Back in 1992, my dad took me to a Yankee game, which was preceded by a celebrity softball game: Donald Trump’s New York Stars vs. the Hollywood Stars.
Trump’s Yankee cap teetered atop his crazy hair while he played a shaky first base. But playing third was a guy I loved: Mark Derwin, who starred as Detective AC Mallet on “Guiding Light.”
Bored afternoons after school, I’d become hooked on the soap, and AC was not only a cool character, but Mark would improv references to the Yankees in between his lines. (“If we’re lucky, that’ll all happen just in time for the World Series… go Yankees.”)
He was a kickass third baseman, by the way, and when I became an actor, I vowed I would meet him someday and tell him I saw him play and loved the Yanks as well. But before I could, I went ahead and DM’d him on Twitter. We became instant friends.
Like me, Mark watches every inning of every Yankee game, so we text non-stop. After he flew to New York this week, Yankee radio announcer Suzyn Waldman gave him tickets to last night’s game and invited him into the radio booth. He sent me the above pic, which features legendary announcer John Sterling (who Mark has known since the 90s) on the left, Suzyn in the middle, and Mark to the right of her.
I don’t have jealousy issues, but I do have “send me one pic of yourself with my heroes and I may have to cut you” issues. Love you nonetheless, Mark.
