Vin Scully, beloved voice of the Dodgers, dies at 94

Vin Scully, the piece-by-piece chivalrous man whose sweet voice provided the Dodgers’ baseball soundtrack from Brooklyn to Los Angeles for 67 seasons, has died. He was 94 years old.

Scully, a member of the Dodgers organization from 1950 until his retirement after the 2016 regular season, died Tuesday at his home in Hidden Hills, the Dodgers said.

By saying goodbye to the broadcast booth, he had summoned almost half of the games of the franchise that was born in 1890.

Always poised and easy to listen to, Scully is credited with turning Los Angeles into “Transistor City”. streets – Side locations scattered around the city.

“When the game is on the air, the physical presence of his voice is impressive,” wrote Robert Kramer in 1964. illustrated sports Scully’s profile is titled “Transistor Kid”.

“His pleasant nasal baritone emanates from radios in the back of orange juice stands, from transistor radios kept by people sitting under trees in barbershops and bars, and from cars everywhere: parked cars, cars waiting for a red light. turn green. Cars passing you on 65 highways and cars passing you in traffic.

It was a shame that, with many distributors refusing to air Time Warner Cable’s Dodgers channel due to cost issues, most viewers in Los Angeles were unable to hear the smash hit for several years.

Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, Scully has also named MLB games for NBC since 1983. (She received a Peabody Award that year.) About the network. game of the weekHe was a partner of Joe Garagiola.

Previously, Scully covered the Masters and other golf tournaments, as well as tennis and NFL events for CBS. It was Scully who made the play in the NFC Championship Game in January 1982, in which 49ers Joe Montana made a last-minute interception on Dwight Clark to surprise the Dallas Cowboys.

Through it all, Scully remained the voice of the Dodgers.

“His timing is impeccable,” said Dodgers broadcaster Rick Monday. illustrated sports in May 2016. “He’s never in a hurry. As if the game was waiting for him. It’s a little joke between us. When Vinny starts one of his stories, the batter is about to hit three free-kicks in a row and will have plenty of time for that. When the rest of us start a single, the next one is a grounded double. Play to end the turn.”

In 2010, the American Athletic Association named him the greatest athlete of the 20th century.

Scully was smooth and cool and easy-sounding. He didn’t talk much or hyperventilate to the hosts. When the Dodgers won the 1959 National League title, his line was classic: “Let’s go to Chicago.” It was one of the few times he referred to the Dodgers as “we”.

Scully’s sweet voice was the instrument, her rhythm ranging from rat-a-tat to dead silence, allowing the crowd and background noise to fill everything. He left the mic for two minutes during the roar that followed the Hank Aaron recording. Hitting 715 home runs in 1974.

Of Kirk Gibson’s dramatic ninth inning in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series that would lead the Dodgers to the title, Scully said, “He’s gone! In such an incredible year, the impossible happened.

“Mine, I think, is not a style. It’s just me, I come to speak to the public,” he once said.

When Bill Buckner of the Red Sox let it slip between his legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, ending the New York Mets’ mad comeback, Scully said:

“Small roll first…behind the bag…go past Buckner! Is coming [Ray] Knight and Mets win!”

Another of Scully’s most memorable calls came when he “timed out” in the fourth no-hitter of Sandy Koufax’s career, a perfect game. “The time on the game board is 9:44,” he told listeners. “Dated September 9, 1965.”

He described the scene at Dodger Stadium: “29,000 people in the stadium and a million butterflies”.

“More than half a century later, it’s still making waves,” recalled Bob Costas in his Hall of Fame speech in July 2018. “The build and anticipation of the drama, the meticulous attention to detail, the reporter’s keen eye. combined with the poet’s graceful rose. Perfect performance on the mound was matched and enhanced by perfect performance in the cockpit.”

Scully’s prowess was especially evident during the grueling games that invariably appeared. Her strength was storytelling. She mixed in vivid and thoughtful digressions that kept fans on their toes as she could present an architectural vision of the stadium, literary or historical references or other interesting tidbits. He brought color to the game and life behind the lines.

Off the field, Scully has been heard on television shows such as Mr. Ed, Highway to Heaven, Brooklyn Bridge s the x file (Gillian Anderson’s character is named after her) and in Glenn Ford’s 1962 film a horror experiment. He even hosted a game show (two are needed) and his own late-night television talk show.

His wife of 47 years, Sandi, died in January 2021. Survivors include their children, Kevin, Todd, Erin, Kelly and Kathryn; 21 grandchildren; and six grandchildren.

“We have lost an icon,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement. “The Dodgers’ Vin Scully was one of the greatest voices in all of sports. He was a giant man, not just as a broadcaster but also as a humanitarian. He loved people. He loved life. He loved baseball and the Dodgers. And he loved his family. His voice is always heard and will forever remain etched in our minds. I know he was looking forward to having his love of life, Sandy, with him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this very difficult time. Who will you really miss? ”

Vincent Edward Scully was born in the Bronx on November 29, 1927. His father, a traveling salesman, died when he was 4 years old and he grew up in an apartment in Washington Heights, Manhattan. His love of sports broadcasting was fueled when he crawled under the family’s wooden radio console to soak up the noise of the crowd during the game’s broadcast.

At Fordham University, he worked on the school newspaper, ran a radio station, wrote as a correspondent The New York Times newspaper And he was a bad hitter on the baseball team. He also sang in a quartet called The Shaving Mugs.

Scully served two years in the US Navy before graduating from Fordham in 1949. He began his professional career as an announcer at the WTOP radio station in Washington, D.C., where he was noticed by a CBS executive and taken to see Red Barber. number 1. 1 athlete

When CBS desperately needed someone to work on the Boston University-Maryland football game at Fenway Park, Barber called Scully. Barber later suggested to Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, that Scully would make a good addition to the bullpen at Ebbets Field, and Scully was hired in 1950 for $5,000 a year.

The naive and affable Scully did not file a travel expense report, and the serious editor nearly went bankrupt in her first year.

He replaced Ernie Harwell (who left to join the New York Giants) as announcer for the Dodgers, third man behind Barber and Connie Desmond. So Desmond went and got Scully. At the start of the 1954 season, Barber jumped to the New York Yankees and the Dodgers had a new bullpen, 26-year-old Scully.

With the Yankees in town on July 31, 2013, Scully reminisced on-air the memorable home runs she’d witnessed: Bobby Thomson’s shocking winning goal that took the Giants to Brooklyn and the 1951 World Series; Aaron’s kick that got him past Bab Ruth; And Gibson’s incredible outburst.

Scully took another, lesser-known, Game 4 of the 1963 World Series, the Dodgers one victory over their rivals, which revealed the humility that characterized the man and his career.

Scully talked about how Mel Allen of the Yankees, another legendary player, suffered from severe laryngitis. Doctors told her to hang on, and Allen handled the sequence of three televised games on NBC (Scully also worked for the network).

But when Mickey Mantle’s Yankees knocked out Koufax to tie the game at 1-1 in the seventh, “everything fell apart,” said Scully, who worked the first half of the game before sitting out. “Forget the caution in your voice. Allen rang a beautiful bell, but it was too long and heavy for his throat and he just walked away.

“Mel tried to speak, but nothing came out. I had to go to the club if the Yankees lost to celebrate the Dodgers. although, [NBC Sports head Tom] The gallery patted Mel on the shoulder as if to say, “Give Vin the mic.” And I felt terrible; My heart is breaking for Mel.”

Scully called late in the game, which the Dodgers won. Allen was fired the following season and never called up another World Series.

“Here Mel was on the world stage, this big moment… it was a valuable lesson for me,” said Scully. “There, but by the grace of God, I will. It can happen to me anytime, anywhere.”

None of that happened for Scully, and he retired on his own to San Francisco’s AT&T Park on October 2, 2016. When Giants reliever Sergio Romo left Dodgers’ Rob Segedin in the finals, he said:

“It’s a good line, and it’s certainly one I’ve kept, I think, all year… The line is, don’t be sad because it’s over, smile because it happened. And I really feel that way because of the wonderful opportunity they’ve given me that they’ve allowed me to keep all these years.

“I’ve said enough for a lifetime. Finally, I wish you all a good night.”

Duane Birge contributed to this report.