Danny DeVito Joins Dodgers’ Nick Punto On Field

Danny DeVito is one of America’s favorite living comic actors.

But Monday, Danny DeVito was wearing his fan hat rather than his star one. Actually, a jersey to be more precise.

Stars have favorite celebrities too, and Nick Punto — the shortest Dodger at 5’9? — may now be one of DeVito’s. So when Punto and DeVito met up on the field after the night’s win was sealed, it was probably cool for DeVito, too.

But there’s some backstory.

The Los Angeles Times notes that the meetup was something that happened because of an earlier conversation and a joke that the relatively short Italian-American ballplayer reminded a teammate of DeVito:

“The roots were planted on a recent televised baseball show, when Dodger Skip Schumaker joked that Punto reminded him of another diminutive Italian, namely DeVito.

Said Schumaker: ‘I kind of, sort of, said it.’

Said Punto: ‘I believe he did say it.’ ”

The paper goes on, noting that the one-off joke led to the nifty post-game interview featuring none other than Danny DeVito. Late in the game, Punto hit a home over the right-field wall, but before that, a friend who heard the exchange sent DeVito a package with a Nick Punto jersey in it:

“So now Nick Punto supposedly looks Danny DeVito, and the joke simmered for a few days until last weekend when a longtime season-ticket holder who sits next to the Dodgers dugout — Dr. David Kipper — casually mentioned to one of the ushers that he was bringing a friend to Monday’s game… Guy by the name of Danny DeVito.”

Punto says of the meeting that Danny DeVito was “was coming in for the hug, he’s a good Italian, I know he’s a hugger.” Watch Bleacher Report’s clip, above.