How many of you reading this column are 62 years old? How about 53 years old?
Well last Sunday, Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully informed the Los Angeles Dodgers that he was going to be back in the booth in 2011 — marking his 62nd season as the “Voice of the Dodgers.” That continues his lock on the record for the longest time broadcasting for a single team.
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The Dodgers are currently in their 53rd year in Los Angeles, and Scully has been the voice and the face of the organization since it arrived. He joined Red Barber and Connie Desmond on the Brooklyn Dodgers broadcast team in 1950, one year after graduating from Fordham University.
Scully has been behind the microphone for some of baseball’s greatest moments, including Don Larsen‘s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Sandy Koufax‘s perfect outing in 1965, Hank Aaron‘s 715th career home run, the scoreless-innings streaks of Orel Hershiser and Don Drysdale, Barry Bonds‘ record-breaking 71st, 72nd and 73rd home runs in 2001 and all six Dodgers World Series championships.
Scully is a brilliant wordsmith, often using lines quoted from Shakespeare, Steinbeck and Poe to make a point during a broadcast. Here is vintage Scully on his call of Kirk Gibson’s home run in to win game one of the 1988 World Series: “All year long they looked to him to light the fire and all year long he answered the demands. (Gibson hits the ball) High fly ball into right field. She is gone! [pause] In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”
On a personal note, I used to see Scully during spring training and he was always very open to talk baseball or life in general. His standards are high and he has worked hard to teach younger broadcasters that you don’t have to scream to be heard and that sometimes silence followed by some well thought out words make for long lasting impressions.
Scully has few peers in local broadcasting where the announcer was bigger than the team. Baseball history has had a few in guys in that category— like Jack Buck, Chuck Thompson, Bob Prince, Ernie Harwell, Bob Murphy, Phil Rizzuto, Harry Caray and Milo Hamilton — but it is great to have Vinny back for one more year.
