Well, look who is back in the Big Apple. Buck Showalter is returning to the city that never sleeps as manager of the New York Mets more than 25 years after being fired by the Yankees. And while he had success on the field, his most memorable moment in pinstripes happened on the silver screen.
The legendary Buck Showalter cameo on Seinfeld is an amazing minute of comedy television. Especially considering he didn’t even know what the show was prior to being asked. The skipper avoided that awkward appearance most athletes exude when reading lines. Dude looked and sounded like an actual character.
It must be noted that the script helped him a ton. The callback to George messing up Danny Tartabull’s swing was well done. Apart from that, he wasn’t asked to do too much. His facial expressions and look of deep thought when hearing about the cotton jerseys were spot on. Everything about it made you think Showalter could act.
The interesting thing about this scene is that it was actually filmed in Anaheim Stadium, home of the then California Angels, while the New York Yankees were on a road trip. In case you are keeping score at home, Angels in the Outfield filmed the team’s home games in the Oakland Coliseum while the home of the Bronx Bombers was shot at the Angels’ home.
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What you didn’t know about the Buck Showalter cameo on Seinfeld
Whenever Buck Showalter is asked about his cameo on Seinfeld, he almost always mentions how it costs him money to this day. You can watch the video below for details, but basically the former Orioles manager scores a cool 89 cents every time his episode airs in syndication.
However, he gets dinged $19.34 due to his Screen Actors Guild membership and other taxes. That’s right, he is still paying for his guest spot nearly three decades after it first aired. Not only that, but apparently George Steinbrenner, his boss at the time, wasn’t too fond of his employee appearing in an episode of Seinfeld.
Big Stein told his manager to never do the show again, although the Boss ended up doing his own cameo on the sitcom that would be cut before airing.
