So long Vin Scully: Your kind will never come around again
It was July 4, 1982. Most people were celebrating with their family and friends. Barbecues, swimming, picnics and fireworks. Not me....I was heading to California.
I was moving from Chicago to SoCal and I was on the final leg of my trip. After three days and a Saturday spent in Vegas, I was driving towards Los Angeles. Looking for something to listen to for the four hour drive, I found Dodger baseball. I found Vin Scully.
While I was familiar with him because he did a lot of national games, this was my first local radio Dodger broadcast. I settled in for three hours of play by play with all kinds of stories weaved in. It was different than anything I had heard before. In Chicago, our local baseball broadcasters were Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse. Both were longtime baseball broadcasters but they were from the homer school of announcing. They got excited when the home team did something special. You could tell what team they were cheering for in their voice. That's fine and that's what most fans want but that was never Vin Scully.
You could listen to Vin for years and never know who he is pulling for in a game. You know he's a Dodger fan but win or lose, he's a reporter. Very refreshing change from what I grew up with.
On that July day, Scully had already been the Dodger announcer for more than thirty years...a few years before I was born. He was my voice of baseball for my almost fifteen years in California. There were many magic moments and calls in those years. Fernando-mania. Orel Hershiser's scoreless streak. Kirk Gibson's amazing game winning home run in the 1988 World Series. A World Series title a few days afterwards. The tragic death of Dodger legend Don Drysdale and the professionalism and humanity of his announcement that let the fans know. I can go on and on.
It's really the simple calls that I liked best. I recall one game where it went down to the 9th inning with the Dodgers losing by a run. Two outs, runners at 2nd and 3rd base with Steve Sax the hitter...."Base hit up the middle. Here come's the tying run and here comes the winning run." And then he shut up and let the crowd tell the story...a Scully trademark.
How can you not love that.
I've been gone from SoCal for more than twenty years. That game from 1982 a very distant memory. I had to use Google to find out the Dodgers beat the Houston Astros. That didn't matter, it was the voice behind the microphone that did.
Today is the final broadcast of Vin Scully's remarkable career. Dodgers vs Giants like the old days in New York City. That's how it should be. Sixty-Seven years as the voice of the Dodgers. There was never anything like it before and there most likely will never be anything like it again. He's not only the greatest sports broadcaster ever, you can make a case he's the best broadcaster in any field. He's would certainly be on the Mt. Rushmore of broadcasting along with Murrow and Cronkite.
It's been a great run Vin and probably not a lot of regrets. We'll miss you and hope you enjoy your retirement. May the rest of your life be a base hit up the middle and here comes the winning run. The crowd will never stop cheering.
I don't get to write about baseball often but it's my favorite pastime. A piece from a year ago about the Cubs and White Sox.
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