So, Phil Rizzuto was crazy.

The Scooter was a guest at my brother's wedding. Very very nice man, acted exactly like he did on WPIX.

Unless you went to assist him with his single, humungo luggage bag at Newark Airport, as I once learned.

you may have to explain to the newbies what you're talking about, Repoz

So, Phil Rizzuto was crazy.

Would that only we were all so crazy.

I don't know what the humungo luggage bag incident was, but I assume that Repoz just set off pings on Scooter's huckleberrydar.

you may have to explain to the newbies what you're talking about

Back in late 70's, I was picking someone up at Newark Airport and doing the luggage limbo at the crowded carousel when I noticed the Scooter standing (?) next to me. We yakked a bit about baseball and traveling, when his gigantor-bag came larrupin' down the ramp...he was bending over struggling to reach it (passed a diving retired Yankee SS!), so I asked him if he needed help pulling the luggage out. He fended me off with a left arm and shot back, "NO! I get my own luggage!"

He mumbled something people/tips as he was dragging his kill away from the scene.

Shiiit, I would have settled for a fiver.

Annoying man tries to steal Rizzuto's suitcase but Phil is too nice to press charges.

The Scooter was a guest at my brother's wedding. Very very nice man, acted exactly like he did on WPIX.

So he went up to the guests and said, "Holy cow it's a hit! The Money Store!"?

The Scooter was a guest at my brother's wedding. Very very nice man, acted exactly like he did on WPIX.

He was already half way over the George Washington Bridge when it was time to hand the envelope in?

Fascinated by the stories about how Scooter couldn't stand Casey.

Inmpressed that "cannolis" earned its own spot on the tag line.

I'll always remember the pathos of him talking about not being given the day off by Yankees management to attend The Mick's funeral. He was too much a company man to go without permission. "I shoulda just went..." It was about the saddest thing I've ever heard.

"The Scooter"? I thought he was just "Scooter".

I just can't count a (recently) older man not wanting to admit he needs helps carrying his bag to be particularly horrible.

Fascinated by the stories about how Scooter couldn't stand Casey.

Did not RTFA but have no doubt this is true; Stengel is the manager who told Rizzuto that his playing career as a Yankee was over and he could either retire or try to catch on somewhere else. Stengel was pretty ruthless about getting rid of people, he didn't care what you had done in the past, he was concerned about how you would help him win going forward. Once Rizzuto started to slip (52 OPS+ in 1954) his days as a Yankee were numbered, as long as Casey Stengel remained the manager.

13-There might've been those bag hustler guys at EWR back then as well.

That and Repoz must've smelled like a bar's wipe-down rag in the late '70's.

"The Scooter"? I thought he was just "Scooter".

Both. Typical usage might be:

"And I'm joined in the booth by The Scooter, Phil Rizzuto. Scooter, what do you think of this Puckett kid the Twins are playing in center?"

"Well White, I'll tell ya, he's an exciting ballplayer! But before we get into that, I just have to say, the Bridge today was just horrible! I thought I would never make it in on time! I think I'm gonna have to leave in about the fourth today just to make sure I get home in time for some cannolis!"

Did not RTFA but have no doubt this is true; Stengel is the manager who told Rizzuto that his playing career as a Yankee was over and he could either retire or try to catch on somewhere else.

Actually, it goes back further than that. Rizzuto, a Brooklyn native, tried out for the Dodgers in the mid-1930s. Quoting from here:

As Rizzuto told it, then Dodgers manager Casey Stengel "took one look and me and ... he said, 'Listen, kid, you better go and get yourself a shoeshine box. That is the only way you'll make a living.'"

DB