This Bryan Cranston How I Met Your Mother Scene Aged Hilariously Well(Photo Credit –CBS)
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How I Met Your Mother, over its decade-long run, delivered many one-liners that still live in the hearts of fans and even casual watchers. Neil Patrick Harris’s Barney Stinson alone was a wordsmith in his own right with catchphrases that turned out to be legendary. As it happens, HIMYM also recruited the services of other established Hollywood forces to be reckoned with in cameo appearances, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston emerging as one of the most cherished ones as Ted Mosby’s ruthless boss, Hammond Druthers.
But like every villain needs a soft spot to illustrate vulnerabilities for audiences to relate to, Bryan Cranston’s character brought unusual quirks—be it his architectural blueprint for a skyscraper that subtly echoed his phallic sentiments or his devotion to baseball legend Pete Rose. Bryan Cranston’s character Druthers, in the How I Met Your Mother Season 2 episode “Aldrin Justice,” unapologetically declares that Pete Rose should be in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, notwithstanding his “alleged” gambling addiction.
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As fate would have it, nearly 20 years later, Pete Rose, who passed away in 2024, has finally been reinstated in Major League Baseball with his ban lifted, much to the delight of Hammond Druthers, one would expect. (via MSports) This has also opened the doors for Hall of Fame eligibility for the all-time leading hitter in the history of MLB, who contributed to the dominance of the Cincinnati Reds during the 1970s.
Interestingly, one of the primary reasons Rose has been posthumously cleared of the charges is his lifelong supporter and fan, the sitting US President Donald J. Trump. The Apprentice host and Republican politician had announced in advance that he planned to issue a complete pardon for Rose should he need to. This, in turn, fueled MLB to reconsider its decisions and clear the legendary athlete not long after his passing.
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In the How I Met Your Mother episode, Bryan Cranston‘s character compares a thief’s actions to that of Rose’s alleged gambling, should the thief not return his precious possession — a baseball signed by Rose three times. “A man whose absence from the Hall of Fame is a travesty to the entire sports world,” were the character’s exact words when Lily Aldrin withered and, not too soon, returned the ball to Red to slip back in Druthers’ cabinet.
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Pete Rose is not the only time How I Met Your Mother played around with recurring gags within the sports world. Star NBA player LeBron James, who debuted in the tournament playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the home team of Ted Mosby’s Ohio state, famously switched to the Miami Heat halfway through the sitcom. This, in turn, opened the flood of “LeBron jokes” directed at Ted by his friends.
