Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzuto

Many baseball fans know that Rizzutto, just 5"6' and 160 pounds, was a diminutive player who overcame his size to become a five-time All-Star, the 1950 American League MVP, and that he helped the Yankees win seven World Series titles during his 13-year career. Casual fans may say Scooter was playing over his head and had a great cast of teammates that would make any average player look better. However, DeVito reveals in Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzutto that size never defined Rizzutto.

 

With a 40-year career on the air spanning the end of his playing days until his death in 2007, he bolstered his unique status in New York City history by surpassing his career on the diamond with an even more stellar career in the broadcast booth. In this, the first fully-researched and deeply revealing biography of an American legend, DeVito gives Rizzutto the proper biographical treatment reserved for a man who was one of the best players in the world, a World War II veteran, and one most famous announcers ever. No, nothing was accidental about Scooter's career. Rizzutto worked for it all, and he worked in ways some fans never realized. DeVito shows you precisely how and why in Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzutto.

WFAN TALKS ABOUT "SCOOTER" WITH AUTHOR
The WFAN's Marc Malusis talked to author Carlo DeVito recently about his latest biography SCOOTER: THE BIOGRAPHY OF PHIL RIZZUTO. DeVito reveals some of the challenges he experienced during the 18 months that he worked on SCOOTER. Rizzuto's life is the third New York-centric biography published by Triumph Books after his critcally-acclaimed biographies of Wellington Mara and Yogi Berra. To hear the WFAN interview and learn more about SCOOTER please go to the book's official page.

Scooter

Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzuto

By Carlo DeVito

 

CONTACT: Bill Ames, Triumph Books, 312.252.1248, b.ames@triumphbooks.com

 

Prior to wearing his now-retired #10 for the New York Yankees, Phil Rizzuto was famously told by Casey Stengel to forget baseball and "get yourself a shoeshine box."  At just 5'6" and 160 pounds, Rizzuto was informed from his earliest playing days that he was too small and too delicate to play baseball at the professional level.  His beloved Brooklyn Dodgers as well as the New York Giants instantly rejected the young infielder because of his almost miniature stature.

 

In Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzuto, the exhaustive research of sports biographer Carlo DeVito sheds new light on a baseball legend, exposing the Hall of Famer's moxie and lifelong dedication to baseball.  DeVito goes in-depth and follows a player who was told that he would never make it in baseball.  Instead, Rizzuto became one of the most beloved players and most popular announcers in the glorious history of the Yankees franchise.

 

DeVito sheds light on Rizzuto's many remarkable accomplishments, including:

 

• Developing into one of the greatest shortstops in baseball history
• Being named a five-time All-Star, including the 1950 American League MVP
• Helping the Yankees win seven World Series titles during his 13-year career
• His 40-year career calling games punctuated with his trademark phrase, "Holy cow!"
• Recording music with rock star legend Meat Loaf
• His induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 1994

 

DeVito leaves no stone unturned in this enlightening and comprehensive biography, revealing stories from both on and off the field that have never before been told.  Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzuto is a must-read not only for passionate Yankee fans, but for all baseball enthusiasts who want to become better historians of the game.

 

About the author: Carlo DeVito is a writer and publishing executive. A graduate of Fordham University, he is the author of the critically acclaimed Yogi: The Life and Times of an American Original, as well as biographies on Wellington Mara and D. Wayne Lucas. DeVito and his wife, Dominique, and their two sons live on their farm, the Hudson-Chatham Winery, in Ghent, New York.

 

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