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Baseball legend Vin Scully passed away earlier this week at the age of 94. Like millions of other Angelenos and grateful fans around the world, I am so grateful to have enjoyed his beautiful voice for so many years. And there’s also the travel angle: it nearly bankrupted him early in his career.
Remembering Vin Scully, a baseball legend and personal hero
Ask any LA Dodgers fan about Vin Scully and they’ll tell you their own story. Everyone has a story. Mine is not very different from many. My grandfather, a huge Dodgers fan (as long as they win), introduced me to it from a young age. Before every game is televised, we tune in and just listen to Vin Sculla on the big stereo radio in the den.
I have known his wonderful voice and amazing eloquence since my childhood.
My grandfather took me and my brother to Dodgers games and brought the radio like many other fans, and we snacked on peanuts and listened to V while we watched the game. His voice was synonymous with summer and the innocence of youth and the bond that binds us together.
Vin Scully brought different cities together. One thing that always amazes me when I attend Dodgers games is that the fans are as diverse as the city itself. It wasn’t black and brown and white…just blue: Dodgers fans came together to form their team. Scully’s openness held communities together and fostered a more perfect union in the form of a feast of goodness, kindness, and subtle yet powerful growth.
As Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974:
“What a wonderful time for baseball. What a wonderful time for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a wonderful time for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the all-time baseball idol record.”
As I grew older, I admired his golden voice and his amazing ability to do anything interesting. My teenage years were spent avidly following the Los Angeles Dodgers. I would come home from school, turn on the VCR, and play my VHS tape of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series over and over again. Scully’s call for Gibson’s ninth inning game-winning home run continues to bring me goosebumps.
“High fly ball to deep right field. She’s gone!”
And then pause. A long pause. A perfect pause. So we can all take it and 25 years after the fact I could still feel the beat of Dodger Stadium even in my living room.
And then this:
“The impossible happened in such an impossible year.”
Exactly.
Something Vin and I shared
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to meet him. I’ve always dreamed of it…but always like a rolling stream carrying all its children away. Scully was born in 1927 and started broadcasting in 1950 when he was only 22 years old. The infant stages of this blog, then in podcast form, started for me when I was 22 and I honestly hope to be on it until school. Scully was a natural from the start…I hope to learn from him and others and grow better into my pack as a communicator. But he regarded his chosen calling as a higher calling, as I do every time I publish a story with my name on it.
Vin Scully and the journey
Oh yeah, and the travel angle. Vin’s father was a traveling salesman. Scully died when she was just four years old. My other grandfather died when my father was seven years old. He also grew up without a father and I am very thankful that my father saw me grow up and is still with us today.
I wonder what would have happened if Scully’s father had existed? What if Scully met his father instead of entertaining himself with the radio at night? What if he was a traveling salesman instead of a sports expert? I am sure he will be very successful but the world has never heard his voice.
Scully was a man after my heart, he chose only to do his work (calling games), and sometimes there were no ordinary papers that came with him. Early in his career, he was nearly broke because he repeatedly failed to complete his expense reports. Someone reminds me of…*cough*.
Vin is at the top of his game, which few people are lucky enough to do. You don’t want to retire too early, but you also don’t want to stay too long and end up losing out of the booth (like dear former Lakers wide receiver Chick Hearn, who’s another hero of mine, but he’s probably been on board for two seasons. Too long).
In the last years, Vin stopped traveling with the group, first only to the western states and finally only in California. He also cut back on the number of innings he pitched on the radio…simulcasts are tougher because dead air is harder on the radio (not that dead air was a problem for Vin, but it took a lot of effort).
It’s a reminder that we too should slow down and enjoy our ability to travel now.
Summary
I am very grateful to Vin Scully and the impact he has had on my life. In fact, he has impacted millions of people, brought Los Angeles together, and elevated our conversation through his life’s work. We have lost a great asset in losing Vin.
Top image: LA Dodgers
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