Phil Rizzuto, RIP

Baseball Hall-of-Famer and one of the alltime great New York Yankees, Phil Rizzuto, has passed away.

Rizzuto, Yankee Hall of Famer, dies at age 89

Phil Rizzuto, the Hall of Fame shortstop who went on to fame for his unique broadcasting style, died Tuesday. He was 89.

His death was confirmed by the Yankees. Rizzuto had been in declining health for several years and was living at a nursing home in West Orange, N.J.

Rizzuto, nicknamed "The Scooter," was the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame prior to his death. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1994 by the Veterans Committee.

Rizzuto, noted as one of the best defensive shortstops in the history of the game, was the American League MVP in 1950 and played in five All-Star games. In his MVP season, Rizzuto hit .324 and scored 125 runs. He played for the Yankees from 1941 to 1956 (missing three years because of World War II, when he was in the U.S. Navy). The Yankees won seven World Series titles during Rizzuto's career.

"I guess heaven must have needed a shortstop," Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. "Phil Rizzuto's contributions to the Yankees and the sport of baseball were immense for a period of over 50 years. He was one of the greatest Yankees of all time and a dear, close friend of mine whose loss is enormous to me and to the entire Yankee family."

Rizzuto went on to be a Yankees broadcaster for more than 40 seasons. His unique style was accented with his famous phrase, "Holy Cow!" when a great play was made. Rizzuto was on the call when Roger Maris hit his 61st career home run to eclipse the single-season home run record previously held by Babe Ruth.

"Phil was a gem, one of the greatest people I ever knew. A dear friend and great teammate," said Hall of Famer Yogi Berra, who frequently visited Rizzuto in his later years. "When I first came up to the Yankees, he was like a big, actually small, brother to me. He's meant an awful lot to baseball and the Yankees and has left us with a lot of wonderful memories."

Those of us from the New York area grew up listening to Rizzuto doing Yankees games on the old WPIX, Channel 11, for many years with Bill White and Frank Messer.

Baseball purists used to scoff at Rizzuto's antics, which ranged from his signature call "Holy Cow" to offering up recipes for Italian food, thanking friends for meals and his constant griping about the traffic getting over the George Washington Bridge.

In later years, they Yankees allowed him to leave games early in order to beat the traffic. He was enormously popular with the fans amore than five decades.

He stood just 5-foot-6 but was equipped with a productive bat, sure hands and quick feet that earned him his nickname. A leadoff man, Rizzuto was a superb bunter, used to good advantage by the Yankee teams that won 11 pennants and nine World Series between 1941 and 1956.

"He was a Yankee all the way," Indians great and Hall of Famer Bob Feller said. "Phil could hit, he could run, he was good on the basepaths and he was a great shortstop. He knew the fundamentals of the game and he got 100 percent out of his ability. He played it hard and he played it fair."

Rizzuto tried out with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants when he was 16, but because of his size was dismissed by Dodgers manager Casey Stengel, who told him to "Go get a shoeshine box." He went on to become one of Stengel's most dependable players.

A Rizzuto bunt, a steal and a DiMaggio hit made up the scoring trademark of the Yankees' golden era, and he played errorless ball in 21 consecutive World Series games. DiMaggio said the shortstop "held the team together."

Rizzuto came to the Yankees in 1941 and batted .307 as a rookie. After his stint in the Navy, he returned in 1946 and four years later became the American League MVP. He batted .324 that season with a slugging percentage of .439 and 200 hits, second most in the league. He also went 58 games without an error, making 288 straight plays.