Vin Scully, the legendary broadcaster who called Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers games for 67 seasons and also worked nationally on Major League Baseball and NFL broadcasts, died Tuesday at age 94.
A statement from the Dodgers said Scully, who retired at the end of the 2016 season, died at his home in Hidden Hills, a community in Los Angeles County northwest of Los Angeles.
The hallmark of Scully’s career was a storytelling style combined with what he called “kind of a running commentary with an imaginary friend,” he told the Los Angeles Times in an interview.
Dodgers president Stan Kasten said in a statement that the sports world “lost an icon. … His voice will always be heard and etched in all of our minds forever. I know he was looking forward to joining the love of his life, Sandi. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family during this very difficult time. Vin will be truly missed.”
Sandra Scully, Vin’s wife of 47 years, died in January 2021 at 76 after a long fight with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease).
Ned Colletti, the Dodgers’ general manager from 2005 to 2014, said on Twitter that he would “never know anyone as kind, as gracious, as talented as Vin. Twitter isn’t big enough for all the memories, stories, instances of a person who was the best at what he did behind a microphone and who was even a better person than he was a broadcaster. Rest easy my friend.”
I will never know anyone as kind, as gracious, as talented as Vin. Twitter isn’t big enough for all the memories, stories, instances of a person who was the best at what he did behind a microphone and who was even a better person than he was a broadcaster. Rest easy my friend.?? https://t.co/wMDri5IMVg
— Ned Colletti (@realnedcolletti) August 3, 2022
Scully started his broadcasting career while he was a student at Fordham University after a stint in the Navy, calling games in a variety of sports. He caught the attention of famed broadcaster Red Barber, then the sports director of CBS Radio Network.
In 1950, Barber added Scully, then 22 years old, to the Brooklyn Dodgers’ radio and TV broadcasts. Scully became the Dodgers’ main voice in 1954, when Barber left for the New York Yankees.
When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles ahead of the 1958 season, Scully and then-broadcast partner Jerry Doggett came West with them, bringing major league baseball to a new market. Scully became the lead voice, with fans at the games often having transistor radios to hear his description of what they were watching.
Among his notable calls was Henry Aaron’s 715th home run, which came in Atlanta as the Braves were playing the Dodgers on April 8, 1974.
“What a marvelous moment for baseball,” Scully said. “What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us and particularly for Henry Aaron.”
Also memorably, on Oct. 15, 1988, Kirk Gibson was dealing with problems in both legs when he hit a walk-off, pinch-hit, two-run homer to win Game 1 of the World Series.
As Scully called it: “High fly ball into right field. She is … gone! In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”
Right-hander Dave Stewart, who began a 16-year career with the Dodgers in 1978 and went on to win 168 games, paid tribute as well.
“Vin Scully, there will never be a voice in baseball like Vinny,” Stewart tweeted. “He was the standard for broadcasting. As he said it, you could see it, feel it, you were at the park. Vinny loved his family, baseball, and the @Dodgers. RIP Vin Scully. My prayers to your family.”
–Field Level Media
