Billy Crystal to sign with Yankees for one day

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2008/news/story?id=3286984
Comedian Billy Crystal is getting a once in a life time opportunity to sign a one day contract with a Major League Baseball team. I am not sure this is the best use of time though for the Yankees considering there outfield is played by a bunch of guys that are way, WAY past their primes, and they have a pitching staff that is completely unproven, i.e. Joba & Hughes, plus Mussina (who should have retired 3 years ago, who throws about as hard as I do) and Andy Pettite, who is not good unless he is taking HGH.

The Yanks should be focused on other things, not these crazy stupid promotional things to get fans in the seats. This is professional baseball, not the St. Paul Saints.

But back to Crystal. Crystal claims that he is a life long Yankee fan, but I am not completely sure I can buy that since he was seen in the film and on the DVD case, "City Slickers" in a New York Mets blue and orange cap. Everyone knows, especially if you are from New York that you cannot like both the Yanks and Mets. It's just wrong.

So Billy has some explaining to do, although I am sure that won't happen here on my blog. But back to Billy for a minute. I have always liked his comedy, and most of his films, including the movie 61* the store of the Mantle and Maris home run race in 1961. In the documentary on the DVD, Crystal is speaking about the Yankees and how his first interaction with the team and the stadium, and what is was like. It's interesting to note that his father was somewhat famous and worked with amazing musicians like Louie Armstrong, and had amazing box seats at Yankee Stadium. Anyways, he speaks in this documentary how amazing it was to go to his first baseball game, and how incredible Yankee Stadium was, and how it was his dream to play baseball for the Yankees someday. But for those who have seen this DVD, it makes it sound like it was a huge challenge, and nobody else on earth was a Yankee fan like Crystal.

It's just funny that in life you don't find die hard Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates or Houston Astros fans around. Nobody in Hollywood cares much for those teams. Just the Yankees. I don't know, this could be my Yankee Bashing hat, since after all, I am a Twins fan, but I just find it funny how these guys think it is such a huge feat to be a die hard Yankee fan. To quote Joe Queenan, "The return on investment is pretty high." The Yankees have won more championships than any other professional sports franchise, so it does not take a huge level of dedication to be a die hard Yankee fan.

I am very jealous of Billy, and I am sure he paid a pretty penny to get this done for himself. I guess it's his 60th birthday present. I hope my wife would let me do that with the Twins when I am 60. Probably not...