Spring is here (well, almost) and the boys of summer are just beginning to play ball… including Billy Crystal.
Yes, Billy “You look Mahvelous” Crystal will be donning pinstripes come Thursday when the New York Yankees play the Pittsburgh Pirates in an exhibition game.
The actor, who is a die-hard Yankees fan, recently signed a one-day, minor league contract with his favorite team and will be working out with the likes of Jason Giambi, Derek Jeter, and Andy Pettitte on Wednesday. Then, 24 hours later Crystal will wear uniform No. 60 for the game (in honor of his 60th birthday on Friday).
The award-winning actor and comedian claims he has waited 50 years for the opportunity to play with the “big boys.” And even though Crystal was captain of his high school baseball team during his senior year at Long Beach High School in New York and directed and produced “61 ,” a move about Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and the 1961 Yankees, he still had to get the approval of baseball commissioner Bud Selig before suiting up and heading onto the field with the Yankees.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he hasn’t determined what position Crystal will play on Thursday, but he says he wants the actor to have some playing time as a way of rewarding him for all that he has done for the team.
PATRICK PLAYS DOCTOR
Patrick Dempsey plays a doctor on the small screen at Seattle Grace Hospital, but in Maine his name will soon be synonymous with another medical facility.
The Central Maine Medical Center recently announced plans for a cancer center to be named the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing. The new addition is scheduled to open at the end of this month and was reportedly inspired by Dempsey’s mother who fought ovarian cancer and is now cancer free.
The “Grey’s Anatomy” star, who was born in Lewiston, Maine, told news reporters at the event that dealing with his mother’s illness – and tracking down information about it – prompted his action to fund the new cancer center. Dempsey says his sister, Mary, who works at the hospital, will run the center.