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O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto

phil rizzuto hart seely tom peyer roy blount jr.

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Phil Rizzuto, famed shortstop and broadcaster extraordinaire for the New York Yankees, has waxed poetic on America's favorite pastime since the glorious days of Mantle and Maris. For more than a quarter century the Bard of the Booth has captured great moments in baseball - and effortlessly woven them together with essential and often hilarious insights into the human condition. Editors Tom Peyer and Hart Seely have forever captured Rizzuto's unmistakable voice in this collection, which gathers his funniest and most inspiring verses - from comments on Maris getting booed to explications of how the Red Sox control the weather. With an introduction by Roy Blount, Jr., and game stats following each poem, "O Holy Cow!" is a must for baseball fans, Scooter devotees, and everyone interested in major league fun.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1993

This edition

Format
128 pages, Paperback
Published
April 1, 1997 by Ecco
ISBN
9780880015332
ASIN
0880015330
Language
English

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About the author

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phil rizzuto

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Philip Francis Rizzuto, nicknamed "the Scooter", was an American Major League Baseball shortstop. He spent his entire 13-year baseball career with the New York Yankees (1941–1956), and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994.
A popular figure on a team dynasty that captured 10 AL titles and seven World Championships in his 13 seasons, Rizzuto holds numerous World Series records for shortstops. His best statistical season was 1950, when he was named the American League's Most Valuable Player. Generally, Rizzuto was a "small ball" player, noted for his strong defense in the infield and as a great bunter. When he retired, his 1,217 career double plays ranked second in major league history, trailing only Luke Appling's total of 1,424, and his .968 career fielding average trailed only Lou Boudreau's mark of .973 among AL shortstops.
After his playing career, Rizzuto had a 40-year career as a radio and television sports announcer for the Yankees. He was known for his idiosyncratic, conversational broadcast style, and for his trademark expression "holy cow!"

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.7 / 5.0, 7 votes)
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7 reviews All reviews
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Yunikonkun
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Started this book having no idea what I was about to read.

Some of the “poems” are really funny even for someone who has hardly any context.

I also really love the style of turning everything into poems.

I think someone who has more knowledge about the history of baseball and the Yankees would give it a much higher rating, but I still found it enjoyable without having a lot of background knowledge.
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awesomeoost3
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I dare any poet to mix incidental descriptions of sudden action with this kind of polyphonic anecdotal riffing. You'd have to not know you were making poems (Rizzuto was post-conceptual before conceptual writing even existed).
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Hassohappa
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I was never a fan of the Yankees so I had little experience with Phil Rizzuto. I was originally drawn to this book at a bookstore closeout sale because I thought the title “O Holy Cow!” was referring to beloved Cubs sportscaster Harry Caray, as that was (also) his catchphrase. And the cover of the book is a black and white photo with text in bright Cubbie blue and red, not the pinstripes I would have expected. Nevertheless, one look at the contents and I knew I was in the right place. Rizzuto’s game coverage is indicative of all baseball game coverage in that there is a lot of time to fill so as not to leave silence in the broadcast, and on top of that, there are hundreds of games in a season to do that filling. The current generation of seasoned sportscasters seem to always have something pertinent to say, often about statistics. There are always stats no one has heard before. But sportscasters a generation back didn’t have computerized talking prompts and had to fill the void with whatever they could – often personal anecdotes, shout outs, and razzing the other guys in the booth. This patter was interspersed with the occasional action in the game. The results, when written out, are like poetry, albeit a little schizophrenic at times. I really enjoyed Rizzuto’s way to broadcast a game, it is very personal and homey. But I suspect you could put this kind of book together about others of his generation like Harry Carey. I’m not sure how you would write down that slur that Harry used to start to get in the late innings. Who am I kidding, in the middle innings most times. But Harry would also have a shoutout for a Cub fan’s 95th birthday, and he would talk about eating at Pete Vonachen’s place in Peoria, and would kid Steve Stone. These are the same kinds of things Rizzuto covers in his patter. Rizzuto seems to have quite a few more missed calls than an average sportscaster, and that made this all the more human. You can also tell that he could be distracted from what was happening on the field, and at times when he got involved in his stories, the baseball was the distraction. Don't all fans feel that way sometimes?

The “poems” include the date and the game situation. I thought there were more “poems” created while Scott Sanderson was pitching, leading me to wonder if his pitching made all viewers a little more poetic, or if the way he pitched just gave everyone more time to fill.

One of my favorites, because I see a little of myself in it, is called Gone and Back:

“OH!
THAT’S GONE!
No.
It’s not.

Close.
Off the wall.
Son of a gun.
I make a lot of mistakes like that.”

A very fun read for a baseball broadcasting fan.
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Dredear
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I absolutely loved this book! Growing up listening to Phil Rizzuto announcing Yankee games, he will always have a special place in my heart! No other announcer that I have listened to, (Mel Allen was only doing This Week In Baseball when I was growing up) has matched the experience listening to Scooter!

This book is not so much "poetry" in the sense that most people understand the term. This is his "poetry" in the way that he told stories while the game was being played. Admittedly, if you were trying to keep score while he was doing the play by play you might miss something, but he was never boring and the listener was entertained. The lines included in this book will bring back memories of games long gone. Some of them I remember hearing on the air. But whether I heard it or not, when I was reading the "poems" I heard it in Rizzuto's voice.

My rating for this book is skewed because of the my childhood memories listening to Scooter. With that said, I think that any Yankee fan who grew up listening to this man will absolutely love this book. Also, I think any baseball fan who listened to the Scooter will love this book. Actually, in my biased point of view, the only people who may not like this book will be people who expect this to be a standard book of poetry.
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Simonian
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I grew up watching Yankee games on WPIX courtesy of our backyard satellite dish. Dad had the game on every night from 1983 to 1986. Ubiquitous was Phil Rizzuto’s humor and insight. This quick read offers several gems from his broadcast career. Below is an example of what you might have heard between balls and strikes.

I.
Lookit.
I gotta tell my barber on Monday
“Don’t gimme a Polonia haircut”
Holy Cow!

II.
That’s the latest style.
It’s Just like
When new styles come out for women.
They wear it no matter how weird it looks.
They’ll wear it ‘cause it’s the new style.

III.
Gonna get the women mad at me.
I’ll think of something
What?
I got another half minute
To think of something
To get out of this
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okkygist
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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From hilarious baseball and non-baseball observations to bewildering non-sequiturs, from comedic digs at his co-announcers to a pitch-perfect, heartfelt tribute to the late Yankees captain Thurman Munson following his tragic accident, Phil Rizzuto's television and radio voice captivated and carried generations of Yankees fans. Tom Peyer and Hart Seely have brought Rizzuto's unique voice to life once again by printing his stylings as free verse. It must have taken them hours of listening to tapes to come up with the haiku.
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thizlas
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Phil (The Scooter) Rizzuto was the regular shortstop for the New York Yankees for the years 1941-1956. After retiring from baseball, he went on to be a fixture as a radio and television announcer for Yankee games. Rizzuto developed a very unusual style, often engaging in non sequitur tangents that had little or nothing to do with the action on the field. This book is a collection of some of those oddball moments.
There is nothing here in the form of verse or thoughtful prose, sometimes you do not really understand what he said after you read it. While some are charmed by what Rizzuto said, it is often so difficult to comprehend that I found it off-putting. For there is no insight into the beauty and complexities of baseball, where weird plays can happen at any time.
However, I did learn that his trademark expression was, “O Holy Cow!” a remark that I thought had originated with Harry Caray.

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