Seinfeld, "City Slickers", and the Schmoozer

So Happy Thanksgiving all. Old Sip ventured out to Boston to do turkey with the future in-laws. All went pretty smoothly and the food was pretty good.

AFOMG took over writing responsibilities over the break; if you haven't checked out his posts from Thursday and Friday, you should. Like my man K-Fed, AFOMG has some serious flow.

There was one real big story in the news of late: BJ Ryan going to Toronto. All of a sudden, Toronto is spending (they are in the hunt for Brian Giles and AJ Burnett as well), Boston has gotten better (Beckett, Lowell, Mota), and both Tampa and Baltimore are young and only getting better.

Meanwhile, the Yankees are cutting salary and for the first time ever, unable to sign any big names.

Check out the blog tommorow for why the Yankees wil finish DEAD LAST IN THE AL EAST in '06.

Today, after reading the following quote, and taking some time to really think about it, I thought, heck, I'm going to write about this.

From a Steve Somers interview with Jerry Seinfeld on the Fan (NY's local sports talk radio):

Steve Sommers: Is this a Met town or a Yankee town?

Jerry Seinfeld: It depends if you have a personality or if you need a personality. If you have one, the Mets. If you need one, the Yankees.

I've never been a big Seinfeld guy, which my friends kill me about. Truth is, every time Ive watched it, I loved it and I think I need to give it more of a shake.

But reading this quote made me curious about Seinfeld, a Mets fan, in comparison to the Yankees #1 fan, Billy Crystal.

Forget about the fact that George worked for the Yankees, which was more than anything a running gag at George Steinbrenner's expense. Go back in the vault to those first several seasons when the show was really about New York (that's not a knock on later seasons, which were good and sometimes classic, with the notable exception of the last one).

Those episodes were littered with Mets references and imagery. A Mets hat on Jerry's wall. Jerry answering his phone with "If you know what happened in the Mets game don't tell me becuase I recorded it!" rather than "Hello?", only to have his plans dashed by Kramer.

And of course, Who does this guy think he is? "I'm Keith Hernandez".

The show was rife with Mets imagery before it changed in its way. It went from being a show about nothing in New York to a show about nothing. The change wasn't all bad by any means, but it meant leaving certain hallmarks of the city behind. That's show business for you, I guess. It doesn't change the fact of those early seasons, and in those early seasons, not one of those characters would have been caught with Yankee hat on (not even Elaine, who was a Baltimore Orioles fan).

All of which brings me back to "City Slickers". So I remember watching "City Slickers" as a kid and loving it. I loved the story, the characters, that cow/calf and most importantly, that Billy Crystal was a Mets fan. Here was a guy repping my city, in this huge movie and, of course, he wore a Mets hat.

Of course, at the time, New York was a Mets city. In the late 80's the Mets sat among baseball's elite, while the Yankees were nothing more than a Don Mattingly mustache.

The symbol of the Mets then was synonomous with winning just like today. Today it's Yankee hats that are sprinkled throughout popular culture, witness the critically acclaimed frontrunner for Yankees 2000 film of the year, "Get Rich or Die Tryin". (Note: we have not seen this movie yet, but it has to be awesome. I mean come on, the guy will do anything he can to make money, or die attempting to do so... can you say best original screenplay?)

So I bring this up only because I remembered, isn't Billy Crystal a DIE HARD Yankee fan?

The answer is yes. Billy C. grew up a die hard fan of the Mantles and Dimaggios. He even made the HBO stinker "61*", which led me to sign all my papers in high school, Sippy Momo*, but that's yet again, another meaningless sidenote to help you guys get to know your author.

So what have we got? We've got a die hard Yankee fan wearing a Mets hat in a film that the whole country sees. There are a few ways to defend Billy C. in his choice of hats, but let's consider the possibilities:

1. He was a fair weather fan as a kid, loved the Yankees when they were winning then loved the Mets when they became good.

2. The Mets were a better sell, more popular and, thus more relatable to movie audiences. Basically, Crystal was selling out his true passion for box office gross

3. B.C. is full of shit, never cared about baseball and was just trying to overcome his lack of height (just like Eric K. w/ the red hair thing) by pretending to be a huge baseball fan.

All three of these defenses don't hold much for Bily C. Either Billy C. was a sellout, a fair weather fan, or a liar. Rough one.

Now this argument, light-hearted though it is, is not entirely facetious. See, people always ask me,"Hey Sip, would you take the Yankees GM job, today if they offered it to you?"

My answer is always a very strong no.

I always say to them, "I'd rather my son be a ___, than be a Yankee fan." You can fill in the blank according to your own personal distaste.

As a Mets fan I consider orange and blue to be one of the things I stand for. It is a lot of who I am. Working for the Yankees would go against every part of who I am and I could never do it. (Please read: I'm looking for a job in baseball. First Yankees 2000 reader to hook it up gets a signed Sippy Momo West Side little League jersey)

I love Kevin James (fat dude from King of Queens) not only cause he is married to Stacy Karosi (Saved By the Bell) but also because he sits there in the VIP bx to the left of the Mets dugout 10-15 times per year.

If I were celebrity, I think my cause would be the Mets. I would be at every game possible just so some kid could be like, "woah, there's Sippy Momo, he is stunningly attractive AND a Mets fan. Lets go to a Mets game, Dad."

People will make the argument that Seinfeld featured the Yankees a ton, mainly George with George Steinbrenner. Others will make the fair point that Seinfeld didn't demonstrate an encyclopedic knowledge of the Mets in his interview with Steve Somers.

This just doesn't hold up. See, I would have no problem with Billy C if he gave the dude with the sweet mustache who banged the flight attendant OR the guys from "Home Alone" the Mets hat.

This would have provided the same effect for the movie and Crystal could have come off clean. But he did not.

Jerry Seinfeld, like the Mets, has personality. He stayed true to who he was even if the show moved away from its strict New York emphasis. He never wore a Yankee hat, that's for damn sure.

Word on the street is that despite his midwestern upbringing, Johnny Utah was also a die hard Mets fan and chose Ohio St. over a close second, Columbia University.

Truth and Pride,

SM