Was Scooter 90?
From Murray Chass -
The obituaries said Phil Rizzuto was 89 when he died last week. That’s because the baseball encyclopedias said that Rizzuto was 89. And the encyclopedias said Rizzuto was 89 because that’s what Rizzuto said. That is, they listed his birth date as Sept. 25, 1917, because that’s when Rizzuto reported he was born.
But that wasn’t necessarily so. Or was it?
Sorry, Scooter, but I have to do it. I have kept your secret to myself for nearly 30 years, but now that you have sadly left us, I don’t think you would mind if I told the tale from the Yankees’ spring training camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in the late 1970s.
Rizzuto was then a Yankees broadcaster, but he was also a bunting instructor in spring training. One day, he stood at the net as players bunted in the batting cage under the stands along the right-field line at Fort Lauderdale Stadium. Scooter knew better, but he absent-mindedly held on to the net behind home plate, putting his hand through an opening between the cords.
A foul ball came off the bat and smashed Rizzuto’s finger. It hurt. It was bloody. It was a mess. Rizzuto was told to go to a nearby hospital and have the finger treated there. But he couldn’t drive with his finger in that condition, so I offered to take him.
When we arrived at the hospital, the nurse at the outpatient desk asked Rizzuto for the usual information. Date of birth was one of her questions.
“Sept. 25, 1916,” Rizzuto replied without hesitation. With “16” hardly out of his mouth, he turned to me and said sternly, “Don’t you tell anybody.”
And I didn’t, not then, not ever. Until now. But what could have been more Scooterlike than continuing to make himself a year younger decades after he retired? On the other hand, the department of health said Rizzuto’s birth certificate listed his year of birth as 1917, but leave it to Scooter to disagree with the officials.
Wouldn’t be the first time that a ballplayer lied about his age.
Steve,
I think last week Kevin Kernan in The Post had a piece about how, as a young player, Scooter said he was a year younger to make himself look like a more attractive prospect.
That’s enough proof for me. As for as I’m concerned, Scooter battled to age 90.