By Roger Friedman
HollywoodNews.com: It’s hard to believe, because he was such an omnipotent figure in Yankee life, but George Steinbrenner is dead at age 80.
The obits and comments today will be something to read, and lengthy at that. No baseball owner was ever this controversial, whether he was hiring people to spy on his players or having public fights with popular managers. In his heyday he was loud, nasty, and frustrating.
But in a way what would we have done without him? When Steinbrenner bought the Yankees, they were dead. CBS and Mike Burke had killer them. It was the era of mediocre players with few exceptions: Mel Stottlemeyer, Bobby Murcer, a just arrived Thurman Munson, and dependable Roy White. Ralph Houk was the staid manager.
Steinbrenner changed all that. He ushered in Billy Martin, Dave Winfield, and Reggie Jackson, and a determination to win at all costs.
HollywoodNews.com: It’s hard to believe, because he was such an omnipotent figure in Yankee life, but George Steinbrenner is dead at age 80.
The obits and comments today will be something to read, and lengthy at that. No baseball owner was ever this controversial, whether he was hiring people to spy on his players or having public fights with popular managers. In his heyday he was loud, nasty, and frustrating.
But in a way what would we have done without him? When Steinbrenner bought the Yankees, they were dead. CBS and Mike Burke had killer them. It was the era of mediocre players with few exceptions: Mel Stottlemeyer, Bobby Murcer, a just arrived Thurman Munson, and dependable Roy White. Ralph Houk was the staid manager.
Steinbrenner changed all that. He ushered in Billy Martin, Dave Winfield, and Reggie Jackson, and a determination to win at all costs.
- 7/13/2010
- by Roger Friedman
- Hollywoodnews.com
NEW YORK -- Phil Rizzuto, the Hall of Fame Yankees shortstop during the 1940s and '50s who had a long second career as a broadcaster, died in his sleep Tuesday of pneumonia at a nursing home in West Orange, N.J. He was 89.
Rizzuto was a fixture on New York television from 1957, the year after he was cut from the team, until 1995, when he quit after broadcasting a Yankees-Red Sox game instead of attending the funeral of teammate Mickey Mantle. He was known for several expressions -- most notably "Holy cow!" -- and often wished viewers birthday or other greetings on the air.
His stream-of-consciousness broadcasting style endeared him to many fans and infuriated a few others, as he often turned from what was going on in the field to talk about golf or Italian food or how he was planning to beat the game traffic over the George Washington Bridge on his way home to New Jersey. Former Yankees player and broadcaster Bobby Murcer said he remembered all the food -- cannoli, salami and cheese -- that was in the broadcast booth thanks to Rizzuto.
Rizzuto was a fixture on New York television from 1957, the year after he was cut from the team, until 1995, when he quit after broadcasting a Yankees-Red Sox game instead of attending the funeral of teammate Mickey Mantle. He was known for several expressions -- most notably "Holy cow!" -- and often wished viewers birthday or other greetings on the air.
His stream-of-consciousness broadcasting style endeared him to many fans and infuriated a few others, as he often turned from what was going on in the field to talk about golf or Italian food or how he was planning to beat the game traffic over the George Washington Bridge on his way home to New Jersey. Former Yankees player and broadcaster Bobby Murcer said he remembered all the food -- cannoli, salami and cheese -- that was in the broadcast booth thanks to Rizzuto.
- 8/15/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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