Linda tries to help Gene to become a better baseball player by putting him in a shady baseball class. Meanwhile, Tina becomes addicted to coffee when Bob buys an espresso machine.
The Tropenatural:
- Abusive Parents: Jimmy Pesto apparently tells his twins regularly that they only have one chance to win his love.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The Deuce of Diamonds successfully scams Linda and various other parents, and Bob is told to suck it up as the Deuce walks away scot-free.
- Blatant Lies: The Deuce of Diamonds's advertising video is clearly poorly edited to make it seems like people who go there got better, but both Bob and Louise point out how obviously fake it is. Linda still falls for it.
- Bookends: The beginning of the episode has Louise hitting Gene's cup with a baseball bat. She also does this during the credits.
- Brutal Honesty: One of the players' moms rather plainly states that Gene is the reason his team lost. Linda doesn't appreciate the honesty.
- Call-Back:
- Tina remembers the Deuce of Diamonds from when he acted as the Prince of Persuasia in "Dr. Yap".
- Linda's love for porcelain babies was first mentioned in "Burgerboss".
- The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Bob has every right to demand a refund, especially because Linda robbed him to pay the Deuce, but both Linda and the episode treat him as an antagonist because his desires conflict with Gene's "training".
- Cringe Comedy: Gene's less-than-stellar performance during the game, to the point Bob and Linda are actually cringing from secondhand embarrassment by the time the game's over.
- Didn't Think This Through: Linda and Louise never thought that Bob would actually sell a espresso, and that's how he finds out the espresso machine is gone.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Espresso seems to work for Tina like cocaine or heroin. It puts her in a constant state of boost and she needs it all the time, even suffering from withdrawal when she can't have it anymore.
- Downer Ending: Gene doesn't actually improve at baseball, the Deuce of Diamonds gets away with scamming everyone, Bob never gets the espresso machine back, Linda never gets punished for stealing the machine, and Tina's still addicted to caffeine.
- Epic Fail: Gene is really not good at baseball. During his first turn at bat in his first game, he got so freaked out when someone pitched the ball towards him he purposefully struck himself out. It only got worse from there, to the point the mom of one Gene's teammates flat out said it was his fault the team lost. To put this into perspective, by the sixth inning the game was tied 11-11. Once Gene was put on the field, the opposing team managed to double their score.
- Everyone Has Standards: Bob and Linda are very supportive parents, but even they're visibly cringing by the end of Gene's Little League debut.
- Evil Feels Good: Louise and Linda.Linda: Stealing and pawning, I feel so dirty.
Louise: Told you you'd like crime, mom.
Linda: Ahhh... Yes, I do. - Five-Second Foreshadowing: Note that everything Gene said he loved about baseball didn't include anything in terms of actually playing the sport. When it came time to come up to plate he showed zero skill and zero interest in the game.
- G-Rated Drug: A cup of espresso works for Tina like it's a drug.
- Groin Attack: Defied by Gene, who smacks his own protective cup and has Louise do the same. He is unaffected by each blow.
- Instant Taste Addiction: Bob buys an espresso machine for the restaurant, and Tina tries out the espresso when Teddy refuses to try it. She didn't like the taste at first, but she immediately acquires the taste of it and enjoys the energy it gives her. She then becomes addicted to basically anything with caffeine in it.Teddy: Gross, right?
Tina: Yeah, it's an acquired taste... that I just acquired. - Interrogation by Vandalism: Tina breaks some of Linda's porcelain babies to get her to talk about what she did with the espresso machine.Tina: We can do this the easy way or the hard way! (smashers a porcelain baby with a napkin holder)Linda: Tina!Tina: You think I'm bluffing?!
- Karma Houdini: Linda in no way pays for having stolen the espresso machine to pay the Deuce of Diamonds, and the Deuce himself escapes without any comeuppance for scamming Linda and the other parents.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: The Deuce of Diamonds doesn't know the first thing about baseball and tries to make a bunch of speeches about the power of the mind over the body, none of what makes sense when training baseball. He carries this over from his last appearance as the Prince of Persuasia.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Bob says that there's a quiet dignity in giving up when Gene decides to quit baseball.
- Motor Mouth: Tina, when under the influence of coffee.
- Mushroom Samba: The first time Tina tastes espresso, she seems to be on some kind of trip.
- Noodle Incident: When Linda is trying to think of something she can sell to pay for baseball camp, Louise claims to have sold her soul at one point.
- Only Sane Man: Bob and Louise are quick to note how obviously fake the video is, with Louise outright calling it dumb. Louise eventually subverts it, though, given she's also quick to help pawn the espresso machine to pay for the camp, and by the end Bob has clearly gone nuts over the espresso machine being pawned.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When she goes into caffeine withdrawal, Tina becomes aggressive, easily annoyed and even somewhat violent, snapping at Jimmy Jr. and breaking Linda's porcelain babies when she refuses to say what happened to the espresso machine.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The episode is based around Gene being utterly terrible at baseball and Linda's blind determination to help him improve. By the end of the episode Gene doesn't improve and Linda continues to praise a man who scammed her out of five hundred dollars (which she got by stealing and pawning Bob's espresso machine).
- Shout-Out:
- Tina suggests "A Few Gouda Men" and "As Gouda as It Gets" as names for a gouda-themed Burger of the Day.
- When she starts crashing from lack of caffeine, Tina hallucinates one of Linda's porcelain babies with Jimmy Jr.'s face crawling on the underside of the counter.
- Speech Impediment: Tina, frustrated by her caffeine withdrawal, quickly gets tired of Jimmy Jr.'s lisp. When he points out that's just how he talks, she goes as far as to order him to fix it.
- Spit Take: The last scene is of Tina gulping down the cheap coffee in the seedy motel lobby straight from the pot. The owner reports it's a week old, Tina spits it out... and goes back to drinking it. Then he informs Tina he put his cigarettes out in that coffee. Tina spits it out again... and goes right back to drinking it. The owner asks if she'd like cream and sugar.
- Status Quo Is God: Bob doesn't get to keep his espresso machine, as Linda pawns it off to pay for Gene's baseball lessons and the Deuce runs off with the money Linda got from selling it.
- Take a Third Option: Bob and Linda argue that they would be able to get either the espresso machine back or a good baseball player. Louise though, mentions that there's a chance neither will get the things they want. Turns out she is right: the Deuce flees with the money and Gene hasn't actually become better.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Bob's reaction when it's Gene's turn at bat.Gene: [to the pitcher] Okay, just roll it at me as slowly as you feel like.
Bob: Oh, God. - The Unsmile: Louise caps off her explanation of selling her soul with a smile that makes her look on the verge of a psychotic breakdown.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Bob and Tina are both pissed off when they learn what happened to the espresso machine, Tina because of her caffeine addiction, Bob because Linda pawned an expensive piece of equipment to pay a scam artist.
