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Writer's pictureJohn Popovich

Vin Scully, legendary sports broadcaster and iconic voice of the Dodgers passes away at age 94


Vin Scully, as seen above with legendary Dodger Stadium in the backdrop, passed away Tuesday Aug. 2nd at age 94

 

In the annals of baseball history, there are heroes and then there are legends. A great quote from the baseball movie "The Sandlot", Babe Ruth says "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die". I think it's safe to say that Vin Scully is a legend in the sport of baseball. He never played in a big league game, but he was the iconic voice of not only the Dodgers but baseball itself. His storytelling of the game was unlike any other. When he called is last game in 2016, those of us that listened to him were sad to see him leave. We are sad again today because Vin Scully has passed away at the age of 94.


He began broadcasting at Ebbets Field in 1950 as a 22-year-old graduate of Fordham University. He learned the ropes of broadcasting baseball games from then Dodgers announcer Red Barber. Scully eventually took the reigns when Barber left for the Yankees in 1954. From then on he was the voice of the Dodgers. When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, fans in the west coast were quickly educated with baseball by Vin Scully's great explanation of the game. Many in the crowds would bring along hand-held transistor radios so Scully could guide them through the early days of Major League Baseball on the west coast. Larry King once explained that he attended a Dodger game in LA and was astonished by how many people in the crowd had hand held radios with them listening to the game while they were watching. Vin Scully himself had to announce on the air and asked those with radios in the stadium to please turn them down because he was getting very bad feedback noise.


Scully worked for the Dodgers is whole career, 67 seasons to be exact. He also worked for CBS Sports from 1975-1982 and announced NFL telecasts along with tennis and PGA Tour Golf. Scully began calling baseball nationally for CBS radio in 1977, broadcasting the All-Star Game through 1982 and the World Series from 1979-1982 alongside Sparky Anderson. He left CBS after the 1982 season and beginning in 1983 started working for NBC Sports as their lead television baseball broadcaster. For NBC, he called the Saturday Game of the Week, three World Series (1984,1986,1988), four National League Championship Series (1983,1985,1987,1989), and four All-Star Games (1983,1985,1987,1989). After the 1989 season, Scully's NBC contract was up and he left to focus primarily on his duties with the Dodgers. He also returned to being the national radio announcer for the World Series, a role that CBS Radio gave him after Jack Buck left to become the primary announcer for CBS's television coverage of Major League Baseball. Scully did that from 1990 through 1997 with his last World Series game being game 7 of the 1997 World Series between the Florida Marlins and Cleveland Indians. The Marlins defeated the Indians on a walk off hit by Edgar Renteria in the bottom of the 11th inning. His call was "Lot of nail bitting now as Nagy comes back and there's a line drive behind second base, base hit and the Marlins have won it. And they are crazy at Pro Player Park". Just one of so many great calls by him.


Vin Scully was a legendary sports broadcaster. And one of my favorites to listen to. A Hall of Fame career that ended in 2016, he will forever be remembered for bringing us his great storytelling and iconic voice. He had so many iconic calls in his legendary career that the heck with writing these word for word. These are way better to be listened to. Please click on the videos below to take a listen. Courtesy of YouTube and MLB.






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