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Worlds collided on Sunday in the Bronx when the New York Yankees faced a Houston Astros pitcher named Jason Alexander.
The irony, of course, is that the actor named Jason Alexander played the team’s “assistant to the traveling secretary” in the hit show, “Seinfeld.”
So, as Alexander, the pitcher, was warming up, Yankees announcer Michael Kay and his color commentator, former Yankee and Seinfeld guest Paul O’Neill, gave their scouting report on Alexander, using lines from the show.
“They must be playing [the episodes] more,” O’Neill joked.
“It’s not big time. It’s a good reminder, though, that you were on the show. It’s kinda cool,” he said last year.
In addition to O’Neill, Yankees players Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Danny Tartabull and manager Buck Showalter also appeared on the series, while a stunt double was used for Steinbrenner, who was voiced by co-creator Larry David. The real Steinbrenner did film a scene that was never used, but he was never as open as the fake one to his mistake in trading Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps.
O’Neill had 15 multi-homer games in his career, including hitting three dingers on Aug. 31, 1995 (the fictitious game in the “Seinfeld” episode was not one of them, as an apparent inside-the-park home run was ruled a triple and he scored on an error).
The Yankees retired his No. 21 in 2022. Pitcher LaTroy Hawkins wore it in 2008, seven years after O’Neill retired, but was booed because of it, leaving it to be unofficially retired until it was finally honored in Monument Park.
O’Neill played for the Yankees from 1993 to 2001, after spending his previous eight seasons with the Cincinnati Reds.
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