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Trimble. JL
Phil Rizzuto.
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TENSION ENVELOPE CORP.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER SERIES
PHIL RIZZUTO
cvf Biography of The Scooter
by
JOE TRIMBLE
A. S. BARNES and COMPANY
New York
COPYRIGHT, 1951, BY A. S. BARNES AND COMPANY, INCORPORATED
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form, either wholly or in part, for any use whatsoever, in-
cluding radio presentation, without the written permission of the
copyright owner with the exception of a reviewer who may
quote brief passages in a review printed in a magazine or news-
paper. Manufactured in the United States of America.
PUBLISHED ON THE SAME DAY IN THE DOMINION OF CANADA
BY THE COPP CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED, TORONTO
Foreword
IF EVER a player was born to be a star, it was Phil
Rizzuto, the demitasse shortstop of the World Champion
Yankees and the Most Valuable Player in the American
League for 1950. Phil was handicapped at the outset of his
baseball career because of his pint-sized proportions but by
the time he had reached the semi-pro ranks, he was utilizing
his size as an asset.
Most of Phil's teammates believed he should have been
chosen the MVP by the Baseball Writers Association in
1949, which in itself is a tribute to Rizzuto for rarely do a
player's teammates concern themselves about such matters.
He and Joe Page finished second and third, respectively,
to Ted Williams but it was Phil's opinion that the Red Sox
slugger was entitled to the award. Page, Phil's teammate,
declared that if people hadn't split their first-place votes
between himself and Rizzuto the latter would have had a
good chance at the grand prize.
"We won the pennant and the World Series," said Phil,
"and that was enough for me." In that revealing sentence,
Rizzuto summed up his entire philosophy of baseball it is
the team achievements which satisfy him, not his own as
an individual.
^,,i-,j 511HG78
vl FOREWORD
Pennants are old stuff to Phil. He was on pennant win-
ners In such widely disparate leagues as the Bi-State, the
Piedmont, and the American Association before he rode
home first with the Yankees in the American League in
1941. Oddly enough, Rizzuto has an amazing record for
playing on pennant winners since becoming a Yank five
in the seven seasons he has played with the club.
Whether Rizzuto was the most valuable of the American
League players in 1949 * 1S water over the dam now, but
there is no doubt that he was the most valuable Yankee
both in 1949 and in 1950. When injuries were hamstringing
first one Yankee and then another, tiny Phil remained
marvelously intact.
"He was the one guy we couldn't afford to lose," said
Manager Casey Stengel, "and fortunately, we had him in
all but a couple of games in our two pennant-winning sea-
sons.'*
Joe Trimble has traced the career of Rizzuto with fine
reportorial accuracy. As long ago as 1940, when Phil was
with Kansas City, I visited with him to do a magazine arti-
cle and I thought I knew most of his background and that
of the Rizzuto family, but Trimble has mined deeper. And
come up with more gold, too. This book is one which will
make you feel as though you know Rizzuto personally.
Tom Meany
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
Foreword by TOM MEANY v
1 THE BUM'S RUSH i
2 THE LITTLEST BUM 6
3 "I'LL TAKE THE LITTLE ONE" 14
4 MINOR MATTERS 26
5 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR 40
6 THE WORLD SERIES 55
7 SCOOTER MEETS A LADY 65
8 BELL BOTTOM TROUSERS 77
9 LA CUCARACHA 94
10 MEXICAN HAYRIDE 108
1 1 COMEBACK 1 1 8
12 TAILSPIN 127
13 NEAR Miss 133
14 THE HEAVIER THE LOAD 146
15 A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 158
APPENDIX 165
The Most Valuable Player Award
American League 1950 165
American League Most Valuable Player
Awards 167
viii CONTENTS
Philip Francis Rizzuto Complete Record 168
The Most Valuable Player Award
National League 1950 169
National League Most Valuable Player
Awards 171
Casimir James Konstanty Complete Record 172
Baseball Writers Association
1950 Membership 173
INDEX i 80
CHAPTER ONE
The Bum's Rush
CASEY STENGEL is a lucky man, but not because
his petroleum leases and real-estate investments have made
him a millionaire. Those windfalls could be due to sound
judgment. He is lucky because he blew a chance to avail
himself of the talent of Phil Rizzuto back in 1936, and then
got another opportunity to ride to glory with the greatest
"little" baseball player in history after a lapse of thirteen
years. Few big-league managers, after muffing the oppor-
tunity to sign an outstanding prospect, get a second chance.
Stengel was manager of the Dodgers in 1936 when Rizzuto
was booted out of a tryout session and manager of the
Yankees in 1949 and 1950 when the mighty mite carried
the New York club to successive championships. He's like
the guy who does a bad job of drilling for water and strikes
oil.
Actually, Stengel didn't turn thumbs-down on the seven-
teen-year-old Rizzuto that summer afternoon many years
ago. But the manager was guilty of losing the youngster
by reason of his absence. Casey, at that time battling with
the owners of the Dodgers, didn't attend the session at
which about 150 kids were given token tryouts. Stengel
2 PHIL RIZZUTO
knew that he was going to be fired by the front office when
his two-year contract expired the following year, anyway.
He didn't bother to go to the morning gathering of sand-
lotters, and left the appraisals in the hands of others.
Coaches Otto Miller and Zach Taylor, the latter now
manager of the St. Louis Browns, supervised the tryouts.
They divided the kids into groups of twenty and lined
them up in left center field.
"On yer mark, set, go!" Miller barked.
Then the youngsters, ranging in age from sixteen to
eighteen and wearing baseball uniforms of varying fits,
qualities, and conditions of servitude, broke in a wild dash
toward the first-base stripe on the diamond.
The first five finishers in each heat were told to stay
around; the other fifteen were sent home immediately. The
theory was that if a kid couldn't run, then he wasn't a ball
player. This, in itself, is ridiculous. Had their major league
potentialities been decided upon fleetness of foot, scores
of great ball players would never have gotten a chance. Mel
Ott, Lou Gehrig, Ernie Lombardi, Gabby Hartnett, Lou
Boudreau, and even Babe Ruth were slow runners.
Of course, Rizzuto had no trouble winning his "heat"
for he could outrun any one of the youngsters on the field
that day.
After the footrace eliminations, the approximately forty
hopefuls who qualified were broken into two groups, some
told to go into the field and others to take turns at bat. Phil
was placed among the batters.
"A big right-handed kid was pitching," he remembers.
"I had been a good hitter in high school at Richmond Hill
amd eten managed to get my base hits in semi-pro competi-
tion
