Huckleberry Phil
-
- August
- 14
How could I let the day pass without a comment on the death of Phil Rizzuto?
Even if you weren’t a Yankee fan in the ‘60s-’80s, but especially if you were, you had to love listening to the Scooter. Rizzuto’s Scooterisms (“Holy cow, Bill White, he showed me something there”); his Felix Ungerish fears  of lightning, bugs, the traffic on the GW, everything really; his recounting of fine Italian meals; and above all else, his love for his eternal “bride” Cora, these humanized a game that has become robotic and unfeeling to many eyes and ears.
Lots of people remember his call of Roger Maris’ 61st home run. What I remember are those rain delays when Scooter and Frank Messer would pull out the old Army photos. It was like having dinner with your uncle as the game played in the background.
Let others broadcast baseball.
Phil Rizzuto broadcast the game of life.
Oh, that huckleberry, as he might say. How we’ll miss him.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 5:05 pm by Georgette Gouveia.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
Phil was the best! He always made me laugh when he broadcast the games. When he did not go to Old Timers Day game we had a put in our stomach here that he was not well.
We always knew a storm was coming watching WPIX cause he was out of that booth so fast!
I have to say, even Met fans are sad. He was a gem.
He will be missed by all.