Sam speaks "seven modern languages and four dead ones" including Japanese (which he uses in this episode). Other languages he speaks are English, French, Spanish and German. He cannot speak Italian or Hebrew. He can read Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
The teaser at the end of the episode shows Sam leaping into the body of an elderly black man. This is actually from the episode The Color of Truth - August 8, 1955 (1989), which aired in Season 1.
This leap took place outside of Sam's lifetime. Sam was born August 8, 1953, four days after the leap date of August 4, 1953. A previous episode ( Play It Again, Seymour - April 14, 1953 (1989) ) took place in April of 1953. In both instances, Sam was already well-developed as a fetus.
When Rusty mentions that he was scouted by the Orioles before the war. The Orioles was not a major league baseball team until 1954, a year after this episode takes place.