Letter of Recommendation: Vin Scully

Eloquent writing about an eloquent topic. Perhaps the most astute line in the article speaks to the (awful) state of current sports announcing. Sadly, it must deeply disappoint Vin. I listen to baseball all summer on satellite radio and can't believe how far the craft has degenerated. I yearn for the day when I could spin the dial and listen to a Bob Murphy, Jack Buck or Harry Kalas make me fall in love with the game. Much has been lost here. Fortunately, we can look forward to at least one more year in Vin.

After so many years of excellence, you'd think that other baseball commentators - on radio and television - would try to model themselves after Vin Scully, but in fact, they do not and baseball is the worse for it. Vin Scully will be sorely missed after he retires. This fan just wishes that in retirement Mr. Scully would give lessons to his "peers" on whom little has rubbed off.

I know that other cities have sports announcers they love, some gone and some still around, but spending my whole life listening to Vin Scully call Dodger games makes me feel extremely fortunate. Scully is fair, he's smart, he knows baseball, and he knows human nature. When Vin's in the booth, I learn about baseball history, American history, poetry, music, players' families and the towns where they grea up, and I get to hear the occasional corny joke mixed in with his personal anecdotes about a life in baseball. Yes, ice skating with Jackie Robinson, but also stories about the very real threats to Robinson's life, and about Vin's childhood in New York, his favorite player Mel Ott, and more. It's sometimes frustrating when Vin seems just as excited by a great play or hit by an opposing player as he is by a Dodger home run or double play, but in the end I wouldn't have it any other way.

When I was ten and my family moved to LA in the mid-sixties, I began hearing Vin Scully’s voice find its way through the air during California weekend afternoons as one or two of our neighbors always had their radios on in their backyards. The easy manner and tenor of his voice was so engaging and gentle that one could imagine that if all the large cities in all the world’s nations had their own Vin Scullys, we would never go to war.

My single best moment as a journalist was interviewing Vin Scully in the press box at Dodger Stadium during a game. My article for the Loa Angeles Times Magazine was about his then-boss, Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley. But as you say, Vin was and is no homer. He gave me my money quote, explaining that Peter could never measure up to his legendary father, Walter.

Hard to imagine the broadcaster who will measure up to Vin Scully.

When I bailed out of L.A. 43 years ago, I never dreamt that only thing I would ever truly, truly miss from the town where I grew up was Vin Scully. Truly a gem. Many hanks to Jacob Silverman for the reminder.

Thanks so much for the thoughtful article. While most announcers serve as a conduit to the team they support, Vin IS the team we support. Quite simply, there is no more important Dodger than Vin. I loathe the day I won't hear him over the radio while sitting in traffic without a care in the world enjoying Vin's poetry. His ability to resonate with generations of fans without changing his style one bit is extraordinary. There will never be another Vin.

I can remember the day Vin Scully was introduced to Brooklyn Dodger fans as, basically, the third member of their broadcasting team, the others being Red Barber and (lest he now be forgotten) the excellent Connie Desmond. What I still recall vividly (and because we didn't have a TV yet, and I wasn't quite with it when it came to reading anything other than box scores in the newspapers) is my great surprise when I first saw this man's name in print (around 1953, I would think), because up to then I'd always thought his name was, and as it always seemed to be pronounced on the radio, "Vince Kelly"! For me, in the end he took on the throne long left vacant by none other than Mel Allen, who also did pretty much a one-man broadcasting job for the Yankees in those days, and who seemed to have every possible record, statistic, and bit of background knowledge about Baseball embedded in his skull, this long before the days of myriad books on the subject and immediate computer recapitulation of every conceivable statistic that can be conjured up by the Mind of Man. Scully seems to have much of this today, but thanks to the never-to-be-forgiven betrayal of two million Brooklynites by one Branch Rickey in 1957, we have been denied continuing access to Mr. Allen's seemingly natural successor. Great article, though, and nobody deserves it more!

You're kidding, right? Tongue in cheek, to keep it from flapping in the breeze at Dodger Stadium?

I grew up listening to Harry Carey and Jack Buck call the Cardinals' games. I loved the stretches of silence when you could hear the calls of the hot dog and beer vendors. Then I started hearing about Vin Scully, and how great he was. So, in the late 70s, when my business travels took me to Los Angeles during the summer, I listened to the Dodgers game each night in the hotel room (OK, the Cardinals were in town). I was astonished. Then I became curious. While listening the next evening to the second game, I fired up the stopwatch function on my wristwatch. Scully talked for over 45 minutes straight in one stretch (I have no idea who the 'color' man was, but he had little opportunity to make an impression). I assumed Scully continued to talk during the commercial breaks, because when he came back on air, he was already talking, and kept right on. No calls of hot dog vendors, boy. They were drowned out by Scully, over and over again, Scully. I gave up and read about the game in the morning paper.

Then came the opportunity from time to time to catch Scully on a TV broadcast. Great, at least I could watch the game while Scully was schmoozing; and of course, there is the great boon for watchers of sports on TV: the mute button. One thing Silverman gets right: you really can listen to Scully for hours.

It wasn't only what he said or how he said it that made him an icon, it was his voice and its cadence.
I grew up with the dodgers, but alas when they moved away, I moved on. But I missed hearing Vince

In the 1980s, I had the privilege to ride the club's private elevator at Dodger Stadium many times as a player's girlfriend. My greatest memories of dating a key player on the 1980s Dodgers have nothing to do with the player. They are about riding the elevator with Vin Scully, whom I revered. Like in Jacob's story, Mr. Scully was a man of few words and never spoke to me. But I stared at him on each ride, because you do that in the presence of greatness. (Ross Porter, another rider, was pretty commanding, too.) Great story about a great American.

Sign me as 'Anonymous, But There.'

I wish there were a box set of games Vin Scully has called. I'd buy it...Professional athletes are, for the most part, on another level, performing feats beyond human. Just so, Scully is in a league of his own, a storyteller par excellence.

For those who have not heard/seen it, here is Vin Scully's elegiac ode to Wrigley Field that he did before the first broadcast from the 1989 playoffs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dLNBe2-7L4

Talk about low hanging fruit. A letter of recommendation for Vin Scully is like a letter of recommendation for Christmas morning....or for the smell of freshly-baked bread.

My most memorable 'Vinnie' moment was his call of Drysdale breaking Walter Johnso's shutout innings streak just days after Drysdal's friend Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. If that broadcast isn't in the Smithsonian, it should be.

A cliche at the ready for any occasion, even in an elevator.

I love the guy but I get the feeling he's a bit standoffish. I wrote him a fan letter two years ago, never heard back. In my fifties, I don't write a lot of fan letters. Maybe he didn't receive it; maybe he doesn't care. After all, he does work alone and, in essence, spends his days talking to himself.

Vin and Red. It didn't get any better than that. But it did get a lot worse.

Absolutely the best. I grew up a Brooklyn Dodger fan and recognized that as a young boy. It led to an impassioned argument with my mother who mistakenly thought Red Barber was better.

This is a beautiful, concise, accurate piece of writing worthy of its subject -- which is saying a great deal.

Like Bruce, he makes the ordinary extraordinary!

Thank you David. I grew up in Los Angeles having moved there from New York just a couple of years before the Dodgers came to LA and the Giants to San Francisco. My Dad was a Giant from the days of Mel Ott, and so I was a Giant fan also, in LA. I grew up with "Vinney," as his partner Jerry Doghert used to call him, in my ear, learning about baseball and life from him. I learned to better understand Hemingway's Movable Feast when Vin Scully used the phrase to describe the Dodger-Giant rivalry. And while I may have trouble recalling items on my shopping list, I recite with ease Vin Scully's call that got the Dodgers to the 1959 World Series, "High bouncer over the mound, over second base, Mantilla fields it, throws low and wide, Hodges scores, we go to Chicago."

That's some nice writing there Jacob. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for a commentary which sums up why I'm up on all things Dodgers...not my team by a long shot. Listening to Vin Scully is listening to pure poetry; by merely describing the game at hand, you feel the immediate present, the past and eternity. I think that's why his commentaries on babies in the crowd is so funny and so poignant. He brings out the best in baseball. I'm going to miss him in the post season this year, and I'm really going to miss him in the future.

A wonderful piece! Thank you! Captures my feelings as well. At my age, when my parents and grandparents are no longer around, I listen to Scully and think of how they listened at one time to this same man. Listening with my 11 year old son makes it even more special.

I lived in LA in the 90s and heard a lot of Vin Scully - as well as Angels announcers, whoever they were. He is indeed a poet, and his way with the images of the game can make even the darkest day feel better. But I'm surprised Jacob Silverman didn't recount one of the most well known Scullyisms, when the count is 2 and 2, with 2 outs and 2 men on: "Deuces are wild!" Vintage Vin.

QUITE SAD !

There have been many great paly by play baseball broadcasters ... but by far and wide Vin Scully (who began with Red Barber in Brooklyn ... when baseball was unquestioning the national pastime ... the non nonsense approach and aesthetics he brought to each broadcast ... whether radio or TV will remain unmatched. He also knew that often his voice was not needed ... that the camera and/or roar of the crowd was sufficient.

Wait till next year!

When I go to Dodger Stadium I bring along an old transistor radio and crank it up for the first three innings (Vin Scully calls the first three innings on the radio, then he's available only on TV).

People thank me. They love hearing him floating through the crowd. Along with the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd, Vinnie's voice is an irreplaceable part of the soundscape of baseball.

Only Vin Scully cuts through the TV graphics to bring an added dimension and value to the broadcast. He is the antidote to the Joe Buck and Troy Aikman snooze fest.

Elegant piece. Thank you on behalf on all Angelenos. In 1983 when I was writing an oldies radio show for the late Dick Clark, I came up with the line, "(these are the songs that make up) the soundtrack of our lives." I would like to amend that to say that our Vinnie IS our soundtrack...because there is no summer without baseball, there is no baseball without the Dodgers and there are no Dodgers without Vinnie. I'd like to think he's immortal. But I may have to be content with his canonization. May G-d bless your every step, Vinnie.

one of the best. Now the worst, there are too many - including but not limited to Susan Waldman and Joe Buck (she tries, he's just a jerk). Long Live Vin!

I grew up in LA, frequently going to Dodgers games with my grandparents, who had season tickets. My grandfather loved the Dodgers, but his hatred of traffic trumped that love, so we left every game in the bottom of the seventh inning in order to avoid traffic coming our of Chavez Ravine. The beauty of that was that we got to listen to Vin Scully call the last two innings in the car. To this day, Vin Scully's voice is still the soundtrack of my childhood.

I grew up in California rooting against the Dodgers but falling deeply in love with baseball because of Vin Scully. Now I live on the East Coast and don't get to hear him as much as I would like since Dosgers' games often start at 10:30 pm EDT. Rather than have him narrate my funeral as one commenter suggested, I'm hoping his is the first voice I hear "on the other side" suggesting I grab a chair since "we are going to be here a while."

I would like Vin Scully to narrate my funeral or some other momentous life event.

The white sox have a excellent duo for radio announcing and both are former players. The cubs have a good announcer but the side kicks are awful and they completely over analyze the game. The Brewers are nearing the end of our own mid-west Scully, Bob Uecker who no longer takes the long road trips with the team and who, as of now, is going to be replaced by some of the most boring announcers to be heard. All this just to say Mr. Scully, who I have had only a few occasions, will be missed as the prototype of good radio announcing. Red Barber anyone?

If Bob Costas is right when he says baseball is the soundtrack of the summer, then Vin Scully is the one-man symphony in that soundtrack.

Others are so enjoyable - thank you, Gary Cohen and Howie Rose! - but I am thankful that at times, I get the chance to enjoy Vin Scully's work and to be reminded of Mark Twain's point that the difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

Excellent, thank you.

No matter how hard it may be in other fields to pick the greatest of all time, Vin Scully wins in this category easily. Listening to him talk is as soothing and as perfect for baseball as nothing else could be.

Scully is the best. It is painful to listen to the play-by-play and color commentators on almost all the national and team networks these days. Truly awful, and bad for the sport. You'd think those in charge of making such choices would care more, and I don't know why they don't. In any case, Scully is a master and I'm pleased he's hanging in for another year. I'll watch a Dodgers game just to hear him.

Has Vince Scully led a perfect life? From Fordham to Ebbets Field to Chavez Ravine.... always sitting in the catbird seat.