Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Mighty Billy Crystal Has…

On the heels of a very serious brawl during one of their spring-training games, the Yankees managed to lighten the mood today by sending Billy Crystal out as their leadoff hitter against the Pirates.

Crystal — who had been signed by the Yankees to a one-day contract as a 60th birthday gift — managed to work the count to 3-1 before whiffing at two pitches by Pirates starter Paul Maholm to strikeout.

Crystal was set to come to bat again in the bottom of the third but, with a runner on first and two out, he was swapped out for star slugger Johnny Damon, who the Yanks apparently figured was their best chance to push the lone base-runner home. Damon came in, took one pitch and promptly grounded to third on the next pitch to end the inning.

They may as well have kept Crystal in. He, at least, in his lone at-bat, was close to working a walk against a pitcher who was at the top of his game, throwing four shutout innings of one-hit ball against some of the most powerful bats the Yankees could muster.

While Crystal may have finished his professional baseball career with a lifetime batting average of .000, perhaps for his next act — given his very disciplined at-bat — he could run a batting clinic for the free-swinging leadoff hitter for the Yankees’ cross-town rivals. We know Crystal already has a Mets’ hat he can wear if need be.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.