He was Venice Beach, he was the pink hot dog stand, he was the Hollywood Bowl. He was the Poet Laureate for the Los Angeles, Sounds of Summer, Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and spent 67 his seasons.
We knew Vin Scully wouldn’t last forever. It just looked as if he would. Even after his retirement, many years after his last broadcast in 2016, his presence remained as ubiquitous and fantastical as the sea and air.
After moving west from the Yankees booth in 2002-04, Dodgers radio play-by-play since 2005, Charlie Steiner said, “There are two words for bin: Babe Ruth.” The best thing I’ve done in 2018. Babe Ruth will always be defined by baseball, and Vin will always be remembered as the voice of baseball.”
When the Dodgers announced that Scully had died at the age of 94, Tuesday’s major league trade deadline, Wild Ride, suddenly turned sharply grim in the quiet stillness of the night. ending. Scully has been in declining health in recent months and those who knew him well were ready for the call, but when it came it was still a punch in the gut for him.
“It doesn’t get easier because we’ve lost a friend,” said former outfielder and longtime Dodgers broadcaster Rick Monday. was our friend.”
Like a best friend, he was full of amazement, joy, humility and amazement.
“When I was in college, I wrote for the Times, so you’ve probably seen my byline,” Scully said, like his days at Fordham University, for an article about Gil Hodges. Earlier this summer, I enthusiastically began interviewing The New York Times. It was around the corner recently. She said, “It says ‘The Times Correspondent.’ I had a pseudonym. Anyway, I just wanted you to know my literary background.”
Another time, late in the evening after an interleague game at Angel Stadium early in the 2013 season, when several members of the news media were waiting for the press box elevator to go home for the evening, Scully He was wearing braces on his left hand and wrist, the result of a bout of tendonitis.
“I told someone before that I should tell them I was interested in falconry and was waiting for the birds,” he said with a wide smile. ”
His instincts were perfect and his joie de vivre was constant.
“He read very well,” said Monday. “He also owned English. When he heard Vin’s story, he felt he had to go back to school immediately. But he never told anyone. He was amazing. rice field”
In one of his last public acts, Scully wrote to the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Era Committee to support Hodges’ Hall of Fame candidacy. This letter was said to be very influential. But the always humble Scully refused to believe he had enough clout to upset voters, moreover, he didn’t want credit.
Scully said this summer, “Even when I wrote this song, I didn’t want it to be public at all, and I knew it wouldn’t be public enough to suddenly step into the same spotlight.” “Yes, I wrote the letter, and it was true in every way I know. But I don’t want to think about it at all.
“I’m very sensitive now that I’m retired. I just don’t want to look out of place.”
But Scully’s “place” was everywhere and was a welcome friend to all. It started with his warm invitation to “pull up your chair” at the start of each broadcast. And for nearly 70 years, he created an incredibly large family, from the mansions of Bel Air to the blue-collar neighborhoods around Southland, replacing the Dodgers.
Monday grew up in Santa Monica, California, a single mother who fell in love when the Dodgers moved west in 1958. Whenever the Dodgers were in the car while they were playing, Scully was their companion.
“His voice was like a gentle hand on our shoulders, saying, ‘Hey, it’ll be alright. No matter what’s going on in the world, what’s going on in your life, the next three years.’ Time, I got you,” said Monday. “That’s how we feel.”
Millions of other people have experienced similar sentiments in Iron Man-esque 67 Years.
“I was fascinated by this game, but even more so by Vin’s voice and the way he presents the game,” Monday said. “His description of the uniform, the field, the speed of the players, the strength of the batted ball, the diving catch. When Vin was playing the game, it wasn’t just the playing of the game, it was the highlight of the game.”
Monday was the first overall pick in the first amateur baseball draft of 1965 and was acquired by the Athletics, who traded him to the Chicago Cubs before the 1972 season.
“The Dodgers finally go to Chicago and my mom can watch the game on TV,” said Monday. “It was my seventh year at Biggs, and my mom heard Vin Scully say my name. I didn’t even realize I was in the big leagues.” She laughed. It has become official. ”
In 1998, the Los Angeles Times Magazine named Scully the most trusted person in Los Angeles. Eight years before that, the late Los Angeles Times legendary columnist Jim Murray claimed that Scully was the most important Dodger. Little has changed since then.
“Vincent Edward Scully meant more to the Dodgers than any . I write in my monthly column. He hit the home run that turned the season into a miracle, but he knew what to do with it that resonated through the ages.
When the Dodgers upset Oakland in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series when Kirk Gibson hit a home run against Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley, Scully exclaimed:
For one minute and eight seconds, he remained silent, allowing the Dodger Stadium crowd to fill the TV speakers. The reaction continues to this day.
His timing, history and sense of the moment were impeccable for any occasion.
“He wasn’t just an announcer,” Steiner said. “He wasn’t just a baseball player. He was a father figure, taciturn, conscientious, everything we wanted the world to be right. ”
Steiner continues: Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, etc. For a long time I felt that Vin was the biggest star of all because of his longevity. No. He was a comforter, a parent, an angel. He had a bright and pure heart. ”
After Tuesday night’s Dodgers-Giants game, he stayed up until 5 a.m. Monday in his San Francisco hotel room. When he and his wife travel somewhere, his wife often jokingly says the place isn’t as good as the brochure.
He recalled the last time Scully aired at Dodgers Stadium in 2016. When the icon beautifully serenaded the sold-out crowd by singing “Wind Beneath My Wings” at the end of the game. Utility man Charlie Culberson hit a storybook walk-off home run not long ago, and what’s easy to forget is that it wasn’t her last broadcast for Scully. The Dodgers finished that season with his three games in San Francisco.
There, Culberson had his now-famous bat. When he wasn’t sure what to do with it, he suggested Monday get Scully to sign.Culberson was shy and when asked Monday, Scully said he would be “honoured” to sign. Said.
Monday escorted Culberson to the San Francisco Press Box on the second floor, where he met Scully.
“It was unbelievable,” said Monday. “It was like two kids in the park examining a bat wand. The man was the best player he had ever seen – Willie Mays.
“Charlie and Vinnie were already in tears, but it was like the moment Willie walked in and stepped out of a time capsule.
“And last night we got reports three or four times here 60 feet from where it happened.”
