Vin Scully, 1927-2022

As far back as a 1974 book titled Wait 'Til Next Year, about New York City's 3 Major League Baseball teams of 1947 to 1957, author Christopher Jennison wrote, "The best broadcaster in the business today is Vince Scully."

I don't know when "Vince" became "Vin," but he never became the best broadcaster in the business. That was just the Los Angeles hype machine talking. Jon Miller, the longtime broadcaster first for the Baltimore Orioles and now for the San Francisco Giants, sounded better imitating Scully than Scully sounded as himself.

Vin Scully wasn't the greatest broadcaster in baseball history. But he had the longest broadcasting career in baseball history.

Vincent Edward Scully was born on November 29, 1927 in The Bronx, New York City, and grew up across the Harlem River in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. This was the neighborhood of the New York Giants, and it might shock Dodger fans, young and old alike, to realize that Vin Scully grew up as, as he put it, "a very big Giants fan."

His father died when Vin was only 4 years old, and his mother remarried, to a man well-off enough to put his stepson through Fordham Preparatory School and Fordham University, both in The Bronx. In between, though, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. At the University, he was one of the founders of its esteemed radio station, WFUV, 90.7 FM, in 1947. He also played center field for Fordham, and broadcast for their football and basketball teams.

After graduation, he sent out letters to 150 radio stations. Only one responded: WTOP, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., which would later launch the career of another New York broadcasting legend, Warner Wolf. On November 12, 1949, the University of Maryland traveled to Fenway Park to play Boston University. Scully called this game for WTOP, and Maryland won, 14-13.

That got the attention of the sports director of the CBS Radio Network, who happened to be Walter Lanier "Red" Barber, who was also the main announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers. And a spot in on the Dodgers' announcing staff had opened up, because Ernie Harwell had gone to the arch-rival Giants. (Harwell, of course, would become best known as the longtime voice of the Detroit Tigers.)

So Scully joined the Dodger team of Red Barber and Connie Desmond on WMGM, 1050 AM (now WEPN). His 1st game was on April 18, 1950, as the Dodgers were playing the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park (later renamed Connie Mack Stadium) in Philadelphia. The Phillies won the game, 9-1, and would end up beating the Dodgers on the last day of the season to win the National League Pennant. Robin Roberts went the distance for the Phils, while Don Newcombe pitched only the 1st for the Dodgers. Jackie Robinson went 2-for-4.

A young Scully, ice-skating with Jackie Robinson

Fed up with the meddling of Dodger owner Walter O'Malley, Barber left after the 1953 season. Fed up with Desmond's alcoholism, O'Malley fired Desmond after the 1956 season. In 1957, Scully was joined by Jerry Doggett, who remained with the team until 1987.

On October 4, 1955, the Dodgers bear the Yankees, 2-0 at Yankee Stadium, to win the World Series for the 1st time. Scully said simply, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the World Champions of baseball." Interviewed for Ken Burns' 1994 Baseball miniseries, he recalled that, as he left The Stadium and went back through Manhattan, "It was Fall. Football was in the air. We came out of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and it was New Orleans chaos!" Brooklyn had its biggest celebration since V-J Day, 10 years earlier.

Just 2 years later came the greatest heartbreak. O'Malley, who hadn't talked the City of New York into giving him land on which to build a replacement for Ebbets Field -- not that the "visionary" had tried all that hard -- moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles.

Scully went with them, and remained with them until the end of the 2016 season. That's 67 seasons of Major League Baseball.

To put that in perspective: Phil Rizzuto broadcast for the Yankees for 40 seasons, 1957 to 1996, and was on the club's payroll since signing with them as a prospective player in 1937: 60 seasons. Connie Mack, baseball's touchstone for longevity, was involved with the Athletics for their entire run in Philadelphia, 1901 to 1954: 54 seasons. Mack's 1st season in the major leagues in any capacity was as a player in 1886, making his total 69 seasons, but he was removed as manager and operating owner by his sons after 1950, so his real total is 65 seasons, 2 fewer than Scully's.

Casey Stengel, like Mack known as "The Grand Old Man of Baseball," first put on a big-league baseball uniform in 1912, and was last actively involved in the game in 1965, 54 seasons. Don Zimmer, in the last few years of his life, famously wore as his uniform number the number of seasons he'd been involved in professional baseball, his last being 66. Scully topped even that.

Scully was with the Dodgers for 17 postseason appearances, 13 trips to the World Series, and their 1st 5 World Championships. He had called games for 11 men who are already in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He had seen various Dodger players win 9 National League Most Valuable Player awards, 12 Cy Young Awards, 14 Rookie of the Year awards, 43 Gold Gloves, and 15 no-hitters by his team and 13 against it. He had called games during the Administrations of 12 Presidents (nearly 13), 2 British monarchs, 7 Popes, and 9 Commissioners of Baseball.

He was there for Carl Erskine's 14 strikeouts against the Yankees in the 1953 World Series, and Sandy Koufax's 15 against them 10 years later. He had been there for Koufax's perfect game for the Dodgers, and for Don Larsen's, Tom Browning's and Dennis' Martinez's against them.

He witnessed legendary home runs for the Dodgers by Rick Monday and Kirk Gibson, and against the Dodgers by Dick Sisler, Bobby Thomson, Hank Aaron (Number 715), Reggie Jackson, Ozzie Smith, Jack Clark and David Justice. He saw Black Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies, and Blue Monday against the Montreal Expos. He saw Fernandomania, Nomomania and Mannywood.

He watched Jackie Robinson and Maury Wills redefine baserunning; and Sandy Koufax, Mike Marshall and Tommy John, each in their own way, redefine pitching. He saw Edwin Snider, whose hair turning white early got him nicknamed Duke; Don Sutton, with his 1970s perm; Mike Marshall and Jerry Reuss, with their epic mustaches; Steve Garvey, with his 1970s helmet hair; Manny Ramirez, with his greasy dreadlocks; and Clayton Kershaw, with his massive beard.

He broadcast for the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles; against the Giants in New York and San Francisco; against the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta; against the Expos in Montreal and after their move as the Nationals in Washington. He broadcast World Series games in Brooklyn, The Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, the suburbs of Minneapolis, Baltimore, Oakland, and, of course, Los Angeles, first in South Central at the Coliseum, and then downtown at Dodger Stadium.

He broadcast games at Shibe Park and Forbes Field, which opened in 1909, and at Marlins Park, which opened in 2012 and is one of several ballparks that could, conceivably, still be used in 2112. He broadcast at a time when Connie Mack, who was born in 1862 and first played in the major leagues in 1884, was still managing; and he broadcast games pitched by Julio Urías, who was born in 1996 and, if he becomes a star, could still be pitching in the late 2030s.

From 1975 to 1982, he also broadcast football and golf for CBS. From 1983 to 1989, he was NBC's lead announcer, starting the Saturday Game of the Week with, "Well, hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good afternoon to you."

His last game was against the arch-rivals, the now-San Francisco Giants, at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco, on October 2, 2016. Like his first game, but unlike so many in between, it didn't go so well for the Dodgers: They lost, 7-1, getting only 4 hits. He left fans with this message:

You and I have been friends for a long time. But I know in my heart that I've always needed you more than you've ever needed me, and I'll miss our time together more than I can say. But you know what? There will be a new day, and eventually a new year. And when the upcoming Winter gives way to Spring, rest assured, once again it will be "time for Dodger baseball." So this is Vin Scully, wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon, wherever you may be.

His personal life was tinged with tragedy. In 1957, he married Joan Crawford -- not the actress. In 1972, Joan, just 35, died of an accidental medical overdose. Their son Michael was inspecting oil pipelines for leaks following the 1994 Northridge earthquake when his helicopter crash, killing him at just 33.

But in 1973, just as year after Joan died, Vin married Sandra Hunt, already with 2 children, and they had another together. Overall, he raised 6 children, and lived to see 16 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. Unfortunately, Sandra suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease, and being able to care for her, as much as anything else, was why Vin retired after the 2016 season. Of course, he was approaching his 89th birthday, which didn't help, but he did what he could for her until her death on January 3, 2021.

Among his honors:

* 4 National Sportscaster of the Year awards.

* A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in 1982.

* The Ford Frick Award, the broadcasting honor of the Baseball Hall of Fame, also in 1982.

* The National Radio Hall of Fame, in 1995.

* Invited to introduce the fan-chosen MLB All-Century Team at Game 2 of the 1999 World Series.

* The Dodger Stadium press box named for him, in 2001.

* The California Sports Hall of Fame, in 2008.

* The Grand Marshal for the Tournament of Roses Parade, in 2014, after having broadcast it in 1967.

* The Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2016.

* The renaming of Elysian Park Avenue, the street on which Dodger Stadium sits, as Vin Scully Avenue by the City of Los Angeles, also in 2016.

* The Dodgers invited him to throw out the ceremonial first ball before Game 2 of the 2017 World Series. Ironically, he told the crowd that he couldn't do it, as he'd picked up an infamous injury for pitchers: He'd torn his rotator cuff. He handed the ball to Fernando Valenzuela, who threw it to his fellow 1981 World Series hero, Steve Yeager.

* And, having lived long enough to see the Dodgers win one more World Series, in 2020, he was asked to narrate the official World Series highlight film.

Left to right: Yeager, Valenzuela, Scully

On November 5, 2017, he gave a speech at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in which he responded to the NFL "take a knee" protest by saying, "I will never watch another NFL game again." He was one of millions of people who just didn't get it: It was about racism and police brutality, and had nothing to do with the song or the armed forces. It was a shameful moment in a mostly decent life.

Vin Scully died yesterday, August 2, 2022, at his home in Hidden Hills, Los Angeles County, California. He was 94 years old. No cause has been released.

I'll let Jeff Passan of ESPN have the last word: "Vin Scully was a storyteller, and nobody ever told the story of baseball better. He called games with such elegance and grace. He spoke only when necessary, allowing the broadcast to breathe when it demanded. He made baseball a more beautiful game."