Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully, whose soft tone provides a summer soundtrack that’s both entertaining and informative Dodgers fans in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for 67 years, passed away on Tuesday night, the team said. He is 94 years old.
According to the research team, Scully died at his home in the Hidden Hills area of Los Angeles.
As the longest-serving broadcaster with a single team in professional sports history, Scully has seen it all and called it all. He started in the 1950s with Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, through the 1960s with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, through the 1970s with Steve Garvey and Don Sutton, and into the 1980s with Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela . In the 1990s, it was Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo, followed by Clayton Kershaw, Manny Ramirez and Yasiel Puig in the 21st century.
The Dodgers have changed players, managers, executives, owners – and even companies – but Scully and his deep, gentle style have remained constant for the fans.
He opens broadcasts with the familiar greeting, “Hello, everyone and have a nice evening wherever you are.”
Always considerate both live and on air, Scully sees himself as merely a bridge between the game and its fans.
Despite being paid by the Dodgers, Scully isn’t afraid to criticize a bad play or manager’s decision, or praise opponents while spinning stories against the backdrop of routine plays and notable achievements. idea. He always said he wanted to see things with his eyes, not with his heart.
Vincent Edward Scully was born on November 29, 1927 in the Bronx. He was the son of a silk merchant who died of pneumonia when Scully was seven years old. His mother moved the family to Brooklyn, where red-haired, blue-eyed Scully grew up playing streetball.
As a kid, Scully would grab a pillow, put it under the family’s four-legged radio, and put his head right under the speaker to listen to whatever college football game was on the air. With a snack of crackers and a glass of milk nearby, the boy was thwarted by the crowd’s screams that gave him goosebumps. He thinks he wants to call that action himself.
Scully, who played off the field for two years on the Fordham University baseball team, began his career by working on baseball, football and basketball games for the university radio station.
At the age of 22, he was hired by an affiliate of CBS radio station in Washington, D.C.
He soon joined the Hall of Famer Red Barber and Connie Desmond in the radio and television booths of the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1953, at the age of 25, Scully became the youngest person to broadcast a World Series game, a mark that remains.
He moved West with the Dodgers in 1958. Scully called three perfect games – Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, Sandy Koufax in 1965 and Dennis Martinez in 1991 – and 18 non-matches.
He was also present when Don Drysdale made his scoreless streak of 58 2/3 innings in 1968 and again when Hershiser broke the record with 59 consecutive innings 20 years later.
When Hank Aaron made his 715th home run to break Babe Ruth’s record in 1974, it was against the Dodgers and, of course, Scully called it that.
Scully told the audience: “A black man is receiving a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the record for an all-time baseball idol. “What a great moment for baseball.”
Scully called the invention of the transistor radio “the greatest breakthrough” in his career. Fans had a hard time recognizing the lesser players during the Dodgers’ first four years in the vast Los Angeles Memorial Arena.
“They’re about 70 odd rows away from the action,” he said in 2016. “They bring the radio to find out about all the other players and to see what they’re trying to see on the field. “
That custom continued when the team moved to Dodger Stadium in 1962. Fans wear radios in their ears, and those not present listen from home or car, allowing Scully to connect generations. in the family by his words.
He often says it’s best to do a big game fast and then shut up so the fans can listen to the craze. After Koufax’s perfect game in 1965, Scully was silent for 38 seconds before speaking again. He was similarly silent for a while after Kirk Gibson scored at home to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that year, and also had the stadium’s press box named for him in 2001. Con The path to the main gate of Dodger Stadium is named in his honor. in 2016.
That same year, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
“God has been very good to me in allowing me to do what I’m doing,” said Scully, a devout Catholic who attended mass on Sunday before heading to the ballpark, before retiring. “A childhood dream passed and then gave me 67 years to enjoy every minute of it. It was a pretty big Thanksgiving Day for me.”
In addition to serving as the voice of the Dodgers, Scully has called game-by-game for NFL games and PGA Tour events as well as calling 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games. He was NBC’s main baseball broadcaster from 1983-1989.
While one of the most listened to broadcasters in the nation, Scully is a man of privacy. Once the baseball season is over, he’ll be gone. He rarely makes personal appearances or sports talk shows. He loves spending time with his family.
In 1972, his first wife, Joan, died of an accidental drug overdose. He was left with three young children. Two years later, he met the woman who would become his second wife, Sandra, the secretary for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. She has two young children from a previous marriage, and they combined their family into what Scully once called “my own Brady Bunch.”
He said he realizes time is the most precious thing in the world and he wants to use his time to spend with his loved ones. In the early 1960s, Scully quit smoking with the help of her family. In his shirt pocket where he kept a pack of cigarettes, Scully stuck a family photo. Whenever he feels like he needs a puff of smoke, he pulls out a photo to remind him why he quit. Eight months later, Scully never smoked again.
After retiring in 2016, Scully made only a handful of appearances at Dodger Stadium and his sweet voice was heard recounting an occasional video played during games. Mostly, he’s content to be close to home.
“I just want to be remembered as a good man, an honest man, and someone who lives up to his own beliefs,” he said in 2016.
In 2020, Scully auctioned off her personal memorabilia for several years, raising more than $2 million. A portion of that was donated to UCLA for ALS research.
His second wife, Sandra, before his death. She died of complications from ALS at the age of 76 in 2021. The couple had been married for 47 years and had daughter Catherine.
Scully’s other children are Kelly, Erin, Todd, and Kevin. One son, Michael, died in a helicopter crash in 1994.
Associated Press report
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