After 67 years, Vin Scully is going to retire from baseball. The longtime Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play announcer will call his last game on October 2 when the Dodgers play their rivals, the San Francisco Giants. Although Los Angeles will be going to the playoffs this year, Scully says he will not be doing any postseason games.
But this isn’t just a local story. Vin Scully has been called the greatest broadcaster in baseball history. The man is a sports media legend. He is most admired for his melodic and soothing tone as he eloquently describes the feel and pace of the game he is watching.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to be a bridge to the past and to unite generations. Baseball does that, and I am just a part of it.” -Vin Scully pic.twitter.com/hqJKRAfH7Y
— Billy Krumb (@ClubhouseCancer) September 21, 2016
Vin started calling baseball games on radio in April 1950. He was a 22-years-old rookie in the business. The Dodgers were still playing in the New York area. Transistor radios would not even be invented for another four years, and Jackie Robinson was still playing for the Dodgers.
Vin Scully has announced some great baseball moments in his career. Perhaps one of the best was his calling of a perfect game by pitcher Sandy Koufax in 1965, according to Poynter.org . It was a radio broadcast only, and Scully was able to convey the atmosphere and the tension of that day. Yet, he was on his game every day. Vin was called poetic for his way with words, and he did a great deal of research before each game.
Scully later did TV broadcasts as well, and he announced postseason baseball games nationally for the networks. Vin also worked in other sports, including NFL TV broadcasts and the Masters tournament in golf.
While he has been successful on TV, Vin still prefers doing radio the most. He described radio as a blank canvas with three hours to paint a picture on it. With television, the picture is already there, and all that can be done is to make some comments on it, Scully explained, as reported by USA Today .
Love this Vin Scully story https://t.co/mQqMhcg1ln pic.twitter.com/p02mJ2QM3u
— Ben Pershing (@benpershing) September 21, 2016
For one Los Angeles Dodgers fan, Vin Scully on the radio has been a lifeline. Phil Wojdak has been blind since he was 15. He believes Vin has made it easy for him to be a part of the game and aware of all the nuances going on within it. Wojdak describes how other announcers sometimes miss pitch calls or get sidetracked with a partner in the broadcast booth. Scully, who works solo, always seems to include more details than anyone else , relates Wojdak to the Los Angeles Times .
In a fitting end to his illustrious career, Vin Scully will call his final game between the Dodgers and Giants. He was originally a Giants fan when they were still in New York. He says it was at the age of eight that he became a big baseball fan and decided he also wanted to be a sports announcer. Scully is now 88-years-old. Over the last few years, Vin has called Dodgers home games almost exclusively. He occasionally goes to road games with the team, but he does not leave California.
Over Vin Scully’s long career, there have been many other highlights. He was the youngest person to ever broadcast a World Series game in 1953. He called all six of the Dodgers’ World Series wins. Scully announced two other Koufax perfect games and some no-hitters. He was also there for Don Larsen’s historic perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Vin witnessed Hank Aaron’s home run number 715 that broke the Babe’s record. Adding to an amazing list of accomplishments, he did the play-by-play call for Kirk Gibson’s dramatic home run in the 1988 World Series to win it all for the Dodgers.
On looking ahead to his retirement, Vin Scully says he wants to spend more time with family, as well as do more reading. Reading is something Scully did every night after work to relax instead of watching more baseball on TV. Vin’s main goal moving forward, he says, will be to enjoy life as much as he can for as long as he can.
[Featured Image by Mark J. Terrill/AP Images]