The Scooter is gone. Phil Rizzuto has passed away.
There will be plenty of obits written. I won’t compete. As a former ballplayer, his stats are well preserved. There aren’t too many 5′ 6″, expert bunters, playing middle infield today.
In his final years as a Yankee broadcaster, I remember listening to Phil broadcasting a game on the radio, but being totally removed from it. He was known for leaving games before they were over and always being concerned about traffic.
His call went something like this: “So if you take the Third Avenue Bridge and then turn left… ball two… and get on the Deegan.” You get the idea.
Five foot six and larger than life. Holy cow!
Back in the day, the Yankee broadcast team would shuffle every few innings from TV to radio. (Today the radio and TV guys are separate.)
Scooter was on the radio one night after a few innings on TV.
Some play happened on the field and he shouted “DID YOU SEE THAT?! UNBELIEVABLE!”
Frank Messer, another legendary broadcaster, gently reminded Scooter that people could not view things over the radio.
He will be missed- for Yankee fans, he was part of the family.