Phil Rizzuto, RIP

It's taken me a little while to write about Phil Rizzuto, the great Yankee shortstop who died yesterday at the age of 89. I was really saddened by the passing. I never saw Rizzuto play in the field, but as I grew up in upstate NY in the 80s, I listened to him call many Yankee games on television.

I've mentioned it before, but the Yankees during the 1980s were horrible. There was very little to cheer about. I probably should have been a Mets fan because they were the ones winning World Series games and pennants. The Yankees had Mattingly and Winfield and Henderson, but from the time I came to the states, I didn't see a Yankees playoff victory until 1994.

One thing that kept me coming back and loving Yankee baseball, even in the lean years, was the Scooter. I would watch games with my grandpa and listen to Rizzuto talk about DiMaggio and Berra and Mantle when the Yankees were always winning world series games. Even if there were no other reasons to watch the Yankees, you could always count on Phil Rizzuto.

Scooter knew a lot about baseball and had some great stories about some of the greatest teams and the greatest players, he never came across like he was trying to impress you with his knowledge. He was just passing along a story to the people on television like he was everybody's uncle. Scooter would sometimes ramble, but he really made Yankee stadium a fun place to be.

Holy cow, indeed.