The Losing Edge

"The Losing Edge" is the sixth episode of the Season Nine of South Park

Synopsis
The boys try to lose their baseball games on purpose so they can avoid playing all summer. Randy gets into training to fight the other fathers at the games.

Plot
The boys of South Park are involved in a Little League baseball team, despite the fact that they all hate the sport; they play because of the enthusiasm of their parents. When they win their final game they are initially elated, thinking the season is over, but then discover to their horror that they have to continue playing in the state championships. They decide to lose their next game, and thereby get out of the running for the championship, but the team they oppose has exactly the same idea. While trying desperately to lose, they manage again and again to beat the other team, whose efforts at throwing the game are more effective.

Meanwhile, Stan's father, Randy, has taken up the hobby of being a "trash talking dad," being generally obnoxious at every game so as to get into fights with other, equally obnoxious fathers. While training to be the best fighter he can be, he becomes terrified when he meets the Denver team's "Bat Dad," who wears a purple Batman cowl and cape, is much bigger than him, and has a bad attitude. He decides not to attend his son's game, as Stan and the others play the Denver game, which, if they win, will force them to waste the whole summer in the national circuit.

The team drafts Kyle's incredibly stereotypically Jewish cousin, Kyle Schwartz (distinguished in a previous episode as "Kyle One") to join their team, knowing he is just terrible at any sport. Even this fails to work as the other team improved and became "really good at sucking" - they can even "bat themselves out" hitting South Park catchers with precise shots right in the fielders' gloves. Just as it seems the South Park team is sure to win, Stan's dad shows up and begins harassing Bat Dad. The two get into an incredible fight, and the announcers and umpires declare that if they continue to fight their teams will be disqualified. With the encouragement of his son and his team (though he doesn't really know why) and other illusionary people in his head (including Mickey Goldmill from Rocky), Randy keeps fighting, and the South Park team is disqualified, leaving Denver to go to the national circuit. Stan tells his father, "You're the greatest," as he is led away in handcuffs by the police in his underwear. After hearing that, Randy jumps for joy as the song "You're the best" plays.

Pop Culture References

 * 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.
 * 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 (film).
 * 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."