I absolutely LOVED Bob Costas’ interview with Billy Crystal on the MLB Network. (Yes, I know Costas also interviewed Sandusky about the Penn State mess on NBC, but I’m not going there.) What a fun show. Between the clips of the movie “61” and Crystal’s stories about Mantle, Jeter and Yogi, there was also little seen footage of Johnny Carson on the mound at Yankee Stadium and Crystal doing a dead-on impersonation of Phil Rizzuto in the broadcast booth.
And then there was this “SNL” skit.
I cracked up every time Crystal called Steinbrenner Jorge.
I hope the interview gets replayed so everybody can watch it. It really put a smile on my face, and, given the news lately, that was much appreciated.
Billy Crystal is a treasure.
New version of Yankee Hot Stove started last night on YES. Lorencz was his usual self but Sherman and Heyman were not great. Willie Randolph had great suit and tie on but he looked a bit uncomfortable in his debut. At least we now have something to watch instead of reruns of Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.
I love Costas and I opted to watch this too. I tried watching the Sandusky thing but I got sick about 2 minutes into it and just couldn’t do it. I’m sure Bob did a fine job, as fine as one could do in such an awful situation. Billy… well, still is simply marvelous!
Billy is a treasure, John. I’m glad he’s hosting the Oscars this year. Maybe he’ll throw in a few Yankee jokes. I wish I got the YES programming; I only get the games themselves. I didn’t realize Randolph had joined their group on the set. Hopefully he’ll relax in the job and avoid the fate of Tino, who never mastered the art.
I did catch a few minutes of the Sandusky thing, Jeff (then I switched over to ABC and the much happier story of Gabby Giffords) and I have to say that Costas did an amazing job with an ugly situation. It was interesting to watch him doing two completely different type of interviews on the same night, and I thought yet again how much I like him. Billy was very funny, plain and simple.
Oh, darn. Sorry I missed THAT! Had no idea it was on, but obviously it was missed. And, Lord knows, we need a respite from all the depressing sports news today. Hope you’re right and they rebroadcast…
Billy’s become as much of a treasure as all of his interviewees. Thanx for sharing that great ol’ SNL flashback! I’ll still never quite understand why you, dear She-Fan, did NOT like “61*” — yes, it had some less-than-flattering glimpses of Mick…but oh, so real, at least to me…and they worked SO hard on authenticity — saw a video once where they described how they went to old Tiger Stadium, before it was torn down, and REPAINTED the entire RF seat section with the actual (very rare) paint coloring to help make it look as identical to old YS as possible. Ho-lee Cow. No matter what your opinion of 61* — it was really truly a labor of love, and I’ll forever be indebted to Billy for being SO committed to it.
Dave, my critique (if it could even be called that) of “61” had nothing to do with its portrayal of Mantle. I’m the last person to want to sugar coat his flaws and have been recommending Jane Leavy’s warts-and-all book about him, which Costas said last night was one of the best sports biographies ever. And of course there was authenticity in the movie; Crystal talks about all that in the interview and describes how he used the old Tiger Stadium. I just didn’t love the movie as a MOVIE. Yes, the actors resembled the real athletes, but I didn’t find them to be compelling characters and I thought the script dragged.