This episode marks the first mention of Shelbyville.
In the scene where the Capitol City goofball is talking to Homer in the locker room, the picture Bart took of Homer dancing with Princess Kashmir in Homer's Night Out (1990) is taped up on the locker behind the Goofball.
This is the first episode in the series to feature a guest star as himself, in this case, Tony Bennett.
Homer's chants and his nickname "Dancin' Homer" is a reference to American baseball fan Wild Bill Hagy, who earned the nickname "The Roar from Thirty-Four" for his chants during the 1970s in section thirty-four at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. Homer spells out Springfield just like Hagy spelled O-R-I-O-L-E-S with his arms.
The announcer's call at the end of the baseball game, "The Isotopes win a game" is repeated three times, in homage to Russ Hodges' famous call of the "shot heard round the world," the game-winning home run by Bobby Thomson on October 3, 1951, "The Giants win the pennant," which was also repeated three times.