When I was asked to write a remembrance of Vin Scully, my mind wandered into different areas. He was a master storyteller, a maestro with the English language and a likeable man whose accomplishments went far past baseball, the sport he loved and covered for 67 years. So as a writer, I decided to take the simple approach and include them all. Afterall, what’s 850ish words dedicated to a man who used words as an elegant instrument to paint the picture as to what he sees.

Scully was a giant among other broadcasters. He is still the youngest man ever to call a World Series game and he became very accustomed to the Fall Classic having called 25 of them. He also called 12 All-Star games, three perfect games and 18 no-hitters. Scully also broadcast the NFL, PGA tour and even dabbled a bit in soccer during his career.

Vincent Scully was born in the Bronx on November 29, 1927. He attended Fordham prep and Fordham University where he was a student broadcaster and journalist. He was recruited by CBS radio’s Red Barber for college football and slowly began to impress his bosses. Barber taught the young broadcaster to be factual and objective in the press box and to not tilt the game by being a “homer”. In 1950, Scully joined Barber in the Brooklyn Dodgers booth and became the principal announcer for the team in 1954 after Barber went to work for the Yankees. When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1957, management asked Scully to accompany the team west. He was asked by management to adopt a more pro-Dodger type broadcast to help the fans of the new team acclimate themselves to their new team. Scully refused and it mattered little as he remained a Dodger announcer until his retirement in 2016.

Nearly everyone who calls himself or herself a sports fan, has heard of some of the great calls from this maestro of the spoken word. Some of the classics include Hank Aaron‘s 715th career homerun on April8, 1974 which included a wonderfully descriptive etude as to how a black man was receiving such an ovation from fans of the south. A classic case of Scully weaving a story into the fabric of the game.

Next, was the call of Sandy Koufax‘s perfecto.  Koufax tossed a perfect game at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 9, 1965. Scully paused for 38 seconds to allow listeners to soak in the scene. This in an era when ‘dead air’ was not looked upon positively by radio and TV producers. Now, most competent broadcasters allow the game to breathe and not overwhelm the game as Scully had done for nearly seven decades.

Then, there was the Kirk Gibson call in game one of the 1988 World Series. Gibson, injured and hardly able to walk, was not expected to be available for the game even in a pinch-hitting role. But appeared he did, and his famous homerun was met with ‘in the year of the improbable, the impossible has happened’ from Mr. Scully.

There were other fantastic calls, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention game 6 of the 1986 World Series when ‘it gets through Buckner and the Mets win’ became a mantra that is still chanted by Mets fans today. Once again, Scully did not dominate the scene, rather let it develop on its own with silence and, when appropriate excited prose.

The awards that Vin Scully amassed were numerous and prestigious. Scully received the Ford Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award for sportscasting and induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. He was named Scully as National Sportscaster of the Year four times (1965, 1978, 1982, 2016) and California Sportscaster of the Year 33 times and inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1991.  He was the 1992 Hall of Fame inductee of the American Sportscaster Association, which also named him Sportscaster of the Century (2000) and top sportscaster of all-time on its Top 50 list (2009).  On May 11, 2009, he was awarded the Ambassador Award of Excellence by the LA Sports & Entertainment Commission.

Scully has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and, in 2016, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The English language has over one million words. And although Vin Scully didn’t use all of them, it sure seemed he chose the right one at the right time more often than not. His uncanny sense of how a sports broadcast should unfold is unmatched and he has spawned a new type of sportscaster that will bear fruit for generations. His moniker as the Voice of LA may never be replaced. His ability to paint the picture of a game help teach and then enchant several generations of fans far beyond the borders of Brooklyn or Los Angeles.

Scully’s passing this past Tuesday night may have silenced the man, but never will dull the sharpness of his wit, or the creativity of his conscience. He made baseball games a blank canvas and after calling thousands of games over 67 years, created enough art to fill a museum. RIP, maestro, from someone who admired you from afar and etched memories in my mind that will not be forgotten.

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