Ho-leeee cowww!

Thank you, Tigers. No more Yankees. No more Spike Lee in the crowd. No more Donald Trump in his luxury box. No more John Sterling "theeeee Yankeees winnnn!" Unfortunately, I think no more Joe Torre. But he'll probably be happier than T-bag escaping from prison.

I'd hate to be the program director of the YES Network for the next five months. And I'd sure hate to be A-Rod.

Maybe now the Mets can get front page coverage.

******

On Friday night’s AL division playoff game, Jon Miller had longtime Tiger broadcaster, Ernie Harwell come on to do a few innings. It was great to hear his crackling voice and at 88 Ernie was still as sharp as ever. Certainly sharper than analyst, Joe Morgan. But it brought to mind the days when each team had a distinctive announcer. And no one was more distinctive than the Scooter, Phil Rizzuto.

A former player, Rizzuto never really made the transition to broadcaster. And that was his charm. If there was a player’s name he couldn’t pronounce he’d just call him “Huckleberry”. He could never remember my name during the years I was a colleague so he always just called me “Mash”. When scoring a game he would often write WW following a player’s at bat. That meant “wasn’t watching”.

There are many great Phil Rizzuto stories. You probably have some. Here are my two favorites.

The Yankees were playing at Tiger Stadium one night. It was easy to hit home runs down the left field line. It was just a 340 foot chip shot. On the left field wall was a digital clock. A Yankee hit a home run and Rizzuto almost came out of his seat, saying on the air, “Holy cow, what a poke! He had that over the 808 sign!”

And then there was the day where his post game show was interrupted with the bulletin that Pope John Paul I had died after only a month of service. When he got back on the air, the first thing Rizzuto said was, “Wow. News like that could dampen even a Yankee win.”

C’mon, seriously, wouldn’t you rather hear the Scooter than Tim McCarver?