Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Today we lost part of my childhood! "The Scooter"

Another sad day for me.

Just 15 minutes ago I heard that Phil Rizzuto passed away. Fiero Francis Rizzuto AKA "Phil" Rizzuto, "The Scooter!"

Born in Brooklyn almost 92 years ago. Hall of Fame Shortstop during the DiMaggio era; Major League Player of the Year and A.L. MVP in 1950. Voted into HOF as a player and should have been as a broadcaster too! The programs all listed him as 160 and 5'6" - Phil might have weighed 130 and if he was 5'3" I'm stretching it! I remember once during a Yankee Old Timer's Day game, Phil came up to bat and they had a milk crate for him to stand on - he hit a single, wouldn't you know! I grew up in a Yankee household and when the Yanks were on you could tell how well they were doing by how many "Holy Cow" moments Phil had!

He was Yogi's best friend and was his business partner in the Rizzuto Berra Bowling Alley's right off Rt. 3 in Clifton for years. Whenever Dad & I were in Nutley together, we'd stop by the lanes to see if either Phil or Yogi was there - nobody ever was. After Red Barber & Mel Allen left the Yankee broadcasting booth, I can remember how comforting it was to have Phil Rizzuto in the booth for the Yanks! If I'm not mistaken Rizzuto was the announcer for Maris's 61st. home run in 1961 and Mantle's 500th. homerun in May, 1967.

Wow, Scooter's gone too. Geez, this is really getting depressing! I guess Yogi, Whitey Ford, Tony Kubeck, Bobby Richardson, and a couple more of the old timers are the only ones still kickin.

Sorry to see you go Scooter....Enjoy all the Cannoli's upstairs!


A Bronx Bomber's fan !



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