From my late twenties into my early forties I lived in and around Schenectady, NY. One of the benefits during many of those years was the sheer vastness of TV sports, especially baseball, on cable: not only Ted Turner's Braves on WTBS but the Red Sox on WSBK, the Mets on WOR, the Yankees on WPIX. It was a channel-flipper's dream; while I spent most of my time watching the Red Sox, there were nights and days when I would tune into the Yankees as well. Which meant, of course, listening to Phil Rizzuto. And now Scooter has died. (One obit here.)
I'll leave others to assess his baseball career. On the air, Rizzuto was a memorable character.
Not a great broadcaster, to be sure. He was notorious for leaving games early to beat the traffic. And I remember at least one time, when things were going very badly for the Yankees on and off the field, that Rizzuto was obviously struggling to admit things were bad while never quite saying what was bothering him. Rizzuto always tried to be a good Yankee; the many Rizzuto moments on YouTube include this example of loyally (and hilariously) pushing product.
But he made "Holy Cow" a baseball catchphrase. And was a funny addition to Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." I can still hear his voice, and it doesn't grate. Like Herb Score's, just the sound carried echoes of old-time baseball.
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I was listening to the Indians game tonight, driving home from Browns training camp, and Tom Hamilton and Mike Hegan had some nice exchanges on Rizzuto. One story they mentioned had me laughing. Rizzuto was keeping score as he was doing the game for the first three innings. He got up later in the game for a break and the other broadcaster was talking off of Rizzuto's notes. He said "Player X grounded out in the first and in the third… in the third he… What does WW stand for?" and Rizzuto answered, "Wasn't watching." I thought that was a pretty entertaining story.
My buddy Alan Sepinwall's fine tribute to Rizzuto (available via http://www.sepinwall.blogspot.com) also mentions the "WW." And this morning on WTAM (I think; I was flipping a lot), they recalled a Rizzuto broadcast of an Indians game where he became so fascinated by Herb Score's eating a chocolate sundae, they put the camera on Score while Rizzuto did sundae-eating play-by-play.