‘Seinfeld,” one of TV’s most iconic New York-based shows, made its debut 25 years ago on Saturday.
The Brooklyn Cyclones are promoting the sitcom’s silver anniversary with Seinfeld Night at MCU Park in Coney Island — which will be dubbed Vandelay Industries Park in honor of one of the show’s running gags.
amNewYork figured this is the perfect time to pay homage to Jerry Seinfeld’s crowning achievement and billion-dollar cash cow by naming the top sports-related happenings in the program’s hilarious history.
‘The New York Yankees’
Improbably, George (Jason Alexander) scores the job of a lifetime with the Yankees as assistant to the traveling secretary. During his tenure, he switches the team to cotton uniforms — which shrink — brings George Steinbrenner (voiced by Larry David) daily calzone lunches, has The Boss believe he’s dead and offers his own hitting advice to Bernie Williams and a young Derek Jeter.
‘I’m Keith Hernandez’
In a two-part episode, Kramer (Michael Richards) and Newman (Wayne Knight) detail an incident in which the former Met with the famous ‘stache allegedly spit on them in 1987. Spoiler alert: it was actually reliever Roger McDowell. Hernandez also dates Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and becomes pals with Jerry, but neither relationship lasts.
‘We’re the Devils!’
Jerry, Kramer, Elaine and her boyfriend David Puddy (Patrick Warburton) score Rangers playoff tickets. Puddy, a Devils fan and face-painter, is the typical rabid sports nut who threatens Blueshirts goalie Mike Richter’s life and, later, puts the fear of Satan into one unfortunate priest.
‘That’s not a home run’
Kramer, in an effort to get back Steinbrenner’s team-signed birthday card, pledges a sick kid that the Yankees rightfielder will hit two homers for him. Paul O’Neill, annoyed at Kramer, knocks one over the wall and then appears to leg out an inside-the-park home run, but it’s ruled a triple and an error, so the boy won’t give up the card.
‘What is that, a Titleist?’
George, looking to uphold the charade that he is a marine biologist, saves a beached whale in the Rockaways. That alone has nothing to do with sports, but couple that with the fact that George reveals “the obstruction” to be a golf ball much like the hundreds Kramer had been smacking into the ocean.
‘I may be old, but I’m spry’
Kramer lands a job as a ball boy — or “ball man,” as Jerry puts it — for the U.S. Open for the women’s final because “They said they haven’t seen anybody go after balls with such gusto.” It doesn’t end well, as he knocks into Monica Seles during warm-ups. In a way, art imitated life. Two-time Open champ Seles never won another Grand Slam in Queens.
‘I guess I hit the snooze’
Jerry makes it his mission to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself for a runner from Trinidad and Tobago, who is in town for the New York City Marathon and overslept for his race at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. A power outage screws up his alarm clock, but he manages to get to the race in time. However, a misunderstanding leads to Kramer’s hot tea scalding the runner at the finish line.
