O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse Of Phil Rizzuto

[jon abbey]

While we're all waiting for the offseason market to break out of gridlock, I thought I'd bump my old Phil Rizzuto thread since I found my copy of the book this week cleaning up, but I think maybe the original thread is lost in the archives somewhere, so I'm starting a new one.

For those who haven't seen it before, Tom Peyer and Hart Seely took parts of Phil Rizzuto's Yankee game calls and put them into verse form, publishing a book under the title of this thread. Without further ado...

 

[jon abbey]

Golden Years

There are mornings
I wake up
And my right leg hurts.

The next morning,
My knee hurts.
My shoulder...
The golden years
Have slipped by me.
But you gotta hang in there.

A little low.
Two balls
And a strike.

----------------------------

August 9, 1992
Boston at New York
Sam Militello pitching to Jody Reed
Third inning, no outs, bases empty
Yankees lead 3-0

 

[jon abbey]

Question to Moore

Hey Moore,
Can I talk about
The no-hitter now?

No?
Okay.
I won't.

==============================

July 9, 1992
Seattle at New York
Scott Kamienicki pitching to Omar Vizquel
Fifth inning, one out, bases empty
Yankees lead 7-3

 

[jon abbey]

When Your Eyes Start Bouncing

That was a riot.
'Cause Velarde was gonna try and ca-
Watch this:

Now he runs by Velarde.
Velarde says:
"What's coming off here?"

And that's tough when
You're running hard
And your eyes start bouncing.

==================================

May 17, 1992
Oakland at New York
Shawn Hillegas pitching to Mark McGwire
Ninth inning, one out, one base runner
Pop fly to second base
A's lead 6-3

 

[jon abbey]

Confrontation

Ted Williams made this remark now.
And I'm not saying it
Because I agree with him wholeheartedly.
But he said,
"Pitchers are the dumbest ballplayers of all ballplayers.
"Infielders, outfielders," he says.
"Cause all they know how to do is pitch.
"And they only pitch one out of every five days."
Now I'm just saying,
What?
What did you think of that statement?
Bouncer.
And Sax to his left.
Throws him out.
One away.
I'm asking you a simple question, Seaver.
There he is.
He won't answer me.
How do you like my shirt?
You see my shirt?
Rocky Marciano.

===============================

July 23, 1991
Seattle at New York
Scott Kamienicki pitching to Greg Briley
Seventh inning, no outs, bases empty
Mariners lead 2-1

 

[jon abbey]

1961 and 1991

Oh man,
You talk about having fun broadcasting games.
That year, I mean, there were home runs every day.
There was nothing but a lot of runs.
Makes it a lot easier.
All right!
Here's Lovullo.
Torey Lovullo.
I've been calling him "Tony".
And he pops it up.

=================================

April 13, 1991
New York at Kansas City
Bret Saberhagen pitching to Torey Lovullo
Third inning, no outs, bases empty
Royals lead 2-0

 

[jon abbey]

Chaos

This is very interesting.
Forget the game.
Right here.
Here's a guy can't see.
All right,
Gene Larkin is the NO!
Gene Larkin?
What did he do?
Base on balls.

===================================

June 22, 1991
Minnesota at New York
Wade Taylor pitching to Shane Mack
Sixth inning, two outs, one base runner
Twins lead 2-0

 

[ronlt40]

Loved listening to Scooter & Bill White. Such a big part of my early Yankee fandom.

 

[B H Kim]

You skipped my favourite one.

Edit: What’s with TapaTalk autocorrecting favorite to favourite?

 

[jon abbey]

Heh, I just picked a handful at random, I plan to add more going forward.

 

[jon abbey]

Joe R.

Anyway...
Joe Rossomando
He was a good player.
I mean,
He looked a lot like Joe DiMaggio.
I'm tellin' ya,
He had a terrible collision at home plate.
In the minor leagues
And almost,
Almost swallowed his tongue
if it hadn't been
Uh,
For the trainer,
Came out,
Put a piece of wood in there.
Or something there.
Ohhh,
I couldn't look,
But he was an excellent player.
But anyway...
He's still coaching at Yale.
Just as old as I am.
He stays in great shape.
With his wife Marylou
And his daughter,
Mary Beth.
Who has graduated from Yale,
And has gone back
To take her master's there.
That's enough.

=============================

August 19, 1991
Kansas City at New York
Mike Boddicker pitching to Matt Nokes
Eighth inning, one out, one base runner
Score tied 2-2

 

[jon abbey]

Colorado

They're having more snow.
Out in Colorado.
Which is not in Montana.
But it is not far from Montana.

===========================

August 26, 1992
Milwauke at New York
Sam Militello pitching to Darryl Hamilton
Third inning, one out, bases empty

 

[Sprowl]

OK, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker going here,
Two down, nobody on, no score, bottom of the ninth,
There's the windup, and there it is,
A line shot up the middle, look at him go.
This boy can really fly!
He's rounding first and really turning it on now,
He's not letting up at all,
He's gonna try for second, the ball is bobbled out in center,
And here comes the throw, and what a throw!
He's gonna slide in head first,
Here he comes, he's out!
No, wait, safe-safe at second base,
This kid really makes things happen out there.
Batter steps up to the plate, here's the pitch-he's going,
And what a jump he's got, he's trying for third,
Here's the throw, it's in the dirt-safe at third!
Holy cow, stolen base! He's taking a pretty big lead out there,
Almost daring him to try and pick him off.
The pitcher glances over, winds up, and it's bunted,
Bunted down the third base line, the suicide squeeze is on!
Here he comes, squeeze play, it's gonna be close,
Holy cow, I think he's gonna make it!

 

[jon abbey]

Man, I loved that LP when I was 11.