Pine Tar Game -- Phil Rizzuto Radio Call

[@roncaruso931]

The great old Yankee Stadium. Should never have been demolished.

[@mr.salvatorejpluchino8467]

I REMEMBER THIS GAME, I WAS THERE WITH MY MOTHER. GOD IT BRINGS BACK SO MUCH MEMORIES.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

You witnessed a unique game, then -- one of a kind. It wasn't "a" pine tar game. It was "the" Pine Tar Game.

[@mr.salvatorejpluchino8467]

@@OnlyEdandTheAlmost ABSOLUTELY AND IF MY MEMORY IS STILL THERE, RIGHT AFTER THE GAME THEY HAD A FIREWORK SHOW

[@edwardanthony7283]

Phil Rizzuto was the best announcer I listened to of all time. Many a night I fell asleep with my transistor radio on while listening to him during a broadcast. He was the best.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Ditto.

[@richardspera9444]

Same here

[@williamstoutenburgh2116]

I watched this on TV, WPIX TV Channel 11 in NYC. The look on George Brett's face when they called him out in the dugout. Holy Cow!

[@jokersinurface]

Rizzuto did a great job explaining the situation. This was radio broadcast and they made seem like you were there.

[@DesiluTrek]

I'm not even a Yankees fan but Rizzuto's call here is awesome.

[@francoiscabanis2644]

White, Messer, and the scooter. The best I ever heard. Always a disappointment after regular season when networks would bring in the talking heads from central casting. It would be so much better to hear the local guys do the home games in the playoffs in the World Series.

[@trubrewman]

I was glued to the radio for Yankees games not on WPIX. Stayed up school nights for west coast games too... Rain delays and extra innings be damned.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Every game was a life-and-death situation.

[@JakeMabe1]

The perfect way to enjoy baseball if you can't get to the park -- on radio! Especially back when you could listen to either good broadcasters or entertaining broadcasters.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

+Jake Mabe Agree 100%. Phil was a great entertainer but also a very good play-by-play man. And baseball is unlike any other sport in that it's easy to visualize the action. Ever try to listen to a hockey or football or basketball game on the radio? No fun at all. But baseball is just slow enough to make it possible and enjoyable.

[@Moreoff]

Listening to this was therapeutic after listening to Joe Buck for the last 4 hours in tonight's World Series. One of my most memorable lines of Phil must of been from either 1977 or 1978 when the Yanks won the playoff. After the last play, he shouted; " Cliff Johnson lost his shoes, and the Yankees are in the world series!!" Miss ya' Phil.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

+Moreoff It's nice to go back and listen to the game the way it used to be called, by someone who actually played it. Glad people are enjoying it. There will never be another Rizzuto.

[@KnickKnack07]

Really? You think a homer is a BETTER sportscaster? Phil Rizzuto is pretty much literally the "DON'T DO THIS" section of any sports broadcasting class.

[@trubrewman]

KnickKnack07 Maybe for the play by play man or a national broadcast. Most local color comm's have some homer in them.

[@stevesmith6685]

Thank you so much for this. I taped the game that day but never did hear "White" and "The Scooter." Both of them were in their prime then and did a great broadcast, disagreed in a polite way and Phil said that Bill was going over the GW Bridge like Phil did probably then and definitely later on. Thanks again for posting!

[@r3tr0actiongamer24]

As a Red Sox fan I always loved Phil and Bill White. Would catch the game on WPIX and even loved Rizzutos Money Store commercials lol

[@jude999]

This belongs in the Library of Congress. "Where's Bill White?" You know its deep when Gaylord Perry is in the mix.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

It's KZbin -- the next best thing! ;-)

[@mottthehoople684]

I miss those days

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Happy 40th Anniversary of the Pine Tar Game!

[@MichaelBecker-px5sy]

Great duo on the radio! Great rivalry, Great Brent

[@horaceball5418]

Great post...I read Phil loved to leave early to beat traffic....

[@TL2354]

Wow, Scooter says he has nightmares about Goose facing Brett and Brett smacks a HR. Then he says if the Yankees win this pine tar argument there will be chaos and there was

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Indeed, what makes this recording memorable is the Scooter's ominous foreboding.

[@libs-Suk-Balz]

Baseball was meant for radio. I grew up in the late 60s listening to him.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Indeed. It's the perfect radio sport. Which is why you'll never hear tennis, golf or chess on the radio. At least I think you won't.

[@bornyesterday21]

Bill White, Frank Messer, and Phil Rizzuto were a great trio. They alternated between radio and TV.

[@larchmontmark1]

"They gotta get a calibrating machine out here...." :-)

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, it's classic Rizzuto.

[@joeferaco9896]

Billy brought gossage in because in his mind he couldn’t lose ,if the goose gets him out no harm no foul,if Bret homers he will do what he did,and it worked.

[@jude999]

Than why bring him in?

[@jpolar394]

It's just wonderful to just sit back and listen to to a baseball game without hearing the words DOT COM all the time like it is now. Advertising killed the game just like the overpaid players did today.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

There have always been advertisements on radio broadcasts, but today everything is sponsored, including the weather and the umpires. Thanks WFAN, I really needed to know that today's sunshine was brought to me by Jeep.

[@jordanjacobson4812]

I had nightmares about this thing “..l lmaoooo

[@antoinethomas3696]

Georgie Porgie lost his head and his mittens

[@user-dc1dr9kr8x]

Listen....I love the scooter....but this isn't the first game he mushed with that bridge talk

[@jimmorrison9424]

Awesome. Thanks for posting.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

You're welcome.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

No pitch clock. No oversized bases. No shift ban. No pitcher "disengagement" restrictions. No designated runner at second base in the 10th inning. Baseball the way it used to be, 40 years ago. Before MLB ruined it forever.

[@rentslave]

@@smartyjonez5470 It should be eliminated after the 7th inning.There's no more building of suspense.

[@TheLocalLt]

Although the ghost runner in extras is ridiculous, the pitch clock and other such rules were necessary because analytics people had taken old tricks (like the defensive shift, the pitcher holding the ball on fast runners etc) and realized if they had their team do it every single pitch of the game it led to an advantage. Other things, like bringing in a fresh flamethrower late in the game, also started to become abused with analytics staff asking managers to change pitchers every single batter late in games. This led to baseball becoming an unwatchable mess that took twice as long as these 2 hour games from the 80s and 90s where most of the time the pitcher threw within a few seconds of getting the ball back. So because teams would never voluntarily put themselves at a disadvantage, the only way to fix these problems was to put a set of blanket rules on everyone. I went to two games this year and the pace was just so much better it was incredible and felt like baseball in the 80s: pitch, toss back, pitch , toss back. If they get rid of the ghost runner in extra innings the changes will have pretty much been perfect. All that said, it’s no credit to Rob Manfred, who’s got to be the worst and most tone-deaf commissioner in sports, but give baseball credit where it’s due.

[@noxcure]

Everything you listed made the game more enjoyable to watch/listen 😂

[@JeffWolfe]

Nicely done! Great memories of incredible game, and broadcast team!

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@Snowboy2015]

he was the best. what a shame how much baseball has changed. how do u tear down yankee stadium ?😢

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

My pleasure.

[@gynandroidhead]

In search of the lonesome pine.

[@Raelspark]

Huckleberry!

[@1959blantz]

OK, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker going here Two down, nobody on, no score, bottom of the ninth There's the wind-up, and there it is A line shot up the middle, look at him go This boy can really fly

[@kevin62387]

If George Brett was ejected after the home run and the game was suspended at that point, his ejection should have been voided because once he crossed home plate time was supposed to stop at that point and everything after that has to be re-played.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

That was the ruling. That's what happened.

[@MrKTVM]

Jim Hall, who was Bob Sheppard's PA subsitute, did this shortened game.

[@francoiscabanis2644]

voices: rizzutto, white, sheppard, messer. lights out game still on radio hidden under blanket parents think i'm asleep holy cow

[@rafaelramirez1507]

Love Bill White 👍

[@brmillgr]

still think of that scene in "billy madison" where sandler was asked to write Rizzuto in cursive on the chalkboard but he didn't know how to write a Z so he does squiggly lines for the Zs and spells rirruto

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

I'm guessing most Americans under the age of 20 can't write Rizzuto or even their own names in cursive. It's a dying art.

[@brmillgr]

you may be right

[@mannyninja1997]

I am the only 17 year old ball player on my team at my high school probably who knows how to write in cursive.

[@JakeMabe1]

+Only Ed and The Almost To say nothing of diagramming sentences... (or, keeping with our baseball topic, keep score. That is a wonderful, engrossing, but -- alas -- dying art.)

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

That's a word you just don't hear often enough.

[@harryfrezza2563]

New York (A)!

[@rentslave]

Phil must have had a rough time going back over the GWB after the completion as this was the rush hour.

[@andrewgray3874]

@mrkvtm why did Bob Sheppard miss the game when it resumed?

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Andrew Gray Don't know. Perhaps, since the game resumed on a scheduled off day (Aug. 18), he had other commitments. Or he understandably didn't want to make the trip for a 4-out game. Only about 1200 fans showed up, and there was no other scheduled game that day.

[@rentslave]

The pitch clock has unfortunately eliminated this type of banter.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Banter works for the radio, but for TV, during delays, we just get more replays of the same action from 6 different angles.

[@mattwaller5636]

Ripping steinbrener 😆😆

[@lyndelld1]

Holy cow

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

You huckleberry.

[@rosspimental8384]

This was a channel 11 tv broadcast (wpix), not radio.

[@OnlyEdandTheAlmost]

Incorrect.

[@tonymanzo3766]

How come the baseball that was hit wasn’t recovered from the fan that caught it if there was pine tar on the ball, guilty Brett is out, Yankees win 4-3

[@bobfranzem3682]

Billy Martin over managing, once again... I think short leash Girardi took lessons from Billy.....

[@roncaruso931]

Yankees lost anyway. Good.