Crystal at bat overshadows Mussina gem

Lane, Rodriguez and Crystal

The Canadian Press

3/13/2008 5:29:54 PM

TAMPA, Fla. - Mike Mussina threw five perfect innings, but got overshadowed by a batter that struck out in his lone at-bat in the New York Yankees’ 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.

Mussina’s outing didn’t get the biggest ovation from the 10,705 fans at Legends Field. That honour went to actor Billy Crystal, who was in the Yankees’ starting lineup as the leadoff batter and designated hitter. New York gave Crystal, the longtime Yankees" fan who turns 60 Friday, the opportunity to play as a reward for his ambassador-like role for baseball.

"It was unbelievable," Crystal said.

Crystal went down swinging in his only plate appearance in the first against Pirates left-hander Paul Maholm. He waved toward the fans when returning to the dugout.

Source: www.tsn.ca

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 8:39 pm and is filed under All Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.