The Losing Edge/Trivia

Trivia

 * The South Park Baseball Team Starting Line Up:
 * P  Stan Marsh
 * C  Eric Cartman
 * 1B  Token Black
 * 2B Kyle Broflovski
 * 3B  Craig Tucker
 * SS  Clyde Donovan
 * RF  Tweek Tweak
 * CF  Kenny McCormick
 * LF  Butters Stotch
 * This is the only episode to date in which Kenny is seen without his parka throughout the whole episode (with the exception of the scene in the airport).
 * One of the fathers Randy fights with bears a striking resemblance to Skeeter.
 * In this episode, Craig's hair is shown to be brown, however in "Lice Capades" and "South Park is Gay!" his hair is black.
 * When he first appears, Bat Dad is said to be called Tom Nelson, however while heckling South Park at the championship game he is told to sit down by his wife who calls him Chris.
 * At the beginning of the episode when they win the game, Kenny's voice seems to be muffled even without his parka on.
 * This is one of the few episodes where Kyle is seen without a hat.
 * Ironically, Kenny's number is 13, possibly a reference to his extremely bad luck. Kenny previously wore the number 13 playing football in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", though unlike that epispde, he didn't die.
 * Jimbo is here the Umpire.
 * In Whistlin' Willy's, Timmy is seen sitting with the team wearing a baseball uniform but is never seen for the rest of the episode.
 * When South Park and Denvor meet confront before the game, Jimmy is seen wearing a baseball uniform on field, however he doesn't play.
 * Randys role in this episode is mentioned in You're Getting Old by Sharon.

References to Popular Culture

 * The song Randy trains to is "You're the Best" by Joe Esposito, which is the tournament montage song used in The Karate Kid. Randy can be heard singing the chorus of "I'm (You're) the best, around" when he is fighting Bat Dad. The song is at a much faster tempo in the episode, however.
 * The episode, like "Stanley's Cup" and to a lesser extent "Asspen", is a spoof of sports films - the boys' plot parodies the usual plot of going against many opponents in hopes of winning, despite them seeming to be better at the game, while Randy's parodies the plot of getting ready for a big confrontation with the final opponent.
 * There are numerous references to the 1976 film Rocky and its sequels including:
 * Randy telling his wife that he is afraid is very similar to the scene in Rocky III where Rocky tells Adrian his fear of facing Clubber, along with a similar scene in Rocky about the fight with Apollo. Also the preceding shot is an exact reproduction of the scene in the original film after he visits the ring before his fight with Apollo.
 * Bat Dad is a pastiche of Batman, Thunderlips, and Apollo Creed (the latter two are characters from the Rocky movies). Bat Dad calls himself "the ultimate little league trash talking father," which is a parody of Thunderlips, who called himself "the ultimate male." Bat Dad then says "I want you Marsh! I want you!" Apollo Creed said the same thing to his opponents.
 * When Randy beats Bat Dad, the original score from the Rocky movies is used.
 * Randy is wearing a sweatsuit identical to the one Rocky wears in Rocky, Rocky II and Rocky Balboa.
 * Randy wakes up early wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants. He cracks open some eggs and pours them into a glass as if to drink them like Rocky Balboa did, but then he pours them in a frying pan to scramble them and drinks a beer instead. (John Candy did this once in a Rocky parody Second City Television sketch.)
 * The last scene when Randy gets knocked down by Bat Dad, it is exactly the same as in Rocky V, even the ghost of Mickey appears and says "Get up Rock", except instead of saying afterward "Get up you son of a bitch, cause Mickey loves ya", Mick just says "Get up you bum!", after Randy gets back up he says the same line Rocky said in Rocky V after standing up to Tommy Gunn with 'Bat Dad' replacing 'Tommy' "Hey Bat Dad, I didn't hear no bell."