NEWSLETTER
Remember the iconic ‘Simpsons’ episode, “Homer at the Bat”? The one where Mr. Burns puts together a ringer team of Major League Baseball players for his softball team to win a bet?
Of course you remember it. It was the best:
With Ken Griffey, Jr. getting the call to the Hall of Fame, The Score took the opportunity to look at the other Hall of Famers on the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant’s team, as well as the other players who aren’t there yet.
The result is a ranking of the players on the team, and a whole lot of fun. Junior comes out on top, followed by Roger Clemens, who may or may not ever make the Hall of Fame.
What I found most interesting was the reminder that Darryl Strawberry, in many ways the star-iest star of the softball team, was an absurdly good baseball player through the 1991 season … and then brutally bad thereafter. Straw would be far from the first player to fall off a bit around age 29/30, but the heights from which he fell – consistent 4/5/6-WAR seasons – to the depths to which he fell – topping 1 WAR just once thereafter in his career – was incredible.
As for the classic episode, care to share your thoughts on which star player suffered the worst malady?
For me, although suffering from gigantism or radiation poisoning sound pretty awful, I can’t help but fear disappearing into an eternal mystery void even more.
And having to shave my sideburns all the way up my head, as far as the troubles of the players goes, doesn’t sound too bad to me.
