Farewell Scooter!!

On Tuesday, August 14th, I heard that a piece of my childhood was gone! It was with great sadness that I was told about the passing of Phil Rizzuto. For most baseball fans, this news brought great sadness, but for Yankee fans, it was the loss of a family member. While I never personally knew Scooter, I felt like he was that long lost uncle that I wish I could have known and spent time with. I am too young to have remembered Phil in his prime as a baseball player -- he stopped playing baseball in 1956, ten years before my birth. By the time I was aware of Phil Rizzuto, he was the "Voice" of the Yankees that I heard daily in my household (although Mel Allen is still associated with that moniker). Having grown up in a household, in which the Yankees weren't just a team, but an obsession for my father, I remember many a summer night hearing those immortal words: "Holy cow!" and smiling joyfully at his enthusiasm for the game. Today, hearing replays of Phil Rizzuto's broadcasts brings to mind memories of ice cream trucks, playing "Hide and Seek" and "Marco Polo" and other innocent times from my youth.


While Scooter's passing is a sadness for many of us, we should also celebrate this man's spirit. No one could accuse Phil Rizzuto of not living life to the fullest and knowing how to squeeze out the most fun in everything he did. A lesson for all of us to learn.


Here's to you, Phil Rizzuto. You may be gone, but never forgotten. You will be missed!

"Uh-oh, deep to left-center, nobody's gonna get that one!
Holy cow, somebody got it!"