The core concept of Futurama sees Phillip J. Fry -- a largely unassuming but well-meaning slob -- being frozen in the year 1999. Awoken from cryogenic sleep a thousand years later, he finds himself in New New York in the year 3000 -- quickly trying to adjust to all the little and large ways life has changed in the ensuing centuries.

Among the first examples of the new world he encounters is in the Season 1 episode, "Fear of a Bot Planet," with the professional sport, Blernsball. But how does the bizarre sport even actually work? And how did a member of the team briefly become an infamous star of the game?

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One of the future's more successful sports is Major League Blernsball, which is very similar to America's pastime on a surface level. Some notable blernsball teams include the New New York Yankees, the New New York Mets, the Boston Poindexters and even the Martian Greenskins -- suggesting the sport spans multiple worlds. The game is played on a baseball diamond, with a pitcher throwing the blernsball to try and strike out the opposing team's batter. If they hit the blernsball, the hitter runs around the field, while the pitcher's team tries to recover the ball and tag him out before he can reach home.

But almost every other element of the game has been morphed to -- in the words of Leela -- "jazz up" the experience and make the game more exciting. The blernsball itself is tied to an elastic string that's attached to the pitcher's mound, making it more likely for the ball to bounce around and cause chaos on the field. A strong enough hit will separate the ball from the string, allowing for a home run. There's even a specific target outside of the outfield that, if a ball is hit directly into it, earns the hitting team automatic victory. There are numerous holes around the field where the blernsball can land, earning additional points and potentially activating other elements of the game, such as a giant tarantula taking the field or the beginning of "Multi-Ball," when a number of loose blernsballs are shot onto the field and at the players.

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It's an overwhelming game and is largely used to flesh out the strangeness of the world of the 31st century. However, the game did end up at the center of one episode in the series -- Season 3's "A Leela of Her Own." During a game of blernsball with their new neighbors, the Planet Express crew discovers that Leela has a strong pitching arm -- and absolutely terrible aim, accidentally hitting every batter she comes up against. But while she loses the game, she earns a minor crowd of admirers -- which attracts the attention of the owner of the New New York Mets, who sees potential in Leela as a "novelty act" to add to his failing team. The owner forces the Mets coach to accept Leela as a player, making Leela the first female player in the history of blernsball.

Although Leela becomes famous, her lack of skills ends up making her something of an embarrassment for other players like Jackie Anderson, a star college blernsball player. Leela attempts to end her first and only season in the sport by achieving a single strikeout, keeping her from becoming the, statistically speaking, worst player in the history of the sport. Although she comes close in her final game, Leela ends up against Jackie Anderson and gives up a home run to the opposing team -- cementing Jackie as the first skilled female player in the league, and Leela's place of infamy in the history of the sport. However, Leela ends the episode on good terms with Jackie, with the latter admitting she admires that Leela never gave up.

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