Phil Rizzuto

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Philip Francis Rizzuto (born Fiero Francis Rizzuto on September 25, 1917 is a former Major League Baseball player and radio/television sports announcer, known both for his skills as a player and his popular but idiosyncratic style as a broadcaster.

Nicknamed "The Scooter," Rizzuto is the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He moved to Hillside, New Jersey, in 1950 to a home on Windsor Way. With later financial successes Rizzuto moved to a magnificent tudor home on Westminster Avenue, where he lived for many years.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Playing career 3 Broadcasting career 4 Rizzuto's media career 5 Honors 6 Trivia 7 Health Issues Revealed In September 2006 8 Notes 9 External links

[edit] Early years

Rizzuto was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a streetcar motorman. Despite his diminutive size — usually listed during his playing career as five feet, six inches tall and 160 pounds — he played both baseball and football at Richmond Hill High School in Queens, New York.

While most sources have listed his birth date as 1918, he admitted many years ago that he had cut a year off his birth date early in his career.

[edit] Playing career

Phil Rizzuto is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame

Rizzuto's 1953 Topps baseball card read in part: "Phil was turned down by the Dodgers because he was too small. He tried out for the Yanks. Despite his size, a scout liked him and sent him to a Yank farm. Later Phil was the Yank shortstop who helped N.Y. beat the Dodgers in 3 World Series!"

Rizzuto played his first major-league game on April 14, 1941. He played for the New York Yankees for his entire 13-year career, almost exclusively as a shortstop. Like many baseball players, his career was interrupted by a stint in the United States Navy during World War II. From 1943 through 1945, he played on the Navy's baseball team.

Rizzuto was voted Most Valuable Player by a large margin in the American League in 1950, and was the runner-up for the award in 1949. He played in five All-Star Games, in 1942 and each year from 1950 to 1953. In 1950, he won the Hickok Belt, awarded to the top professional athlete of the year.

Rizzuto was noted for strong defense, "small ball" skills and clutch hitting, which helped the Yankees win seven World Series. As an offensive player, he is particularly regarded as one of the best bunters in baseball history. In retirement, he would often tutor players on the bunt during spring training. In the announcing booth, Rizzuto talked about the several different kinds of bunts he would use in different situations. Later during his broadcasting career, he would express disappointment that the art of bunting had largely been lost in baseball. Rizzuto led the AL in sacrifice hits for four consecutive seasons, and was in the top five for stolen bases seven times. Defensively, he led the league three times each in double plays and total chances per game, twice each in fielding and putouts, and once in assists. Rizzuto is in the top ten in several World Series categories, including games, hits, walks, runs, and steals.

Rizzuto's peak as a player was 1949-50, when he was moved into the leadoff spot. In 1950, his MVP season, he hit .324 with 92 walks, and scored 125 runs. Rizzuto also handled 238 consecutive chances without an error that season, setting the record for shortstops.

He was released by the Yankees on August 25, 1956. Rizzuto often talked about the unusual circumstances of his release. Late in the 1956 season, the Yankees acquired Enos Slaughter, and asked Rizzuto to meet with the front office to discuss adjustments to the upcoming postseason roster. They then asked Rizzuto to look over the list of Yankee players and suggest which ones might be cut to make room for Slaughter. For each name Rizzuto mentioned, a reason was given as to why that player needed to be kept. Finally, Rizzuto realized that the expendable name was his own.

[edit] Broadcasting career

Beginning the year after his retirement, Rizzuto broadcast Yankee games on radio and television for the next 40 years. His popular catchphrase was "Holy cow." Although Harry Caray was punctuating his broadcasts with the phrase even while Rizzuto was still playing, Rizzuto once claimed he'd been saying it his whole life, instead of using profanity.

Rizzuto also became known for saying "Unbelievable!" or "Did you see that?" to describe a great play, and would call somebody a "huckleberry" if he did something Rizzuto didn't like. He would frequently wish listeners a happy birthday or anniversary, send get-well wishes to fans in hospitals, and speak well of restaurants he liked, or of the cannoli he would eat between innings. He would also joke about leaving the game early, saying to his wife, "I'll be home soon, Cora!" and "I gotta get over that bridge", referring to the nearby George Washington Bridge, which he would use to get back to his home in Hillside, New Jersey. In later years, Rizzuto would announce the first six innings of Yankee games; the TV director would sometimes puckishly show a shot of the bridge after Rizzuto had departed.

Rizzuto's broadcast partners included Mel Allen (1957-64), Red Barber (1957-66), Joe Garagiola (1965-67), Jerry Coleman (1963-69), Bob Gamere (1970) , Frank Messer (1968-85), Bill White, (1971-88), former Yankee bullpen catcher Fran Healy (1978-81), John Gordon (1982-84), former Yankee slugger Bobby Murcer (1983-84, 1991-96, and still part of the Yankee broadcasting team in 2006), Spencer Ross (1985), Jim Kaat (1986), Billy Martin (1986-87, in between his third and fourth stints as Yankee manager), George Grande (1989-90), Tom Seaver (1989-93), Paul Olden (1994-95), and Rick Cerone (1996). Allen, Barber, Garagiola and Coleman have all been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as broadcasters, Seaver as a player. Coleman and Martin had played second base for the Yankees and had been double play partners of Rizzuto's.

Rizzuto would typically refer to his broadcast partners by their last names, calling them "White", "Murcer" and "Seaver" instead of "Bill", "Bobby" or "Tom." Reportedly, he did the same to teammates during his playing days.

Rizzuto's most significant moments as a broadcaster included the new single-season home run record set by Roger Maris on October 1, 1961, which he called on WCBS radio:

• "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!"

Rizzuto also called the pennant-winning home run hit by Chris Chambliss in the American League Championship Series on October 14, 1976, on WPIX television:

• "He hits one deep to right-center! That ball is out of here! The Yankees win the pennant! Holy cow, Chris Chambliss on one swing!" [As fans poured onto the field, tearing it up for souvenirs] "And the Yankees win the pennant. Unbelievable, what a finish! As dramatic a finish as you'd ever want to see! And this field will never be the same, but the Yankees have won it in the bottom of the 9th, seven to six!"

Rizzuto developed a reputation as a "homer," an announcer who would sometimes lapse into rooting for the home team.

Rizzuto also had more than his share of malapropisms and stream-of-consciousness commentary, which annoyed his critics but amused his fans:

• "Uh-oh, deep to left-center, nobody's gonna get that one! Holy cow, somebody got it!"

• "Bouncer to third, they'll never get him! No, why don't I just shut up!"

• "All right! Stay fair! No, it won't stay fair. Good thing it didn't stay fair, or I think he would've caught it!"

• "Oh, these Yankees can get the clutch hits, Murcer. I might have to go home early, I just got a cramp in my leg."

• "Well, that kind of puts the damper on even a Yankee win." (He was still on the air, just after a game, when he heard that Pope Paul VI had just died. Esquire Magazine called that the "Holiest Cow of 1978."

As Dave Righetti hurled his no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox on July 4, 1983 at Yankee Stadium, Rizzuto -- broadcasting on WABC radio -- described the video of a close play as if his listeners could see it. Partner Frank Messer gently jogged the Scooter's memory by quipping "Which side of the radio are we looking at?" (To be fair, Rizzuto and Messer alternated that day between WABC radio, TV's SportsChannel (now Fox Sports Net New York) and the Fan Appreciation giveaways on the field.)

Rizzuto once opened a broadcast by reading off a teleprompter, "Welcome to New York Yankee Baseball. I'm Bill White... wait, no." This caused White, standing to Scooter's left, to burst out in laughter.

Rizzuto's relationships with White and Healy (the latter first worked with Rizzuto on radio) produced some classic exchanges, including one with White during the WPIX telecast of the American League Eastern Division title game on October 2, 1978. Boston Red Sox batter Bob (Beetle) Bailey, who had gained a little weight, had just stepped into the batter's box:

• RIZZUTO: "Looks a little out of shape, doesn't he, Bill?"
• WHITE: (chuckles) "Well, Beetle's been around a while..."
• RIZZUTO: "Yeah."
• WHITE: "Got a lot of money -- from the Pirates. Put it all in California real estate. That's why he's got that big...uh..."
• RIZZUTO (chuckles): "Big WHAT?"
• WHITE: "Well, big BANK account." (Both men laugh.)

On the evening of Mickey Mantle's funeral (August 15, 1995) in Dallas, the Yankees were set to play the Boston Red Sox in Boston. Rizzuto naturally assumed that he would be allowed to miss the game to attend the funeral with former teammates, but was scheduled to call the game. WPIX and/or the Yankees refused to let him go, citing that "someone needed to do the color commentary." Rizzuto eventually gave into emotion and abruptly left the booth in the middle of the telecast saying he couldn't go on. Rizzuto announced his retirement from announcing soon afterwards, which many attributed to the incident. However, he was eventually persuaded to return for one more season in 1996, his 40th behind the microphone.^[1]

Phil Rizzuto placed 27th in the Curt Smith book Voices of Summer, which ranked baseball's 101 all-time best announcers.

[edit] Rizzuto's media career

Rizzuto was the longtime celebrity spokesman in TV ads for The Money Store. He was their spokesman into the 1990s after nearly 20 years. Also served for a number of years as the commercial spokesperson for Yoo-hoo beverages.

On February 2, 1950, Rizzuto was the very first mystery guest on the long-running 1950-67 Goodson-Todman Productions game show What's My Line? hosted by John Charles Daly. Rizzuto made four more appearances on the program, three as a guest panelist in the 1956-57 season following his retirement, and one in 1970 as the Mystery Guest on a later incarnation of the quiz show. Rizzuto has also had various other TV appearances.

Rizzuto is also somewhat famous as the announcer who provides the play-by-play commentary during the long spoken bridge in Meat Loaf's 1977 song Paradise by the Dashboard Light. Ostensibly an account of a baseball sequence, it actually describes the singer's efforts to lose his virginity. Rizzuto was reportedly unaware of the suggestive double entendre nature of his spoken contribution, and was initially annoyed by the song's success.

Rizzuto's cultural status was further elevated in 1993 when editors Tom Peyer and Hart Seely published O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto, a collection of Rizzuto's on-air monologues and ramblings, transcribed and reformatted as found poetry. Rizzuto donated his royalties from the book to a variety of children's charities. Some examples of Rizzuto the Poet include:

• Chaos

This is very interesting.

Forget the game.

Right here.

Here's a guy can't see.

All right,

Gene Larkin is the NO!

Gene Larkin?

What did he do?

Base on balls.

• Forever Young

Bobby Thigpen out there.

Number thirty-seven.

That's the guy in the Peanuts cartoon.

Pigpen.

That's a joke.

That guy in Peanuts with Charlie Brown.

He's always dirty.

Oh yeah.

Every day.

Orphan Annie.

You know,

She hasn't aged in thirty-two years.

• Legs

The legs are so important.

In golf, they're very,

People don't realize

How important legs are in golf,

Or in baseball,

And football, definitely.

Track.

O, in track.

All-important.

Jumping.

Soccer.

Is there anything, what?

Is there anything where the legs

Are not the most important?

[edit] Honors

The Yankees retired Rizzuto's number 10 in a ceremony at Yankee Stadium on August 4, 1985. During this ceremony, he was also given a plaque to be placed in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park. The plaque makes reference to the fact that he "has enjoyed two outstanding careers, all-time Yankee shortstop, one of the great Yankee broadcasters." Humorously, Rizzuto was accidentally bumped to the ground during his own ceremony, by a live cow wearing a halo (that is, a "holy cow"); both honoree and cow were unhurt. In that day's game, Tom Seaver recorded his 300th career victory.

Most baseball observers, including Rizzuto himself, would later decide that Derek Jeter had surpassed him as the greatest shortstop in New York Yankees history. The Scooter paid tribute to his heir apparent during the 2001 postseason at Yankee Stadium; jogging back to the Yankee dugout, he flipped the ceremonial baseball backhand, imitating Jeter's celebrated game-saving throw to home plate that had just occurred during the Yankees' 2001 American League Division Series triumph.

Phil Rizzuto was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994 by the Veterans Committee, following a long campaign for his election by Yankee fans who were frustrated that he had not received the honor. The push for Rizzuto became especially acute after 1984, when the Veterans elected Pee Wee Reese, the similarly-talented and similarly-regarded shortstop of the crosstown Brooklyn Dodgers.

Supporter Ted Williams claimed that his Red Sox would have won most of the Yankees' 1940s and 1950s pennants if they had had Rizzuto at shortstop.^[2] Though the claim is statistically dubious, the statement suggests the level of respect Rizzuto's play commanded. Williams was no doubt influenced by the 1949 and 1950 seasons, which coincided with Rizzuto's best playing performances and which both resulted in Boston finishing just one game behind the 97-win Yankees.

Bill James later used Phil Rizzuto's long candidacy and historically substandard Hall of Fame credentials as a recurring focus in his book Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?.

Rizzuto gave a memorably discombobulated acceptance speech at Cooperstown, in which he repeatedly complained about the buzzing flies that were pestering him. Rizzuto's "inimitable and wondrous digressions and ramblings" were mimicked by New York Times columnist Ira Berkow:

• Anyway, somewhere in the speech (Rizzuto) told about leaving home in Brooklyn for the first time when he was 19 years old and going to play shortstop in the minor league town of Bassett, Va., and he was on a train with no sleeper and when he got his first taste of Southern fried chicken and it was great and it was also the first time that he ever ate -- "Hey, White, what's that stuff that looks like oatmeal?" -- and Bill White, his onetime announcing partner on Yankee broadcasts, and, like all his partners, never seemed to learn their first names, though he knew the first and last names of a lot of the birthdays he forever is announcing and the owners of his favorite restaurants even though as he admits he often talks about the score or the game, but after 38 years of announcing games and after a 13-year playing career with championship Yankee teams few seem to care about this either, well, White was in the audience and stood up and said "Grits."

During his playing days, Rizzuto (along with several other big leaguers) would work in the off season at the American Shops off of U.S. Route 22 near Bayonne, New Jersey. In 1951, while at the American Shops, Rizzuto met a young blind boy named Ed Lucas, who had lost his sight when he was struck by a baseball on October 3. Rizzuto took an interest in the boy, and his school, St. Joseph's School for the Blind. Since then, Rizzuto has raised millions for St. Joseph's by donating profits from his commercials and books, and also by hosting the Annual Phil Rizzuto Celebrity Golf Classic and "Scooter" Awards.

[edit] Trivia

• Rizzuto devised the unique scoring notation "WW" for his scorecard; it stands for "Wasn't Watching."
• In the 1951 World Series, pugnacious Giants second baseman Eddie Stanky sparked a rally by kicking the ball out of Rizzuto's glove on a tag play. Decades later, Rizzuto still spoke of the play with annoyance.
• Rizzuto's name is mentioned in the 1995 Adam Sandler movie Billy Madison, when Sandler's character is attempting to write "Rizzuto" on a chalkboard in cursive, and is unable to properly write the lower-case z's.
• Seinfeld episode #150 features the Phil Rizzuto key chain that says: "Holy Cow!" whenever you squeeze his head.
• Rizzuto played alongside Bobby Brown and announced alongside Bill White; Brown and White would later serve concurrently as presidents of the American and National Leagues, respectively, between 1989 and 1994.
• Rizzuto decided to auction off his Most Valuable Player Award from the 1950 season on September 13, 2006, after he determined he could not figure out which of his children to will the special item to. The MVP award fetched $175,000. Three of Phil's World Series rings went for $84,825, and a Yankee cap with a wad of chewing gum on it went for $8,190. Known throughout the baseball world as one of the most giving former athletes, the vast majority of the proceeds went to Phil's long-time favorite charity, the St. Joseph's School for the Blind located in Jersey City, New Jersey.^[3] This is the school that Rizzuto routinely mentioned during WPIX broadcasts of Yankee games over the years, where his friend since 1951, Ed Lucas, attended.^[4]
• Credits former teammate and Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio with introducing him to his wife of over fifty years, Cora.
• Former Pro Wrestler turned author Mick Foley wrote a baseball themed novel entitled "Scooter" in which the main character Scooter Reilly is named after Rizzuto.

[edit] Health Issues Revealed In September 2006

When Rizzuto did not attend the annual New York Yankees Old Timers Day in 2006, questions were raised about his health. On September 12, 2006, the New York Post revealed that Rizzuto is currently in a "private rehab facility, trying to overcome muscle atrophy and problems with his esophagus."^[4]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• National Baseball Hall of Fame

• Baseball-Reference.com

• Phil Rizzuto's page on IMDB

Preceded by Ted Williams	American League Most Valuable Player 1950	Succeeded by Yogi Berra
Preceded by Jerry Coleman	Babe Ruth Award 1951	Succeeded by Johnny Mize