St. Louis, the Cardinals, and the Simpsons

Over at the Sporting News, Jesse Spector took the new Frinkiac.com meme generator for the Simpsons and picked out quotes and images from the Simpsons that fit for all teams. He chose the episode with Mark McGwire which may or may not have foretold the ongoing hacking scandal. That episode was certainly Cardinals-related as Mark McGwire walked around the entire episode in full uniform, but it is not the only Cardinals, St. Louis, or Missouri-related episode on the Simpsons.

One of the most famous Simpsons episode ever, certainly the most famous baseball Simpsons episode was Homer at the Bat, which aired in 1992. That episode featured St. Louis Cardinals star Ozzie Smith. For more on the episode in general, I recommend Erik Malinowski's piece where he interviewed many of the players involved, including Ozzie Smith. Malinowski wrote about Smith's involvement:

Ozzie Smith is generally regarded as the greatest defensive shortstop in baseball history. He has played in three World Series, and he's earned election to the Hall of Fame €”and yet he still gets questions from fans about The Simpsons whenever he does a card show or some other event. He can't escape it, but with no hesitation, he reckons his tumble into the Springfield Mystery Spot to be one of the highlights of his career.

"It ranks right up there, and people are still talking about it today," Smith says. "The Simpsons are a part of Americana, so to be part of an episode that featured all of those ballplayers from a special time? I guess it'll go down in history."

If for some reason you cannot remember the episode:

Followed quickly by this:

The representative Spector used in his piece is also a good one, and it includes an oft-repeated quote.

Dingers, obviously.

St. Louis makes its way into quite a few episodes of the Simpsons, although many of those are simply references to East St. Louis, like this one:

There are also quite a few mentions of Branson, Missouri as well, but those have been omitted. As far as the great state of Missouri, one particular reference stands out.

St. Louis does not appear, but does warrant a mention in season nine when Apu gets married, and Air India mistakenly sends a tiger to St. Louis.

It was not the only time St. Louis was associated with a mistake.

Of course, Homer does have fond memories of St. Louis, particularly the Bowling Museum.

Just in case you have forgotten just how long the Simpsons has been around, here is a dated/timely St. Louis reference.

So what does it all mean?