NICK TURTURRO DIEHARD YANKEES FAN ON HOW TEAM GETS BACK TO WORLD SERIES, SUDDEN TIKTOK FAME.
Turturro gave some insight on his predictions for the Yankees’ season.
LAS VEGAS – Before Nick Turturro became an Emmy Award-winning star on the television series “NYPD Blue” and starred in “The Longest Yard,” he was first and foremost a New York Yankees fan.
Turturro made an appearance at the Parlor Games Celebrity Basketball Classic at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas Saturday and gave some insight to Fox News Digital about how his beloved Yankees are going to make it back to the World Series.
After winning Saturday night, the Yankees improved to 15-6 and had a 1 ½-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East while riding an eight-game winning streak.
“First, you gotta win a series in the playoffs. It’s all about pitching. After pitching, they get a little timely hitting, and they don’t rely on just home run or nothing. Maybe then we can make a serious run for the World Series. It’s time,” the Brooklyn, New York, native said.
“We’ve been waiting a long time. But you know, you gotta do it in the postseason. They’ve come up short a lot. We’ll see. They’ve got a good bullpen, got a couple improvements. (Anthony) Rizzo is a big addition. I’m cautiously optimistic.”
The failure of the Yankees’ front office to reach a long-term contract extension with slugger Aaron Judge has fans concerned about whether the outfielder will still be with the team come the winter.
But Turturro said he wasn’t sounding the alarm just yet.
“I don’t think he will go to another team. I’m a little concerned, but they have to keep Judge. It’s good for him. It’s good for everybody. He’s a Yankee. He’s the face of the Yankees. Not only that, there’s not a lot of guys in baseball like Judge,” he said. “They both need each other. Let’s just hope in the end (Judge stays), otherwise it would be a disaster, PR wise.”
Turturro won his Emmy playing James Martinez on “NYPD Blue” and made audiences laugh playing Brucie alongside Adam Sandler’s Paul Crewe in “The Longest Yard.” But he’s gaining even more of a following through TikTok.
Turturro develops comedic skits with White Claw Gabe, and the actor has amassed more than 768,000 followers on TikTok.
He told Fox News Digital he credits son Nick Turturro III, who he calls Nick Nick, and White Claw Gabe for the following.
“TikTok is my son Nick Nick. He’s sort of the brains behind it. Brucie is a big inspiration for the TikToks. But now I got White Claw Gabe, another phenomenon on TikTok. We’re doing a lot of skits. He comes up with some really silly stuff. It’s really funny,” Turturro said.
“Some of the stuff I like, he would be like ‘nah, nah don’t do that.’ But overall, I’m having fun with it because it’s a different world today. When I was coming up, they didn’t have social media. I’m just trying to play the game.”
Some of Turturro’s videos have received more than 1 million views.
