Farewell Scooter (the good one)

One of my favorite broadcasters and radio personalities, not to mention one hell of a shortstop, Phil Rizzuto, died today.

Although I am a lifelong New Yorker, I was not always a Yankee Fan. As a kid I had passing flirtations with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the San Franscisco Giants (Willie Mays being my favorite player of the time), and also the New York Mets when they first appeared and when Willie played with them, but the Beloved Yankees were really always my team. And synonymous with the Yankees was the voice of Phil Rizzuto.

In grade school I idolized Mantle and Maris, of course, but paid little attention to Scooter as a player. He was there, but his career was on the wane by then and before long I began hearing him on the radio along with Mel Allen and Red Barber, but that was about the time that I began my flirtations with the National League and I didn’t really connect with Rizzuto until years later when I was in my mid twenties and was sharing a spacious Flatbush apartment with two batchelor roomates. The Yankees were being broadcast every night on WPIX Channel 11 and Rizzuto and Bill White were announcing the games, and during those years in the 1970′s Phil Rizzuto became a part of my life experience. I loved his style, his love of all things New York, and his love of the Beloveds. He was one of a kind. Listening to him call a game brought the action to my mind’s eye and his love of the game of baseball came right through the airwaves and out of the speakers of my TVs and radios. The Scooter gave me many hours of joy over many, many years, and I will rememember him fondly for the rest of my life. Holy Cow indeed.

(There is a nice tribute to Scooter on the YES website here and here. As for the Meatloaf song. I’ve always been kind of embarrassed to be caught listening to it, but it’s also been a guilty pleasure. One of the things that got me to pay attention to this song in the first place was that The Scooter was featured in it.)

UPDATE: I just came across this, “Oh Holy Cow, The selected verse of Phil Rizzuto”.

Reversal of Opinion
And he hits one in the hole
They’re gonna have to hurry.
THEY’LL NEVER GET HIM!
They got him.
How do you like that.
Holy cow.
I changed my mind before he got there.
So that doesn’t count as an error.
July 10, 1992. Seattle at New York. Dave Fleming pitching to Andy Stankiewicz.
First inning, no outs, bases empty. Mariners lead 1-0.

Lovely.