Talking Softball, Mattingly and Canseco…
With the premiere of The Simpson’s Movie just around the corner, the San Jose Mercury News decided to take a look at the show’s history of brining in athlete guest stars. Of course the most famous of all the athlete episodes is “Homer at the Bat”, which features appearances by Ken Griffey Jr., Steve Sax, Mike Soscia, Ozzie Smith, Jose Canseco, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Daryl Strawberry and Don Mattingly.
The article is worth reading, if only for producer Al Jean’s revelation that only one of the 46 athletes who have appeared on the show have been difficult to work with. Can you guess who it is?
On the DVD commentary for the episode, Jean said that all the athletes were wonderful to deal with except for one “whose name rhymes with Manseco.”
Reached for this story, Canseco was in no mood to wax nostalgic. “That was 100 years ago,” he said. The phone line disconnected within seconds of the interview and subsequent calls were not returned.
Perhaps on that fateful day 15 years ago Canseco was just angry the taping went long and made him late for his appointment to inject steroids into Mark McGwire’s ass.
9 Comments »
on 23 Jul 2007 at 5:11 pm #
Maybe later he realized that the idea of Jose Canseco rescuing someone from a burning building was the joke of that scene.
on 23 Jul 2007 at 5:23 pm #
he did do a good job of handling all the lady’s possessions—although that’s probably only because he wasn’t wearing a baseball glove at the time.
on 23 Jul 2007 at 7:19 pm #
Too bad this was before his tenure in Texas, they could have had a shot where the cat jumps out of the burning building, then bounces off Canseco’s head and back into the fire.
on 23 Jul 2007 at 7:32 pm #
this was one of the best episodes for the Simpsons
on 24 Jul 2007 at 10:06 am #
According to the producers, the original script of the episode had Canseco missing the game because he was in bed with Ms. Crabapple. But Canseco’s then-wife didn’t like it and he asked for it to be changed. That’s why they had him as a hero helping out a fire victim…they were sick of him. Great stuff.
on 24 Jul 2007 at 12:05 pm #
i think so, this episode have many interested dialogue !!! :->
on 24 Jul 2007 at 2:37 pm #
“Damnit Mattingly! I thought I told you to shave those sideburns!”
on 24 Jul 2007 at 4:14 pm #
Surely 8 disasters won’t befall 8 players. I wonder if Ozzie Smith has ever returned from the mystery spot.
on 24 Jul 2007 at 9:12 pm #
DARRYL, DARRYL, DARRYL!!