Phil Rizzuto passes on. A great NY Yankee baseball player

[Subdivisions]

The 14-year short stop for the NY Yankees has died. Phil went into broadcasting when he retired from baseball.

RIP Phil.

Edited to add: Here is some background on "The Scooter": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Rizzuto

[shain from kane]

1. He'll always be remembered for this ---

Ok, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker
going here, two down, nobody on, no score,
bottom of the ninth, there's the wind-up and
there it is, a line shot up the middle, look
at him go. This boy can really fly!
He's rounding first and really turning it on
now, he's not letting up at all, he's gonna
try for second; the ball is bobbled out in center,
and here comes the throw, and what a throw!
He's gonna slide in head first, here he comes, he's out!
No, wait, safe--safe at second base, this kid really
makes things happen out there.
Batter steps up to the plate, here's the pitch--
he's going, and what a jump he's got, he's trying
for third, here's the throw, it's in the dirt--
safe at third! Holy cow, stolen base!
He's taking a pretty big lead out there, almost
daring him to try and pick him off. The pitcher
glance over, winds up, and it's bunted, bunted
down the third base line, the suicide squeeze in on!
Here he comes, squeeze play, it's gonna be close,
here's the throw, there's the play at the plate,
holy cow, I think he's gonna make it!

[BlooInBloo]

4. Hey! That's Paradise By The Dashboard Light!!!

[flvegan]

5. Stop right there! I gotta know right now...

I can't believe that immediately popped into my head.

[Subdivisions]

13. Good song.

[Midlodemocrat]

20. HOLY COW!!! My thoughts exactly.

RIP Phil, RIP.

[Jersey Devil]

37. Here's a link to audio

http://www.startribune.com/audio/rich_media/1361925.html

[Subdivisions]

11. HA! I totally freakin' forgot about that! I'm going to listen to Meatloaf

this instant!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. lol! I love that song! I remeber Phil once saying he had no idea that his

calling the plays would be used for Paradise.

[Jim__]

2. RIP

I never saw him play. But, I used to listen to him announce Yankee games on WPIX 11 with Mel Allen and Red Barber. Of the 3, he was my favorite.

[DainBramaged]

21. Yup, the best

[Branjor]

3. RIP Scooter....

I'm not going to tell my father, who's 90, has Alzheimers and is a lifelong Yankees fan. We both grew up within blocks of Yankee Stadium.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Many four to two's to you Mr. Rizzuto! Rest in peace! nt

[DainBramaged]

22. I think Mickey and Roger were waiting for him, gloves ready

:hi: :hi: :hi:

[Deb]

7. He made listening to games so much fun

Rest in peace, Phil. My condolences to his family and all those who loved him.

[krispos42]

8. I remember him

I'm not a baseball fan. My family is diehard Yankee fans, which makes me take a certain amount of pleasure whenever the Yanks lose, mostly because a) it's fun to hear Yankees fans explain how they defeated themselves while simultaniously mentioning how many World Series trophys they have, and b) the Yankee organization remeinds me of the RNC.

But Phil Rizzuto used to do ads for "The Money Store", which I know now is a lending institution, but back when I was little I had this vision of being able to buy all sorts of money in little plastic bags hanging from pegs. British, Italian, Russian... sort of like a coin-collecting store.

I remember asking my dad "Why would you want to buy money?" once. I don't remember the response, though.

[DainBramaged]

23. Gotta get those shots in at Yankee fans don't ya?

We're celebrating the wonderful life of Phil Rizutto, NOT your hatred of the Yankees.:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[krispos42]

30. I don't hate the Yankees

Never said I did.

Phil Rizutto was before my time, really. He retired from announcing when I was little, so it's not like I grew up listening to the sound of his voice. But I liked him in the context of what I remember seeing him, namely, as spokesman for The Money Store.

I meant no offense.

[devilgrrl]

9. "This is Phil Rizzuto for The Money Store!"

Anyone remember that commercial?I remember him from those.

[Bluzmann57]

10. RIP Phil Rizzuto

A Hall of Famer. Now he and Harry Caray, who started saying "Holy Cow" while Rizzuto was still turning double plays, can both say it together. As in "Holy Cow, things sure are screwed up in America".

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. Ohhhhhhhhhh tears here ((((((((((Scooter and his family)))))))). Such sad

news.

Hopefully he will now be playing in his field of dreams along with other Yankee greats.

[kenny blankenship]

14. You can still buy The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto

THE PENGUIN

O THAT'S GONE!
HOLY COW!
WATCH THE--
Look at the Penguin!
It's not gone.

I was watching him run.
Wait a minute.
When he hit it
That was the funniest run I've ever seen.
Watch this.




at Amazon

SQUIRRELS

I.

In the backyard we got a lot of trees.
In our home I've watched them leap
From limb to limb.
Unbelievable.

II.

Did you ever get one in your attic?
They're not too cute
When they get in your attic.
I'll tell you that.

III.

I would not harm a squirrel.
I don't want to get those animal lovers . . .
I got them in my attic.
No, I got,
But I got a squirrel cage
Then took them out in the woods
Over by Yogi's house
And dropped them off.




BUNS

He has powerful legs and cute buns,
That Henderson.
That was a great shot,
Going to second base there.
There's nothing wrong with that, White.
That's a popular expression.
High, and it's one and one.
His legs were churning.

[Tansy_Gold]

16. RIP, Scooter

As a lifelong White Sox fan, I hate the Yankees as a team, but there were certain players I couldn't help but like. Scooter Rizzuto was one of that special few.

Sad day.


Tansy Gold

[Gemini Cat]

33. You sound like me

I hate the Yankees as a team, but love some of the players. Scooter was one of those players.

[terisan]

17. ...and a guy who took money from tobacco companies to get little kids hooked on cigarettes.

I've seen Rizzuto's ads on the back cover of old baseball magazines. In the 1950's the link between lung cancer and cigarette-smoking was well-known to adults.
I knew a few of those 13 and 14 year olds who preferred to listen to their baseball heroes rther than their parents, started smoking early and died earlier than Phil---and from painful cancers and lung insufficiencies even though they had wised up as adults, realized Phil and the tobacco companies were a con, and had stopped smoking.

http://www.nearbycafe.com/politics/op_ed/archives/smoking.html

I'll never know how much long-term, irreversible damage I did to my health by smoking, of course. Are some of those consequences my own damn fault? Sure -- even though I was a naive, impressionable kid when I started. Might some of the blame be properly placed on the shoulders of the nicotine-addiction industry? I happen to think so.

I'm sitting here looking at a souvenir program for a 1950 National League baseball game between the Phillies and the Yankees. Casey Stengel was managing the Yanks, Billy Martin was on second, DiMaggio was in the outfield and Yogi squatted behind the plate. I was already a (Brooklyn) Dodgers fan at that time, so these guys were the arch-enemies, but still they were demi-gods; their word was good with me.

The program is filled with cigarette ads. Phil Rizzuto (a cigarette hanging from his lips) and Robin Roberts instruct me to "Make YOUR next pack Chesterfields." Would a little kid have felt some impulse to emulate them and follow their advice?

[DainBramaged]

24. Of course, let's blame Phil for all the lung cancer in the world

60 years ago these guys didn't know shit about the lung cancer/smoking link.

And I'm not going to respond goodbye.:spank:

[KharmaTrain]

18. A Class Act In So Many Ways...He's the GOOD Scooter

I had the chance to briefly say hello and shake this man's hand...and I still remember how I was impressed by how humble and sensitive he was for someone of such fame. Unlike many sports personalities I'd met...and almost all are very good people...Scooter was different. He was sophisticated yet, like Yogi, loved for being plain spoken. He was a great player who made the difficult plays look routine. He was an excellent broadcaster whose love of the game and ability to sound human that kept you listening/watching even if the game had gotten out of hand.

A job well done, Scooter. Cheers from this White Sox fan (even though we still think Luis Apparicio was the better Shortstop...lol).

:toast:

[DainBramaged]

19. Oh shit

OH SHIT.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20263214/


Damn it my history is disappearing all around me, and my hero's too.

Rest in Peace Phil, you were the best.






:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[bunkerbuster1]

25. Aww...

Wasn't a Yankees fan, but I loved listening to him doing (his own brand of kinda/sorta) play-by-play.

I've never been able to hear the word "Huckleberry" without thinking of Phil.

So long, guy.

[VWolf]

26. Damn. Why the hell

couldn't the other "Scooter" pass on???

[americanstranger]

27. Here's what may be Scoot's greatest call...

"Here's the windup, fastball, hit deep to right, this could be it! Way back there! Holy cow, he did it! Sixty-one for Maris! And look at the fight for that ball out there! Holy cow, what a shot! Another standing ovation for Maris, and they're still fighting for that ball out there, climbing over each other's backs. One of the greatest sights I've ever seen here at Yankee Stadium!"

---

And I repeat - Phil Rizzuto is, and always will be, the One And Only Scooter, Mr. Libby!

- as

[valerief]

28. I didn't know he played baseball. I thought he was just The Money Store guy. nt

[americanstranger]

31. One of the greatest shortstops ever to play the position.

He almost didn't get into the bigs because he was just a little guy.

And he was a master of the bunt. Here's a story about maybe the greatest Scooter bunt of all...

The signature play of Rizzuto's career occurred on Sept. 17, 1951. Cleveland came to Yankee Stadium tied for first place with New York. A pitcher's duel was tied at 1 entering the bottom of the ninth. With one out, the Yankees loaded the bases against the Indians' superb righthander, Bob Lemon. Rizzuto came to bat with a sellout crowd and the opposition expecting a suicide squeeze play. Sure enough, on a 1-0 pitch Joe DiMaggio broke towards home from third base. Lemon threw a pitch over Rizzuto's head, thinking it was impossible to bunt. But the Scooter managed to drop down a perfect bunt scoring DiMaggio and putting the Yankees in first place to stay.

A frustrated Lemon tossed his glove into the netting behind home plate before stalking off the field in disgust. "That squeeze play ... really hurt," Lemon said in "Phil Rizzuto: a Yankee Tradition." "I knew it was coming. DiMaggio gave it away. He broke too soon. I threw a ball right behind Phil's head and he still laid down a perfect bunt. I tried to pitch it where he couldn't bunt it, but he laid down a blueprint and the game was over. It felt just like when you throw a good pitch and somebody hits a home run to beat you."

Rizzuto's pragmatic reaction? "If I didn't bunt, it would have hit me in the head."

For a lot of good background on his playing career, read Bob Herzog's obit in Newsday:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-sprizzuto0814,0,2896633.story

- as

[welshTerrier2]

29. Holy cow!!

The Yankees have such a rich history, it seems we lose another great one all too frequently.

Phil will be missed.

[Bleacher Creature]

32. Wow, that's like a piece of my childhood gone.

I grew up watching Yankees games on WPIX in NY. I feel like Phil Rizzuto has ben old my whole life, so to finally see him pass is quite sad. I wish his family well.

[Javaman]

34. It's Miller time!

Man WPIX. Right there will you. :)

Good old Phil. He and Bill White. :)

[garybeck]

39. Those were the days. I didn't have cable TV but Scooter was also on the radio.

back then, the announcers would rotate between radio and TV every 3 innings. Today by contrast sucks. On the radio they have two "industry" announcers who know their stuff but have no playing experience or roots to the Yankees. It was a real PLUS back then to have Scooter and other retired players at the mic all game long. It was an a real treat to listen to them. Especially Scooter. RIP Scooter.

HOLY COW!

[DainBramaged]

41. Me too, first game was in 1961 that I can remember

Whitey Ford was pitching. And from his days of announcing with Bill White, the best.


How much longer will we have Yogi?

[BronxBoy]

35. Sad Day in Bronxland

I grew up in the Bronx and Phil Rizzuto was a part of everyone's lives. I don't care what nationality you were: whether you were rich or poor, everyone loved the scooter. My and my boys would crack up at the frequent ramblings he would go on during a broadcast.

I remember all the trouble he had getting elected to the hall of fame. Only in the Bronx at that time would you have a snotty young Black kid arguing that Rizzuto was being passed over because the media was anti-italian. LOL

RIP Phil

[shadowknows69]

36. This sucks

Good Journey to you Mr. Rizzuto. Holy Cow! You we're the first voice I heard doing the Yankees on the radio. When I found out you used to be a player I started learning my Yankee history and the tales of the great teams you were a part of. Crap now I have to go tell my wife about it. Barry who? Phil Rizzuto was a player back when it was still a game.

[Perky]

38. Actualy it's the Yankees that suck...RIP Scooter

[garybeck]

40. HOLY COW

I just had to say that.

RIP SCOOTER.