Woid, Alex, and thanks for another tasty slice of Pat Jordan.

Would anybody in Hollywood appreciate, say, Jorge Posada stepping up to the mike on Oscar night and trying to crack a few jokes just because he's always wanted to? Not.

Spring Training is for the players to get ready for the season, and for youngsters who wish to play baseball for a living to demonstrate their skills -- not for artists and politicians to further fulfill their fantasies. Color me curmudgeon green, too.

1 me too. isn't this what fantasy camp is for? round up kramer, head your ass over to fantasy camp and let the real boys of spring get ready for the season.
this is also more fodder for all the yankee haters.

What a stupid stunt.

How did Billy Crystal manage this anyway? Dude hasn't been relevant in twenty years. When he was relevant, he was mediocre.

You're not a scrooge Alex. This is pathetic. What sort of need for attention or narcissism would drive a person to do something like this. Jesus does he really need to be noticed this badly, is he this compelled to live out his fantasies? For the life of me I can't imagine what would drive a person to do something like this. A few years ago a Hollywood type participated in the Pads (?) spring training as a ST Invitee and worked out with the ML players. I can't remember if he actually played in a game or not so this isn't wholly unprecedented. That doesn't make it any more attractive however.

I would be embarrassed to put the uniform on if I hadn't earned it. How many kids toil away in the minors under conditions that Billy wouldn't let his maids live in never to even sniff a shot at wearing Pinstripes. This jackass apparently feels no shame or remorse in wearing them without having done a thing to earn the right or the honor. Well, I'm embarrassed for him and completely turned off by the stunt.

As far the Yankees are concerned, this is beneath them in terms of their history and what they represent to the sport. It's a slap in the face to the people who worked to earn the right to wear the uniform no matter what they say. I can only imagine what Joe D. and Thurman would have said about this.

Hopefully this ends up being not even a blip on the radar but it's one more little insult to the dignity of the organization. Eventually, these things add up. I wish it weren't happening. I wont be watching.

Yeah, and while I'm curmudgeonly flicking cigar ashes over my cornflakes:
even if whatever's left of my modesty didn't prevent me from taking the field with the Yankees, I'd hope 60 years on this planet would provide me enough dignity to not disgrace the uniform. I think even old vets who played the game look somewhat out-of-place sporting baseball unis. Who needs to see silly Billy in the official pajamas?

4 heh. same page again, wsporter.

4 it was garth brooks - i feel ashamed to even know that.

Isn't the Rays game today? Maybe Crystal will get in a bench clearing brawl.

Taking BP is one thing. Playing in a game, spring training or not, is something else. Aren't there fantasy camps for this kind of thing? Oh, yeah, not if you are a big shot like Crystal---the only true fantasy for him is with the real team.

I liked Crystal on "Soap," and later, I liked his stand up record from the mid eighties, which included some of the great bits he did on the lost seasons of SNL. You know, the Sherer-Guest-Short-Crystal era, the one that produced some winning material but is rarely, if ever, seen now because it took place when series creator Lorne Michaels was on hiatus from the show.

"Running Scared" wasn't great, but Crystal and Gregory Hines has some good chemistry in it. But I never dug any of Billy's other movies--"Harry Met Sally," the one with Jack Palance. He's a good Oscar host though.

I enjoyed the first City Slickers, but never saw the sequel(s?). Throw Mama From The Train had a lotta laughs, too.

But I don't think it would matter if he was my favorite actor, or comedian, or musician, or writer -- I just have no interest in watching any non-player playing baseball with the Yankees.

I suppose I should just lighten up about it, but... oh, whatever.

I agree with Alec that this is lame. I have a vague sense the Yankee PR people thought they'd get positive coverage out of it, somehow ... the human face of the Dynasty, not taking themselves too seriously. (While complaining about a Tampa Bay rookie who DID take it too seriously!).

I can't see, otherwise, what they get out of it. Crystal IS a major fan, but so is everyone here. I doubt HE needs it in any career sense either. This (I'll bet) started as someone trying to spin a 'cute' 60th birthday present for him (he's 60 on Friday, apparently).

It may be worth mentioning that suiting up next to Bobby Abreu is NOT what will make me jealous of Billy Crystal. In his one-man show which toured last year he mentioned that as a kid he was taken to the movies by Billie Holliday. (His dad was in the jazz business.)

That'll do it.

I think that is a Yankee mistake, but not a major one in the scheme of things. Just dumb. One more to chalk up against the slide of tradition in sports, the evolution to 'entertainment + business'.

Yeah, you've got to give it to Crystal, he has lived an interesting life (and he is a bonafide Yankee fan if there ever was one). Being around all those jazz musicians as a kid must have been some kind of unsentimental education. So cool.

7 Brooks, IIRC, did his bit for a charity. It was cheesy, but at least there was something to it. I know he played in an actual game one of the 2 years he appeared in SD camp, but I think it was a minor league game.

This Crystal thing doesn't bother me. He should know better; that he doesn't isn't a surprise. He ought to be ashamed, and I think most people will find it pathetic at best. If he wants to make a fool of himself, I say let him; that's enough for me.

I'm surprised the organization is doing this. Not only is it against the icy imperial corporate persona the Yanks have cultivated for years, but what happens if (when?) other high-profile celebrity Yankee fans come looking for theirs? Ugh.

It seems as if I am in the minority, but I really don't care one way or the other about this. If Billy Crystal wants to live out a childhood fantasy, good for him. I know I'd practically sell my sould to play in a ST game for the Yankees, so i don't begrudge him the indulgence. As for the organization, I see nothing wrong with throwing a bone to well heeled, well known fan (and celebrity or not, Crystal is a fan).

4 Do you really think it is "beneath" the Yankees? I've heard other people make this argument, but it just doesn't wash. It's not like the Yankees have always been above gimmicky promotion in Spring Training. All you need to do is read about the exhibitions and stunts that took place during the days of Ruth, Gehrig and Joe D. Back then, however, the team used ST as a real money generator. This time around, the Yankees aren't using Crystal to generate publicity because they don't need it.

8 Crystal is playing tomorrow against the Pirates...an appropriate team for those concerned about disgracing uniforms.

0 I agree, Billy Crystal is like that annoying groupie that won't go away despite having her looks and appeal disappear 20 years ago.

Is he even relevant anymore? He made a really good career because of Meg Ryan having that "orgasm" at Katz's Deli in "When Harry Met Sally". I don't even find him funny.

I would hope he plays 3rd and he gets a liner to the shin, I know I hate those when I play 3rd in slow pitch softball.

It could be because I'm more jaded than most, but I don't see this as a big deal. A once in a lifetime event, something of a "thank you/happy birthday" gift.

1 I don't think ST is as relevant as it was years past. I'd find it hard to believe that a majority of the players aren't keeping in shape either playing winter ball, or working out in general. I would think teams would keep facilities open for their players.

13 From what I've read, there aren't many other high profile celebrity Yankee fans like Crystal.

16 Not to belabor my point, but even if today's players are staying in shape over the winter, ST is still a time to refine skills, develop new pitches, work on mechanics, etc.
No need for a Hollyood fluffer on the set, in my opinion. But you're absolutely right, it's not a big deal -- unless he somehow hurts somebody, or even himself doing something stupid.

Maybe he's dying. I mean, if this were one of his movies he'd be dying, and he'd bravely insist that no one knew he was dying, and even though he was the one facing the Great Unknown he'd teach us all how to laugh again.

18 Oh, then Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg are also in this picture?

Too bad Bruno Kirby isn't around to talk Crystal out of this.

Selleck got an AB with the Tigers in 1992 when he was working out with the team in preparation for his "Mr. Baseball" flick. I remember him showing the tape on Letterman back in the day. He struck out against the Reds' Tim Layana (a former Yankee mLer), but did foul off a bunch of pitches first.

And Brooks was in camp with a team two or three years in a row, including with the Mets in 2000.

I don't like this stuff, but it's not unprecedented.

17 I hope they made him sign a air-tight injury waiver. The dude is 60 years old. He has no business on the field during a game if he's not a coach or a legacy.
16 But what about all those celebs who are spotted by FOX donning Yankees caps in the playoffs? Are you implying they aren't "true fans"?

14 Yes I do think it's beneath them or any ML franchise for that matter.

"This time around, the Yankees aren't using Crystal to generate publicity because they don't need it." Then why are they doing it?

MFD at 13 sets forth the only reasonable reason to do it, charity or good works. If they were going to donate all or a portion of the gate receipts to a worthy cause, such as "Stand Up Comics Who are no Longer or never were Funny" then sure I'd bite. But I haven't heard about that here.

22 Ah, but then you're opening the gate for Pauly Shore and Carrot-top. Please, don't.

17 All that could be done during the offseason. There is plenty of time during the season to do it as well.

I don't think you're belaboring your point, we're just bantering :)

23 What? C-Top don't gotta eat too?

Carrot Top, Paulie Shore, ouch.

Emu Phillips?

The horror, the horror!

23 25 perhaps if there is a way for something to happen to dane cook preemptively then i will change my opinion on this whole st thing.

22 I think they are doing it simply as a "gift" to a high profile fan of the team, who has also happened to do a nice job spreading the team brand through movies. The Yankees already sell-out their ST games, so it's not like this move is going to sell tickets. I also doubt it will have any effect on the YES ratings, either.

Because there are no ecomomic benefits of this move, there can't be a charitable hook. The Yankees are very generous with charities as it is, so I don't think they need to make a donation to justify the "event".

I guess I just don't see why having an actor play in an *exhibition" is beneath an organization. Heck, of the top of my head, I seem to recall that the Yankees once staged a spring training game within the courtyards of a hotel for the benefit of an abstinence preacher. If such stunts were good enough for the Babe (irony of aside), then I can live with them too.

25 Emu was at a "Hollywood" barbeque I went to when I first moved out there in the summer of '96. I was not surprised that he seemed awkwardly unfunny in person.
Also awkwardly unfunny: Sarah Silverman, (whom I actually enjoy sometimes). I went inside to get a beer from the fridge, and she was talking to a friend, when suddenly, she drops her sweatpants. Underneath she's wearing men's underwear with "Jew" scrawled in black ink on the crotch.

How might that go over in a ML clubhouse? Oy, indeed.

The thing that has always struck me about Crystal is that he's always acted older than he is, even though he's always looked younger than he is. Maybe it is a result of his having hung around showbiz types as a kid. But other comics of Crytal's generation--Steve Martin, David Letterman, Bill Murray--made fun of the old Borscht Belt comedians by being ironic. When Steve Martin did an old bit he was saying, "This is a really stupid bit, aren't I stupid?" And it was funny. Murray doing the lounge singer. But Crystal really wants to be one of those old guys like Alan King. He's not of that generation but seems to act like he is, especially now, with his schmaltzy one-man shows. He's like the Proust of Long Island.

27 My heartburn (to the extent I have any) isn't solely directed at the Yankees. I simply can't fathom what would lead a person to engage in this act without having done a thing to earn it. There are hundreds of players who actually worked hard to achieve the honor of wearing the uniform in any game,let alone Spring Training and never made it. To me it's contemptible. I would never think of doing such a thing. But I guess we'll just a agree to disagree.

I've already spent more time on this thing than I meant to so I'll shut up. I actually wasn't going to say anything at all but my index fingers got the better of me! Curse you and your Learn to Type program Mavis Bacon.

I think it would be grotesque to watch Crystal get on the field with the Yanks (so I won't watch).

That said, if I was a celebrity and I could get a chance to play with the Yanks for a day just by asking, I'd jump at it (no matter how foolish I looked), so I really can't begrudge him for it. He's old enough that he probably doesn't care what people think anyway. He's just doing something that many of us would love to do. Only difference is that he can and we can't.

29 Astute observation, and I think that makes him an endearingly endangered species. He's not being phony. He's actually sincere in his reverence of that schtick.

oh, Spitzer's officially out. Not surprising.

A little OT: I'm getting a lot more trash talk from Sox fans up here in Boston than I usually get. 2 WS titles really has them fired up. Personally, I can't see how the Yanks can be any worse than they were last year (which was not too shabby) given the probable improvements on the pitching staff, and I can't see how the Sox can be better than they were last year, given the loss of Schrill, injuries to others, and the fact that Beckett played a bit out of his gourd last year.

29 "He's like the Proust of Long Island." Then I wish he'd stayed in bed for this one. :-)

I don't think he's a bad guy necessarily. I do think in this instance he's acting badly.

Damn, there I go again. Shutting up now!

On to something that actually matters: From Kat O'Brien

"TAMPA, Fla. - Andy Pettitte has been scratched from his start Wednesday with minor muscle irritation in his left forearm on the outside of the elbow."

O Crap, hold breath, it's just some ST soreness, right?

Link: See Right

33 Unfortunately, I think we have to wear the Underdog cape (and muzzle) until the Yanks restore order.

35 uch. I'm no Will Carroll, but forearm soreness tends to linger, no?
Get well quick, Pett.

28 Did you mean Emo or were you being facetious? >;) He always struck me as an actor's comedian, reading his jokes from a prepared script as opposed to off the cuff... Chris Rock struck me as kinda shy at first, but when he gets a notion and starts talking, he really goes at it. Genuinely funny.

I'm with William, I don't care one way or the other. Hey, being in the minority is not such a bad thing >;) As long as he's not tying up the rest of the spring, let him do his thing for a day and be over with it. I doubt there are other (living) celebrities that can claim what Crystal can with the Yanks in any regard. And look at it this way, Alex, we have bigger dreams than playing for a day with the Yankees. It'd be nice, but it's not what I'm looking for. I wouldn't mind having a typical Yanks salary for a day, though... >;)

30 Mavis Bacon?? And what kind of computer do you have, a Dill? >;)

29 It's for that reason that I actually like Mr. Saturday Night. It's a very affectionate film. That was Crystal's last stand as far as I'm concerned, and that was 1992. His golden age started in 1984 when he had his season on SNL and his cameo in Spinal Tap. Props for his cameo in Princess Bride, and for Throw Momma From The Train (which had a Rob Reiner cameo, now that I think about it) as well. That's about all I need from Crystal, however.

4 Hear, hear, ws.

Very eloquently said.

28 Anytime Sarah Silverman want to drop her pants in front of me, I won't really care if she's funny or not.

33 Two WS do not make up for 86 years of futility. Period. They've got a very long way to go before they can start talking crap to Yankee fans. When they catch up to St. Louis, send them a root beer on me.

37 yeah, meant Emo. I didn't stick around him long enough to see if he warmed up. I was a virgin to the Hollywood scene, and there were several writers and comedians around. To be fair to Emo, I was expecting everybody to be "on," and as I recall nobody was. It was eye-opening.

The only time I can think of meeting a comedian who immediately lived up to my expectations (made me laugh at hello) was Laura Kightlinger. She made a spontaneous funny face, and noise at a friend that cracked me up. Didn't hurt that she's tall and attractive, too.

30 &