Original air date: 6/7/2002 (produced in 2001)
Episode number: 13a
Timmy feels bad for Chester, the worst baseball player on their Little League team, so he wishes that Chester could be the best baseball player ever. However, Chester soon lets his newfound skill get to his head, and a falling-out between the two causes Chester to lose his powers right before their biggest game.
This episode provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Even if you're terrible at sports, you can still have fun when you're playing with friends.
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Not Timmy for once but Chester, after Timmy wishes he was good at baseball.
- Artistic License – Sports: A lot of actually baseball rules are ignored in this episode. For starters, it is impossible for one to get twenty-seven outs at once, let alone before either side actually scores a run. Furthermore, regardless of how talented a Little League team might be, they wouldn't under any circumstances be paired up to play against a professional team. And of course, a Little League team cannot be formed from kids younger than three.
- Brown Bag Mask: Chester's Dad wears one for the whole series, but this is the only episode that explains why. When Chester one-ups him near the end of the episode, he is given one himself.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Timmy wished that Chester was the best baseball player ever, yet future episodes mention that it's against Da Rules to use magic to win a competitionnote
- Epic Fail: When Chester first goes up to bat, the baseball breaks against his braces into 27 separate pieces that are all caught, causing his team to lose in just one inning.
- Exact Words: Timmy wishes his friend (Chester) was the best player on the baseball team, which causes Chester to become so good that he doesn't even need a team anymore. By the time the team makes the major leagues, Timmy gets into a spat with Chester, who finally declares he isn't Timmy's friend anymore, thus cancelling the wish since Timmy had wished his "friend" was the best player on the team.
- Excuse Me While I Multitask: Chester goes up to bat. The other team, knowing he's the worst, start doing things like cooking on a grill, sleeping in a hammock, reading Plato, and trimming shrubs.
- Family Honor: Since Chester's dad, Bucky McBadbat, went down in history as the worst baseball player ever, Chester wants to become the best and redeem his family name. Sadly, he inherited his father's skills.
- Friendship Moment: After Chester cancels the wish, Timmy assures him that he'll always have his back, no matter what.
- Instantly Proven Wrong:
- Chester tells Timmy not to mention his last name in public, telling him it's not safe to be a McBadbat because his father was the worst baseball player ever.Timmy: Hah, come on! I'm sure nobody takes the game that seriously?
[cue an offscreen explosion, followed by a mailbox reading "McBadbat" falling into the shot]
Timmy: Isn't that your mailbox?
Chester: NOT AGAIN! - Timmy believes his team is going to win with a ludicrous scare gap against the other team, with no way of catching up. Since Timmy's wish is cancelled when they argues, Chester's terrible skills allow the other team to indeed catch up, forcing them both to come up with a last-minute strategy to win.
- Chester tells Timmy not to mention his last name in public, telling him it's not safe to be a McBadbat because his father was the worst baseball player ever.
- Kiddie Kid: The "three-year-olds" that Timmy's team plays against look and act more like infants than preschoolers.
- Meaningful Name:
- Timmy's team is called The Losers. Even though the answer was obvious, Cosmo asked how they got named that.
- Chester and his dad, Bucky, have the last name McBadBat, and they're both bad at baseball.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: The above mentioned Instantly Proven Wrong.
- Produce Pelting: Chester gets garbage tossed at him after a baseball game when he gets nine innings of outs in one swing.
- Running Gag: Timmy-O's? Those are for pack mules!
- Serious Business: Baseball. Chester's dad is in danger years later because of his failure at it.
- Shout-Out: The Bankees are obviously a take on the Yankees.
- So Proud of You: Chester outdoes his father's baseball mishaps by taking out the opposing team near the end of the game. Bucky admits this trope to Chester, earning him his own Brown Bag Mask of Shame as a badge of honor.
- Spinning Newspaper: The magazine variant, with Chester on the cover of each as his fame grows. The montage ends with Timmy on the cover of "Packmules Monthly".
- Spoof Aesop: The lesson Timmy takes from all this? Don't grant wishes for anyone but himself, as it leads to trouble.
- Take That!: The Bankees are a parody of the New York Yankees, but as their name suggests they are an extremely wealthy, successful team full of "the best players that money can buy". To MLB fans, this is a diss towards the Yankees' longtime practice of recruiting many of the best and/or most promising players in the entire League with expensive contracts, which contributes to why the team has been so successful for over a century, and it makes them both the most beloved and the most despised teams in the entire MLB.
- Younger Than They Look: The first team Timmy and Chester play is filled with huge brutes with five o'clock shadow. Wanda notes that it's hard to believe they're 10.
