22 JULY 29, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Holy cow! The ‘Glendale Gnome’ who became
a Yankee legend: Our Neighborhood, The Way it Was
We can’t think of an athlete
who grew up in the Greater
Ridgewood area who accomplished
more than Phil Rizzuto.
Most readers today remember him
from his days in the broadcast booth,
when the lovable “Scooter” called Yankees
games for WPIX-TV. Of course, that
was only the second chapter of Rizzuto’s
Yankee life; the fi rst was his distinguished
career on the diamond, where
#10 made the All-Star team fi ve times and
helped the Bronx Bombers win seven
World Championships in 12 seasons
between 1941 and 1956 (he spent three
years in combat during World War II).
Few, however, may realize that Rizzuto,
who was born in Brooklyn, spent his formative
years in Glendale. He went to Richmond
Hill High School, where he became a
star on both the baseball diamond and the
football gridiron.
Despite his diminutive size, he was
big on heart and talent. Scouts realized
he was something special, and in 1937,
the Yankees signed Rizzuto to a free
agent contract. He would eventually
be assigned to the Kansas City Blues,
the Yankees’ farm team in the minor
league American Association. There
he demonstrated that he had what it
takes to contribute to the Yankees’
success in the big leagues.
The Ridgewood Times, in its
July 25, 1941, issue, profi led one special
achievement Rizzuto earned: The
Sporting News Trophy as the Most
Valuable Player for the American
Association in 1940. Rizzuto received
the honor prior to the start of the July
22, 1941 game between the New York
Yankees and Cleveland Indians, amid
Rizzuto’s fi rst full season in pinstripes.
Although Yankee broadcaster Mel
Allen would eventually give Rizzuto
the “Scooter” nickname that stuck with
him in Yankee lore, Ridgewood Times
readers knew of Rizzuto by several
other nicknames, as you’ll see in the
July 25, 1941, report:
“The Flea, who replaced the veteran
Frankie Crosetti this year in the short
fi eld, took part in 140 double plays with
Kansas City last campaign, and was the
only player in the AA to make 200 hits.
“Glendale’s little package of dynamite
was given the award by Newbold
Morris, president of the City Council.
Rizzuto celebrated with a brace of
singles and a stolen base as the Yankees
won, 4-3.
“Now in his 22nd year, Rizzuto lives
at 78-01 64th St. His fi ve-feet-six inches
and 160 pounds make him the smallest
ballplayer in the Big League.
“With the Yankees, Rizzuto is batting
well over the .310 mark, second
only tot he Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio,
who is blasting away in the .370s.
Afi eld Lil’ Phil has played a brilliant
game and is considered by some experts
as the ‘rookie of the year.’
“The Glendale Gnome is a product
of the Richmond Hill High School
baseball squad. With Gerry Priddy,
he combined to become the outstanding
double play combination of the
Mid-West.
“The diminutive diamond demon
batted .347 last season and fi elded .949.
He also led the league in stolen bases.”
Rizzuto fi nished his 1941 campaign
with 158 hits in 515 at bats, good for
a .307 batting average. The article
pointed out DiMaggio’s .370 batting
average; the article was published just
a few days aft er DiMaggio’s historic
56-game hitting streak was snapped.
But Rizzuto’s best season wouldn’t
come until 1950, when he won the Most
Valuable Player award. That year, Rizzuto
had 200 hits in 735 and scored 125
runs, while also helping the Yankees
win the second of fi ve consecutive
World Championships between 1949
and 1953.
Aft er retiring, Rizzuto joined the
Yankee broadcast booth, where generations
of baseball fans would grow
to love him for his excitement over
great plays (“Holy cow!”), malapropisms
and stories of his playing days.
His most famous call came on the last
day of the 1961 season, as Roger Maris
hit his 61st home run of the campaign,
breaking Babe Ruth’s single season
home run record.
“Fastball, hit deep to right, this
could be it! Way back there ... holy cow,
he did it! Sixty-one for Maris!”
Rizzuto had plenty of family in
Glendale long aft er he left the neighborhood.
The Ridgewood Times profi
led a cousin of the Scooter, Ernest
Furone, in the Aug. 23, 2007, issue, a
week aft er Rizzuto’s death.
“In recalling the New York Yankees
baseball player and announcer known
as ‘The Scooter,’ who died at the age of
89 on Aug. 13, Furone noted that his
fi rst real meeting with Phil Rizzuto occurred
‘sometime in the late thirties,’
before Phil began his 13-year career
with the Yankees in 1941.
“The occasion was a wedding reception
for Phil’s sister Rose in the basement
of the Rizzuto family’s Liberty
Park home at 64th Street and 78th Avenue,
just south of Cooper Avenue. ...
“‘When Philly became famous, naturally,
I realized that he was related to
me—and I always rooted for him and
the Yankees,’ said Furone. ...
“Of the original photos of Phil
Rizzuto that his second cousin does
possess, the most recent was taken
in 1988, when Phil came back to the
Glendale area to make a personal
appearance on Myrtle Avenue at the
since-departed Hamilton Federal Savings
Bank (now a Ridgewood Savings
Bank branch). Ernest Furone went and
presented Phil with a scrapbook — an
exchange that was photographed by
Ernest’s daughter, Diane Shendler,
also of Glendale.”
As it happened, Rizzuto wasn’t the
only Yankee legend who grew up in
Our Neighborhood. Bob Sheppard,
the legendary, god-like public address
announcer of the old Yankee Stadium,
grew up in Ridgewood but eventually
relocated to Richmond Hill. Sheppard
would call more than 4,500 games,
with his last game occurring in the
2007 playoff s, just two years before
his death at the age of 99.
Sheppard had started his career
with the Yankees in 1951, and Rizzuto
was one of the fi rst Yankees players
that he called to the plate on Opening
Day of that season.
***
Share your history with us by
emailing editorial@ridgewoodtimes.
com (subject: Our Neighborhood: The
Way it Was) or write to The Old Timer,
℅ Ridgewood Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd.,
Bayside, NY 11361. Any mailed pictures
will be carefully returned to you upon
request.
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
