ByGeralding Oliveto

Yankees’ Hall of Fame shortstop, and long-time game announcer, Phil Rizzuto died on August 13, 2007, at the age of 89. He had pneumonia. Rizzuto joined the Yankees in 1941 and played 13 seasons (with three years in the Navy during World War II) until 1956. He won the American League MVP in 1950 and was named to five All-Star teams. He was voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994. Rizzuto retired in 1956 and began calling Yankee games for radio and TV the following year, continuing until 1996.

Fiero Francis Rizzuto was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 25, 1917, one of five children of Italian immigrants Rose and Fiore Rizzuto, a construction foreman and trolley motorman. He moved to Queens when he was 12 where he excelled in football and baseball. Small and quick (5’6,” 150 lbs.) he earned the nickname “the Scooter” while playing in the minor leagues. Rizzuto played for the Yankees during an era that included teammates Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. He participated in nine World Series – seven times on the winning side.

As an announcer, he was known for his signature shout of “Holy Cow!” He also made fans feel like part of a family, with reports of his wife, Cora, whom he married in 1943, and comments about a terrific cannoli he had eaten or greetings to friends celebrating a birthday or recuperating in the hospital.

“I guess heaven must have needed a shortstop,” owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. “While Scooter may have been smaller in size than some, he was among the tallest in his stature as a Yankee.” Yankees players are wearing black armbands with Rizzuto’s No. 10 for the rest of this season. Survivors include his wife, four children and two grandchildren.•