by Stop Mike Lupica on August 14 at 12:55PM
Hey I hate sappy tribute posts and all that mushy stuff, too. But on the real - Phil Rizzuto passed away today. I never saw the guy play - his career as a ballplayer was long over by the time I was watching the Yankees in the 80's. But guess who was calling all those games when I was growing up - The Scooter. In fact, back before the Yankees changed baseball as a whole, and sold their games to cable, they were shown regularly on WPIX-11 here in New York. Phil Rizzuto was the voice of the Yankees for all those years (at least until the 7th inning, when he would take off to beat traffic), and was also regularly on during the commercial breaks, too.
A Money Store commercial can be found here (embedding is not permitted).
His 40 year broadcasting career was a huge part of why he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989. He did win the MVP in 1950, an impressive feat considering he was a decent hitting shortstop and small in size (5'6, 160). He was a clutch player, performing well in the World Series.
Phil Rizzuto had a bunch of pop culture references: A keychain with Phil's head on (one that says "Holy Cow" when squeezed appeared in the Seinfeld episode "The Pothole". He's play by play is featured prominently in Meatloaf's "Paradise By The Dashboard Light". And he got mentioned in a crappy Adam Sandler movie:
Enough background. I, like most Yankee fans my age or older, can remember Phil's calls during games. In fact, no matter how many years its been since he last called a game (11 years, in fact), it is still my default for what I expect to hear when I listen to a Yankees game. And rather than to bore you with anymore personal tributes, here is what I thought was the appropriate ending to this post - Scooter's legacy will also be a part of Yankee lore:
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A Money Store commercial can be found here (embedding is not permitted).
His 40 year broadcasting career was a huge part of why he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989. He did win the MVP in 1950, an impressive feat considering he was a decent hitting shortstop and small in size (5'6, 160). He was a clutch player, performing well in the World Series.
Phil Rizzuto had a bunch of pop culture references: A keychain with Phil's head on (one that says "Holy Cow" when squeezed appeared in the Seinfeld episode "The Pothole". He's play by play is featured prominently in Meatloaf's "Paradise By The Dashboard Light". And he got mentioned in a crappy Adam Sandler movie:
Enough background. I, like most Yankee fans my age or older, can remember Phil's calls during games. In fact, no matter how many years its been since he last called a game (11 years, in fact), it is still my default for what I expect to hear when I listen to a Yankees game. And rather than to bore you with anymore personal tributes, here is what I thought was the appropriate ending to this post - Scooter's legacy will also be a part of Yankee lore:
Leave a comment
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Ahhhhhhhh, the Money Store flashback!!!!
BTW, back then 7.5 was a great rate!
Long live the Scooter (I'm one of those saps!)