Air date: June 8th, 2003 (JP), November 8th, 2003 (US)
This episode contains examples of:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Despite losing the baseball game, Eggman manages to get away with the cyan Chaos Emerald.
- Baseball Episode
- Big Damn Heroes: Knuckles comes in and saves Tails by destroying Eggman's giant robotic hand.
- Bittersweet Ending: Dr. Eggman gets away with the Chaos Emeralds but Sonic and his friends win their first-ever baseball game and are applauded by the people of Station Square watching.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the subtitles during the baseball game, Sonic catches a home run ball outside the fence and is told by Chuck that it's against the rules.Sonic: "Why do we have to play by the rules now? This is an anime."
- Cross-Popping Veins: Knuckles visibly sports these on his head when the others gather around and start calling him "chicken".
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Dr. Eggman decides to send one of his robots to attach itself onto Sonic's head to detonate as a bomb and try to get the heroes' team to forfeit the ball game.
- Formal Full Array of Cutlery: At the family dinner table, Ella is teaching everyone how to use proper table manners with several pieces of cutlery.
- Fridge Brilliance: The episode's name might allude to Eggman cheating to win the game, but in the end, Sonic and his friends win. Despite their win, Eggman still steals the Chaos Emerald, making it an unfair ball game.
- Hammerspace Fur: Tails reveals that he keeps his Chaos Emerald stored in his tails when showing it to Albert.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Everyone influences Knuckles into playing baseball with them. He eventually accepts.Knuckles: (angry) Afraid?! I'm not afraid of anything!Sonic: Great! Then you'll play, huh?Knuckles: (groans angrily in defeat) Alright, you asked for it! YOU WANT A TEAM PLAYER, I'LL GIVE YOU A TEAM PLAYER!! LET'S GET THIS GAME ON!
- Open the Iris: Tails' eyes widen when he sees that his new human friend has a Chaos Emerald too.
- Only Sane Man: Knuckles explains to everyone that playing baseball with Eggman is not a good idea, but they refuse to listen. Even more glaring when he turns out to be right.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Sonic catching the home run ball outside the fence. In many a cartoons, such as Bugs Bunny shorts, this would lead to the bad guy getting an out. However, Eggman and Chuck make it clear to Sonic that, no, they're playing by the rules and Sonic catching it out of bounds doesn't count.
