If you love "The Simpsons" and baseball -- which we know plenty of you do -- then you will want to read Deadspin's retrospective 20 years later on one of the most important episodes in the history of the show. Read the entire entry, but here's the set-up of the episode if for some reason you are not familiar with it:
The premise was relatively simple: Mr. Burns's company softball team, having lost 28 of 30 games the previous season, goes on an incredible run when Homer starts hitting, well, homers with his WonderBat, carved from the fallen branch of a lightning-struck tree. (Sound familiar?) As the season winds down, it becomes a two-team race for the pennant: Springfield vs. Shelbyville. While dining at the Millionaires' Club with the owner of the Shelbyville Power Plant, a cocky Burns agrees to a handshake bet worth (you guessed it) $1 million. To fix the game and secure his victory, Burns orders Smithers to enlist ballplayers like Cap Anson, Honus Wagner, and Jim Creighton. (Swartzwelder's choice of Creighton was particularly inspired. The ace pitcher for the Brooklyn Excelsiors in the 1850s and '60s, Creighton supposedly didn't strike out once while batting during the 20 games of the 1860 season. Creighton died two years later. He was 21.) Upon learning that his entire suggested lineup is dead, Burns instructs Smithers to come back with real ballplayers. And so he sets off across the country: nabbing Jose Canseco at a card convention, accosting a Graceland-touring Ozzie Smith, nearly getting shot in the woods by Mike Scioscia, and stopping by Don Mattingly's pink suburban house to interrupt his dish-washing.
We still say "No hustle either, skip," at least once every couple of months.
