Talk about your bad weeks.

He played for the New York Yankees for his entire 13-year career, one of the team’s most famous shortstops. His tenure with the Yankees was interrupted after 11 seasons, when he left to serve in World War II. His next career was a long and memorable one. From the Yankees broadcast booth, he called games on radio and television for the next 40 years.

I don’t like to make the blog into one of those things where I just talk about people who died, I like to think that every day brings into the world another person who will have great impact and make our planet a better place. It isn’t about being disrespectful or not missing people after their gone, as much as it is about looking towards a better future and keeping a more hopeful outlook on the world.

I loved Phil Rizzuto though.

I cannot tell you how many fond memories I have of listening to The Scooter broadcast Yankee games. He was so familiar, his humor and quirks so very endearing. Maybe he didn’t always get a player’s name right, maybe he flubbed on calling a play but, he always had a good humor about him and could manage to laugh at his own mistakes.

I’m really spoiled, I got to grow up listening to Phil Rizzuto, Bill White and Frank Messer broadcast the Yankees and Bob Murphy, Lindsay Nelson and Ralph Kiner broadcast Mets games. I can’t tell you what a treat that was.

Even in later years when the Yankees paired Phil Rizzuto with Tom Seaver, you could always hear the reverance and respect Seaver had for Rizzuto during the broadcast, Seaver playfully ribbing Rizzuto like an much beloved elder uncle. Whether it was the signature Holy Cow call, Phil’s mysterious 7th inning trips for coffee (to take him over the GW bridge to beat the traffic), his stories about his beloved Cora or even the way he managed to slip in the names of people and places that treated him well in his broadcasts - Phil was a special treasure to Yankee fans.

My cousin met him many years ago at a function and still talks about that day, a highpoint in his life. He said Phil Rizzuto was every bit as charming, every bit as gracious as the man we all got to know through his radio and TV broadcasts.

I’m not at all surprised and he’s another good soul who’ll I’ll miss.