We’re talkin’ Homer ...
Welcome to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Homer Simpson.
Yes, you read that correctly. Homer Jay Simpson, the cartoon character from The Simpsons TV show, has become an inducted member of baseball’s most hallowed halls, plaque and all.
OK, not quite. The induction ceremony, which took place Saturday in Cooperstown, N.Y., was part of an event to kick off a Simpsons-themed exhibit that will open inside the shrine celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Simpsons episode Homer at the Bat. It featured major-leaguers Ken Griffey Jr., Wade Boggs, Steve Sax, Jose Canseco, Ozzie Smith, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly and Darryl Strawberry, whom Homer notably replaces in the episode’s final scene.
“I get asked as much about being on The Simpsons as I do about baseball,” Sax told The Associated Press this week. “They don’t want to know how it was to hit against Nolan Ryan. They want to know about being on that show.”
As the plaque notes, the doughnut-loving patriarch of the Simpson family made several contributions to baseball since the show’s inception in 1989, not only as a player, but also as a whistle-blowing mascot for the Isotopes.
“Baseball is recognized as our national pastime due to its wide intersection with American culture over the last two centuries, evident in literature, theatre, language, art, music, film and television,” Hall president Jeff Idelson said in a statement. “The Simpsons is a perfect example of that connection to Americana.”
Homer was enshrined as a player for the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant softball team. Three of the players from the famed episode — Boggs, Smith and Sax — were on hand.