It first aired on the 20th of Feb, 1992. And it’s getting honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame.
http://baseballhall.org/news/homer-at-the-bat
A couple bits of interesting trivia:
Jose Canseco was apparently kind of a PITA to work with. He insisted on script rewrites so his animated character would seem more heroic and less of a dolt.
Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t understand what “there’s a party in my mouth and everyone’s invited” meant.
In 2007, 10-year-old Alex Hardy of West Yorkshire was choking to death on a sandwich, when his best friend Aiden Bateman saved his life by performing the Heimlich Maneuver. Bateman said he learned how to do the emergency technique from a scene in Homer at the Bat.
At the time of the original broadcast, it was unpopular with the regular cast. Some of them felt the guest stars got all the good lines and scenes.
I remember watching that when it originally aired and wondering
“So then, in Mr Burns’ mind what are sideburns?”
And also “Who is this Daryl Strawberry guy” (I have since become more familiar with baseball and discovered a lot more about him).
IMO by the stratospheric standards of early Simpsons, this isn’t one of the best. I never loved it when they overloaded on celebrity cameos, to be honest. But the shot of Mr. Burns’s gymnasium is awesome, and I like when Bart and Lisa start calling out “Daaaarrryyyylllll…”
I remember watching it when it first aired, and at the time I thought it was an “okay” episode. I was mildly impressed that they got so many baseball players to guest at the same time (I didn’t know that they actually recorded their parts separately over six months) but it never really stuck with me.
Now, when I think of The Simpsons, this episode does come up in my memory as being pretty damn good. Solid performances all around. Good pop baseball references, including a deep cut from Pride of the Yankees. Knowing that Canseco was a bit of an ass about his part makes his fire rescue joke better.
Also, actually getting Terry Cashman to sing “Talkin’ Softball” is crazy good.
