This episode revolved around the actual 1994-1995 Major League Baseball strike and featured Major League baseball players and ex-players who were in the midst of the longest professional sports stoppage in decades.
Ex-Reds player and baseball commentator Joe Morgan appears prominently in the episode as himself, an announcer desperate for work like the other then-active baseball players. In the episode, Morgan notably mocks NBC's flagship sketch show Saturday Night Live - the network was a common target for Married w/ Children, but notable because Morgan worked for NBC at the time.
The MLB 1994-1995 strike was actually so disastrous to TV baseball revenue, that both ABC and NBC opted out of their contracts with MLB. By the time the league returned with a full season, FOX had become the main partner of MLB on TV.
MLB player Bret Saberhagen tells Kelly and Bud that he's filling in for Bobby Bonilla's job as a pizza delivery man. Bobby Bonilla was another MLB player who was third baseman and right fielder for the Mets at the time this episode aired. He played for 8 other baseball teams from 1986-2001.