“Just like an opening night on Broadway, says Kaye of draft”
St. Joseph News-
NEW YORK (AP)—For Danny Kaye, it was like opening night on Broadway.
“Everything is related, the theatre, movies, and baseball,” the copper-
Kaye, as part owner of the Seattle Mariners, joined co-
Kaye, dapper in an open shirt and bandana, posed with Commissioner Bowie Kuhn before opening of the draft and then personally made the first choice—Rupert Jones, a young outfielder out of Kansas City organization.
One would have thought Danny had just won the Oscar.
“It’s like picking the cast for a show,” the actor said. “You know: Who will fit best here? Who will be better there? Our first aim was to choose the best athletes. But, if you work solely on that formula, you probably would wind up with nine outfielders.
“It’s a very exciting exercise.”
Kaye is following in the tradition of other show business personalities who have let their sideline interests drift to baseball—Bing Crosby with the Pittsburgh Pirates, for instance, Bob Hope with the Cleveland Indians and cowboy star Gene Autry, now owner of the California Angels.
Unlike Crosby and Hope, Kaye is more than a sugar daddy and a figure-
“All of us have Walter Mitty fantasies,” said Danny, who once played the title role in a movie dealing with the milquetoast whose lofty goals became true in his dreams.
“I am a lucky man. In all my professional life, I have seen my fantasies become realities. And now, an avid fan all my life, I have reached full fruition by having an ownership role with my own ball club.”
Danny grew up in Brooklyn and almost from the time he was big enough to walk was a Dodger rooter.
“I saved all my nickels and dimes to pay my way into the bleachers at Ebbets Field,” he said. “All my heroes wore Dodger uniforms. Even after I got into show business and spent much of my time on the West Coast, I couldn’t wait to get back to cheer for Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges and Duke Snider—what a team they were.
“As kids, we took survival equipment when we crossed the river to the Polo Grounds. And the American League—it was in another hemisphere. The Yankees—they were creatures of another world.”