Why New York Yankee Fans Loved Phil Rizzuto

Few figures in New York Yankees history were loved the way Phil Rizzuto was loved. To one generation, he was the great Yankees shortstop who helped anchor a dynasty and earned his place among the franchise’s champions. To another generation, he was the unforgettable voice in the broadcast booth, the man whose “Holy Cow!” became part of summer nights in New York. Phil Rizzuto was more than a player and more than a broadcaster. He was a genuine New York character who made Yankees fans feel like they were watching the game with family.

Photo: Phil Rizzuto – Public Domain

Hands down, Phil Rizzuto is one of the most loved New York Yankees of all time. From just a personality perspective, no one matched Phil Rizzuto’s friendly and entertaining personality except for Yogi Berra. For those of us in our fifties and sixties, we got to know Phil Rizzuto from his broadcasting days with the New York Yankees. We were too young to see him play. Our parents’ generation knew Phil Rizzuto as one of the great New York Yankees shortstops ever to play the game. It’s a shame that those under twenty-five never got the chance to watch a New York Yankees game with the Scooter behind the microphone. No one ever called a game with the personality of Phil Rizzuto. He is one we miss dearly.

Phil Rizzuto’s Early Years

Phil Rizzuto was born in Brooklyn, New York, during World War I on September 25, 1917. Phil Rizzuto was as New York as you could get. His mother, Rose Angotti Rizzuto, was born in Italy. His father, Fiore, had been born in New York. They were an Italian family who loved playing music yet made a living as laborers. Phil Rizzuto attended Richmond Hill High School in Queens. In high school, he played sports, and despite his small size, his huge talent and heart had him playing like a champion from the start. Like any good parent who wanted his children to find a profession they could make a living in, Phil’s father was concerned that Phil Rizzuto would not be able to make a living as a baseball player. Nonetheless, Phil Rizzuto signed with the New York Yankees in 1937. Rizzuto’s career with the New York Yankees began in Virginia in the Class D Bi-State League.

Phil Rizzuto did not stay in Virginia for long. Eventually, he landed in Kansas City of the American Association, where he became the league’s MVP in 1940. It was during his time in Kansas City that he earned the nickname “Scooter” from a teammate. The name was given to him because of his quickness on the bases.

Phil Rizzuto And The New York Yankees

In 1941, Phil Rizzuto replaced Frank Crosetti, who was a popular New York Yankee who had played shortstop for the team for the previous nine years. In his first season with the New York Yankees, Phil Rizzuto had a better batting average than anyone on the team with the exception of Joe DiMaggio. Rizzuto hit .307 while Jolting Joe hit .357. In his second season, Phil Rizzuto found himself being named to the American League All-Star team.

After the 1942 season, Phil Rizzuto spent the next three baseball seasons in the military as World War II raged on. While stationed in Virginia, Phil Rizzuto met the love of his life. Her name was Cora Esselborn, and every New York Yankees fan who listened to Phil Rizzuto broadcast the Yankees games for forty years would learn all about her.

When Phil Rizzuto returned from the war, the Mexican Baseball League tried to recruit him, as well as other famous Major League ballplayers. The Mexican League offered a great deal of money to those players. The New York Yankees prevented Phil Rizzuto from joining the Mexican Baseball League. In the end, Phil Rizzuto’s return to the New York Yankees resulted in an incredible run of World Series championships and personal achievements. By the time Phil Rizzuto had retired from his playing days with the New York Yankees, he had earned seven World Series rings, made the All-Star team five times, and won the league MVP award in 1950. All these accomplishments were made in just 12 seasons with the New York Yankees, from 1941 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1956.

Phil Rizzuto The Broadcaster

For those alive who were baseball fans during that incredible run of New York Yankees World Series championships, Phil Rizzuto was one of their favorites. His small size, incredible hustle, and talent easily won over all the fans. Sadly, most of the fans who watched Phil Rizzuto play baseball have passed away. However, I remember the stories my father and uncles would share about those New York Yankees. One could tell how loved Rizzuto was from their conversations. My generation knew another Phil Rizzuto. We knew Phil Rizzuto the broadcaster. Phil Rizzuto was hired by the New York Yankees as a broadcaster for the 1957 season. Phil would stay in that broadcast chair for the next forty years. During that span, there was no other broadcaster as loved as the Scooter was, unless you were a New York Mets fan.

Phil Rizzuto’s outright rooting for the New York Yankees was only a small reason New York Yankees fans loved him. We all loved him because he acted like one of us. He was one of us. The boy from Brooklyn who made it to the top and never forgot where he came from. Listening to Phil Rizzuto call a game was like listening to your favorite uncle talking about old times at the dinner table. We knew all about Phil’s world. We all knew his wife’s name, Cora. You could tell how much he loved her in the way he spoke about her. We knew what he was eating during the games. We knew what he would be eating later that evening. Phil Rizzuto was an open book that had no problem sharing his life with millions of people. We loved him for that.

New Yorkers know BS when they hear it. Phil Rizzuto was genuine. There have not been many broadcasters who could call a game while making it sound like they were hanging out on the couch watching it with you. It’s why everyone loved John Madden, too. They didn’t hold back. They were not cruel, but they could let players have it when they deserved it. Phil Rizzuto’s famous expression when he was upset with someone was to call them a “huckleberry.” It was innocent, funny, and straight to the point. Phil Rizzuto was an ex-Yankee great; he had the stature to call out anyone if he wanted to.

Leaving Early To Beat The Traffic

Perhaps the greatest commonality Phil Rizzuto shared with many fans was his desire to leave games early to beat the traffic. As anyone who has ever attended a ball game in New York City can attest, leaving before a game ends rather than waiting until it is over could save you an hour or two in traffic. Phil Rizzuto would leave the stadium early all the time, and he took a great deal of good-natured ribbing for it from his fellow broadcasters and producers. Many times during a ball game’s last three innings, the show’s producers would broadcast a live picture of the George Washington Bridge while Bill White or Frank Messer would comment, “Hey, there’s Rizzuto on the bridge.”

The Glory Years Of The Yankees Broadcast Booth

From 1972 to 1982, Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer, and Bill White were the three voices of the New York Yankees on broadcast television. They were together for a long time in various combinations, but it was the ten-year period from 1972 to 1982 that defined the glory years of that much-loved broadcast team. They were not all glory years for the New York Yankees, as the late 1960s and early 1970s defined one of the worst eras of New York Yankees baseball that Yankee fans ever had to endure.

Frank Messer was a professional broadcaster who played the straight man to Rizzuto. Bill White found his ground somewhere in the middle. As a former player for the St. Louis Cardinals, Bill White usually gave Phil Rizzuto a little more ribbing than Frank Messer did. Regardless of who did what, the three of them created a broadcast that was incredibly enjoyable to watch despite the New York Yankees’ poor play on the field in what many term as the Horace Clarke years.

The growth of cable TV in the late 1970s and the rise of sports channels eventually fueled a change in the New York Yankees broadcast booth on radio, broadcast television, and cable television. Phil Rizzuto would work with a host of other broadcasters into the 1990s, including Tom Seaver and the late, great Bobby Murcer.

Phil Rizzuto In Pop Culture

Many people remember Phil Rizzuto from all those Money Store commercials. You could not blame him for earning what he could. Ballplayers during his days made nowhere near the money today’s baseball players make. We also all loved Phil Rizzuto’s great cameo on Meat Loaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” When they all made that recording, no one had any idea that Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album would be as successful as it became.

Why Yankees Fans Loved Phil Rizzuto

There are so many fans with stories about meeting Phil Rizzuto on the street, in a store, at the stadium, etc. If you talk to any of those fans who met Phil Rizzuto, you will find they all share the same common story about meeting him. Phil Rizzuto was always interested in hearing what you had to say. And if he came back your way again, he would always ask if you were around. He remembered, and he cared no matter who you were or what you did. That’s an old-school guy from the streets, from the neighborhood, a good one, a great one!

Phil Rizzuto retired from broadcasting in 1996 after forty years behind the microphone. It was a year in which the New York Yankees said goodbye to one of their greatest shortstops of all time while opening the door for a player who would become a new legendary shortstop in Derek Jeter.

In the twentieth century, the New York Yankees always promoted Mel Allen as their voice. They promoted their stadium as the house that Ruth built. The team paid constant tribute to Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford. These were the greatest New York Yankees of all time. They were loved by all New York Yankee fans. Nonetheless, for so many of us, Phil Rizzuto was a man who bled pinstripes more than any other. Holy Cow, do we miss him!

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If you enjoyed this look back at Phil Rizzuto, continue exploring more New York sports history with our articles on A Mets Fan’s Take on New York Mets History, The History of Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Home of the Mets and Jets, The Real Reason the New York Jets Drafted Sam Darnold, and Joe Namath and the 1968 New York Jets Super Bowl Champions.

Updated June 29, 2026.

Sources:

DeVito, Carlo. Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzuto. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2010.

Lupica, Mike. “Brooklyn Kid Turned Bronx Icon Made Us Feel Like Part of Family.” Daily News Sports. NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved July 12, 2016.