insisted that he save literally all of her other stuff from the inside. By the time we cut away from them for the last time, she is leading him in arranging her furniture on the front lawn.
54* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
55** Mike Scioscia doesn't get that his job at the plant was just a token position so he could play on the softball team and shows up to work there every day. He winds up getting radiation poisoning.
56** Burns frequently orders Don Mattingly to shave off his sideburns, which Mattingly doesn't even have. Mattingly shows up for the final game with the top and sides of his head completely shaved, but Burns still yells at him for wearing sideburns and throws him off the team.
57* ContrivedCoincidence: Lampshaded by Burns, who mocks the sheer improbability of nine separate misfortunes befalling his ringers. Seven of them end up missing the championship game, and Burns fires Mattingly for wearing the nonexistent sideburns mentioned above. The only one to make it is Darryl Strawberry.
58* CouchGag: The family crashes into each other and knock themselves unconscious. Maggie is the only one who makes it onto the couch.
59* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: Burns wastes $450,000 (if the salary he gave Canseco is any indication) for the sake of a game that the nuclear plant's solidly-excellent team could have probably won on their own, and only one of the players even gets to play due to Burns having them mingle in Springfield. In the process, the morale of the team gets shot by Burns's dismissal and their lack of practice, and Wonderbat gets broken.
60* DisproportionateRetribution: Steve Sax is pulled over by the Springfield police, and once he gives his license to Wiggum which shows he's from New York, he's arrested for just about every unsolved crime in Springfield for no particular reason (although perhaps the boys were still bitter about losing to the Power Plant at softball earlier in the episode). And according to a ContinuityNod in "Springfield of Dreams", Sax is still under investigation ''25 years later.''
61* DownToTheLastPlay: Homer is called upon to pinch-hit for Darryl Strawberry with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Thanks to Mr. Burns and his weird HandSignals, Homer becomes distracted and gets knocked out by a pitch to the head, forcing the winning run to score.
62* DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: The reason why Jose Canseco couldn't make it to the game is because he is too busy saving a baby, a cat, and a series of appliances from a house fire.
63* EldritchLocation: The Springfield "Mystery Spot" is a tourist trap... that happens to have some kind of inter-dimensional portal in it. Ozzie Smith enters it and (as far as we know) disappears from the face of the Earth never to be seen again. The chuckling of the ticket man as he hears Smith's scared scream implies that the man put the trap in place as SchmuckBait.
64* ExactWords: Mr. Burns states that, although there is an outside chance of seven misfortunes, nine misfortunes befalling his players is virtually impossible. This proves accurate as nothing happens to either Darryl Strawberry (who Burns sends to the showers during the last play, since he wants to play the percentages and pit a right-handed batter against a southpaw pitcher) or Don Mattingly (who was kicked off the team by Burns for his non-existent sideburns).
65** Burns has this exchange with Smithers:
66-->'''Burns''': Smithers, I've been thinking. Is it wrong to cheat in order to win a million-dollar bet?\
67'''Smithers''': Yes, sir.\
68'''Burns''': Let me rephrase that. Is it wrong if ''I'' cheat to win a million-dollar bet?\
69'''Smithers''': No, sir. Who would you like killed?
70* {{Foreshadowing}}:
71** The episode basically tells you in the third act that they are going to destroy the ringers which they do in the most bizarre and interesting ways possible.
72** Homer's first use of his magic bat hints towards how the last game of the episode ends: it occurs when the bases are loaded, and results in someone getting knocked unconscious.
73* FiringInTheAirALot: The cops in the dugout celebrate a home run hit by a teammate by firing their guns into the air, causing Chief Wiggum to make them stop.
74* FollowTheLeader: An InUniverse example happens when Homer kicks ass with Wonderbat and his teammates all start getting "magic bats" of their own. Carl's magic bat is the leg of a grand piano, while Charlie's sister let him use her wooden leg.
75* FreezeFrameBonus: They're only onscreen for a few seconds and pretty blurry, but Burns's entire team of dead players is possible to make out. (His right-fielder, Jim Creighton, had indeed been dead for 130 years - he played before there was even a professional league.)
76* GroupPictureEnding: The episode ends this way, with the whole team present, including an unconscious Homer, Ozzie Smith's spirit, Steve Sax handcuffed to Lou, José Canseco covered in ash, Roger Clemens standing with his arms positioned like wings, Wade Boggs with a black eye, Ken Griffey Jr. in a wheelchair, Mike Scioscia covered in bandages, and an angry-looking Darryl Strawberry.
77* HalfwayPlotSwitch: The first act revolves around Homer and his "magic" bat, but afterwards the plot switches to the Ringers Mr. Burns hires. [[MakeRoomForTheNewPlot The bat even breaks during the first practice with the pros.]]
78* HandSignals: Burns tries to explain his over-complicated signaling system to Homer, who can't begin to follow them.
79* HypnoFool: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-Zagged]]: Burns hires a hypnotist/motivational speaker for the team, only for his attempt to make the team give more than they had already ("110%") be defeated by the entire team, while hypnotized, pointing out that it's impossible for someone to give more than 100%. Then Roger Clemens turns out to have reacted badly to the hypnotic therapy and ends the episode thinking he's a chicken. And when Burns gets on the hypnotist's face about that faux pas, the hypnotist hypnotizes Burns into forgiving him.
80* IfItsYouItsOkay: A non-romantic variant in that Smithers agrees it's alright for ''Mr. Burns'' to cheat, but not for anyone else to do it.
81* JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife: Steve Sax is pulled over by Eddie and Lou for speeding and ends up being charged for every unsolved murder that's ever happened in Springfield, with the only evidence they have being that he is from New York and someone once got killed there.
82* {{Jerkass}}:
83** The woman whose house is burning down, making José Canseco get everything out of the house for her and then complaining that the dryer goes elsewhere.
84** Eddie and Lou. See PoliceBrutality below. Wiggum also allows this, even telling Sax that he's seen too many films when Sax asks for his OnePhoneCall.
85** The guy that mans the Springfield Mystery Spot chuckles when he hears Ozzie Smith screaming in fear as ''whatever the hell is inside that tent'' makes him disappear from the face of the Earth. The whole scene implies that he put the tourist trap in place as SchmuckBait for kicks.
86* JerkassHasAPoint: Would anyone actually disagree with the idea that Darryl Strawberry is a better player than Homer?
87* KarmaHoudini:
88** The hypnotist.
89** Mr. Burns wins his bet after nearly wrecking the team for the employees who worked hard to get the championship and inadvertently causing several MLB stars to suffer horrible calamities.
90** Barney for punching out Wade Boggs ''and'' Moe just for disagreeing with him over who was the best Prime Minister of England.
91** The bottomless pit purveyor, who not only tricked Ozzie Smith into going in, but also [[{{Jerkass}} laughed at him for falling for it.]]
92* KickTheDog: Even though he's right, Strawberry did this to Homer when he told him he was better at softball than Homer was, despite having never met Homer before.
93* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Burns micromanages the ever-loving hell out of his ringered team, and pretty much every call he makes in the episode is a bad one. From using outdated nerve tonic and quack hypnotists to attempting to draft Civil War-era players to swapping out Strawberry for Homer, he basically only avoids snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by dumb luck.
94* LogoJoke: The Gracie Films jingle is done in the style of a rock organ, and the "shh" is replaced with a bat hitting a baseball.
95* LongerThanLifeSentence: Poor Steve Sax is looking at six consecutive life sentences, due to the Springfield PD inexplicably blaming him for all of the unsolved crimes in the city.
96* {{Mockumentary}}: In 2017, to mark the episode's 25th anniversary, and to celebrate Homer's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, it received one called "Springfield of Dreams" featuring new animation, and contributions from Bob Uecker, Bob Costas, Joe Buck, Mehmet Oz, UsefulNotes/NeilDeGrasseTyson, and Russell Brand. Its format parodies Ken Burns's ''Baseball''. Of the original episode's guest stars, only Strawberry is absent.
97* NegativeSpaceWedgie: The "Springfield Mystery Spot", a shack attraction ("Where logic takes a holiday and all laws of nature are meaningless"). Ozzie Smith goes into it and...
98-->'''Smithers:''' ...And Ozzie Smith seems to have vanished off the face of the earth...
99** Cut to Ozzie Smith [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext in a red void]]* "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH- *sees a floating E=[=MC2=]* [[MoodWhiplash Cool! *Takes picture*]] AHHHHHHHHHH-"
100* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: Apparently, the Santa Claus instructor from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E1SimpsonsRoastingOnAnOpenFire Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire]]" found work as a hypnotist.
101* NobleBigot: On the one hand, Mr. Burns is so out of date that still thinks the segregated "Negro Leagues" exist. On the other hand, he orders Smithers to hire ringers from all the major leagues ''including'' the Negro Leagues, and has no problem with having an integrated team of ringers. It's more that he's just so out of date he thinks the status of pro baseball hasn't changed since he was a child (to the point that his initial A-list dream team of ringers consisted of players who ''died'' 90 years ago).
102* NonVerbalMiscommunication: Homer zones out while Mr. Burns is explaining what the signals are, and later, when Homer is up to bat, Mr. Burns starts doing a series of strange actions. Homer has no idea what he's trying to say, and gets hit in the head with the ball and knocked out as a result.
103* NormalFishInATinyPond: Homer is the star player of the power plant's baseball team, and whose ability to regularly hit home runs inspires his teammates to play better and brings them to the championship game. However, that only applies when he plays against local teams in Springfield. Homer otherwise doesn't hold a candle to the professional MLB players Burns hires as ringers.
104* ObfuscatingStupidity: Ralph Wiggum has a surprising amount of knowledge with baseball stars, including Jose Canseco. This aids him in a baseball game against Bart's ([[CurbStompBattle most likely boned]]) team.
105* OffscreenInertia: Mentioned by Ozzie Smith. During the episode, he visits the "Springfield Mystery Spot" which turns out to be some kind of interdimensional portal. Smith said in an interview years later he'd like to do another guest appearance so he can get out, as for all we know he's still hurtling through time and space, snapping pictures of weird stuff floating by.
106* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Dr. Hibbert even does his usual bemused giggle at acute radiation poisoning...but ''gigantism'' is enough to genuinely shock him.
107* ParodyAssistance: Terry Cashman sings a version of his song "Talkin' Baseball" based on the events of the episode during the credits.
108* PoliceBrutality: Steve Sax is arrested for just about every unsolved crime in Springfield for no particular reason. Also DisproportionateRetribution (perhaps the boys were still bitter about losing to the Power Plant?)
109** According to "Springfield of Dreams", he's still under investigation ''25 years later''.
110* RaceAgainstTheClock: Mr. Burns gives Smithers only 24 hours to recruit a bunch of professional ringers for his company softball team.
111* TheRival: Darryl Strawberry becomes this to Homer. Homer sort of wins in the end when Burns sends him in to pinch hit for Darryl, and he gets beaned to force in the winning run.
112* RousingSpeech: Parodied:
113--> '''Mr. Burns:''' All right, you RagtagBunchOfMisfits! You hate me, and I hate you even more! But without my beloved ringers, you're all I've got. So I, uh, want you to remember something inspiring that someone ''else'' may have told you during the course of your lives, and go out there and ''win''!\
114(team cheers)
115** Also Averted with the hypnotist:
116---> '''Hypnotist:''' You are all very good players.\
117'''Players:''' [chanting in unison] We are all very good players.\
118'''Hypnotist:''' You will beat Shelbyville.\
119'''Players:''' [chanting in unison] We will beat Shelbyville.\
120'''Hypnotist:''' You will give one hundred and ten percent.\
121'''Players:''' [chanting in unison] That's impossible. No one can give more than one hundred percent. By definition that is the most anyone can give.
122* RunningGag: Darryl Strawberry being a kiss-ass to Mr. Burns.
123* SarcasmBlind: After Barney punches Wade Boggs for saying Pitt the Elder was a better prime minister than Lord Palmerston:
124--> '''Moe''': Heh, that's showin' him, Barn. ''(derisively)'' "Pitt the Elder".\
125'''Barney''': Looooord Palmerston! ''(punches Moe)''
126* SeriousBusiness: Barney and Wade Boggs both take their British politics very seriously, to the point where Barney knocks Wade Boggs unconscious simply for disagreeing with him on who the best British prime minister was: Lord Palmerston or Pitt the Elder.
127--> '''Moe:''' That's showin' him, Barney! (derisively) "Pitt the Elder"...\
128'''Barney:''' Loooooooord Palmerston!!!\
129''(Moe has an OhCrap look; Barney punches him too)''
130* ShoutOut: In addition to the WholePlotReference listed below, the title of the episode takes it's name from the poem ''Literature/CaseyAtTheBat''
131* SkewedPriorities: Even once he realizes most of ringers will not be playing, Mr. Burns ''still'' fires Mattingly over his nonexistent sideburns mere minutes before the big game begins.
132* SmartBall: Not only is Homer a baseball prodigy this episode, but he can make his own baseball bat. And he knows that [[TwentyPercentMoreAwesome "110%" is technically bad math in the context used by the hypnotist]].
133* SouthpawAdvantage: Subverted; Mr. Burns benches Darryl Strawberry and replaces him with Homer because both Strawberry and the pitcher are left-handed, and Homer bats right-handed.
134* StoutStrength: Homer is as fat as ever--and a slow motion video he watches with Bart and Lisa shows his fat actually ''sloshing out loud''--but he also hits better than anyone except the big-league ringers.
135* SuperRinger: Burns' plan to win against Shelbyville is getting an entire team's worth of these. Subverted in that, in the end, only one of them (Darryl Strawberry with nine home runs) ends up doing anything (most of them ''don't even arrive to the game'').
136* TakeThat: After Mr. Burns kicks Mattingly off the team for not getting rid of his nonexistent sideburns, Mattingly angrily storms off but notes that he still likes Burns better than Steinbrenner (the controversial owner of the New York Yankees who was very much a MeanBoss and treated everybody with GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity, including infamously firing and re-hiring Billy Martin as team manager ''five times'' before Martin died in a car collision).
137* TakingAdvantageOfGenerosity: During the montage of misadventures that affects the SuperRinger team, Jose Canseco [[HeroicFireRescue risks his life to save some random woman's kid and cat from a burning building]]. After a TimeSkip to the morning after and the start of the game, we see that the woman has forced Canseco to save literally everything that was inside the now-smoldering building and is telling him where to place her washing machine in the cluttered front yard by the time we cut back to the game.
138* TemptingFate:
139** Subverted. Burns finding the idea that his nine players would befall nine calamities before the Shelbyville game hilarious. By the time of the game, only seven players were subject to ridiculous calamities. Mattingly is kicked off because he still didn't get rid of the nonexistent sideburns Burns kept screaming about, and Strawberry still makes it and hits nine home runs.
140** After hitting his walk-off grand slam in the season opening game, Homer goes over the cops' dugout to taunt them. Chief Wiggum tells Eddie to get Homer's license and registration. Eddie affirms his compliance.
141* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Bart's increasingly-frustrated reactions to Ralph selecting the professional players for his team as they happen to be walking past, leaving Bart to pick his classmates, show that Bart can tell [[CurbStompBattle what must await him.]]
142* ThrowTheDogABone: Double subverted. Poor Homer is the only player who can't reclaim his position on the team until the very end when Mr. Burns pinch-hits him in place of Strawberry. It looks like Homer is going to win the game on the very last play, only for him to get knocked out after Burns' convoluted hand signals distract him, seemingly destroying his moment of glory. But his getting beaned counts as a hit and wins the game regardless, and the rest of the team treats him like a hero for it.
143-->'''Marge''': Well, I guess he'll be happy when he comes to.
144* TruthInTelevision:
145** Don Mattingly was actually benched by the New York Yankees - along with three teammates - in 1991 for not getting a haircut. When he became the manager of the Miami Marlins in 2016, Mattingly enacted his own facial hair ban during Spring Training, something he didn't do during the previous five years, when he managed the Los Angeles Dodgers.
146** The facial hair ban and restrictions on hair length existed in real life during George Steinbrenner’s 37-year tenure as principal owner of the Yankees and continues today: players may not grow their hair long or grow facial hair below the upper lip except for religious purposes.
147* TwentyPercentMoreAwesome: {{Lampshaded}} when the team, while under hypnosis, [[SpeakInUnison collectively]] [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike call the hypnotist out for telling them to give 110%]], as 100% is the most it's possible to give "by definition."
148* TwoDecadesBehind: Mr. Burns' original list of the ringers for Smithers to recruit includes late 19th-early 20th century players like Honus Wagner and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson who Smithers uncomfortably has to tell him have all long since retired and died. Then when he tells Smithers to recruit current players, he tells him to scour the Negro Leagues (which stopped existing in the 1950's) in addition to the American and National Leagues.
149* UnusuallyUninterestingSight[=/=]NoodleIncident: At the beginning of the episode, as Homer chokes on doughnuts for eating them too fast, his coworkers are casual about the whole thing, as it has happened before, and Carl even suggests that they scare him (although Charlie rejected this, as that's what you do when someone has the hiccups).
150* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Inverted. Mr. Burns getting involved is what allows Homer to win the game.
151** Played straight with Mr. Burns instigating the fates of Mike Scioscia, Ozzie Smith, Steve Sax, and Ken Griffey Jr. Less so with Roger Clemens, and Wade Boggs (and by extension Moe).
152* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never do find out how (or if) Ozzie Smith escaped from the Springfield Mystery Spot. He's even expressed a willingness to make another guest appearance for the specific purpose of doing so.
153* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: For the twenty-fifth anniversary of the episode, Fox filmed a false documentary that aired prior to the airing of the episode called ''Springfield Of Dreams'', which had most of the baseball players that appeared pretending that working for Burns actually happened and what life was for them in the aftermath. Among other details, Steve Sax is ''still'' under investigation thanks to Wiggum pinning '''all of the unsolved crimes in Springfield''' on him for no good reason.
154* WholePlotReference: To ''Film/TheNatural'', particularly the film version starring Creator/RobertRedford as a baseball player using a bat of [[ThunderboltIron Thunderbolt Wood]] from a lightning-struck tree.
155* YouWatchTooMuchX: After the police had jailed Steve Sax under suspicion for every unsolved crime in Springfield:
156-->'''Wiggum:''' Nice work, boys. I think we can close the book on just about every unsolved crime in our fair city.\
157'''Sax:''' Don't I least get to call my lawyer?\
158'''Lou:''' You watch too many movies, Sax! ''(they close and lock the cell door)''

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