Even Nostalgia Suffers in Steinbrenner Reign

Yankee Oldtimers Day used to be ... well, it used to be glory to the highest. Memories of Ruth and DiMaggio and Mantle; Gomez, Reynolds and Ford -- and a line of nostalgia and prenostalgia that stretched as far as the heart could see.

Well, nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. Somehow the Steinbrenner reign has managed to drain the life and breath out of that, too.

The fact that Phil Rizzuto was honored for 50 years -- a half-century -- of service to the Yankees provides the bright light that emphasizes the darkness.

Rizzuto remains the good guy in an organization that has made good people suffer (see Bucky Dent standing so relaxed at the batting cage with the Yankees’ oldtimers). People told tales of delight about Rizzuto that made the day what it was.

The Yankees invented Oldtimers Day for Lou Gehrig’s retirement in 1939 and made it an annual institution with Babe Ruth Day in 1947. Now it’s a way for them to seduce fannies into the seats.

Will anybody come to see Eric Plunk in 20 years? Did anybody come to see Tom Shopay or Gary Thomasson Saturday?

Better look at who wasn’t there. After all, it was a day to honor Rizzuto. Tommy Henrich wasn’t invited. Neither were Hank Bauer, Johnny Mize, Gene Woodling, Allie Reynolds, Eddie Lopat and Jerry Coleman. All they were, were the heart of the Rizzuto Yankee teams that won nine pennants and seven World Series.

The game has its budget, explained Jim Ogle, the director of the Yankee Alumni Association, “and we have to have guys young enough to play three innings.”

Mickey Mantle wasn’t there, Ogle said, because the successor to The Great DiMaggio had a commitment to a card show in Rhode Island. You mean he didn’t save this day?

Yogi Berra wasn’t invited because he has vowed not to return to Yankee Stadium as long as Steinbrenner owns the team. And he has the class to stick to it, to the point of apologizing over dinner to his old Rizzuto. (Yogi has not said what his position will be if Steinbrenner is suspended.)

Dent brought with him the link to the Yankees’ last pennant. It was that link to glory Steinbrenner cynically used when he brought Dent back to manage, a job he was neither prepared for nor suited to fill. On June 6 he was fired.

And paid off in full, he explained Saturday. He wanted to make it perfectly clear, he said, that he had only good relations with Steinbrenner. “He never shouted at me,” Dent said.

He was just treated cruelly, which may explain why the nostalgic ovation for Dent trailed only those for DiMaggio and Rizzuto himself.

The fact that Rizzuto is not in the Hall of Fame is a great injustice. There can be no dynasty -- and rarely a pennant -- without a superior shortstop. Ted Williams has said that if the Red Sox had Rizzuto at shortstop on that great-hitting team, Boston would have had the succession of championships.

“I am prejudiced,” Whitey Ford said. “Phil was Most Valuable Player when I was a rookie.” That was in 1950; how many shortstops have been voted MVP?

Mantle came along in 1951. The thought of an Oldtimers Day without Mantle boggles the mind. What will it be when DiMaggio no longer can attend? He’s 75.

Perhaps the new order of hostility around the Yankees has come home to them. To this generation of Yankee fans, Dent’s time is the new nostalgia. But Chris Chambliss was too busy to ask for a day off managing in the Detroit organization. Graig Nettles, Ogle said, had a prior commitment. Reggie Jackson declined the last two invitations and wasn’t sent another.

Roy White wasn’t invited. Steinbrenner suspects it was White’s contacts who directed pitcher Bill Gullickson to Japan.

It is supposed to be a day of celebration -- even a time for the ink-stained wretches to draw on about bygone days with bygone players. But Steinbrenner’s people set up more and more obstacles all the time. As one polite functionary said: “The feeling is not here no more.”

Nor is the talent, as the White Sox’ six-run second inning Saturday exposed, the Yankees dropping fundamentals everywhere. They haven’t finished last since 1966 and haven’t lost 90 games since 1967. They haven’t lost 100 games, which appears to be their destiny, since 1912.

“I can’t believe this could happen,” said Tommy Byrne, whose pitching benefited from Rizzuto’s presence.

Byrne recalled a ninth inning against Bob Lemon with DiMaggio on third base and one out. DiMaggio was moving on the squeeze and Lemon threw the ball directly at Rizzuto’s head -- a difficult pitch to bunt. “Somehow Phil got the bat up here and put the ball down perfectly,” Byrne said. “Joe scored and Lemon just threw his glove up in the air.

“It was unbelievable. It was the greatest bunt I ever saw. And Phil ran to first base, so he got credit for the hit.”

Bobby Brown, the president of the American League, played third base in eight of Rizzuto’s seasons. “He played shorstop as well as it can be played,” Brown said. “Nobody ever could make a double play better than Rizzuto and Coleman.”

Players were always putting crawly things in Rizzuto’s glove -- or worse -- to see his terror. Johnny Lindell and Spec Shea once hid a live lobster in Rizzuto’s pants leg. “The opposition did it, too,” Ford said. “You don’t do that unless you like a guy.”

Now, at 72, he is best known as a broadcaster and a character. Like the time his broadcasting partner Bobby Murcer got to the booth and asked Phil about what looked like a tobacco tin on the table. “That’s Harry,” Rizzuto explained.

“He was a great Yankee fan who said, ‘When I die, please scatter my ashes in center field in Yankee Stadium.”’

Rizzuto brought the urn, but the grounds crew wouldn’t let him scatter the ashes. So Rizzuto was taking the urn home with him.

What happened to the ashes? You’ll have to ask Rizzuto. I went to ask him, but he had already gone home. He wouldn’t have left if the guys were there.