7/14/2023 0 Comments Dodgers commentatorHe also was on the air when Don Drysdale set his scoreless innings streak of 58 2/3 innings in 1968 and again when Hershiser broke the record with 59 consecutive scoreless innings 20 years later. Scully called three perfect games Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, Sandy Koufax in 1965 and Dennis Martinez in 1991 and 18 no-hitters. In 1953, at age 25, Scully became the youngest person to broadcast a World Series game, a mark that still stands. He soon joined Hall of Famer Red Barber and Connie Desmond in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ radio and television booths. Vin Scully works in his booth at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles during a 2010 game. Scully, who played outfield for two years on the Fordham University baseball team, began his career by working baseball, football and basketball games for the university’s radio station.Īt age 22, he was hired by a CBS radio affiliate in Washington DC. He thought he’d like to call the action himself. With a snack of saltine crackers and a glass of milk nearby, the boy was transfixed by the crowd’s roar that raised goosebumps. His mother moved the family to Brooklyn, where the red-haired, blue-eyed Scully grew up playing stickball in the streets.Īs a child, Scully would grab a pillow, put it under the family’s four-legged radio and lay his head directly under the speaker to hear whatever college football game was on the air. He was the son of a silk salesman who died of pneumonia when Scully was 7. Vincent Edward Scully was born 29 November 1927, in the Bronx. He always said he wanted to see things with his eyes, not his heart. He opened broadcasts with the familiar greeting, “Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be.”Įver gracious both in person and on the air, Scully considered himself merely a conduit between the game and the fans.Īlthough he was paid by the Dodgers, Scully was unafraid to criticize a bad play or a manager’s decision, or praise an opponent while spinning stories against a backdrop of routine plays and noteworthy achievements. The Dodgers changed players, managers, executives, owners and even coasts but Scully and his soothing, insightful style remained a constant for the fans. In the 1990s, it was Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo, followed by Clayton Kershaw, Manny Ramirez and Yasiel Puig in the 21st century. He began in the 1950s era of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, on to the 1960s with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, into the 1970s with Steve Garvey and Don Sutton, and through the 1980s with Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela. As the longest tenured broadcaster with a single team in pro sports history, Scully saw it all and called it all.
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