Billy Crystal to play exhibition game for New York Yankees

According to the Associated Press –

The actor will sign a one-day, minor league contract with the New York Yankees and play in Thursday’s exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Crystal, an avid Yankees fan, will work out with the team on Wednesday and will wear uniform No. 60 for the game—to be played one day before his 60th birthday. The Yankees said Monday they have the approval of baseball commissioner Bud Selig.
“I’ve been waiting 50 years for this call,” Crystal said in a statement released by the team. “I’m overwhelmed by the generosity of the Yankees and commissioner Selig. I know this’ll be tougher than the Broadway Softball League, but I’m looking forward to helping the younger players, which by the way is all of them. Oops, I have to go, Scott Boras is on the phone.”
Crystal, according to the Yankees hit .348 and was captain during his senior year at Long Beach High School in New York. He directed and produced “61*,” a move about Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and the 1961 Yankees.
“The Yankees are excited to welcome the newest member of our team known for his humor and wit as well as his undying love for the Yankees,” chief operating officer Lonn Trost said.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi, after Monday night’s 4-0 win over Cincinnati, said he hasn’t determined what position Crystal will play.
“That remains to be seen,” Girardi said. “Obviously, it’s kind of exciting. Billy Crystal has done a lot for this organization. He’s always been a big part of it. Our way of rewarding him, saying thanks for everything that you’ve done.”


I think it’s great that Billy Crystal signed a contract to play in an exhibition game against the Pirates. I don’t see the mention of any money going to charity as Garth Brooks did a few years back, but that’s not my concern.

The part that gets me about this “AVID YANKEE FAN” is the movie City Slickers….remember that flick, when Billy played a New Yorker and went to camp to be in some type of a rodeo or whatever silly thing it was. Take a look at that picture up there…what do you notice about this “AVID YANKEE FAN?” Well, it was probably about the late 1980’s, and I’m sure most of this generation’s Yankee fans forget (or probably would never want to admit the embarrassment of being a fan of that team) the Mets were the team in NY, and this “AVID YANKEE FAN” decided it would be better for his movie to be portrayed as a Met fan. So Billy the “AVID YANKEE FAN” wore a Met hat, and passed himself off as a Met fan rather than show his true feelings and admit being an “AVID YANKEE FAN.”

Very disappointing. I don’t see why any “AVID YANKEE FAN” would feel the need to wear a Met hat in that case. I sure as hell know if I saw Jerry Seinfeld or Kevin James wearing a Yankee hat it would sure annoy me that they couldn’t be true to their team, and would feel EMBARRASSED to admit they were really a Met fan.

So Billy, although you were to embarrassed to wear your Yankee hat in the 1980’s, and now that the Yankees have had a wonderful 10 year run, you jumped right back on that bandwagon like a good little Yankee fan, and go 0-3 on Thursday and tell everyone how proud you are to be a Yankee and how they have been your true love your whole life and all the Micky Mantle stories we’re sure to hear… yada, yada, yada. But, like most (no, not all, some of you are there for good times and bad), but like most Yankee fans, I know what hat you were wearing when the Yankees weren’t in the play-offs and winning World Series.