The Losing Edge

Plot

None of the boys in the South Park Cows, the town's Little League Baseball team, enjoy the sport at all. They find baseball boring, playing only because of their parents' enthusiasm for the sport. When they win their final game, they are at first overjoyed to have the rest of the summer free until they discover with horror that since they placed first in their division, they will have to continue playing in the post-season playoffs. During a 'celebration' meal, the team discusses plans to lose on purpose while making it look like they are trying.

However, South Park realizes that the other teams also want out and have actually trained to lose games. The South Park Cows end up winning again and again against opponents whose efforts at throwing games are more successful, and eventually, they get to the state championship game. To their horror, they realize that if they win that game, their season will start over on the national circuit, meaning they will have to play baseball all summer.

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, Randy becomes terrified when he meets the Denver Little League team's "Bat Dad", who wears a purple Batman cowl and cape, is much bigger than him, and behaves even more obnoxiously. He decides not to attend the game in fear that he isn't good enough.

Cartman tells the team that they need someone who "totally sucks ass" to join their team. Kyle says he knows just the person: his nerdy cousin Kyle Schwartz, who is terrible at all sports. Stan and the others play their game against Denver, who, like the other opponents, do not want to win either. Even drafting Kyle's cousin fails, as the other team is the best yet at intentionally losing.

Just as it seems the South Park team is sure to win, Randy shows up and begins a huge fight with Bat Dad that spills onto the field. Randy continuing to fight as the boys cheer him on causes officials to disqualify South Park and the team celebrates.

Production

The episode's idea originally came from series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone thinking that the children of South Park would look cute in baseball uniforms. Parker and Stone also were not fans of baseball themselves so it made sense to have the boys hate baseball. The choice to go ahead with a baseball-themed episode did create some problems animation-wise, however, as most of the children look nearly identical wearing the same uniforms. A lot of time was spent on ensuring that each character was distinguishable from each other. For example, Butters Stotch and Stan Marsh look identical with the same attire. To rectify this, Stan's hair is more prominent than Butters' and Butters has a speaking line early.

According to the DVD commentary, "this was a really, really hard episode to do" because sports episodes in general aren't easy but also because the teams are trying to lose. Because they are trying to lose on purpose, new rules are needed which makes it different from any actual sport. The character of Bat Dad made it easier for Parker and Stone, however, as if it got too difficult, they could cut to Bat Dad.