Aug 14 2007 10:17 PM
Congrats to the Utica Observer-Dispatch for re-running the Hall of Fame induction story, with highlights from his Scooter-gooofy speech. He went in the same year as Bob Murphy.
July 31, 1994: Rizzuto steps up, connects with Hall of Fame speech
August 14, 2007
By John Pitarresi
The following is the story that ran Monday, Aug. 1, 1994, in the Observer-Dispatch about Phil Rizzuto's induction into the Hall of Fame.
COOPERSTOWN -Call it the "Phil Rizzuto Show."
The longtime New York Yankee infielder and broadcaster made the day his own with a hilarious but still touching stream-of-consciousness speech after his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday.
Philadelphia Phillies great Steve Carlton and late Dodgers and Giants manager Leo Durocher also were inducted and broadcaster Bob Murphy and the late sportwriter Wendell Smith were honored as the Hall of Fame held its 55th annual ceremonies.
Thousands of fans crowded into the field alongside the Alfred Corning Clark gymnasium for the festivities, broiling under a bright sun.
Rizzuto rewarded them with one of the most entertaining and memorable talks in Hall of Fame history.
"Holy cow," Rizzuto exclaimed to no one's great surprise as he stepped to the microphone, and he took off from there, continually breaking up the audience and most of the three dozen fellow Hall of Famers on hand.
Along the way, Rizzuto called Lou Brock a "huckleberry," thanked the "man upstairs" and his family for making it possible to be with the Yankees for 54 years, called Joe McCarthy the greatest manager he ever had, and became confused by his own rhetoric many times.
"A lot of nights, I'd wake up in a cold sweat thinking of what I'd do for a living if I hadn't been a baseball player," he said.
Then: "People who are understanding this speech, just raise your hand."
The crowd roared; Reggie Jackson's head snapped back in a spasm of laughter.
He spoke of his first stop in the minor leagues, in Virginia, and having breakfast every morning with the sheriff.
"White, White," he called to former broadcast partner and National League president Bill White in the audience. "What's that stuff that looks like oatmeal?"
Grits was the answer.
"I didn't know what to do with it," Rizzuto said. "I put it in my pocket."
Then, to the audience in general: "Any time you want to leave, leave."
Again the crowd roared.
The "Scooter" 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds remembered the great days as a Yankee nine American League championships, five consecutive World Series titles and the wonderful days of New York baseball with the Dodgers and Giants.
"What a club we had," he said. "We'd win the pennant by the Fourth of July, and we used to make more money for a World Series than we did all year."
No reaction.
"That was supposed to be a joke," he said.
He spoke of the "groupies" following the team, but added "Not me!" as a quick afterthought.
Rizzuto also revealed that he almost jumped to the Mexican League after World War II, thanks to an offer of $10,000, a Cadillac and other perks, but his wife, Cora, wouldn't hear of it.
"She didn't know she was turning down stockings, girdles," he said.
"Well, she didn't need a girdle. She is really well built."
Again, uncontrolled laughter from the fans and assembled Famers, although not, perhaps, from Mrs. Rizzuto.
At one point Hall of Fame catchers Yogi Berra and Johnny Bench took up Rizzuto's invitation to leave at any time.
"They took too many foul balls in the mask," he said.
True to his Yankee broadcast self, Rizzuto wished a friend a happy birthday and advised the crowd that "a day without cannolis is a day without sunshine."
The American League's 1950 Most Valuable Player, a key player and leader on some of the greatest teams in the history of the game, began to choke up just a bit at the end of his 30-minute talk.
"I don't want to start crying, although they say it's okay if you do," he said. "God bless all of you and God bless this wonderful game they call baseball."
Rizzuto hit .273 for his career, led the league in fielding twice and was regarded as one of the top bunters and double-play men in baseball.
Carlton won 329 games, second most by a lefty, and had 4,136 strikeouts, second only to Nolan Ryan. Durocher, represented by former wife Laraine Day and their son, Chris Durocher, was a 17-year big leaguer who played with the St. Louis Cardinals Gashouse Gang. He was better known as the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants in the 1940s and 1950s, and as the early mentor of Willie Mays.
Murphy, the longtime New York Mets broadcaster, received the Ford C. Frick Award. Smith, who helped shepherd Jackie Robinson through the early days of the integration of baseball and was the first black member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, was honored with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award.
