Yankee great Rizzuto dies at age 89
Hall of Fame shortstop popularized 'Holy Cow' on broadcasts
 Kidwiler Collection / Diamond Images/Getty Images New York Yankees rookie shortstop Phil Rizzuto poses for an action shot prior to a game in 1941 at Yankee Stadium. |
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 Nats name Riggleman Jim Riggleman was officially introduced as the manager of the Washington Nationals. |
 | ZeitGeist: News satire |
 | We'll miss you, Scooter Aug. 14: Former New York Yankees player and broadcaster Phil Rizzuto was one of a kind. What other announcer would leave a game he was calling after the 6th inning because he wanted to beat the traffic? Willie Geist remembers one of baseball's all-time great characters. ZeitGeist |
NEW YORK - His speed and spunk made him a Hall of Famer.
“Holy cow!” made Phil Rizzuto famous.
Popular as a player and beloved as a broadcaster, the New York Yankees shortstop during their dynasty years of the 1940s and 1950s died Monday night. “The Scooter” was 89.
Rizzuto had pneumonia and died in his sleep at a nursing home in West Orange, N.J., daughter Patricia Rizzuto said Tuesday. He had been in declining health for several years.
“I guess heaven must have needed a shortstop,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. “He epitomized the Yankee spirit — gritty and hard charging — and he wore the pinstripes proudly.”
Rizzuto was the oldest living Hall of Famer and his Cooperstown plaque noted how he “overcame diminutive size.” At 5-foot-6, he played over his head, winning seven World Series titles and an AL MVP award and becoming a five-time All-Star.
“When I first came up to the Yankees, he was like a big — actually, small — brother to me,” said Hall of Famer Yogi Berra, who frequently visited Rizzuto in his later years.
Rizzuto’s No. 10 was retired by baseball’s most storied team, and the club will wear his number on its left sleeves for the rest of the season.
The flags at Yankee Stadium were lowered to half-staff before Tuesday night’s game against Baltimore and flowers were placed by Rizzuto’s plaque at Monument Park.
Public address announcer Bob Sheppard detailed some of Rizzuto’s accomplishments before the team observed a pregame moment of silence. His number was painted on the grass in front of each dugout and marquees outside the stadium said “Phil Rizzuto 1917-2007”
“Scooter, we will miss you,” Sheppard said as a video tribute aired on the scoreboard.
New York also showed highlights from Rizzuto’s playing career and part of his Hall of Fame induction speech before the bottom half of the first inning.
Yet it was after he moved into the broadcast booth that Rizzuto reached a new level celebrity with another generation of Yankees fans.
Rizzuto delighted TV and radio listeners for four decades, his voice dripping with his native Brooklyn. He loved his favorite catch-phrase — exclaiming “Holy cow!” when Roger Maris hit his 61st home run — and often shouted “What a huckleberry!”
In an age of broadcasters who spout statistics, Rizzuto was a storyteller. He liked to talk about things such as his fear of lightning, the style of an umpire’s shoes or even the prospect of outfielder Dave Winfield as a candidate for president.
“He didn’t try to act like an announcer,” Hall of Fame teammate Whitey Ford said. “He just said what he thought. It added fun to the game.”
Rizzuto liked to acknowledge birthdays and anniversaries, read notes from fans, talk about his favorite place to get a cannoli and send messages to old cronies. Once he noticed old teammate Bobby Brown — then the American League president — sitting in a box seat and hollered down, trying to get his attention.
“He would keep getting in trouble with WPIX for announcing birthdays and anniversaries,” Patricia Rizzuto recalled.
And if Rizzuto missed a play, he would scribble “ww” in his scorecard box score. That, he said, meant “wasn’t watching.”
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Rizzuto’s popularity was such that at a recent auction a Rizzuto cap embedded with a wad of chewing gum sold for more than $8,000. In the New York area, Rizzuto’s antics became a staple for TV ads. Nonbaseball fans got to know him, too, when his voice appeared on Meat Loaf’s rock hit “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.”
“Phil was a unique figure who exemplified the joy of our game to millions of fans,” commissioner Bud Selig said.
He liked to share that joy. St. Joseph’s School for the Blind in Jersey City, was a favorite cause of Rizzuto’s, and his daughter asked that any donations be directed there.
Edward J. Lucas, a former student at the school, met Rizzuto soon after losing his sight at age 12 when a line drive struck him between the eyes. The accident happened on Oct. 3, 1951, when Lucas went outside to play ball after watching Bobby Thomson hit the “Shot Heard ’Round the World” to win the National League pennant for the New York Giants.
“He has been a friend every since,” said Lucas, now 68, a baseball radio reporter. “He’s been here and helped us out tremendously.”
Rizzuto also introduced Lucas to the woman he would eventually marry. The ceremony was last year at home plate at Yankee Stadium.
“He may be short in stature,” Lucas said. “but his heart was bigger than all of Yankee Stadium.”
Rizzuto was a flashy player who could always be counted on for a perfect bunt, a nice slide or a diving catch in a lineup better known for its cornerstone sluggers. He played 13 seasons alongside the likes of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle in a career interrupted by Navy service in World War II.
Often overshadowed by Hall of Fame teammates, it made sense that Rizzuto was the first “mystery guest” on the old game show “What’s My Line?” in 1950.
A leadoff man with quick feet that earned him his nickname, Rizzuto was a staple on the Yankees teams that won 11 pennants and nine World Series between 1941 and 1956.
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