Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Homer At The Bat

Episode Date: July 13, 2016

Erik Nagel of It’s Erik Nagel on SiriusXM fame is our special guest for one of his all-time favorite episodes. Homer, Ozzie, and the Straw (and many more) come together for a star-studded softball game. So trim those sideburns and listen in…

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Talking Simpsons listeners can go to caspertrial.com slash lasertime and get $50 towards any mattress. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we're also talking softball this week. I am your host, Bob Mackie, and this is the LaserPlan Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who is here with me today? Henry Shortstop Gilbert. Chris Santista, but more importantly, also a very special guest we have right now with us. A host of It's Eric Nagel on Sirius 206 XM 103. What's that? Every

Friday at 6pm? Every Friday night. Yeah. And you just celebrated your two-year anniversary. Congratulations. Yeah, congrats. We did. Thank you so much. And thank you for having me on this podcast, but I can only do it if Henry Gilbert shaves those damn sideburns. I really have let him go. For the last time, Henry.

Yes, Eric was nice enough to promote us on his show, his gigantic radio show. And I'm sure it brought us a lot of listeners, and we're returning the favor by having him on. And he's also a Simpsons fanatic, which helps out a lot. And today's episode... We asked Eric which episode he wanted to do, and you said this one. And I cannot wait to hear what you have to say. This was a bombing moment with my dad well if we have a moment I actually wouldn't mind hearing a little

Simpsons biography of Eric when did you start watching the series how long have you been a fan what are your favorite seasons all that kind of stuff I started watching the shorts on Tracy Ullman I used to have to sneak down to watch TV to watch Tracy Ullman and the

It's Gary Shandling Show on Fox. And I don't know what clicked in my head, but as soon as they announced that The Simpsons were going to become a regular series and that Christmas episode was coming, I figured out how to work the VCR and bought a brick of those JVC tapes. And I just started taping every episode. But I didn't know anything about video quality because I would tape it and then I would put two VCRs together and then tape it again to take the commercials out.

Wow. I never did the dubbing like that. I just had to trust if I hit pause or not on it. I'm sure those JVC tapes died just in time for the DVDs. Yeah. They just disintegrated. And trust me, you lose a lot of endings because you lose the last five seconds

of every episode when you start it up again because the tapes move back and forward. But yeah, that was my obsession. I had friends in school. Every Monday morning in the homeroom, we'd always talk about Simpsons that aired on Sunday night. I bought the toys.

I had the shirts. I had one shirt that I wasn't allowed to wear at school anymore because it got banned. It said, Underachiever. I'm proud of it. They even banned the other one where he's just sticking through a ribbon. It says, Don't have a cowman. Every Simpsons thing I had was banned in my elementary school.

Just over the years, taped everything, watched it with my dad, bought anything that they had their faces on, be it Burger King toys or posters or any kind of toy that would ever come out. Just a diehard fan. You've kind of taken that onto your show

because I know you've interviewed the Simpsons guys a lot. Have you? Yeah. Well, as they come through, I try to get them. Harry Shearer, not really too willing to talk long form like i'll talk for maybe a minute and then he's done that sounds like his area has always been good yeah uh nancy cartwright i just spoke to her when i was down in miami and uh i was at the big

presentation they had in manhattan last year where she had a bronze bus that was debuted at the in the corporate park for the fox building right across the street from us. And when I was there, I looked to my right, and there's Mike Reese and Jeff Martin. Wow. And they're just standing there hanging out, having a good time. So I go and talk to them, and Nancy does her unveiling, and then she comes over and says hi. And then I have to excuse myself, and I say, oh, I have to go next door to do an interview. And Mike says, oh, who are you interviewing?

I said, John Lovitz. And Mike and Jeff look at each other, and they go, can we come with you? I said, yeah, come with me. I would have literally attacked them with questions, just thrown questions at them until they relented. So my John Lovitz interview turned into John Lovitz, Mike Reese, Jeff Martin, and Nancy Cartwright. And what did we talk about? When is the critic coming back? Oh, I did. I heard that one. Yeah. It was just we talk about when is the critic coming back oh i did i heard that

one yeah it was just you make it all about the critic though when you got them all together you kind of got asked about that i think someday we'll like i think we should do like a mini critic discussion episode or something i get i'm getting a lot of critic references crossed over with my simpsons references as we're in this period of the show. So I know I need to go back and re-watch The Critic at some point. Hopefully DVDs are still a thing in a year. So I think we're ready to get into the show itself. Yeah, hold on, I have a little tease.

Ooh, cool. Daryl. Daryl. Daryl. Yeah, never has the word Daryl been more haunting. And today's episode is Homer at the Bat. It aired February 22, 1992. Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in Simpsons history.

Oh my God. I bet you won't believe it. Martina Navratilova becomes tennis' all-time singles titles leader. Ted Turner announces a new cable station that will air his recently acquired Hanna-Barbera Library, tentatively titled The Cartoon Channel. And forecasting a future Simpsons episode, Elizabeth Taylor makes her very first appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

Wow. Yes. And the Cartoon Network started back then. And that Elizabeth Taylor held out that long for the Tonight Show? I guess, what, did she have to promote the Flintstones movie? Maybe add some feud or something?

Did Johnny Carson insult her? Wait, wait, this is the Leno era. Are we not in the Leno era? No, we're not in the Leno era. We're so close to Carson being gone. It'll be the next year when he's on The Simpsons a year removed and making one of his final public appearances. I think Leno

is essentially the de facto host because Johnny Carson rarely hosted his own show towards the end. But that's a story for Weird Al. Eric, I'm glad you're here because I don't think – are you a baseball fan at all? I was until 1994 when the baseball strike hit, and then I kind of lost interest. But I was a baseball fan because my dad was a big baseball fan. And his dad was – it was a weird thing growing up in New York because you were either, depending on the era, a Mets or a Yankees fan.

Or if you go back to my grandfather's era, the Giants and the Dodgers fan. And my grandfather, his dad, was a Giants fan. My dad was a Mets fan after the Dodgers left. And I grew up a Mets fan because of my dad. So we used to go to Shea Stadium all the time and hear those Daryl chants, which was weird because he was in New York and people still did it anyway. That was a jeer to throw him off his game or something? It was a cheer in New York, especially if he had hit a home run his last up and he was back out on the field, they'd be yelling the Darryl thing

and he would take off his cap and he'd turn to the audience and the place would go nuts. But they would do it in Philadelphia chicago where it was a jeer because he was out in the outfield and he would do the same thing he'd turn around and just tip his cap to everybody and acknowledge that they were you know so he didn't like cry a single tear in other words yeah you know this is speaking a single tear sorry to cut you off i wanted to show you something oh let me see one of my one of my favorite things that i have here uh we had daryl strawberry in not too long ago and uh everybody was there with met's memorabilia and yankees memorabilia and he was there promoting his new book about

his life story and rehab and uh there was an area where everybody was laying down their stuff to get signed and everybody like he's looking through everything and the one thing he saw that he parted the crowd for was this i had a train out of the still and he signed it for me he said this was amazing that's oh that's beautiful that is great he signed a still well of his single tier that is i would argue that daryl strawberry while i remember him being a famous baseball player will live forever or at least a lot longer because of his being the main character of all the guest stars in this episode. He is the MVP in this episode. This is basically all I know about baseball comes from this episode, if that surprises no one. At the time, I knew all of these people, but this is a crazy amount of guest stars, first of all.

And I do love the opening of the show because during this season of The Simpsons, the first act is kind of a red herring to what the actual plot's going to be. This is how abruptly they have to begin the Simpsons show, Homer at the bat, because of how many guest stars they have to introduce. Mmm, donuts.

Hey, Homer, slow down. You're going to choke or something. Don't tell me how to eat donuts. Hey, Homer's choking again. Isn't there a first aid chart around here somewhere? Somebody scare him. That's with a hiccup. Hey, look at this.

Sean's ball starts this week. That's 30 seconds. That's the quickest The Simpsons has ever gotten any plot. It seems like Homer chokes on donuts a lot with how nonchalant they are. He's an indestructible idiot. The animation of it is just amazing where he's like, one donut, one donut, one donut, two donuts at the same time. He shoves like six donuts into his mouth at once. It's great.

Yeah. The gluttony of that animation. This episode really feels like a Halloween episode because they have so many little skits with so many different characters and it does feel removed from the traditional Simpsons reality. It's just so cartoonish and I think they decided like we can just make a bunch of fun jokes which is why

some cast members hated this episode. In that scene when he's choking and Lenny sees the softball lineup, if you notice the Heimlich maneuver sign, the guy, one, is puking out a lobster, a full lobster. A whole lobster. The guy who was choking looks like George Takai's character from The Happy Sumo. Oh, wow.

He looked like that. Also, I double-checked this, but according to the Associated Press at the time, a story that a Chris Benzie, a child named Chris Benzie, learned the Heimlich maneuver from that. From that slight cutaway gag. And used it to save his brother's life. That was a story at the time. They're like, oh, how did you know how to do this? I saw it on The Simpsons.

So, boy, saves brother through the simpsons and so boy learn saves brother through the simpsons lobsters are not play things people i thought you were supposed to scare choking victims but uh i guess it doesn't work but you know i i'm with i'm with eric this is at the height of my baseball fandom too like i never cared much for baseball after the 94 strike i'll go to a giants game every now and then and this was like for me i lived in atlanta at the time and the braves were just on fire in 91 and 92 they got to the world series back to back they lost both of them but they're doing great now it's sad that there were no sports facts it's people the angriest i know they hate it every time i get them wrong so you're right

chris they really jump into softball immediately and uh it's funny upon watching this this again, I'm like, this is something that Homer is actually good at. And I forgot that about this episode. Yeah, and I had a real stupid quick clip because I've never seen this movie. This is the one movie my high school had available in its library. Wow, how many home runs are you going to hit with that? Let's see, we play 30 games, 10 at-bats a game, 3,000. So that's a reference, the music and the bat is a reference to Robert Redford's The Natural, which I've never seen in my life.

That music is so overused up until when they, I guess they figured out, oh, I've got to pay copyright on that. So many different sports programs used to use that all the time, especially during the All-Star Game when they would do the home run derby, and they would show who hit the most home runs during the home run derby, and that music was always used as the montage. This was like the 80s, maybe until the early 90s. Then all of a sudden it went away because it became just as cliche

as Kevin Costner's Field of Dreams references. Yeah, I think This episode might use it a dozen times and I could be being conservative with that estimation. It's almost every establishing shot. I had heard Gene say that they use the natural not just in this episode but in other episodes too because

Fox owned the rights to the natural so it was safe for them to use it like how they can use the Batman theme song because they own the rights to Batman. Don't forget to use your nails, boys. It's one of my favorite lines of all time. One other thing, I know, I think it's Henry who usually points out when it's a character's first appearance, but in the choking scene,

was that Charlie's first appearance? The other technician they always hang out with but never socially? He's always just there in the background at work. I think it's the first time he had a voice, and Dan Castellaneta said he was just doing a Lenny imitation. So that's where that character came from, yeah. Charlie would appear intermittently until I feel like, in my mind... He always dies.

Yeah. In my mind, his finale scene was when he was sucked up the tube of Mr. Burns' tube and then dropped in India. Forced to dance. But I think they just need another guy. But I think this is the episode where Lenny and Carl truly supplant Barney. Like, it's not – Barney was Homer's friend. It was like, oh, if Homer's going to hang out with friends, it's Barney.

But as we saw, like, I watched the colonel homer episode in uh also today and in that when he could be hanging out with barney he's going bowling with lenny and carl i think this is the episode that that did it i think they realize how one how barney's kind of a one note friend but again i'm falling in love with him all over again every single line of his cracks me up right now if you can punctuate any sentence with a belch like that, I'm going to laugh. But, you know, skipping through the episode, like, Homer has a magic bat, gets really good at softball, but then, of course, Burns

is having dinner with someone who was played by John Lovitz in a previous episode, right? Yeah, Aristotle Amidopoulos. Aristotle Amidopoulos. I don't know where he was 25 years ago, maybe doing Field of Dreams or something, but he was not available for this, so Dan Castellanet does an okay job. He doesn't have the same John Lovett's flair to his acting in that character.

And again, we're in a period of peak Burns. To me, he's the true star of this entire episode. He invades the episode eight minutes in, just like, no, it's my episode now. It's a Burns show. Good news, sir. The Plant softball team has won again. If we beat Shelbyville next week, we capture the pennant. Did you hear that, Harry?

My boys need only to thump your tub and the title is ours. Ha! The gladiators from my power plant will crush your team like nine flabby grapes. I disagree. Would you care to bet a million dollars on that? No, if we're going to bet, why don't we make it interesting? What, a million dollars isn't interesting to you? Oh, did you say a million? I'm sorry, my mind was elsewhere.

I thought you would start with a small amount, then we would bait each other, and you know how it goes. Yeah, certainly, a million will be fine. God, this episode moves so fast. The entire first act is just them winning game after game after game, and this point, they have one more game, I believe, against Shelbyville. And it's funny, because they would have

won that game, I think, without Mr. without mr burns intervention but him intervening with the best baseball players on the planet actually makes their chances worse because burns just screws it up yeah this is burns's plan smithers i've been thinking is it wrong to cheat in order to win a million dollar bet yeah sir let me rephrase that is it wrong if i cheat in order to win a million dollar bet no sir who would you like killed no smithers i've decided to bring in a few ringers professional baseballers we'll give them token jobs at the plant and have them play on our softball team i all the stuff of them playing the games i thought was a funny little just big playing of baseball jokes and it was where they

got in all the stuff from the natural i had never watched the natural until this time i was like you know i'm gonna watch you oh you watched it awesome i never realized on the show archer they do a reference to somebody saying like oh are you a young man sleeps with this older woman and she says are you gonna be the best there ever was and he's like yes i am this older woman, and she says, are you going to be the best there ever was? And he's like, yes, I am. And then she shoots him, and she shoots him. And then it turns out that she's a woman who kills promising sports talents. And that is from The Natural.

I had no idea. In The Natural, the name of the bat is Wonder Boy, not Wonder Bat. Oh, wow. And as a kid, I was sure Homer's bat would look hideous. It's the one thing he makes right. He actually, like, that doesn't fit. He even knocks away a spike-rack-esque football to show

a perfect bat. I remember it looking hideous, but then I was surprised to see it actually look like a bat with this viewing. I was like, oh, my brain was lying to me. And also, in the film, The Natural, Wonder Boy gets destroyed before the climactic batting as well. But not by Roger Clemens. No, and Jodan Baker

is in it too. But this is one of my favorite things about the episode right now, and it's very esoteric and exclusive to us. We have had a blast doing this show, Eric. I'm not sure if you know that. Looking up the references Mr. Burns makes,

and calling out how old it is. So we, I was desperate to do this here, and I didn't remember that Smithers does it before I can. Damn nation! Alright, find players have retired and passed on. In fact, your right fielder has been dead for 130 years. Damn nation! Alright, find me some good players. Living players! Scour the professional ranks. The American League. The National League.

The Negro League. I'm on my way, sir. The first and only time the word Negro was said on The Simpsons? Might be. Maybe Bumble Me Man said it. If someone said it again, it was probably Mr. Burns. No, I did look that part up. When he says, your right fielder's been dead

for 130 years, the subtleness of that scene where his eyes, that's the only time his eyes go wide, that was the thing that surprised him. That was the one

he was too old. I looked it up too. Smithers was referencing Jim Crichton The American's first baseball Legitimate star And he died at the age of 21 In 1862 Seven years before there was a professional baseball

Wow He missed the best years of the Civil War Yeah But I also did love the relaxed attitude Of softball The softball league as well. Everybody drank. Even though it implies at some point that it's televised,

because Homer is rewinding tape of a very far off shot. No, no, Marge is videotaping him. From that many angles? You just have to assume that she moved to different parts of the crew. Marge is a crane in a dolly. It's all fair. She's sitting in the lights. So one thing I noticed, we have the scene where Smithers recruits all these people,

yeah, and it's a shame that they didn't hold on to cut scenes until season five because I feel like we only see him meeting like five out of nine of the players and four of them, we don't see how Smithers meets them. I just noticed that this time. Like, oh, wow, we don't see like, I think like Wade Boggs and Daryl Strawberry. Yeah, the first four they name of like, Wade Boggs, new head of security, this guy is this guy. And then they just say, oh, and I'll name the other six later because I think they wanted to keep everybody's lines the same.

Well, can we talk about Jose Canseco and what a piece of crap he is? Yes, we can. I got a nice introduction. I get $50,000 to play one game? That's right, Mr. Canseco. Well, it's a pay cut, but what the heck. Yeah, I was shocked to learn that he made demands. On the commentary, it's so great that Al Jean says, like, everybody was great except for a guy whose name rhymes with Manseco.

I think they were afraid they were going to get beaten up by Jose Canseco. Well, we have a buddy who's had a hilarious feud with Jose Canseco. He loves to get involved with stupid arguments. Yes, our friend Dan Reichert has had an online feud with Jose Canseco. He loves to get involved with stupid arguments. Yes, our friend Dan Reichert has had an online feud with Jose Canseco multiple times. Which is so crazy because in the 90s, I knew him as just like, it was him

and Mark McGuire were like the home run kings of the Oakland A's. They were killing it all the time. He was the biggest baseball star when I started paying attention. Also like physically biggest. Yeah, and the last thing I remember is him going to catch a fly and it hitting him in the head and bouncing out in the field

in a home run. I think how cartoonishly heroic he is in this episode is a result of his demands of the writers. He has to do something more heroic. So he was originally going to be,

we're jumping all around here, but he was originally going, his malady was going to be caught in bed with Krabappel. Right. And he didn't like that. His wife didn't like that, which, looking back on the time, it was because his wife knew he was cheating on her all the time

and didn't like seeing it in the show. How much longer until they got divorced? Actually, by the time the episode aired, he had caught in a high-speed chase with his wife and rammed her car. They were having a lot of public drama. Instead, they changed it to him saving all the stuff. But also, Marshall Wallace is credited on the episode, so it makes me think they even animated it. Right, yeah.

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heard of that happening because it's so dang comfy maybe it's time to trade up from that coffee stained ikea mattress people casper has everything from twin mattresses to california king and talking simpsons listeners can go to caspertrial.com slash laser time and get 50 towards any mattress you like laser time shows then you might like bonus time laser times weekly bonus show exclusively on patreon.com slash Lazer Time. Here's a taste of what you've been missing. Winnie the Pooh saying 420.

Now when Pooh heard his poo-poo clock, he knew it was time for something. Oh yes, 420. But his own clock is called a poo-poo. A poo-poo clock. It is in the Kingdom Hearts video

to that bit. But that's so egotistical that you name your own appliances after you. You're giving poo a lot of credit. I already eat all my dinner out of the micro, Dave. That's usually what I get at a Chinese buffet. I don't urinate in the crisp pot. I just don't. Get bonus time, Laser Time's weekly full-length, uncensored, and ad-free Patreon-exclusive podcast. As well as weekly full-length movie commentaries, wrestling and

cartoon video commentaries, physical rewards, the first season of Talking Simpson, and more at patreon.com slash LazerTime, starting at just five bucks. You'll help us live, and we'll do our best to help you never be bored again. I was, as a little kid, Ozzy, does anybody remember Ozzy Smith? Oh yeah, I watched his

How to Be a Shortstop video. Because he was just hilarious. He'd do little flips on the field and stuff. As a kid, he was the player I gravitated towards. So I love that he clearly made no demands because he's just a tourism fanatic. Oh, really? That was his actual character? No, that's what I'm saying. That's what defines him

as a character. He gets sucked into a portal to nowhere because he's just got to take photos everywhere he goes. That's where they end up finding him. I loved all of them. I have them all memorized to the point where my mom has them memorized, too, and I told her I was doing this episode next.

She was like, oh, yeah, Mike Socha, he got some radiation poisoning, and Steve Sachs is in jail, and Roger Clemens was a chicken. She knew all those things. Let's hear Burns introduce the stable of players. And now I'd like to introduce the new members of our happy power plant family, our new security guard, Roger Clemens. Hello. Our new janitor, Wade Boggs.

How you doing? Our new lunchroom cashier, Ken Grippy Jr. Hey, what's up, guys? Our new, well, we'll make up jobs for these fellas later. Please say hello to Steve Sachs, Don Mattingly, Daryl Strawberry, Ozzie Smith, Mike Socha, and Jose Canseco. Whoa. Oh, by the way, you newfellas, there's a sign-up sheet for the company's softball team

on the bulletin board over there, just in case you wish to play. Mr. Burns, put them on a team, you won't need us. Well, duh. Trey Burns. I love that duh, it's so good. I didn't get the line in the clip, but just like, I'll bust you up to the big leagues as a threat to my socia.

That well-duh is a cliche radio sound effect that so many shows have used all across the country, along with Homer's dough and boring. Let me write that down for my other 90 podcasts. Throw that in mine. This is great. It feels like the rest of the episode is just a series of sketches with Burns training them with his old-timey 1890s baseball tricks and getting them to drink Nerve Tonic and all this old-timey training stuff. It's all great. And Griffey Jr.'s elixir? Yeah. Instead of beer, from now on, you'll all be drinking this.

It's a brain and nerve tonic, rich in proteids and electromagnetic juices. It promotes robust health. Of course, it has been known to cause gigantism, but only in rare cases. Try some. Wow. robust health of course it has been known to cause gigantism but only in rare cases try some wow it's like there's a party in my mouth and everyone's invited excellent it's no flaming mo that the nerve tonic line too they said that uh he had to get he was recording with his father ken griffey senior another hall of famer who he he was saying, like, no, Ken Jr., you're doing it wrong. You're doing it wrong here. Like, he gave him, his dad gave him a line reading on that because Ken Griffey was apparently, Jr. was apparently having trouble saying the line.

Which is weird. He seems to be, like, his introduction made it sound like he was having the most fun. But I just have to burn this clip of Daryl Strawberry because he becomes the most important baseball player of the cast. He's the best actor on this. Yeah. You think that's why they chose him? Okay, Skip. Just him calling him Skip the whole time.

So great. You're Darryl Strawberry. Yes. You play right field. Yes. I play right field, too. So? Well, are you better than me?

Well, I never met you, but yes. That is my line of the show, I think. We're giving the line of the show to Eric this week he picked one out but I he's just such a kiss ass such a dick to Homer and he shows more range of emotions

than any of the other players it is weird I think this probably gave some of the Simpsons writers license or confidence to like it doesn't matter how many guest stars we have on. It's all going to turn out great, like in this episode. Yeah, I think Krusty Gets Cancelled is the logical conclusion of this kind of an

episode, which we'll see next season. A little later in the episode, it's more of a visual than audio, but when they're in the outfield, Daryl jumps up to catch the fly ball, and it's like Superman, because it takes so long for him while he's hanging up there in the air before he even comes down. So not only does he have the best lines, they also treat him like he's Superman in the episode.

That's right. He literally flies. He's the only one of nine players to not fall victim to a misfortune. He escapes that fate at least. Yeah, but I want to get to Eric's line of the show before I get to mine. But this is leading into your line, Eric. This one. He escapes that fate, at least. Yeah, but I want to get to Eric's line of the show before I get to mine. But this is leading into your line, Eric. This one.

Mattingly, get rid of those sideburns. What sideburns? You heard me, hippie. The sideburn saga is fantastic. Again, we got two more. But this is my favorite line because guess what? It involves Barney. Oh, yeah. And I say England's greatest prime minister was Lord Palmerston.

Pit the Elder. Lord Palmerston. Pit the Elder. Okay, you asked for it, Boggs. Yeah, that's showing him, Barney. Pit the Elder. Lord Palmerston. If I walked in on two people having an argument in a bar, I'd feel better than if I won the lottery.

I want to sit down and listen to see how that plays out. How did you get there? Please lay out what Lord Pulverston did. I meant to look this up. Did it just start with him saying, like, today's prime ministers have nothing on the old ones. Yeah, like this guy. No, that guy. I think Wade Boggs had the least amount of presence in this episode.

He's also knocked out by the most pathetic drunken Springfield. So I don't know how he felt about that. They did a sequel. They planned a sequel to that joke in Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes later this season. Oh, wow. Where originally they wrote that Barney challenges Joe Frazier to a fight. And the joke was going to be he knocks out Joe Frazier. And Joe Frazier's son at the recording said, Joe Frazier does not get knocked out by Barney.

And so they rewrote it to Barney getting beat up. Oh, I forgot he was in that one. Yeah. Yeah, me too. But how about some more sideburns? Anything. For the last time, get rid of those sideburns. Look, Mr. Burns, I don't know what you think sideburns are, but...

Don't argue with me. Just get rid of them. I love angry Burns. Yeah, but like you said, every single player, something befalls them in an injury. They're arrested. Smithers has to break the news to Burns. Smithers, it's almost game time. Where the devil am I, Ringers?

Sir, Mike Sausha may not live through the night steve sacks is looking at six consecutive life sentences ozzy smith seems to have vanished off the face of the earth ozzy smith is my favorite ending it's great because it looks like he just goes back to peabody and mr sherman time yeah the twilight zone opening a couple of things about uh ozzy smith in this episode one is that he disappears going to the springfield mystery, which is having tickets sold by, I don't know which one of you has the favorite of

Hank Azaria's Trump-Bronzen character. I think we all love that character. So he goes in there and he disappears, and I remember a while back there was the episode where Grandpa and his girlfriend be, and the start of that episode where they're trying to figure out where every third Sunday of the month they should take Grandpa.

And they're running off a list of places and Homer goes, oh, the Springfield mystery spot. And Lisa says, no, that's just a dumb mud puddle. So now it's a big vortex where people disappear off the face of the earth. I think a hell mouth opened up in Springfield in the time being you're right exactly yeah well that is such an extreme like that feels like an a proto-critic or even family guy type joke of like just a a 10 second bit that that he falls into it and it's it is inspired or it's a reference to a local thing yeah san francisco the the santa in santa rosa or no, Santa Clara, the mystery. The mystery spot. Santa Cruz.

For some reason, it's a really popular bumper sticker with hipsters. What the hell is that about? I know the one bumper sticker. I know the one hipster. It is great. I could explain it, but this is a Simpsons show. And I want to get to the line of the show, which we allowed our special guest, Eric Nagel, to pick.

That's the joke mattingly i thought i told you to trim those sideburns go home you're off the team for good fine still like him better than steinbrenner so what's the context for that i know he's a hated figure where you grew up yeah Yeah, like people, even when the Yankees were just god-awful in the 80s, people who loved the Yankees but hated Steinbrenner because they always felt that he interfered and ruined, much like Burns is doing by hiring major league players for their softball team. He always had a hand in ruining whatever the Yankees were trying to build, and especially if you were a Mets fan, you hated the Yankees and you hated Steinbrenner anyway.

My dad never liked Steinbrenner. He was a Mets fan. But I remember watching that episode with him and just turning and looking and he was laughing so hard at that line. Because he said, he just went like, oh, that guy is such a piece of shit. I remember something similar with my dad on like Seinfeld because when Larry David would play Steinbrenner, I mean like he's still in the same position now. Such a piece of shit. Yeah. I remember something similar with my dad on like Seinfeld. Cause when Larry David would play Steinbrenner,

I mean like he's still in the same position now. He's just not like brought up within every baseball conversation at this point. I mean, Steinbrenner has been dead for a while now. He's dead. Oh, he's been dead. Yeah.

Oh my God. My research. His sons run the team. Oh, I have no idea. He's dead. Yeah. But I,

I definitely, I definitely carried with me. This was the first time I'd ever heard the name Steinbrenner. Same here. And then I carry that poor opinion of him to Seinfeld when I watched Seinfeld and saw them making fun of him all the time. George. This imbecile who couldn't run a team or even eat a different meal every time for lunch. Yeah.

I remember like, oh yeah donna manningly didn't try to eat in a snickers bar with a five and fuck george delicious but i he was made up he made so much fun of in the uh in the 90s when they won that first world series i think like 96 um during the uh post game coverage he's backstage with you know the commissioner he's holding the trophy and he starts blubbering like a baby, and everyone just took that clip and started running it over and over, and crying George Steinbrenner. He was the original crying Jordan.

If only memes had existed then. But I did read on the Simpsons wiki, they said that Don Mattingly would eventually go to the Yankees or whatever. By the time the episode aired or a little afterwards, he did get fined for his long hair. Where's George Steinbrenner? Has a hair requirement? Like fucking Disneyland?

Like no mustaches and long hair? Some teams have that stuff. Don was with the Yankees in the 80s, I think going right into the early 90s, and then eventually wound up in Los Angeles at the Dodgers. I think I also really did love the line of like, nine misfortunes. Chris, I demand that you play that.

I do have it. Because I love how much they hang a lantern on how improbable the next events are going to be. Smithers, there's no way I can lose this bet. Unless, of course, my nine all-stars fall victim to nine separate misfortunes and are unable to play tomorrow, but that will never happen. Three misfortunes, that's possible. Seven misfortunes, there's an

outside chance. But nine misfortunes, I'd like to see that. And he does. Actually, he doesn't. There are eight misfortunes. What are the odds? That's like a double trick to you. Number one, that he are eight misfortunes yes what are the odds that's like a double trick to you like number one that he accepts like seven misfortunes is possible like no it wouldn't happen but cautious optimism the way they trick you into thinking daryl's taken out too and then showing

that he's still there like oh so should we go through all of the fates of every baseball player yeah okay because i wrote them all down even though i memorized all of the fates of every baseball player yeah okay because i wrote them all down even though i memorized all of them based on the song that's an easy way to do it so steve sacks pulled over by the springfield cops great scene since i heard some guy got killed in new york city and they never found out uh so mike socia the the most horrifying non non-cartoon he's dead he's dead he's dead i think that was one of the first times Hibbert had done his like, oh, you'll be dead. Yeah, he said, you'll be barely able to breathe

by tomorrow. And then can Griffey Jr. obviously gigantism? Good lord. Why does he react so crazily to that when he's like, oh yeah, you have radiation poisoning. You'll have trouble breathing tomorrow. Good lord, gigantism. I think just his giant head is just hard to look at.

Or that disease on the outside. Mike Socia does such a good job of like, can't speak at normal rates. He might have the most lines. I think so, yeah. He embraces the blue collar working environment the most. Other than Daryl. I think Daryl has more. Yeah.

Jose Canseco, as we said before, pulling burning things out of a building for maybe 18 hours because it starts at night and during the day he's still doing it. Wade Boggs, knocked out by Barney. We saw that. Ozzie Smith, he fell into the mystery spot. Don Mattingly, the sideburns thing. Roger Clemens thinks he's a chicken now because of The Hypnotist.

Season one Hypnotist who really stands out. It is a season one design and it just looks all wrong. The Hypnotist was also the instructor of the santa school yes that's right in the first episode that's exactly right so he has many and i also i also thought he was the scientist at the end of the call of the simpsons when they were trying to figure out if homer really was bigfoot but it was just a german scientist looking scientist that had the same voice holy yeah he seems like a very season one stock character, like Henry was saying. I don't think we would see him ever again.

Well, he breaks those rules Matt Groening talks about, of like nobody is allowed to have Homer's beard line or a similar hairline. It feels like Klasky Chupo just pulled a dude out of the... They're like, we don't want to design a new guy. Look, we got a doctor type right here. This town's getting crowded. And Daryl Strawberry, he is the one who survives, but he was pulled out of the game by Burns.

For reasons I can't really remember. I love this so much. He was playing the percentages. Yeah, I do have a clue. Just let me play this one first because it is one of my favorites. As an adult, the inspirational sports speech from Burns. All right, you ragtag bunch of misfits. You hate me, and I hate you even more.

But without my beloved ringers, you're all I've got. So I want you to remember some inspiring things that someone else may have told you in the course of your lives and go out there and win. Smithers is choked up. It's one of my favorite clips. This is Burns pulling Strawberry out. You, Strawberry.

Good effort today. Take a lap beneath the showers. I'm putting in a right-handed batter to hit for you. What? Your pitch hitting for me? Yes. You see, you're a left-hander and so is the pitcher. If I send up a right-handed batter, it's called playing the percentages.

It's what smart managers do to win ball games. i've got nine home runs today you should be very proud of yourself sit down simpson you're batting for strawberry the cadence of how is it playing the percentages yeah this is so great i think we're forgetting i mean daryl strawberry obviously a better uh player than homer but homer is really really good at softball that entire first montage is him hitting home run after home run i I looked at the scoreboard and said it was 43-43, and Daryl Strawberry lays claims to nine of those runs. That is

a little over a fifth, meaning the rest of the team is perfectly capable. If it's possible that they were on base, he could have been at least if they were like grand slams, four grand slams times nine, that's 36. He could have been 36 of those. As the biggest sports expert in the room, you don't get that many runs with a good outfielder.

So some of that shit's got to be on Daryl at the end of the day. He uses sports cliches 110%. 43 to 43 is an insane number. Like that is a crazy – no baseball game has that number. You would see grown men forfeit before the scoreboard got to 43. All these major league players suck, man. 43 to 43 and they're losing to Shelbyville.

Maybe Aristotle Amidopoulos got some ringers of his own. Some minor league ringers, maybe. He moneyballed it. I see how that works. I just got to check. We have a jingle for a death of a guest star or cast member. I think all these baseball players are still with us. I believe so.

Yeah, I don't think any of them are dead. Their careers are over, I think. Well, I mean, they're definitely over. I'm sure at least three of them have a great used car lot somewhere in America. I assume they all manage restaurants that are named after them, right? Nice to see you. Thank you for coming into Boggs. Conseco Burger. There are some very good

oral histories for this episode out there. I believe it was one of the Gawker affiliates, Deadspin. Deadspin did one where they interviewed the players now. And how, unless they were the most famous dudes in it, I don't think Mattingly or Darryl said they're only remembered for this episode, but Mike Socia or Steve Sachs both were like, I'm only asked about the Simpsons. Maybe I'll get signatures about baseball

every once in a while, but more often they're like, no, what was the Simpsons like? What was the Simpsons like? That was my theory, that these players will live a lot longer than they would. I look it up. I think there's something like three or four of them in the Hall of Fame.

Yeah. But they somehow will live longer in the Simpsons episode than in the Hall of Fame. I know nothing about baseball outside of these people, and that's it. And Ozzy even joked in the interview that he said he wants to come back to an episode because he doesn't like being trapped in limbo this entire time. Oh, my God. It's been 25 years. Just look at...

That'd be great on the final episode of The Simpsons when they're finishing the entire run. Just, oh, there's Ozzie Smith. He's just in the background there. He just fell out of like a vortex or something. Pulled out by the real Seymour Skinner. Just all the things that we didn't want addressed again. Well, did they move the mystery spot

when they moved the town 100 miles down the... Hey, we don't acknowledge that here. So I think the last episode should be the aged baseball players versus the Springfield uh team and i think they could actually win with playing against 60 year old baseball players that would be funny if they met them again they're like oh you guys are all 60 but wait we're the same age how have you aged 25 years since the last time we saw you maybe ozzy smith could stay ozzy smith because of the mystery spot oh there was another bit, too.

Homer scratching himself. I love it. It was great. I had never seen that. It was my favorite gag as a kid. Oh, dear. Hmm. Children, tell me when your father stopped scratching himself. Kids, we'll tell you, Mom.

So the Fox censors hated that. They're like, you were allowed one scratch. That's what he gets, one scratch, and then they pull away. But the advertisers on Fox loved it, and then they, like, looped it. The ad was just him scratching his crotch. Well, I mean, that was every promo in the beginning of Married with Children. It wasn't even a scratch. It was like a full-on hand on dick.

Yeah, it's like for Al Bundy. Al Bundy will touch his penis every night. Chris, I'm so glad you said that. Do you ever watch these old seasons and then try to remember what clip it was from each episode that they used to run in those ads? Absolutely. When we were

recording Colonel Homer as well, and I remember exactly which one was in the promo. Oh, that one especially. You did say Sugar, right? Yeah. I remember the dirtiest jokes. That was Fox's identity like the dirty channel. Yeah I guess it was. Take that NBC. I guess it was. And again I love

when I was a kid I cut the commercials out of the tape too. I tried to get it started just in time but there's nothing I love more now than going into YouTube and disappearing into 1992 commercials. Sears and apple cinnamon Cheerios and my buddy. It's all, I wish I hadn't have done that. And I don't have the stats on this.

I forgot to write them down. But this episode broke some sort of record for Fox in terms of ratings. Like, I think it had a 23 share. 23% of TVs in America were watching this episode on that night, right? So the facts about this episode is it is the first episode they had that beat Cosby in the ratings. It was the first time a new episode of The Simpsons beat a new episode of Cosby in the ratings.

Which would end in two months. And second, it beat the Olympics. It was airing new against the Olympics in 92, but people, it wasn't that interesting to people. And at this point, Fox could not afford pro sports on their channel, I believe. They made a huge deal about getting

MLB up to the point of bumping Futurama for four fucking years. They got MLB in 96, so they had all these major league stars on TV here, and then they wouldn't get MLB until 1996. Wow. So yeah, I guess we should say how the episode ends. Homer essentially gets hit with a ball, and that causes... Horribly concussed.

That causes the one run they need or whatever hit with a ball, and that causes the one run they need or whatever to win the game, and they win. And there's a great shot at the end. I want a print of that or something. All the players, Ozzie Smith's force ghost is floating there. Yes. I think it should be the shot for the episode. Yeah, for sure. No, that will be the shot of this episode. I grabbed

it already, actually. Before we go, I did want to note that on the commentary they mentioned two cast members hated this episode. That julie kavner and harry shearer which just goes to show you can never trust harry shearer's opinion about the simpsons because he disliked this episode i could i can kind of see why like the the characters are pushed out of the episode in for you know a bunch of sketches about baseball players yeah so burns and baseball players i mean they broke format a little i i think they didn't like celebrities taking over and i think this did kind of foreshadow the very celebrity driven

episodes everyone plays themselves but i i still think it is a great episode it is still one of my favorites i always remember because talking about eric talking about taping the shows this was the first one on the Simpsons the fourth Simpsons tape in the house so if we were going to marathon it start from the beginning boom we start strong with Homer at the bat and just go from there I think they're learning at this point it's like

there's no through line there's no moral there's no theme it's just a bunch of jokes and then the episode ends like as soon as it needs to end it ends and that's why I like it it's just a fun carefree episode without then the episode ends. As soon as it needs to end, it ends, and that's why I like it. It's just a fun, carefree episode without anything really at stake, which is fun to do that sometimes, I think. Yeah, you got any parting thoughts on it, Eric? That ending photo before they get into their version of Terry Cashman's talking softball. Thank you.

I couldn't figure it out. I was trying to figure out if it was from a sports movie, the way that thing was posed, or if it was really just the end of The Shining. You know, like this is standing there with the whole crowd and everyone's in weird positions. You've always been here, Mr. Boggs. Wow, that's so right. He's so, oh, wow. I never thought of that.

Yeah, he mentions the Terry Cashman song. So I had never heard Talking Baseball until I actually only just listened to it. I wish I had a term for this of like Simpsons things I didn't know were references for a decade. Oh yeah. Because this song wasn't on the this seems like a novelty song. It's from 1981. I've only first heard it today and I was like well the Simpsons one is better of course.

Well and so yeah it was just the history of baseball in a song and it was really helpful. I saw a YouTube video. I watched a YouTube video of it that had photos of each guy he's talking about. Because I'm not a baseball expert, so I hadn't heard of most of the players. And then when he... So Jeff Martin, the previously mentioned Jeff Martin, who wrote most of their joke songs in the early seasons,

he wrote this parody of it. And then they just got Terry Cashman to sing the version of it. It's the same guy? Same guy, yeah. Same guy. Wow. I love how they snuck the lyric, grotesquely swollen jaw, into a song, and it works.

You would never think that would work, but it works so well. Jaw and law rhymes so easily. That's Jeff Martin, man, a genius. Ozzy and the straw. So I guess we're going to wrap up today unless there's anything else. Eric, you're our special guest. Where can we find you? Where can our listeners find you?

My show is Friday night, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. on the West Coast on Sirius 206, XM 103, Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Cool. And do you have a Twitter we can follow you on? EROC Radio? Yeah, EROite Radio. Cool. And do you have a Twitter we can follow you on? E-Rock Radio? Yeah, E-Rock Radio. If I'm not posting food facts or dumb nonsense that I'm playing

Overwatch late at night, I'm usually quoting and putting out Simpsons. One time for Thanksgiving, if you go back a few years ago, I described my entire Thanksgiving day with just screen caps of the Thanksgiving episode where they were watching football and Bart

broke the centerpiece. Thank God Frinkiac exists now. It makes it so much easier. It makes it a little easier. But I used to feel special every Christmas when I posted a picture of Moe with his head in the oven with no funeral post on his back. That's a great picture. It's one of my favorite pictures ever. So wonderfully dark. So I've been your host Bob Mackie. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Serbo.

I also host the Classic Gaming podcast, Retronauts. You can find that every Monday at retronauts.com or usgamer.net. Everybody else, where can we find you? What do you do? Well, I'm H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G on Twitter. I write for fandom.wikia.com. That's where you'll find my thoughts on comics and games and all that other stuff. But I also am part of the Lazer Time Podcast Network.

Family. The family. Mister. games and all that other stuff but i also am part of the laser time podcast network family the family mister supported by patreon.com slash laser time i do this one i'll appear on laser time i uh put cape crisis on indefinite hiatus but there's a ton of great episodes if you never listen to it and the only reason this show happened is because patreon made it happen and the people who supported uh the laser, again, we cannot thank you enough. Lazer Time is also a show that has a singular pop culture topic. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention 302010, a look back 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, in the past of that week in pop culture and news. Blah, blah, blah.

You get it. Jesus. Say something else, Eric. I feel like we didn't let you talk enough. Well, I subscribe you get it. Jesus. Say something else, Eric. I feel like we didn't let you talk enough. Well, I subscribe to the Patreon. I support you guys and everything you do with laser time. After I found your show, I was like, well, they're

in season two. Where the hell's season one? And then when I found out, I'm like, well, I'm subscribing to Patreon, and I got the first season of Talking Simpsons. I enjoy the bonus time stuff that you guys do. I just started subscribing to 30 2010 and of course i like bob mackie's uh retronauts i listen to that all thanks a lot i appreciate it thank you yeah well i also i know you have uh at least the the critic clip i saw on

the i think on the youtube page for your for your thing too so people can look that up and hear that clip right yeah it's a youtube.com slash it's eric nagel um if you just put in simpsons you'll see every simpsons uh interview that we've done and you'll see the one i'm talking about with uh mike reese jeff martin john lovitz nancy nancy carr right it was just ridiculous by the way little tip with a little note with the john lovitz thing so i brought in um my uh unopened playmates figure of um marge's ex uh old boyfriend artie's if and i wanted to have him yeah artie's if and i wanted to have him sign signs it one more time the interview and everything we're saying goodbye we're taking photos and everything and uh he just he takes it and puts it in his bag and he's leaving with it.

He thought it was his gift, but he signed it earlier, which didn't make any sense. So I'm in the hallway saying, John, John, hey, that's not yours. And then he's like, oh, okay. And then he took it out of his bag. And I was like, that is so weird.

He signed it and then thought it was his. And he said, good night to eBay. Well, thank you so much to Eric for being on the show. We all really appreciate it. Please check out his stuff. We'll be back next week when Lisa turns bad. See you then. Well, Mr. Burns had done it.

The power plant had won it. With Roger Clemens clucking all the while. Mike Socha's tragic illness made us smile while Wade Boggs lay unconscious on the ballroom tile. We're talking softball from Maine to San Diego. Talking softball, Mattingly and Canseco, Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen Joe, Steve Sachs and his running with the ball

We're talking Homer, Ozzie and the Straw We're talking softball from Maine to San Diego Talking softball, Mattingly and Canseco Can Griffey's grotesquely swollen jaw We'll be right back.