Rizzuto’s game commentary vied for time with anniversary wishes and confirmation congratulations. He never used the first names of his partners at WPIX-TV — they were “Coleman,” “Murcer,” “White,” “Messer,” “Seaver,” or “Cerone,” never Jerry, Bobby, Bill, Frank, Tom or Rick. Listeners heard about his wife (he called her “my bride”), an employment appeal for his son, Scooter Jr., reports about his golf game or exultations about a new Italian dish.
I met the Scooter when he came to City Hall for one of those Proclamation / photo-ops that we would give out at the beginning of every session. It was 1994, when he was finally elected to the Hall of Fame and someone in the City Council decided it was Phil Rizzuto Day in the City of New York.
Three things stuck in my mind. He really did say “holy cow,” he stayed until he signed every autograph and shook every hand and if you asked him how Cora was doing, his eyes light up and he smiled from ear to ear.
Here’s the obit in the Times. And here’s a special section on the Yankees’ web site.
