O Holy Cow | 
 enlarge | Authors: Phil Rizzuto, Hart Seely, Tom Peyer
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $11.00
Buy Used: $1.03
You Save: $9.97 (91%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 693334
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.4
ISBN: 0880015330
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780880015332
ASIN: 0880015330
Publication Date: April 1, 1997
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Condition: Book shows obvious wear on spine & cover. Your average used book; 1 Hour Ship! ** 96% positive feedback past 90 days--new management overhaul! ** Shop the Internet's most eco-conscious bookseller and keep the earth clean! ** Red Carpet Books = Red Carpet Service.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Found poetry is based on the idea that all kinds of texts, including conversational speech, are chock full of the stuff of poetry. Interesting sound-patterns, thematic repetitions, startling imagery--these typically poetic dimensions of language are always present, only in less-concentrated forms than one finds in poetry proper. Taking a leap of faith that the theory holds water, editors Tom Peyer and Hart Seely have gone through countless hours of baseball broadcasts and emerged with a book-length collection of what they are calling the verse of Phil Rizzuto, the beloved broadcaster of the New York Yankees. Rizzuto's "poems" are hilarious and often-insightful instances of the poetry of everyday speech. A total success.
Book Description
There has never been a baseball announcer like Phil Rizzuto. Gathered from over 25 years of broadcasts, "O Holy Cow!" captures the verse-inherent of Rizzuto's banter, his humor, and, indeed, his wisdom.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Keats, Byron, and now, Rizzuto May 20, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This literary gem is destined to be handed down from parent to child for generations to come.
Long before there was politics, or correctness, there was Phil Rizzuto. Rizzuto ably scoops up the essense of morality and ethics and fires to first with more deftness than Shakespeare, or that guy from Ireland (I can't remember his name--not Joyce, though; it was somebody else.) The poem we always relate and remember around the old campfire--when we go camping, and we have a fire, is the story Scooter tells in the honored oral tradition of Homer: of live-trapping squirrels in his attic and then letting them loose somewhere over by Yogi's house.
No doubt Rizzuto will forever be linked to the other great American Poets: Frost, Angelou, and Walden.
can gorillas swim? December 29, 2005
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Some people are good at laying down sacrifice bunts, and some people are good at poetry. But nowadays so few people excel at both. Phil Rizzuto is that rare double-threat, and that's why this book is essential for anyone who likes bunts or poems.
My only complaint is that the editors have left out my all-time favorite Rizzuto moment, which was the time circa 1980 when Rizzuto and Frank Messer spent part of a day game discussing whether or not gorillas can swim. The answer proved elusive, but I have since learned that they can.
 Fun, for a while. September 26, 2003
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Even though it's a short book, a little bit goes a long way with this kind of thing. Use in moderation.Plus, I miss Bill White's good-natured chuckling. Still, these "poems" are pretty good at bringing back long-gone hot summer nights.
who knew? January 15, 2002
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
In the late 1970s, when the Mets really hit the skids and the Yankees got good again, it became necessary, if you were a kid in the Tri- State
area, to at least watch the Yankees, perhaps even to grudgingly root for them. Forced into this spiritually untenable position, I chose to only
root for the scrubs, which made Cliff Johnson my favorite player. I'll never forget the game where he tagged a pitch and Phil Rizzuto started
screaming that : "That one's outta here", bringing joy to the heart of every Heatchliff fan, only to have his towering popup caught by the
second baseman. "The Scooter" was easy to laugh at, with his myriad phobias, his propensity for saying unintentionally offensive things about minorities, his
tendency to leave the ballpark early when the Yankees were home, etc. But then there began appearing in The Village Voice a most
remarkable feature : verbatim text from Scooter's broadcasts rendered as poetry. We were suddenly confronted with the frightening prospect
that Scooter was not only making sense, but serving up literature, even profundity. Consider the wisdom, about baseball and about life [....] As it turns out, this kind of exercise even has a name, it's called "found poetry." The Rizzuto poems are as good as any I've seen[...]. At any rate, this book is a hoot and once you read it you'll never again think of Rizzuto as just a good glove man, nor listen to a baseball
broadcast without noticing the frequently poetic nature of the announcer's line of patter. GRADE : A
A Wonderful Tribute December 3, 1998
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
For me, nothing better epitomizes my age of baseball innocence than falling in love with the WPIX broadcasts of Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer and Bill White during the late 1970s. This offbeat collection of the Scooter's unintentional poetry in his broadcasts is a graphic illustration of why Rizzuto was a true joy in the broadcast booth even if he wasn't a professional in the Mel Allen-Red Barber mold. I loved the format so much that I've actually reviewed the hundreds of old Yankee radio and telecast tapes in my collection searching for supplements to the collected verse of the Scooter and have found enough that could fill a sequel volume. Thanks to Seely and Pyer for this wonderful collection that no Yankee fan should be without.
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