The joke was that Rizzuto's life was about convenience.'The Scooter' was making up for a hardscrabble upbringing and baseball playing career with barcalounger living for the last 2/3rds.
He left games early to beat the traffic on the George Washington Bridge. Openly. (I'm not sure if it was in his contract but nobody stopped him.) He loved the Yankees but he might have taken that job broadcasting ballgames for the Manhattan-based NY baseball Giants if they weren't planning a move to San Francisco. He just liked living in Jersey too much to go west.
The Scooter didn't do much pre-game stat-sheet prep either. But quant-fluency was never part of his job description. He knew plenty from being 5'6, 160 lbs and holding onto the starting shortstop job for the best baseball team from 1941 to 1955.
Phil Rizzuto was a surprisingly natural package for broadcasting: dressed well so camera ready; his voice a not-so-nasal New Yorkese. He used language well if not correctly - in a variety of registers. Sort of elegant really. And plenty of music and rhythm. He riffed off of his excellent straight men: Bill White, always just 'White,' spoke baritone and was an excellent player himself for the 1964 Champeen Redbirds and later the first African-American to be commissioner of a major league (the NL); Frank Messer, just 'Messer' of course, had that good mid-Atlantic sound and 'just the facts' for Phil. Both were amused by Rizzuto but never condescending; it wasn't like Rizzuto didn't know the score.
He was a human bulletin board for the NYC metro area, one of the first guys to frequently mention the people he met along the way. He'd elide from the required promo for the Toyota Cressida to an on-air delivery of good karma to that sick lady in Bayonne who lived for Yankee broadcasts. He mentioned every box of cannolis anyone ever gave him.
And it wasn't like he was getting anything on the side for the shout-outs…unless you think free pastries are a bribe.
But most importantly: Rizzuto used the fan chat and cannoli grazies to fire-start a Yankee rally because he was just as superstitious about the home team as you were - very rub the bat, turn the cap sideways, 2 Hail Mary’s, don't change a winning undershirt and never step on the foul line (crack) or you'll break the chain (not to mention your mama's back.). Which was comforting because it made you feel like less of a rain-man for needing to put a Yankee cap on top of the TV or radio when the Yankees were wearing the leather, then switching to a batting helmet replica when the Yankees were hitting.
He wasn't a network shill pretending to be an objective expert. He was a Yankee who worked for the Yankees and it was no skin off his teeth to help you root for the Yankees.
The Scooter was a great player: his .273 lifetime average can be pro-rated to .295 in 2007 numbers because Rizzuto's game, and the game of the day, didn't require performance enhancers to pad stats. He was one of the best fielding shortstops ever. He was high on the stolen base leader board in a non base-stealing era and league. Ted Williams said Rizzuto was the reason the Yankees played in all those World Series instead of his BoSox. Ty Cobb said Rizzuto was the 2nd best bunter ever - after Ty Cobb.
And Rizzuto talked about non-baseball stuff. He paid attention to the world. This was irrelevant to "purists." But weaving baseball into the bigger fabric only made baseball seem even more important to me. It all flowed in and out with the baseball because baseball is played at a human pace that allows for the other things in life.
He'd see 'Equus' on Broadway and "Jeez Messer that Richard Burton is amazing. I think he's a better actor than Olivier. Though I just saw 'Marathon Man' and Olivier was great in that too. Holy Cow Messer, made me never want to go to dentist again. And you know I hate going to the dentist. But all those guys are great. Not the dentist - he's from Nassau County. Burton and Olivier. Oh and James Mason in 'North by Northwest.' And that Gielgud. Sir John. All those British guys are knighted by the queen. That's what they do there. With a sword Messer. And Mark Belanger handles the easy 2 hop grounder with those good hands to get Fred Stanley by a step. Nice play. And that does it for the Yankees in the bottom of the third. But they pick up three big runs to take a 5 – 3 lead."
(I sort of made that up, but it's based on reality. He talked a ton about movies and he was really partial to 'North by Northwest.')
Rizzuto was a chaos comedian that didn't freak you out with his wide-band approach. A bit of Andy Kaufman in a broadcast booth. No insult-dog humor; Marx brothers not Three stooges. And Rizzuto was more clever than the 'Huckleberry' delivery suggested; when he threw out the first ball at a World Series game shortly after Jeter's shovel pass during the 2001 playoffs, Rizzuto did a version of the play instead of just tossing overhand.
I think I probably listened to Phil Rizzuto for about 100 games per year x 2.75 hours per game per year = 500 hours per year x 20 years = 11, 000 hours of my life. The time wasn't wasted. And I never resented Rizzuto's desire to beat the traffic.
Yogi Berra? Yes. But Guru Rizzuto too.
big thx to Estephan and Lamb for this one...
He left games early to beat the traffic on the George Washington Bridge. Openly. (I'm not sure if it was in his contract but nobody stopped him.) He loved the Yankees but he might have taken that job broadcasting ballgames for the Manhattan-based NY baseball Giants if they weren't planning a move to San Francisco. He just liked living in Jersey too much to go west.
The Scooter didn't do much pre-game stat-sheet prep either. But quant-fluency was never part of his job description. He knew plenty from being 5'6, 160 lbs and holding onto the starting shortstop job for the best baseball team from 1941 to 1955.
Phil Rizzuto was a surprisingly natural package for broadcasting: dressed well so camera ready; his voice a not-so-nasal New Yorkese. He used language well if not correctly - in a variety of registers. Sort of elegant really. And plenty of music and rhythm. He riffed off of his excellent straight men: Bill White, always just 'White,' spoke baritone and was an excellent player himself for the 1964 Champeen Redbirds and later the first African-American to be commissioner of a major league (the NL); Frank Messer, just 'Messer' of course, had that good mid-Atlantic sound and 'just the facts' for Phil. Both were amused by Rizzuto but never condescending; it wasn't like Rizzuto didn't know the score.
He was a human bulletin board for the NYC metro area, one of the first guys to frequently mention the people he met along the way. He'd elide from the required promo for the Toyota Cressida to an on-air delivery of good karma to that sick lady in Bayonne who lived for Yankee broadcasts. He mentioned every box of cannolis anyone ever gave him.
And it wasn't like he was getting anything on the side for the shout-outs…unless you think free pastries are a bribe.
But most importantly: Rizzuto used the fan chat and cannoli grazies to fire-start a Yankee rally because he was just as superstitious about the home team as you were - very rub the bat, turn the cap sideways, 2 Hail Mary’s, don't change a winning undershirt and never step on the foul line (crack) or you'll break the chain (not to mention your mama's back.). Which was comforting because it made you feel like less of a rain-man for needing to put a Yankee cap on top of the TV or radio when the Yankees were wearing the leather, then switching to a batting helmet replica when the Yankees were hitting.
He wasn't a network shill pretending to be an objective expert. He was a Yankee who worked for the Yankees and it was no skin off his teeth to help you root for the Yankees.
The Scooter was a great player: his .273 lifetime average can be pro-rated to .295 in 2007 numbers because Rizzuto's game, and the game of the day, didn't require performance enhancers to pad stats. He was one of the best fielding shortstops ever. He was high on the stolen base leader board in a non base-stealing era and league. Ted Williams said Rizzuto was the reason the Yankees played in all those World Series instead of his BoSox. Ty Cobb said Rizzuto was the 2nd best bunter ever - after Ty Cobb.
And Rizzuto talked about non-baseball stuff. He paid attention to the world. This was irrelevant to "purists." But weaving baseball into the bigger fabric only made baseball seem even more important to me. It all flowed in and out with the baseball because baseball is played at a human pace that allows for the other things in life.
He'd see 'Equus' on Broadway and "Jeez Messer that Richard Burton is amazing. I think he's a better actor than Olivier. Though I just saw 'Marathon Man' and Olivier was great in that too. Holy Cow Messer, made me never want to go to dentist again. And you know I hate going to the dentist. But all those guys are great. Not the dentist - he's from Nassau County. Burton and Olivier. Oh and James Mason in 'North by Northwest.' And that Gielgud. Sir John. All those British guys are knighted by the queen. That's what they do there. With a sword Messer. And Mark Belanger handles the easy 2 hop grounder with those good hands to get Fred Stanley by a step. Nice play. And that does it for the Yankees in the bottom of the third. But they pick up three big runs to take a 5 – 3 lead."
(I sort of made that up, but it's based on reality. He talked a ton about movies and he was really partial to 'North by Northwest.')
Rizzuto was a chaos comedian that didn't freak you out with his wide-band approach. A bit of Andy Kaufman in a broadcast booth. No insult-dog humor; Marx brothers not Three stooges. And Rizzuto was more clever than the 'Huckleberry' delivery suggested; when he threw out the first ball at a World Series game shortly after Jeter's shovel pass during the 2001 playoffs, Rizzuto did a version of the play instead of just tossing overhand.
I think I probably listened to Phil Rizzuto for about 100 games per year x 2.75 hours per game per year = 500 hours per year x 20 years = 11, 000 hours of my life. The time wasn't wasted. And I never resented Rizzuto's desire to beat the traffic.
Yogi Berra? Yes. But Guru Rizzuto too.
big thx to Estephan and Lamb for this one...
posted by BOOCOCK'S PHILOSOPHY OF BASEBALL at
12:53 PM
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