Phil ‘The Scooter’ Rizzuto would have been 95 today, so I thought it would be fun to look back at some of his numbers and if you have any Scooter memories, you can leave them in the comments. Though to be honest, if you’re old enough to have seen him play, I’m impressed that you know how to use the Internet.
His career slash line: .273/.351/.355/.706
His OPS+: 93
Rizzuto won the MVP Award in 1950. He batted .324/.418/.439/.857 and had an OPS+ of 122. He had a career high of seven home runs – yes, seven – and collected 66 RBI – not a career high. He had 200 hits, walked 96 times and only struck out 39 times.
Rizzuto was a World Series champion in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1953, and he made the All-Star team five times in 1942, 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1953.
The Yankees retired his number 10 during a ceremony at the Stadium on August 4, 1985 and in an infamous moment, presented him with a “Holy Cow” – a cow with a halo – who knocked Rizzuto to the ground. Thankfully, he was not hurt.
Most people remember Rizzuto, the Yankee broadcaster, who worked in the booth from 1957-1996. Rizzuto was known for his memorable calls and even more memorable flubs. The most notable being the time he introduced himself as Bill White, his broadcasting partner at the time.
Rizzuto was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1994 and after a few years of declining heath, The Scooter passed away on August 13, 2007.
So, what are your favorite memories of the Scooter?
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9 Responses to Flashback: Phil Rizzuto
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TIQ IQ
I never saw him play, but I loved him as an announcer. He, Bill White, and Frank Messer were the announcers I grew up on, and I very fond memories of them all.
My favorite Rizzuto moment? When they showed a shot of the moon, and Rizzuto said (paraphrase), “There’s the moon. Look, you can see Texas. … Wait a minute. Texas isn’t on the moon!” He cracked Bill White up with that one.
It’s part of his book of “found poetry,” some of his off-topic broadcasting printed as though it were free verse.
I also loved the day he interviewed Billy Martin live on the field and Martin put a rubber snake in his jacket.
Later on, he’d gotten a little too off-topic, and they banished him to radio. he was paired with Fran Healey, who couldn’t keep him focused the way Bill White could. I used to like listening to them, but every half hour I had to switch to WINS to get the score.
He rooted like hell for the Yankees, but he never called a bad play a good one just to make it seem like something special was going on, like so many of the national broadcasters did.
I remember him playing in an old-timers game, and explaining that he made an error because the ball hit an air pocket.
Phil Rizzuto was my childhood. I miss him.
Does Old Timer’s Day count? Ha-ha!
I have so many fun memories of the Scooter in the broadcast booth many of which involve him being teased by Bill White. One time White, playing off Rizzuto’s propensity for announcing birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions handed Rizzuto an announcement for a divorce that some fan had sent in.
I also remember Rizzuto’s unique score keeping in which he marked large sections of his scorecard with a “WW” for “wasn’t watching”. Then there was his habit of dashing out of the booth after the 7th inning to beat the traffic sometimes leaving his broadcast partners to pick up the slack if there were extra innings (I guess they didn’t remember that so fondly – although White one time teased him about living in fear of missing his exit and having to pay an extra 10 cents in tolls).
And then there was Scooter’s appearance on Meat Loaf’s Paradise by the Dashboard Lights for which he received a gold record (presented personally by Meat Loaf in a visit to the Yankee Stadium broadcast booth).
I really miss the Scooter and White although I suspect there might be a “Fire Joe Morgan” type web site dedicated to them if they were still around today.
Ha. That’s great. I’d totally do the “WW” thing too.
My first full year watching the Yankees was 1950, Phil’s MVP year!
And nothing was more hilarious than the time Phil introduced himself as Bill White. As far as computing goes, I bet you never heard of Kaypro, WordStar or the CP/M operating system all big in the 1980′s!
Heh well I do remember using MS-DOS which is similar to CP/M.
I’m 38. The internet started to get really big when I first entered the workforce. :)
That was my second operating system.
I forgot about that one – White’s reaction was priceless!
I distinctly remember Rizzuto saying Mike Boddicker of the Orioles wanted to beat him up – something about what Phil said about Boddicker – and Phil sounded serious. WTFIUWT? LOL!
11…Alive! Remember that?
I have no exact favorite Rizzuto moment…but I was born in 1959 and grew up in a home that watched Yankee baseball…Phil Rizzuto is part of my consciousness. He is as much a part of my lifelong Yankee experience as any player.