Holy Cow: RIP, Phil Rizzuto 1917-2007

i mostly remember him for his money store ads. RIP mr. rizzuto.

i mostly remember him for his money store ads

Same here. RIP, duder.

i will add more later today, but this is a major bummer to start the day to say the least.

ah man..

somewhere I have a picture of me age 8-10 with Phil Rizzuto and Morgana the Kissing Bandit (from a baseball card show where they were signing at the same time).

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quorizz.shtml

for years i've fantasized that YES would fire Michael Kay and reinstall Rizzuto as head announcer. those WPIX broadcasts he'd do were amazing. particularly when he'd talk in the middle of eating a sandwich.

oddly enough, SportsCenter this morning showed the A-Rod 500 HR ceremony with some garbage Peter Max paintings that fell to the ground. as it wasn't the first on-field ceremony to go awry, they showed a clip of Phil Rizzuto Day back when he got knocked over by a "holy cow" with cardboard horns. I was at that game. It was also Tom Seaver's 300th win.

Although I hated him as an announcer, no one could doubt his love of the game and honest enthusiasm. He was definitely a great player, and one I think I would have loved rooting for (even though he was a yankee). RIP, Scooter.

"Well that (Pope Paul VI passing away) kind of puts the damper on even a Yankee win." Source: TV Broadcast (August 6, 1978)

They need to YouTube his Hall of Fame speech, where he mentioned that when he was sent to New Guinea in WW2 he expected to see Italians. (I believe Bob Feller is now the oldest living HOF member, followed by Monte Irvin.)

http://www.garybed.co.uk/Player_Bios/rizzuto_phil.htm

the following is an excerpt from rizzuto's on-air coverage of the yankees' pre-game memorial of thurman munson after munson was killed in 1979 [available on-line here. it may be appropriate today:

"If you keep thinking about what happened, and you can't understand it, that's what really drives you to despair. Faith. You gotta have faith. You know, they say time heals all wounds. And I don't quite agree with that a hundred percent. It gets you to cope with wounds. You carry them for the rest of your life."

;__;

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.

oh, his wikipedia has it:

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, future broadcast partner Tom Seaver recorded his 300th career victory.

weird ESPN played the clip before knowing about his passing

OH HELL YES

Money Store:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDQHQkuv9l0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORJVzOJG5bQ

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."

Man, that growl of disgust as he swipes the papers off the desk is some kinda beautiful.

perhaps that's what led Meat Loaf to hire him?

only Hall of Famer to appear on a Top 10 pop hit?

actually, i just dug up my version of o holy cow, a collection of rizzuto's on-air musings throughout the years that had been assembled as "poetry" during the early 90s. here is the full speech re thurman munson (entitled "Prayer for the Captain), from August 3, 1979:

There's a little prayer I always say
Whenever I think of my family or when I'm flying,
When I'm afraid, and I am afraid of flying.
It's just a little one. You can say it no matter what,
Whether you're Catholic or Jewish or Protestant or whatever.
And I've probably said it a thousand times
Since I heard the news on Thurman Munson.

It's not trying to be maudlin or anything.
His Eminence, Cardinal Cooke, is going to come out
And say a little prayer for Thurman Munson.
But this is just a little one I say time and time again,
It's just: Angel of God, Thurman's guardian dear,
To whom his love commits him here, there or everywhere,
Ever this night and day be at his side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide.

For some reason it makes me feel like I'm talking to Thurman,
Or whoever's name you put in there,
Whether it be my wife or any of my children, my parents or anything.
It's just something to keep you really from going bananas.
Because if you let this,
If you keep thinking about what happened, and you can't understand it,
That's what really drives you to despair.

Faith. You gotta have faith.
You know, they say time heals all wounds,
And I don't quite agree with that a hundred percent.
It gets you to cope with wounds.
You carry them the rest of your life.

Aw, RIP. Please post more of those poems! Are any online?

My favorite was always:

"I think my head shrinks a little/ In this indoor stadium."

GO AHEAD, SEAVER

You know,
Some kid wrote me a letter.
You and Murcer,
I know,
Every time Murcer says
I make oh for four and two errors.
Some guy wrote,
Which I haven't gotten yet,
He wrote it to Yankee Stadium,
But by the way,
You're doing the play-by-play, Seaver.
So go ahead.
I was gonna tell you something,
But I forgot what it was.
Go ahead.

http://deuceofclubs.com/books/148_rizzuto_holy_cow.htm

whatta bummer

more of rizzuto's on-air thoughts on thurman munson, a few days after his memorial. it's entitled "The Man in the Moon" and it's also appropriate today:

The Yankees have had a traumatic four days.
Actually five days.
That terrible crash with Thurman Munson.
To go through all that agony,
And then today,
You and I along with the rest of the team
Flew to Canton for the services,
And the family ...
Very upset.

You know, it might,
It might sound a little corny.
But we have the most beautiful full moon tonight.
And the crowd,
Enjoying whatever is going on right now.
They say it might sound corny,
But to me it's some kind of a,
Like an omen.

Both the moon and Thurman Munson,\
Both ascending up into heaven.
I just can't get it out of my mind.
I just saw that full moon,
And it just reminded me of Thurman.
And that's it.

(August 6, 1979 / Baltimore at New York / Ron Guidry pitching to Lee May / Fifth inning, bases empty, no outs / Orioles lead 1-0)

A famous story from the WashPost obit:

Rizzuto remembers Aug. 25, 1956, as a day he thought was the "end of the world," the day Stengel released him to make room for clutch-hitting Enos Slaughter in the pennant drive.

"It was Old-Timers Day, and I was out taking pictures, as I did every year," Rizzuto remembered. "The bat boy came over and told me that Casey Stengel and George Weiss wanted to see me in Stengel's office. It was the last day to add a player to the roster and have him eligible for the World Series. We were trading for Enos Slaughter because Stengel said we needed another outfielder, so we had to send someone down to make room on the roster.

"They asked me to read through the list of players and to check each player's eligibility, to see who we could let go," he said. "I sat there thinking that I was a veteran and they wanted my opinion. As we read through the list I pointed out a few players who I thought could be sent down, a pitcher we had hardly used and a catcher who had been in only nine games. But each time they said, 'No, we might need him.' We started to go through the list a second time, and then half way through it dawned on me."

"The Scooter" was done.

From a bunch of posts up: "He was definitely a great player"

Uh, no he wasn't. He only batted above .284 once. He's by far the most undeserving player in the Hall of Fame. Plus he ripped off Harry Caray.

well, arguably ONE of the 10-15 least deserving, but there are other more obvious clunkers... He certainly benefited from playing on NY pennant winners and having friends on the Vet Committee (Berra: "We got you in").

He claimed he said "Holy cow" his whole life (it was hardly unique to that drunk Caray).

He couldn't hold Caray's jock as an announcer either.

And name another more obvious clunker? I can't think of one. There's no way he should be in the Hall of Fame.

look up Lloyd Waner sometime.

All Yankees go to hell when they die.

not Yogi, Scooter or Jim Bouton.

He couldn't hold Caray's jock as an announcer either.

And name another more obvious clunker? I can't think of one. There's no way he should be in the Hall of Fame.

-- Bill Magill, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 17:57 (8 minutes ago) Link

What kind of asshat comes on a thread about a dead announcer and brings up Harry Caray's jock?

Lloyd Waner played when they used flagstones for baseballs.

xpost
I'm the asshat I guess, and Rizzuto wasn't in Caray's league.

the HOF speech:

http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/media/player/mp_tpl.jsp?w=http%3A//mfile.akamai.com/31386/wmv/mlb.download.akamai.com/31386/open/members/rizzuto_p/hof_induction_speech_rizzuto_400.wmv&type=&_mp=1

fuck off Shakey Bill Mogill

ha! sanskrit OTM.

I was trying to think of a Shakey Mo reference

Look, he was clearly a subpar announcer if insight or even info was the goal, but he was a sublime character. (ie, take away the fun and the first-person anecdotage and you get Michael Kay, so what's to complain?)

Hey guys, I mean no disrespect. I'm sure he was a nice guy, and there's even a park named after him near where I live. I just don't think the Hall of Fame is some Mr. Congeniality award. Had he played for the St. Louis Browns all those years, he wouldnt be in the Hall.

And Morbius OTM.

Fuck you too, Sanskrit.

hey, I've gotten shit for crapping on the dead too. I refuse to blame the man for others' judgment (and he himself questioned his HOF credentials, btw).

bill you're a Cubs fan? lol, i bet your hedge fund collapsed last week.

That may be one of the stupidest things I've read in a long time.

I listened to him from as early as I can remember until he retired. Such a character, and a humble man. Before I was old enough to appreciate the nuances and strategies of the game, his stories made it fun to listen. Once I got older, it was like a trip to the ballpark with a little Twilight Zone on the side. The lemonade! The full moon! The night that everything went purple! I'll stick my gum on the top button of my cap in tribute.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/14/sports/basketball/14rizzuto3-600.jpg

for Magilla... Rob Neyer on Rizzuto's Hall worthiness:

http://tinyurl.com/2yq8b6

Rizzuto returned to the Yankees in 1946, but he simply wasn't the same hitter he'd been before the war. Even leaving that aside, though, it's fair to assume that those three lost seasons cost Rizzuto somewhere between 450 and 500 hits, which would put him comfortably over 2,000 for his career. That's not bad, quantitatively. As for the quality, Rizzuto probably was a better hitter, relative to his league, than Ozzie Smith.

Of course, Smith's not in the Hall of Fame for his hitting. But Rizzuto was an outstanding shortstop, too. According to James, Rizzuto "deserved the American League Gold Glove" -- if one had existed -- "in 1941, 1942, 1946 and 1950 ... ." Well, if he was the best defensive shortstop in 1942 and 1946, we can assume he'd have been the best defensive shortstop from 1943 through 1945, right? If he'd been around? So now we're talking about a seven-time Gold Glover with more than 2,000 hits and a (well-earned) MVP Award in 1950.

I respect Neyer big-time, but I have never bought into the argument that hypothetically a guy would have done this or that had he not been hurt, in WWII or Korea, or in the can.