The mean old Pirates struck out Billy Crystal

While everyone appeared to have fun during this afternoon’s celebration of Billy Crystal’s birthday, one writer for The Times thinks that the Pirates blew a golden opportunity to earn some good baseball karma. Writing on the Bats blog, Richard Sandomir takes Paul Maholm to task for throwing Crystal a steady diet of sliders and cut fastballs. “Had Maholm laid it in for Crystal, he might have been reciting David Letterman’s Top 10 list on Friday. Instead, he’s the pitcher with a career 10-15 record who whiffed a comedian one day from turning into a sexagenarian,” he writes. Ouch.