Singing the praises of the Scooter.

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

“All right! Stay fair! No, it won’t stay fair. Good thing it didn’t stay fair, or I think he would’ve caught it!”

“Bouncer to third, they’ll never get him! No, why don’t I just shut up!”

“Oh, these Yankees can get the clutch hits, Murcer. I might have to go home early, I just got a cramp in my leg.”

“I’m very nervous here with this,” he said at the microphone.

He said he was “doing real good,” and one of his daughters said he still played golf, although no longer a full 18-hole round.

Few people hold as special a place in my heart as “The Scooter” does, before switching allegiances to the Mets, I was very much a Yankee fan and relished listening to Phil Rizzuto broadcast Yankee games.

I grew up in what I considered a golden age of broadcasting listening to Bill White, Frank Messer and Phil Rizzuto do the Yankee games. All this and Bob Murphy too (doing Mets games)! What incredible voices all these men had, a glorious age of summer afternoons, spent lounging away in the sun with a baseball game providing the perfect backdrop to the days activities.

The Scooter’s dulcet tones were comforting and heartwarming. His voice familiar and his humor took on an even greater aspect through the years - culiminating in the wondeful wordplay between him and Tom Seaver, his last partner in the booth.

There are so many funny moments in Phil Rizzuto’s life, moments of entirely accidental comedy which seemed to trail him. Scooter, who was honored with his own day at Yankee stadium, even did battle with a cow bought to the event because of his traedmark line. It was a pure Rizzuto moment as the sedate beast moved it’s lumbering girth closer to Rizzuto and the two got tangled up, causing momentary alarm over Scooter’s resultant pratfall. It was just another part of Rizzuto’s legacy.

Funny thing is, as the years mount up since he has done any broadcasting, his stature has only grown in my estimation. It’s always good to see mention of The Scooter, he’s a real Yankee treasure and the oldest living hall of famer out there.