Nerve tonic that causes “gigantism” in Ken Griffey Jr. Wade Boggs getting knocked out while arguing Pith the Elder vs. Lord Palmerston. Ozzie Smith’s endless journey into the Springfield Mystery Spot.

If you’re a fan of The Simpsons, you can name every single one of the fates that befell the nine Major Leaguers chosen to be guest stars (and ringers on Montgomery Burns’ nuclear power plant softball team) on “Homer at the Bat,” the iconic 1992 episode that’s easily the series’ greatest sports-themed ep and arguably one of the absolute best in its entire run.

This week is the 25th anniversary of “Homer at the Bat,” and to our delight, we found out the Baseball Hall of Fame will host a discussion in May with Boggs, Smith and some of the minds behind the episode.

With the big anniversary and that news upon us, we dug around and tried to find some of the quirky facts about the episode fans may not know. Here they are:

1. Jose Canseco was not the easiest athlete to work with

From The Mercury News in 2007:

In the first draft of “Homer at the Bat,” notorious ladies man Canseco was supposed to have a fling with Bart’s teacher, Edna Krabappel. But Canseco’s then-wife Esther intervened. The part was rewritten with Canseco as a hero who saves a woman and her cat (and her player piano) from a burning house.

The ballplayer was not, however, a hero on the set. 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.

2. But some of the other athletes worked hard and were as sweet as can be

From Deadspin’s feature on the episode:

In the show’s DVD commentary, showrunner Mike Reiss recalls Griffey Jr. laboring through his lines and getting increasingly upset. He “looked like he was going to beat the crap out of me,” Reiss says. …

[Steve] Sax’s affability at the recording session also stuck with some members of the staff, with one later admitting (half-jokingly, maybe) that the “closest I ever came to falling in love with a man was Steve Sax. He was so handsome, so sweet.”

3. Darryl Strawberry didn’t have a clue his character would cry

From that same Mercury News story:

“I thought it was really funny from the first time I saw the script,” Strawberry says now. He was even amused by stuff that wasn’t in the script. After Bart and Lisa taunt him with chants of “Dar-ryl, Dar-ryl,” a tear rolls down Strawberry’s cheek. “I had no idea they were going to do that,” he said.

4. The episode eerily predicted the future once again

Everyone assumed Don Mattingly being cut from the team for not “trimming his sideburns” was a joke based on the fact that the then-New York Yankees first baseman got benched for not getting a haircut in 1991. But it wasn’t! Mattingly recorded his lines a month before the incident. From producer Al Jean on MLB Network radio:

“My grandfather owned a hardware store — and boys would work for him and he would say, ‘Get a haircut!’, even when they had buzzcuts. And they’d go, ‘What? How can I get it cut shorter?’ So I thought it’d be funny for that to happen with Mattingly … One of the craziest times we’ve forecasted the future.”

5. One moment in the episode actually turned out to save lives

This is non-baseball related, but what a fact! There’s a scene in which a poster of the Heimlich Maneuver is featured prominently. In 2007, a 10-year-old in England began choking on a ham sandwich when his friend — who had seen the episode the night before — imitated what he saw on screen and saved his pal. Seriously, this happened.

6. The episode was the first to beat The Cosby Show in the ratings in their timeslot

Obviously, it was a huge, huge moment for the series.

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