Review: The Simpsons “Abe League Of Their Moe”

Overview

Grampa and Moe recruit a Mecedonian slugger in Springfield.

Our Take

I really came here thinking “how dare The Simpsons do a baseball episode knowing full well “Homer at the Bat” is the GOAT baseball episode” but “Abe League Of Their Moe” deserves it’s flowers for a much more contemporary baseball audience. Written by Joel H.Cohen but I’m willing to bet a lot of money that Michael Price had a heaping helping on this one as well because HIS fingerprints are all over this one, especially in the selections of the guest appearances which we’ll get to in a bit.

Clearly inspired by the Shohei Ohtani scandal but also offering a broader satire on answering the question “why are the ratings in baseball getting lower each season?” a noted question that even recently came to a head when ESPN announced that they aren’t even bothering with Sunday Night Baseball this season. Everything from gambling to players selling out and mass sponsorships are in full focus in the reticle of The Simpsons’ writers’ ire and these guys don’t let up on the one-liners to really drive the point home.

Just getting an episode with Grampa and Moe is rare enough, but to have these two do a team up provided unexpected comedic results helped by a slew of Mets-skewing guest stars like Chris Rock, Steve Gelps, Kevin Burkhardt(before he was a FOX announcer, Kevin was a Mets sideline reporters before the aforementioned Gelps took over) , and even a Jomboy cameo is going to have baseball fans young and old howl with laughter.

We may have had other episodes of The Simpsons this season be a bit more serious, but this might be one of the funniest pure comedic episodes of longest running animated sitcom in primetime that I have watched in a really long time. A pure comedic drubbing for a 100-year-old sport that sadly needed it coming from the only animated series in the baseball hall of fame.

For non-baseball fans, especially those who haven’t been keeping up with the newsworthy headlines that the MLB has been producing the last 18-months, this may not be your cup of tea. But if you’re in a timezone getting FOX baseball and then stick around for the entertainment following, you won’t be disappointed.