Scooter dead

[Bubbles]

Baseball HOFer Phil Rizzuto passed away this morning.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070814/sp_nm/baseball_yankees_rizzuto_dc;_ylt=Anys0Loc5p_50.gdM U7Z898LMxIF

[OTM Al]

One of baseball's greats is gone. His numbers from today's perspective don't look all that impressive, but in his era he was one of the very best. They've been talking about him on the radio today and two quotes were quite striking. Ted Williams once said that if the Red Sox had Rizzuto, it would have been them that won all those WS in the 40 and 50s. Ty Cobb said that he was the kind of player that was a throwback to his time. I know he hasn't broadcast in quite a while but man I sure miss hearing him do the games.

[PaceAdvantage]

RIP Phil. I am too young to have seen you play, and only knew you as a broadcaster....with that said, may your drive over the bridge to heaven be quick and traffic free!

[Tom]

HOLY COW!

:(:(:(

I was a major Yankee fan in the 70's - never missed a game. Scooter was always my favorite in the booth. I'd go from TV to radio to follow him through the game.

[OTM Al]

I used to do the same thing with Harry Caray with the Cubs Tom. It was Phils humor and humanity that helped get me back into baseball after I' d' moved to NYC and couldn't see the Cubs anymore. There just aren't that type of broadcaster left anymore. Some very good ones, but its not the same

[lsbets]

Way too young to have seen him play, but grew up in the 70s and 80s listening to him on radio and TV. He was a character, and by all accounts a class act. He loved the game and the Yankees, and that love was obvious to anyone who heard him announce.

[Achilles]

He could play too. My father took me to a Yankee Old Timer's Day Game the year after DiMaggio retired. They were playing the Red Sox, and Scooter played on the right field grass when the Yankees put on the Williams shift. He still had to make diving catches of mean line drives to get Williams out.

I've seen Musial, Aaron and Mantle bat in real games, but I've never witnessed the intensity that Williams brought to the plate. It was like he was daring the pitcher to throw the ball.

Mel Parnell started for Boston and you'll never guess who started for NY.......................Ralph Branca, trying to make a come back after serving up the shot heard 'round the world in '51.

During the old timer's game, Bill Dickey pitched for both sides, and kept throwing to DiMaggio until he finally parked one in the upper deck in left.

My father bribed the ticket seller (who sat in a one man kiosk on the sidewalk outside the stadium) with two Bering Plaza cigars. We sat at field level, on the first base side. I looked to the right of the pillar in front of me to see the pitcher wind up, and then looked to the left to see the pitch arrive at home plate.:lol:

That's when baseball really was the nation's pastime.

Achilles

[JustRalph]

Don't forget the "Money Store"

[headhawg]

One of baseball's greats is gone. His numbers from today's perspective don't look all that impressive, but in his era he was one of the very best.I didn't really know much about him except that he was a member of the hated Yankees so I looked up his stats. How did this guy get into the HOF?? Baseball-Reference.com has this feature that compares a player's stats with other similar players, and some of the "notable" players are Jose Offerman (who just got into some brawl in the minor leagues, btw), Delino DeShields, Jim Gantner, and Hughie Critz.

I'm sorry to hear of his passing, but to label him as one of the greats -- at least in statistical terms -- is really overstepping it.

[OTM Al]

Stats don't always tell the tale and also remember he lost the prime years of his career to the war. Rob Neyer at ESPN.com answers just the question you ask with regard to stats. He projects that had he not lost those years he would have had 2000+ hits, 7 gold gloves (if they existed at the time) along with his MVP and at least 7 WS championships at a key position on the field. If that's not a Hall of Famer, please explain what is.

[gillenr]

That is the problem with "stats", they don't show the whole picture.
Every spring Phil had to win his job - and did.
The modern SS position has changed greatly.

From the HOF site:

"Rizzuto was part of the Yankees' dynastic years of the 1940s and '50s that included a record five straight World Series championships from 1949 through 1953. It was during that period that Rizzuto was an American League Most Valuable Player, in 1950, a year after he finished second in the voting to Ted Williams. In his 13 seasons with the Yankees, Rizzuto played in nine World Series and was on the winning side seven times. He was a rookie on the Yankees' 1941 championship team that beat the Brooklyn Dodgers for the first of five times in the Series before losing to their Flatbush rivals in 1955, Rizzuto's last postseason appearance.


Among the highest compliments paid Rizzuto came from Williams, who frequently said the Boston Red Sox might have been in all those World Series had Rizzuto been on their side. As a member of the Hall's Veterans Committee, Williams lobbied hard for Rizzuto's enshrinement in Cooperstown, N.Y., which became reality in 1994. Rizzuto had been the oldest living Hall of Famer. That distinction now belongs to former American League president Lee MacPhail, with former second baseman Bobby Doerr the oldest living Hall of Fame player."

He also lost 3 years to military service.

[GaryG]

I'm sorry to hear of his passing, but to label him as one of the greats -- at least in statistical terms -- is really overstepping it.According to Ted Williams, who certainly should know, the Yanks wouldn't have won all those titles in the late 40s and early 50s without him. His value greatly transcended his stats. He was a great lead off hitter, ran the bases as well as any of them. He was also an excellent fielder.

[JustRalph]

This is the one guy who Hall of Fame types point to when they talk about the Stats not being everything.

I know there are other infielders with better numbers that have been passed over and many have pointed to Rizzuto as an example as to why the Hall of Fame is a joke. I think Rizzuto is worth examining in this light.

But when I hear what Ted Williams and others have said...........who can argue?

[rastajenk]

Old Timers' Games! I saw a few of those back in the day. I wonder why they have passed into the great beyond. Does any team still hold them anymore?

[Pace Cap'n]

Heard a little thing on him on the radio the other day--can't recall it all but....

He's like 17 or 18 and tries out for the Yankees--Casey Stengel tells him he needs to get a shoe-shine box and hit the streets. Back the next year, same result. All this time he does nothing but practice and practice. In the next year or so, he has virtually perfected the nuances of the game--baserunning, fielding, bunting, etc. etc. and makes the club. The rest is history.

[rastajenk]

I heard that, too. Except the tryout was with the Dodgers, which was his favorite team growing up. (I guess Stengel had a stint with the Dodgers). But it was the Yankees who eventually picked him up, and of course, Stengel was with them by then. Sweet!

[gillenr]

I think the Yanks still have them every August - since I saw Scooter & Joe D. play, I'm amazed at how young today's oldtimers are!

[OTM Al]

Yanks originated old timers day and still do it every year. Stengel was the manager of the Dodgers in those days. He was not the manager with the Yanks when Rizzuto caught on however. It was still Joe McCarthy at that time. He came later, in 1949. In fact, Stengel was the only man who had worn the uniform of all 4 original NYC teams until Darryl Strawberry hooked up with the Yanks in the mid 90s. A couple other guys have done it since.