Hall of Fame pays tribute to Homer’s walk-off

Baseball stars were in on the joke in ’92 Simpsons episode

Steve Sax won two World Series rings, was a five-time all-star and got nearly 2,000 hits in the big leagues.

Yet to many fans, it’s those halfdozen lines he uttered to a bunch of yellow cartoon characters a long time ago that really made him famous.

“I get asked as much about being on The Simpsons as I do about baseball,” Sax said 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.” All thanks to Homer at the Bat. Still hugely popular 25 years after it first aired, that Simpsons episode featuring the voices of Ken Griffey Jr., Darryl Strawberry, Jose Canseco and a lineup full of luminaries gets a fitting tribute Saturday from the national pastime.

That’s when the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., will present a plaque to Homer — well, really a piece of paper. Plus, a Simpsons-themed exhibit will open inside the shrine.

Actual hall members Ozzie Smith and Wade Boggs will be in town to talk about taping their roles as Homer’s teammates on the ringered-up Springfield Nuclear Plant softball squad, as will Sax.

Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly was playing for the New York Yankees when he lent his voice to the animated show.

“I didn’t know a whole lot about it, honestly. I knew it was hot and my kids watched it, but I didn’t really know that much,” he said.

But plenty of people saw The Simpsons the night it aired Feb. 20, 1992. In their third season, Bart & Co. out-drew The Cosby Show for the first time in a head-to-head matchup, and also topped the telecast of the Winter Olympics.

The show took months to assemble, with players taping when their teams played at Dodger Stadium or in Anaheim during the 1991 season. Members of The Simpsons staff divvied up which guys they would direct.

Executive story editor Jeff Martin, a Red Sox fan, drew Boston pitcher Roger Clemens. Great, only one hitch: Martin had to inform the imposing Clemens the script called for him to cluck like a chicken. Over and over. D’oh!

“I had visions of telling him and having him stomp out,” Martin said. “But without missing a beat, he started clucking away.”

Clemens was fine with his character being put under a spell by a hypnotist. In the cartoon, Sax was arrested for hundreds of unsolved murders in New York.

“I liked mine in the show. Got to show off my rough side,” Sax joked.

In the episode, most major leaguers hired by the evil Mr. Burns to play for Springfield in the championship game vs. the Shelbyville Nuclear Plant are befallen by some odd fate. Strawberry is the lone starter, and Homer pinch-hits for him in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and the bases loaded.

This time, Homer was a hero. He gets hit in the head with a pitch, giving Springfield a 44-43 win.