SOUTH DAKOTA STRAIGHT TALK

Phil Rizzuto 1917 – 2007

Phil Rizzuto the great Yankee shortstop who was the spark plug for the Bronx Bombers passed away on Monday. Rizzuto was with the Yankee organization for almost 50 years, first as a player then as a broadcaster.

He came to the Yankee’s radio broadcast booth as the Howard Cosell to the other great broadcasters Mel Allen and Red Barber. Allen and Barber were the first announcers to win the Ford Frick Award – the equivalent to the Hall of Fame for announcers.

Both Rizzuto and Dizzy Dean (referenced in my previous post One of the Best Days of My Life deserve to be Frick Winners. This would put them in their own exclusive club as being in both The Baseball Hall of Fame and defacto being in The Announcer’s Hall of Fame.

Scooter represented an era when Baseball was the National Game and the Yankees were ever dominant