The Southpaw

Phil Rizzuto dead at 89

RIP, Mr. Rizzuto.

Hall of Famer. 1950 AL MVP. Five-time All Star. Slick fielder. And, most memorably for those of us under 60, stalwart announcer, who began on TV with Mel Allen and Red Barber as his broadcast booth teammates. Not a bad way to begin.

But Howard Cosell, then a radio announcer, gave him no chance: "You'€™ll never last," he said. "You look like George Burns and you sound like Groucho Marx."

His stats don't pop out at you, especially for someone in the Hall. But Rizzuto was certainly quotable.

A rapper, of sorts.

And, of course, poet. From O Holy Cow! The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto, this short and sweet composition:

"My Secret"

When I'm driving
To Yankee Stadium and back,
I do it so often.

I don't remember passing lights
I don't remember paying tolls
Coming over the bridge.

Going back over the bridge,
I remember ...

--August 19, 1992
Oakland at New York
Mike Moore pitching to Mel Hall
Fifth inning, one out, bases empty
Yankees lead 4-1

Scully Calls Koufax's Perfect Ninth

There couldn't have been a more perfect combination -- Sandy Koufax and Vin Scully. On Sept. 9, 1965, Koufax was on the mound at Chavez Ravine, throwing a perfect game against the Cubs. Scully was there, too -- up in the booth, narrating with incredible improvised poetry that had a magic all its own, a broadcast equivalent of Koufax's achievement on the mound.

"[Koufax] was just great," said Cubs first baseman Ernie Banks after the game. "It was beautiful. The first five innings he was getting the curve ball over real good. Then he got tremendous momentum. I thought he'd be a little less tough, but he just kept throwing the ball right on through. And throwing strikes."

Jeff Torborg, behind the plate for the Dodgers, said that Koufax "was throwing much faster at the end than at the beginning."

It was Koufax's fourth no-hitter, a record, and fourth in four years. His unfortunate opponent, fellow lefty Bob Hendley, suffered the loss despite throwing a one-hitter and allowing only one run -- unearned. At the time, it was only the third perfect game in NL history and the ninth in major league annals.

Torborg, one of the few major league backstops to catch three no-hitters (he caught Nolan Ryan's first on May 15, 1973), later said, "You really feel [the pressure], no doubt about it. Your heart's pounding. With Sandy's perfect game, Sandy was so special that I couldn't have put down the wrong sign. There wasn't too much I could've done wrong there. I just had to catch the ball."

And Scully just had to tell listeners what he was seeing. But he did so much more.

Listen.

Some Tim McCarver classics

Tim McCarver, please shut up! is a Web site that would go out of business if McCarver did, indeed, shut up. It's a simple setup, a small database of classics from the mouth of McCarver. A sampling of my favorites; check out the site for more:

⇒ "Pitching is such a vital part of the game, as far as winning is concerned."

⇒ During a mound conference:  "You see Colon talking into his glove because David Ortiz, from the Dominican Republic, can obviously read lips in Spanish."

⇒ "One thing about ground balls. They don't go out of the ball park."

⇒ "Roy Oswalt is a drop and drive pitcher. What is a drop and drive pitcher? He is a guy who drops and drives. Very simple."

⇒ "There is a world of difference between a count of one ball and two strikes is a lot different situation than hitting with two strikes and one ball."

Introducing Mantle, Berra, Ford ... and Eisenhower

From StoryCorps ... “Opening day, 1956. It was the Yankees versus the Senators…”

Charlie Brotman tells his friend Tom Wiener about his first day as a baseball announcer:

"I went to Griffith Stadium … Here I am introducing Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and in addition I introduced the President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, throwing out the first ball."

Hearing the excitement in Brotman's voice is terrific, especially considering that he wasn't only the voice of the Senators, but also announced almost every Presidential Inaugural Parade since 1960.