Rant #3,664: Fun, Fun, Fun

Yesterday, our local Newsday newspaper had a great story in its pages, all about Bill White.

You don't know who Bill White is? 

Let me fill you in.

White was an excellent ballplayer during his career--a five-time All-Star and a World Series champion in 1964 for the St. Louis Cardinals-- perhaps not a Hall of Famer, but an excellent player nonetheless.

In 1972, with the New York Yankees radio/TV broadcast booth in a bit of turmoil, the team took a chance on this newbie to broadcasting, doing something no team had ever done up to that point--hire a black broadcaster.

That chance latest 18 years, and opened the door for many professional sports teams to hire minority voices.

White--a smart guy who actually aspired to be a doctor--fit right into the broadcast team which was manned by sports broadcast lifer Frank Messer and Yankee all-tume great Phil Rizzuto.

The duo eased White into his new role, and White became a mainstay on both Yankees broadcasts and on national baseball broadcasts.

When he joined the broadcast team, the Yankees weren't very good, and hadn't been for a number of years.

Messer was the pro of the group, and his demeanor never changed, win or lose.

But Rizzuto--who himself was trained on the air by Hall of Fame broadcaster Mel Allen--kind of fell off the ledge during these years, paying less attention to the game at hand, and more attention to birthday wishes, his wife Cora, and cannolis.

And the fans loved it!

With White as the straight man, Rizzuto went off on tangents having nothing to do with anything, and the game almost became secondary to Rizzuto and White's Johnny Carson/Ed McMahon imitation.

Or maybe it was their Abbott and Costello imitation.

Holy cow!

The stuff that went on on that booth--a lot that we don't know about, according to White--was stuff of legends, and could not happen in today's woke world.

Goodness, I remember such things--Rizzuto's "guinea" segment ... getting White's name wrong and saying "all you guys look alike" ... covering for Rizzuto when he left games early ... I won't rehash a lot of this, but suffice it to say that you absolutely could not get away with any of this stuff today.

Yankees games on WPIX became "must-see TV," even if you didn't like baseball and/or the Yankees, because you never knew what was going to come out of Rizzuto's mouth--

Or how White would respond.

White became an excellent broadcaster, and when the Yankees regained their excellence, he demonstrated how great he was too, as when he described Bucky Dent's big home run against the hated Red Sox in 1978.

After leaving the Yankees, White became the first black league president, of the National League.

After leaving that post, White has laid pretty low, writing his autobiography several years ago but generally staying out of the spotlight.

And White, in his early 90s, said thst he misses his old partner to this day.

It was good reading about White, and yes, he is doing pretty well, although he lost his wife a few years back and resides in an assisted living facility.

It was a nice read, and if you enlarge the photo, you might be able to enjoy it as much as I did--

A great baseball story right before the 2025 season is getting ready to begin tomorrow.

Play ball!