With Simpsons' radiation poisoning behind him, Mike Scioscia happy to be honored at Isotopes Park

Two weeks ago, baseball great Mike Scioscia waxed poetic about his time in Albuquerque.

The 65-year-old hopped on a video conference with New Mexico media and reminisced about his time as a star player with the Albuquerque Dukes (1979 and 1980) and later as the manager (1999).

In both cases, his last stop before attaining player/managerial stardom at the MLB level was the Albuquerque Sports Stadium in the Duke City — brief but memorable stints that led to his being inducted as the sole member of the Class of 2024 into the Albuquerque Professional Baseball Hall of Fame, a venture of the Albuquerque Isotopes.

“Going back to ‘79 and ‘80, the level of players that came out of (Albuquerque) and the quality of players is incredible. So to be a small part of that, it’s a great feeling ...” he said.

“The city of Albuquerque embraced all of us. Whether we went to a restaurant, whether we were meeting people at the ballpark it was such a such a nurturing city. I think we’re all fortunate to have spent time there in our developmental years.”

Scioscia is scheduled to be on hand at Isotopes Park on Saturday night for a pregame induction ceremony and for the game — the team’s annual Dukes Retro Night that honors the longtime Albuquerque professional baseball franchise that chose to leave the city in 2000. Two years later, a new ownership group and team — the Isotopes — returned Triple-A baseball to New Mexico.

Opening pitch for Saturday’s game is 6:35 p.m. with the pregame Scioscia induction ceremony starting shortly after 6 p.m. There is also a scheduled postgame fireworks show.

“We’ve been putting together various classes in our Albuquerque professional baseball Hall of Fame since since it started back in 2007,” said Isotopes Vice President and General Manager John Traub. “And one of the biggest names, but also one of the most deserving people is somebody that we’ve been trying to get for a while. We are so honored and thrilled that Mike Scioscia is being inducted into our Hall of Fame.”

The majority of the video conference talking about Scioscia’s hall of fame induction covered his .334 batting average over 195 games played with the Dukes, his 143 games played in 1979 that still ranks as second most ever played in Albuquerque professional baseball history, and the future all-stars and hall of famers he played with, or for, in the organization. In the major leagues, Scioscia was a multi-time All-Star and World Series champion with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a player — and picked up another World Series ring as manager of the Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels. He even managed the silver-medal winning Team USA Olympic team in 2021.

But possibly most noteworthy accomplishment wasn’t discussed until late in the call.

Scioscia was also the starting catcher on the 1992 Springfield Nuclear Power Plant softball team.

That’s right. In the 1992 Simpson’s episode titled “Homer at the Bat,” Scioscia joined baseball legends Don Mattingly, Steve Sax, Wade Boggs, Ozzie Smith, Jose Canseco, Ken Griffey Jr., Darryl Strawberry and Roger Clemens to form the nine ringers the show’s conniving Mr. Burns hired as fake Springfield Nuclear Power Plant employees so his company softball team could beat the rival Shelbyville Nuclear Power Plant team.

Some consider it to be the best baseball team ever assembled.

But, before the big game, Scioscia’s cartoon self came down with “acute radiation poisoning” after working in the plant.

It was feared he may die. Fortunately, Scioscia’s cartoon character and real self pulled through.

Isotopes Park, which was built over the site of the old Sports Stadium that Scioscia knew well, has numerous Simspons characters and references throughout the ball park. And the name Isotopes comes in part from an episode of the Simpsons.

Will it all be too much for Scioscia?

“No, I’m fully recovered,” Scioscia told the Journal of his the fantasy medical scare. “That was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had outside of baseball. I mean, to have an opportunity to do the Simpsons not once, but twice, was just off the charts. ...

“I remember back the first time they asked me and I had kind of heard of The Simpsons. I never really followed up much because in baseball, there’s not a lot of watching television. You know at night time, you aren’t watching a lot of TV or anything. So I talked to my wife and I said, ‘what is this? I don’t want to do it. I don’t even know what it is.’ She said, ‘You’re doing this.’ She was like this is the most creative show that I’ve ever seen. And so I did it.”