The big sports story in New York yesterday was actually in San Francisco, where free agent pitcher Barry Zito agreed to a 7-year, $126 million contract with the San Francisco Giants — the largest ever for a pitcher — ending the New York Mets chances of signing the Oakland A's lefty ace.

It also ended the what could've been seven years of delicious Page Six fodder, as Zito's off-the-field antics are — while relatively unknown in New York — downright bizarre. Take, for instance, his 2003 appearance on the Howard Stern Show:

Gary brought up a few interesting things about Barry during the interview. One of them was the fact that he sometimes sends his sister his scabs through the mail. Barry said the two of them just try to gross each other out. ... Howard spent a couple of minutes trying to get some info out of Barry about this Mexican soccer chick he dated. ... Howard took a few phone calls for Barry and Gary threw in a couple more interesting facts about him. Gary said that he knows Barry isn't gay but he does do yoga and lights aroma therapy candles before games. He also said that Barry carries around stuffed animals and two satin pink pillows. Barry said that he used to have a stuffed animal he carried but that was just in his rookie season. Robin wanted to know about the pink pillows but he never got to that. Artie joked and said that he read that Barry once had sex with a man ... but that's not gay.

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