.jpg)
When the day involves losing part of your youth and beyond, you are
stopped in your tracks, especially when that portion of your life is a unique
breed of special.
That day was August 2, 2022, when news broke that Hall of Fame
broadcaster Vin Scully died at age 94 at his home in Hidden Hills, which
is a section of Los Angeles. No cause of death was revealed.
Scully was the longest-tenured broadcaster with one team in professional
sports history, having broadcast Los Angeles Dodger games for 67 years.
Scully was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. Other honors
included The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Ford C. Frick Award
from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame.
Scully also called NFL games and PGA Tour events along with 25 World
Series and 12 All-Star Games, all on network television. Though Scully
was commonly associated with baseball, he called the 1982 NFC
Championship Game with Hank Stram in which the San Francisco 49ers
defeated the Dallas Cowboys 28-27 highlighted by Joe Montana’s
touchdown pass to Dwight Clark in a game simply known as “The Catch.”
That game is known as one of the NFL’s most iconic moments. Scully
was also the lead broadcaster for national games on NBC from 1983-1989.
Vin Scully and Tommy Lasorda, who passed away on January 7, 2021
were the faces of Dodger baseball. Like Scully, Lasorda had a lifetime
association with the Dodgers but in a multitude of roles such as manager,
player, scout, minor league coach, third base coach, vice president, and
special advisor.
Among the places where the news hit hardest was Oracle Park in San
Francisco, where the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers
were playing. After the Dodgers defeated the Giants 9-5, a video tribute
of Scully was shown on the scoreboard. That venue was also the site of
Scully’s last game as a broadcaster. On that day, the Giants honored him
with a commemorative plaque. The day also featured fans with “Thank
You, Vin” signs along with Giants broadcasters paying tribute to Scully.
Scully, who graduated from Fordham University in the Bronx, BY, became
the youngest person to broadcast a World Series at age 25 in 1953. Two
years later, Red Barber joined the New York Yankees after which time
Scully became the voice of the Dodgers.
The rest, as is often said, is history. The irony was that he grew up a New
York Giants fan who discovered a love for baseball when seeing the
results of the second game of the 1936 World Series at a laundromat.
Whether the names were Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills,
Steve Garvey, Orel Hershiser, Fernando Valenzuela, Mike Piazza, or
Clayton Kershaw, Scully, along with the aforementioned Lasorda, were
synonymous with the Dodgers like pepperoni on a pizza.
Every broadcaster has their own style. Chicago Cubs broadcaster Harry
Caray was loud and bombastic. Scully was a storyteller that had no equal.
Listening to Scully calling a game was like listening to the Pope. Scully,
however, was not just a broadcaster who called balls, strikes, and home
runs. Scully would elicit anecdotes about players and coaches throughout
the broadcast.
Scully was versatile in that he could paint a picture for both radio and TV
audiences. It was like describing the calm before the storm. The cadence
of Scully’s voice was synonymous with baseball. There was a melodic
tone and integrity in his voice. There is a common assumption that baseball
has waned in popularity among the younger generations but Scully’s
passion was unapologetically baseball.
It is commonly stated that sports is a place for us to escape but one would
not know it in today’s society that is highlighted with co-hosts taking a louder
approach that involves contrarianism just for the sake of doing so. Though
Scully called games for people of many generations, his approach was a
reminder of when the world was a different place. Even if you never met
him before, it was like a mixture of listening to someone who was part
friend, father, and grandfather.
Scully took a simple approach of “be good, be prepared and have fun.” On
NBC Sports, there was not a better baseball broadcasting tandem than
Scully and Joe Garagiola. Scully, however, often did Dodger play-by-play
broadcasts without a partner. Nonetheless, Scully hit it out of the park in
that format because of his penchant for history whether it was his
knowledge of stories on players or if he saw something at the moment
from a game that reminded him of something he saw in 1977.
Scully’s legacy is even more amazing because of what he overcame in
his personal life. In 1972, his first wife, Joan Crawford, died of an
accidental medical overdose. She was 35 years old at the time. Scully’s
oldest son, Michael, died in a helicopter crash while working for ARCO
Transportation while inspecting for oil pipeline leaks in the aftermath of
the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. Scully in various interviews attributed
his devout Catholic faith and ability to line up in his personal batter’s
box of broadcasting to ease the pain of those losses.
Listening to Scully on the air, one would have never known. The term
GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) has become fashionable and poetic.
Personally, I hate that term because it has become too trendy.
As far as baseball broadcasters, Scully is not on Mount Rushmore. He
is the entire mountain. You could also tell me that he is the best
sportscaster regardless of sport – and I would not argue.
