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Simpsons 'Homer at the Bat' mockumentary debuting on Sunday

Mark Townsend
·Yahoo Sports Contributor

Homer Simpson’s big year is about to get even bigger.

As Entertainment Weekly reported on Wednesday, Fox is set to air a mockumentary titled Springfield of Dreams: The Legend of Homer Simpson, this Sunday. The hour-long program will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the iconic “Homer at the Bat” episode, which earlier this year was also honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In fact, Homer himself was inducted as an honorary member of the Hall of Fame in June.

The episode is set to premiere Sunday afternoon either at 3 p.m. ET or 4:30 p.m. ET, depending on if viewers will have an early or late afternoon NFL broadcast.

The show is described as a satirical takeoff of Ken Burns’ documentary miniseries Baseball, and will even include interviews from eight of the baseball stars turned softball ringers who were portrayed in the episode. Here’s more from Entertainment Weekly:

Twenty-five years ago, with the sum of one million dollars on the line, Mr. Burns ordered Smithers to assemble the greatest softball team ever seen so he could beat a rival nuclear power plant’s squad. (“Scour the professional ranks! The American League, the National League, the Negro League!”) Enter: Ken Griffey, Jr., Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Don Mattingly, and other MLB studs, though it would be Homer’s head that proved to be the championship game’s MVP. Today, season 3’s “Homer at the Bat” stands as a classic installment ofThe Simpsons, one that helped to usher in the golden age of the animated Fox comedy. It’s already been memorialized at the National Baseball Hall of Fame — over the summer, the Hall “inducted” Homer into its hallowed edifice for his contributions in that episode. And now, the episode is receiving one of pop culture’s finest honors: the documentary treatment.

Count. Us. In.

It sounds like Fox is going all in on this one, bringing in the likes of Bob Costas, Joe Buck and Bob Uecker. Even Yankees rookie Aaron Judge, who was two months from being born when the episode debuted on Feb. 20, 1992, will appear. It’s a reminder that The Simpsons program and this episode in particular has crossed many generations without losing its appeal.

(The Simpsons)
(The Simpsons)

Those are just some of the details we do know. We also suspect there will be plenty of surprises and perhaps even details of the episode that have never been shared before.

Fire up the DVR and hope the NFL games don’t go well past their time slot. This sounds like a can’t miss.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!