On their own, Richie Palacios’ Lisa Simpson-themed cleats that he will wear during MLB‘s annual “Players Weekend” are a thing of beauty.
Decked out in the iconic “Simpsons” font with the words “GRATITUDE, FORTITUDE, JOY” and Lisa Simpson flying in a cape, Palacios’ cleats are one of the better artistic expressions on display around baseball.
The back story is even more beautiful.
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The cleats were a gift of Yeardley Smith, the voice of the Lisa Simpson character since the show’s inception in the 1980s.
According to Adam Berry of MLB.com, Palacios joined Smith in January for an interview on her new “Guard the Yard” podcast. The episode was released on Wednesday.
“Palacios was blown away by Smith’s preparation for the interview and enjoyed the ‘awesome’ conversation so much that the two became unlikely friends,” Berry wrote. “They even met for dinner when the Rays were in Los Angeles earlier this season.”
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“He’s just every bit the shining light that he was when I first sat down with him,” Smith said on Guard the Yard. “This is a guy who, when you meet him, you’re like, ‘Aw, dude, can I be friends with that guy?’”
So it was that a somewhat obscure baseball player forged a special bond with a famous voice on television’s longest-running sticom.
Thanks to Players Weekend — during which players rock customized apparel, gloves, and bats — that bond is on full display on Palacios’ cleats.
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Palacios, 29, is more than half Smith’s age. But he has made a name for himself this season in Tampa Bay. With more than a month left in the regular season, the Brooklyn native has set career highs in games (97), at-bats (270), RBIs (39), doubles (12) and hits (65). He’s slashing .241/.339/.356 in a platoon role for the first-place Rays.
Despite their fame, Palacios and Simpson (no relation to Rays outfielder Chandler Simpson) have at least one thing other thing in common: neither has a catchphrase.
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