For New Yorkers of a certain vintage, shots of a manical Penny Crone cackling away in front of celebrating Yankee fans were a big a part of the local TV news tapestry, right up there with regular Freddy “Sez” sightings.  The exploits of the former WNYW reporter — now selling real estate for a tony NYC agency — are remembered fondly by the New York Times’ James Barron.

Early in Derek Jeter™s career, she took a look at him in street clothes, and wondered about the fit of his slacks.

œI walked right up to Derek Jeter and I said, ˜Derek, why don™t you wear tighter pants?™  she recalled. œAnd what did Derek say? Not too much. He looked at me like I was nuts.

“Gatorade man? She yelled that at someone who walked into the stadium with a large barrel of ” well, you know. He was blocking her shot, which ruins everything in television news. The man turned out to be Willie Randolph, a Yankees coach at the time and later the manager of the Mets.

There was the day she went to a bagel factory and the anchor introduced her as œan industrial accident waiting to happen.

And there was the time she interviewed Yogi Berra and called him œYogi Bear.

œMy husband told me that Yogi Berra was named after Yogi Bear, she said, œso I thought his name was Yogi Bear. So we™re sitting in his living room, me on one side, Yogi Berra on the other, the fireplace, and I said, ˜Good evening, Mr. Bear.™