YANKEES TO SIGN BILLY CRYSTAL, STAR OF STAGE AND SCREEN,
AND INVITE HIM TO MAJOR LEAGUE SPRING TRAINING

The New York Yankees today announced that they will sign Billy Crystal, star of movies, television and Broadway to a one-day contract and invited him to Major League spring training.

Crystal will join the Yankees on Wednesday, March 12 to work out with the club at Legends Field in Tampa, Fla., and then play in the Yankees’ game on Thursday, March 13 vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates at Legends Field. Commissioner Selig approved the Yankees’ extension of the contract to Crystal.

Crystal, who will turn 60 years old on March 14, will don uniform No. 60 with the Yankees. He has created one of the most versatile and prolific careers in the entertainment industry, finding success in front of the camera, as a performer in film and television, and behind the scenes as a writer, director and producer. The Hollywood icon has starred in movies such as Running Scared, Throw Momma from the Train, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers, Mr. Saturday Night, Forget Paris, Hamlet, Deconstructing Harry, Analyze This, Monster’s Inc. and America’s Sweethearts.

“I’ve been waiting 50 years for this call,” Crystal exclaimed. “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.”

A captain of his Long Beach (N.Y.) High School baseball team, Crystal batted .348 in his senior season. He is regarded as one of the best baseball players in Hollywood today.

“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,” said Lonn Trost, Yankees Chief Operating Officer. “The Yankees are very grateful to the Commissioner’s office for allowing us to extend this special invitation to Mr. Crystal.”

In 2001, Crystal directed and produced the film *61 which chronicled the historic seasons of Yankees greats Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle as they sought to break Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record. The film garnered 12 Emmy nominations including nods for “Best Director” and “Best Made for Television Movie” and also earned Crystal a prestigious Director’s Guild nomination.

Crystal made his Broadway debut in 2004 with 700 Sundays, an autobiographical one-man play that became the highest grossing non-musical in the history of Broadway and garnered Crystal the Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and the prestigious Drama Desk Award. A dedicated human rights advocate, Crystal co-hosted, with Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg, all eight “Comic Relief” telethons on HBO which brought the plight of the nation’s homeless to the public and raised over $40 million for housing and medical care for the needy.

A native of New York, Crystal has been married for 37 years to Janice, with whom he has two daughters, Jennifer and Lindsay, and granddaughter’s Ella and Dylan. He proclaims himself to be a lifetime fan of the New York Yankees, idolizing Mickey Mantle during his youth.

3/10/2008 7:47:47 PM

THE YANKEES LOSE THE PENNANT BY ONE GAME DUE TO BILLY'S ERROR

3/10/2008 8:05:05 PM

what is this from the onion or something?

3/10/2008 8:06:34 PM

doesn't look like it
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=txyankeescrystal&prov=st&type=lgns

3/10/2008 8:25:14 PM

it's be funny if he ran over a catcher from 3rd

3/10/2008 8:27:42 PM

wait a minute, he would NEVER get to 3rd. Unless he got beaned and there was a couple of walks ... LOL

3/10/2008 8:28:47 PM

since this is apparently real, it only furthers my opinion for how much of a joke baseball is...cut the season in half and it wont be so ridiculous, and games wont be so meaningless

3/10/2008 9:05:17 PM

Story on the MLB Yanks site: http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080310&content_id=2418084&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy

Crystal, Billy - Middle Comic Relief

3/10/2008 9:05:42 PM

Quote :

"since this is apparently real, it only furthers my opinion for how much of a joke baseball is...cut the season in half and it wont be so ridiculous, and games wont be so meaningless"

The games are meaningless?

Tell that to all the teams that made the playoffs by one game.

3/10/2008 9:09:44 PM

there shouldnt be a league where you can be out of first place by half the games as most other sports seasons total games


just out of curiousity, how many times does a team play another team in its own division?

[Edited on March 10, 2008 at 9:12 PM. Reason : d]

3/10/2008 9:11:39 PM

BASEBALL IS JUMPING THE SHARK

3/10/2008 9:22:25 PM

fwi, brewsters millions is a decent flick

3/10/2008 9:25:36 PM

This is a spring training game you morons, it will get fans in the stands. Its mainly meaningless especially to the Yankees who have pretty much all their roster spots set. I would question this move by a team like the Royals or Rays.

3/10/2008 9:31:05 PM

^^^^ over TWENTY games against the same team.


ok, the 18 sounds more reasonable. but the whole mlb season should be ~100 games for each team, not 162.

[Edited on March 10, 2008 at 10:08 PM. Reason : ]

3/10/2008 10:02:41 PM

Quote :

"there shouldnt be a league where you can be out of first place by half the games as most other sports seasons total games"

That has a lot more to do with the luxury tax than it does the number of games played.

Quote :

"just out of curiousity, how many times does a team play another team in its own division?"

18

3/10/2008 10:03:21 PM

Quote :

"Tell that to all the teams that made the playoffs by one game."

[Edited on March 10, 2008 at 10:06 PM. Reason : and seriously... anyone who thinks this is in a game that counts is a fucking moron]

3/10/2008 10:06:16 PM

3/10/2008 10:06:47 PM

This isn't anything new. Garth Brooks has played in a few spring training games. I think with the Padres.

3/10/2008 10:25:54 PM

John Hine's now a freakin millionaire/

3/11/2008 11:59:31 AM

Norman, a life long mets fan, feels betrayed.

3/11/2008 12:01:34 PM

RED SOX SIGN WILFORD BRIMLEY TO COUNTER











stole it from deadspin

3/11/2008 12:04:35 PM

I'd hate to be the Pirates pitcher throwing to Crystal. Can you imagine the embarassment if he doesn't strikeout Crystal or get him out? Just a walk or some fluke hit. It'd follow him around forever.

3/11/2008 12:09:28 PM

Quote :

" "there shouldnt be a league where you can be out of first place by half the games as most other sports seasons total games" "

The Miami Heat called.

3/11/2008 12:10:09 PM

Quote :

"He is regarded as one of the best baseball players in Hollywood today."

aha who are the others?

robert redford, kevin costner and bugs bunny?

3/11/2008 12:14:22 PM

Quote :

"John Hine's now a freakin millionaire/"

And you know whats funny, the great big dork now has fuck you money
He's a rich nerd
Yeaaahh, he's a rich nerd.

[Edited on March 11, 2008 at 12:38 PM. Reason : hey now]

3/11/2008 12:36:52 PM

^Hey now.

3/11/2008 1:01:40 PM

looks like he is playing today, around the same time as our game against Miami. Might be more fun to watch baseball than our game today.

3/13/2008 9:27:19 AM

dh = Designated Hebrew

3/13/2008 10:17:26 AM

struck out swinging in first at bat

3/13/2008 12:46:19 PM

really? Is that on TV at all? I'm not seeing it, so I guess not...

3/13/2008 12:55:18 PM

He actually put a few good swings in there... Maholm pitched him like he did everyone else. He was obviously late on the fastballs, but the guy is 60...

3/13/2008 11:08:03 PM

I'm glad he got to hit off an established pitcher. If they put him in against some scrub (no, not all the Pirates are scrubs) I woulda been pretty upset because an accidental hit or something could dramatically alter an inning, and that would have sucked in spring training to some young prospect. But I'm also happy that Maholm threw him a slider (I think) to strike him out

3/13/2008 11:13:00 PM

^ He was ahead on the count at 3-1 too.

3/14/2008 9:17:05 AM

form actually looked pretty good

3/14/2008 11:04:53 AM