Tributes to Vin Scully (1927-2022)

I was watching the Los Angeles Dodgers play the San Francisco Giants last night when the news came that legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully had passed away at the age of 94. Scully died at his home in the Hidden Hills section of Los Angeles. Scully was the primary voice of the Dodgers for 67 years, from 1950 in Brooklyn to 2016 in Los Angeles. His last broadcast, ironically, was also in San Francisco, on October 2, 2016. Scully, who also had a national baseball profile for CBS Radio and NBC Sports, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1982, the recipient of the Ford Frick Award. Among his many other honors, Scully was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama shortly after his final broadcast.

Scully spent 67 years broadcasting the games for one franchise but was never regarded as a “homer.” When one talks about baseball records that will never be broken, that’s an announcing record that will almost certainly never be matched. When Scully started doing Dodger games, Jackie Robinson was only in his fourth year in the league, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle had yet to debut in the big leagues, Joe DiMaggio was still playing, Sandy Koufax was 14 years old, Harry Truman was president, Ronald Reagan had yet to turn 40, and a young woman named Elizabeth would not become Queen for another two years.

Scully had a warm, intimate style that brought his viewers or listeners into the game. He would start by saying, “pull up a chair,” as if he was inviting you onto his porch for a chat about the national pastime with a pitcher of lemonade. Scully was the greatest wordsmith the game of baseball has ever known. Although he is best known nationwide for his years in the NBC booth with Joe Garagiola, Scully, at his best, was a solo artist.

Always chock full of tidbits and factoids, the silver-tongued redhead was a master at weaving an anecdote around the play-by-play of the moment. If William Shakespeare were reincarnated on earth in America and became a baseball fan, no doubt the Bard’s favorite announcer would have been the eloquent Dodgers announcer. Nobody could weave a story with the game action as seamlessly as Vin Scully.

“I regard him, all things considered, as the master of radio and TV. I regard him as the best baseball announcer ever.”

— Bob Costas (to the Arizona Republic, reported in the New York Times, 8/3/2022)

“My favorite line from Vin is one he borrowed from Sir Lawrence Olivier, which is fitting, seeing that Vin brought Olivier’s timing and eloquence into a broadcast booth like none other before, since or ever again. How, I wondered, could you be so good for so long? ‘The humility to prepare,’ Vin said, ‘and the confidence to pull it off.’ He prepared as thoroughly in his 67th year as he did in his first.”

— Tom Verducci (SI.com, 8/3/2022)

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Vin Scully and the Brooklyn Dodgers

Vincent Edward Scully was born on November 29, 1927, in The Bronx and grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. Living a short walk from the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants, Scully grew up a Giants fan. His boyhood hero was Hall of Famer Mel Ott, a left-handed hitter (Scully also hit left-handed as a young player). Scully attended Fordham University in the Bronx, where started his broadcasting career by calling football, basketball, and baseball. In the fall, shortly after he graduated in June 1949, he caught a break when an announcer fell ill, and he was tabbed to cover a Boston University-Maryland football matchup at Boston’s Fenway Park. Scully called the game from the roof at Fenway in bone-chilling conditions and made an impression on the CBS Radio sports director, Red Barber.

At the age of 22, in 1950, the red-haired Scully joined that other legendary redhead (the Hall of Famer Barber) along with Connie Desmond in the broadcast booth for the Brooklyn Dodgers (ironic since he was a Giants fan). To add to the irony, Scully’s next big break happened because one of the Dodgers’ broadcasters (Hall of Famer Ernie Harwell) had left to take a job with Scully’s beloved Giants.

Before his first game with the Dodgers (in spring training), Scully was awed when he met the Philadelphia Athletics’ legendary manager/owner, Connie Mack. Looking at the totality of Scully’s career, the men he covered were born as early as 1862 (Mack) and as late as 1996 (Julio Urias, who was a 19-year-old rookie pitcher in Scully’s final season at the mic in 2016).

Scully’s third big break came in late September 1953, when Barber declined to cover the World Series on NBC Sports because of a dispute over the fee offered by Gillette, which was sponsoring the Fall Classic telecasts. With Barber’s blessing, Scully was offered the job and called the ’53 Series with another Hall of Fame announcer, Mel Allen. The New York Yankees defeated the Dodgers in 6 games in 1953. Shortly after the series was over, Barber left the Dodgers to work for the Yankees, and Scully became the team’s lead announcer the next year. Incidentally, 1954 was also the first year in which the Dodgers were managed by Hall of Famer Walter Alston, who would remain at the helm of the Dodgers through 1976. The Dodgers did not win the pennant in 1954, so Scully didn’t call the Fall Classic that year, won by the Giants over the Cleveland Indians.

In 1955, Scully was there when the Dodgers finally beat the mighty Yankees in a 7-game classic. When the final out was recorded, Scully said simply, “Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the champions of the world.”

In 1956, the Dodgers and Yankees matched up in the World Series once again (the 7th and final Subway Series). The Yankees won in 7 games, but this series is best known for the perfect game pitched by the Yankees’ Don Larsen in Game 5.

The Boys of Summer that Scully covered in Brooklyn featured five Hall of Fame players: Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, and Gil Hodges (who was finally inducted into Cooperstown posthumously 10 days ago). (Incidentally, regarding Hodges’ election to the Hall of Fame last December, it was reported by Bill Madden of the New York Daily News that Scully lobbied a couple of members of the Eras Committee on Hodges’ behalf). Of those Hall of Famers, Robinson was, of course, by far the most famous. In 1947, Robinson became the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues and is considered one of the greatest civil rights icons in American history.

As an example of how Scully could seamlessly spin a yarn while calling the action, you’ll enjoy listening to Scully’s story about ice skating with Robinson, told to the Dodgers’ television audience in his final month at the mic (in 2016).

Vin Scully and the Dodgers Move to Los Angeles

The Dodgers left Brooklyn after the 1957 season. Vin Scully moved with the franchise to Los Angeles in advance of the 1957 campaign, but Jackie Robinson did not. He was traded to the Giants (who were moving to San Francisco) and refused to report to his new team, choosing instead to retire after a brilliant 10-year career. As for Campanella, his career ended before he could ever play in Los Angeles because of a car accident that left him paralyzed.

In 1959, Alston’s Dodgers won the World Series again, this time over the Chicago White Sox in a 6-game series win. Hodges and Snider were still with the Dodgers, who also had a pair of future Hall of Fame starters (Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax). After having called the 1953, ’55, and ’56 Fall Classics with Mel Allen, Scully paired with Jack Brickhouse (also a Hall of Fame broadcaster) for the ’59 Fall Classic. In their early years in Los Angeles, the Dodgers played in the cavernous Memorial Coliseum. More than 92,000 fans attended Games 3, 4, and 5 in Los Angeles, the largest crowds ever for World Series contests.

In the early years of Dodger baseball in Los Angeles, the vast majority of games were not on television. It was through the words of Scully that the Angelenos learned about the players on the team and the game of baseball in general. Dodgers General Manager Buzzie Bavasi credited Scully for being, “more than anyone,” the man who helped make the Dodgers successful in L.A. Many fans brought transistor radios to the ballpark to listen to Vin’s call while watching the game. In the SABR Bio about Scully, Greg King notes that “the tradition of fans leaving the game early may have been more than just an effort to beat the traffic, as listening to Scully on the car radio was just as much fun, or better, than being at the game itself.”

The team moved into Dodger Stadium in 1962. The classic ballpark, of course, still hosts the Dodgers to this day. It’s the third oldest park in all of Major League Baseball. In their second year in their new home, the Dodgers won the N.L. pennant again in 1963. This was the first of Koufax’s three Cy Young campaigns (he was also the league MVP in ’63). Once again, the Yankees were the Dodgers’ opponent, but this team was no match for Koufax (the Series MVP), Drysdale, or Johnny Podres. The Dodgers swept the Yankees in 4 games, outscoring the Bronx Bombers 12 to 4. In the broadcast booth, Scully once again called the action with Mel Allen.

The Dodgers returned to the Fall Classic in 1965 (against the Minnesota Twins) and in 1966 (Baltimore Orioles). Los Angeles defeated the Twins in 7 games in ’65 (Koufax was the MVP again) but were swept by the Orioles in ’66. Scully called the ’65 World Series with Twins announcer Ray Scott (who was better known for calling games for the Green Bay Packers and nationally for CBS Sports). By 1966, NBC had a full-time play-by-play announcer (Curt Gowdy, another Hall of Famer); Scully called the games with Gowdy in Los Angeles only (Games 1 and 2).

It was in 1966, Koufax’s final season, that Scully authored one of his most famous calls, in September, when the Left Arm of God authored his fourth career no-hitter, in this case, a perfect game.

The ’66 World Series was Scully’s last on the mic for the Fall Classic until 1974 when he teamed up again with Gowdy, but he only called the games played in L.A. (the Dodgers lost the Series that year to the Oakland Athletics).

The 1976 World Series (between the Yankees and Cincinnati Reds) was the last in which NBC used local announcers as part of the broadcast team. And so, ironically, Scully was not on the national call for either the ’77 or ’78 Fall Classics, both featuring the Dodgers and the Yankees, although he did do the Dodgers’ local radio call. Scully did return to the national stage for World Series action from 1979-82 on CBS radio, where he was paired with Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson (on loan to CBS since his Detroit Tigers were not in the playoffs for those years). During those years, Scully got the opportunity to broadcast the Dodgers’ 1981 World Series victory (over the Yankees) in what was Tommy Lasorda’s fifth year as the Dodger skipper.

During his career, Scully described the exploits of countless Hall of Famers. In his tribute to Scully, Joe Posnanski shared Vin’s thoughts on the Home Run King, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays.

“Henry had a certain grace about him. He ran a little bit different. Now, Willie ran with his hat flying off and joy just coming off him like sparks. But Henry, there was something regal about Henry, opposite of Willie, who was a sandlot kid playing with all of us. And, understand Willie did play stickball in the streets of New York, as I did when I was a kid. Henry was just a little bit apart. He was just a regal player from the first time I saw him.”

— Vin Scully (as told to Joe Posnanski, JoeBlogs on Substack, 8/3/22)

It was a happy quirk of fate that Scully was on hand to witness one of the greatest moments in baseball history when Aaron passed Babe Ruth with his 715th career home run. The baseball gods ordained it that Aaron’s Braves were hosting the Dodgers that night.

Vin Scully’s National TV Profile

Considering that he will forever be remembered as a baseball announcer, it’s ironic that my own personal Vin Scully experience started by watching him broadcast NFL games and golf events. Scully announced NFC games for CBS Sports from 1975 to 1982, and it was during that time that his name became familiar to me. Scully participated in the telecasts for The Masters during that time and was generally the lead for the #2 team for the NFL (behind Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier), mostly working with Hank Stram. Most people have likely forgotten that it was Scully, not Summerall, who anchored CBS’ coverage of The Masters for those eight years. Probably the most famous non-baseball event that Scully called was the 1982 NFC Championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, a game immortalized by “The Catch” by the Niners’ Dwight Clark.

As a kid (born in 1967) who grew up in New York and Connecticut and started watching sports in 1975, I had no idea whatsoever that Scully was the voice of the Dodgers. For me, the voices of Major League Baseball were NBC’s Garagiola and Tony Kubek, the Mets’ Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner, and Bob Murphy, and the Yankees’ Phil Rizzuto, Bill White, and Frank Messer. As previously noted, Scully called the World Series for CBS Radio from 1979-82, but I saw all those games on television.

After his early years broadcasting the series games in the 1950s and 1960s, Scully didn’t start calling baseball games on TV at the national level again until he was hired by NBC Sports in 1983 as a newly minted Hall of Fame announcer; that’s when I and millions of others first became aware of where his true passion lay. Scully worked with Garagiola on four All-Star Games, four National League Championship Series, and three World Series (1984, 1986, and 1988).

Scully and Garagiola called the 1984 World Series, which was won in 5 games by the Detroit Tigers over the San Diego Padres. Then, in 1985, Scully and Garagiola were on hand for the dramatic NLCS, won by the St. Louis Cardinals in 6 games over the Dodgers. The most iconic moment in that NLCS was Ozzie Smith’s walk-off home run in Game 5. Jack Buck’s radio call is the most famous; here’s Scully’s version that you may never have heard.

It was in the 1986 and 1988 Fall Classics that Scully uttered what were arguably his most famous words. In Game 6 of the ’86 World Series, the Boston Red Sox were one out away from unexpectedly vanquishing the New York Mets. However, as all baseball fans know, the Mets rallied from a two-run deficit and won the game on arguably the most famous error in baseball history (the Mets would go on to win Game 7 two nights later).

Two years later (in 1988), Scully was back on the mic for the World Series. In the late 1970s and 1980s, NBC and ABC covered the World Series every other year. The network that did not have the World Series would broadcast the American League and National League Championship Series.

For the Los Angeles Dodgers, the 1988 regular season was best known for Orel Hershiser‘s streak of 59 consecutive scoreless innings to finish the campaign. Hershiser’s innings streak was one better than the 58-inning streak authored by Drysdale in 1968. The 1988 Dodgers also featured a free agent left fielder, Kirk Gibson, who immediately became a team leader and wound up winning the Most Valuable Player trophy in the National League.

The Dodgers won the National League West and unexpectedly defeated the Mets in a seven-game series in the NLCS, setting up a matchup against the mighty Oakland Athletics, who had won 104 regular season contests (compared to 94 for the Dodgers). Gibson hurt his knee in Game 5 of the NLCS and reinjured it in Game 7, forcing him out of the game in the 4th inning.

Gibson’s knee injury (combined with a sore hamstring) kept him out of the lineup for Game 1 of the World Series in Los Angeles. Because Hershiser had pitched a complete game in Game 7 of the NLCS, he was unavailable to start the opener of the Fall Classic. Rookie Tim Belcher was on the mound for the Dodgers against 21-game winner Dave Stewart and, on paper, the A’s had a vastly superior lineup. Jose Canseco (the A.L. MVP with 44 HR and 122 RBI) was hitting third for Oakland; with Gibson out of the lineup, the Dodgers’ third-place hitter was journeyman Mickey Hatcher, who had only hit one home run in 202 plate appearances during the regular season and only 37 HR in his entire 10-year MLB career.

None of this history mattered to Hatcher. In the bottom of the first inning, Hatcher hit a fastball from Stewart into the left-center field bleachers for a two-run home and sprinted around the bases as if he had just won the World Series. In the next frame, the top of the 2nd, Canseco answered with a grand slam to straightaway center field that hit NBC’s camera. After Canseco’s blast, the A’s had a 4-2 lead. When the game progressed to the bottom of the 9th, the score was 4-3.

In the bottom of the 9th, A’s manager Tony La Russa summoned his closer, Dennis Eckersley, who had just authored a brilliant regular season campaign (45 saves, 2.35 ERA). Eckersley was starting a five-year run of brilliance in which he re-defined the role of a closer from the multi-inning variety of the past (Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage) into the one-inning version that has permeated the sport in the last three decades.

After getting the first two batters out, Eckersley walked pinch-hitter, Mike Davis. To the surprise and delight of the Dodger faithful, Gibson hobbled out of the dugout to pinch hit for pitcher Alejandro Pena. Gibson looked completely overmatched in the first couple of offerings by Eckersley, but then, on a 3-2 pitch (the 8th of the at bat), he hit one of the most famous home runs in baseball history.

You can see (and listen to) Scully’s full call of the Gibson-Eckersley battle by clicking here.

This would be Gibson’s only at-bat of the World Series, but he did what he needed to do. Hershiser tossed two complete games in Games 2 and 5, and the Dodgers also managed to win Game 4, giving them a 4-1 series win. In what would be Scully’s final World Series call on television, Hershiser struck out Tony Phillips to close out the Series in Game 5.

Scully’s contract with NBC Sports expired after the 1989 season, and he decided to leave to focus on his duties with the Dodgers. He did, however, call all of the World Series games from 1990-97 on CBS Radio.

Please enjoy these links to some of Scully’s calls on the radio during the 1990-97 Fall Classics.

• 1991: the Minnesota Twins defeat the Atlanta Braves on a walk-off in Game 7
• 1993: Joe Carter’s walk-off home run to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to the World Series title
• 1995: the Atlanta Braves win the World Series against the Cleveland Indians
• 1997: Edgar Renteria’s walk-off single; the Florida Marlins beat the Indians in Game 7

Vin Scully, of course, was not done waxing poetic about Major League Baseball. He kept calling games for the Dodgers until early October 2016, when he was 88 years old.

Tributes to Vin Scully

On a personal level, it’s an irony that I never met Vin Scully, despite a 12-year career at ESPN, three of them in which I was the Coordinating Producer for Up Close, a talk show with a studio just six miles from Dodger Stadium. And I met a lot of baseball legends during my ESPN days: Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Ernie Banks, Harmon Killebrew, and Reggie Jackson, just to name some of the greats who played before I started working there. But never Vin Scully.

Scully, always a modest man, never wanted the story to be about him; it was always about the game. Our show was famous for getting into the personal lives of the guests, and that was something Scully was never comfortable talking about. While I never met Scully, during the few times that I was assigned to the press box at Dodger Stadium, I felt like I was watching royalty walk by when he would stroll into the press box that would eventually bear his name.

Finally, to wrap up, please enjoy the words of others in tribute to the greatest baseball broadcaster who ever lived.

“I’ve never tried to be my dad, and I sure as hell never tried to be Vin Scully. Vin was in a different category. He’s the best ever do it. I tip my cap and know that I don’t measure up and that’s fine with me. He’s the all-time greatest to do it. That’s coming from not only somebody who did it, but the son of somebody who did it for 50 years and is in the Hall of Fame. And my dad would say the same thing.”

— Joe Buck (as told to The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch, 8/3/2022)

“It is not an exaggeration to say Vin was the most beloved person in baseball, a broadcaster who told amazing stories and carried himself with amazing grace. He saw players as people. He spoke in poetry. He brought honor to our sport.”

— Ken Rosenthal (The Athletic, 8/3/2022)

“Every great city has sounds to it. Los Angeles has had one clear sound and that’s been the voice of Vin Scully.”

— Steve Garvey (on MLB Network, 8/3/2022)

RIP Vin. There will never be another like you.

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