On August 2nd, around 8pm PDT, the news
started to filter through the world that a long time voice, and a sound that
was comfortable to listen to, on a warm (or hot) summer evening.
This voice started out in Brooklyn, New York, with a
team called the Dodgers, and with names like Pee Wee, and Bragen, and Robinson.
DEM BUMS as some would call them moved in the 50’s to Los Angeles, and started
his tenure that lasted between Brooklyn to LA, 67 years behind the microphone
for not only radio but Television broadcast as well.
The ONE and THE only- Vin Scully, who passed away at
the age of 95, and with that, the microphone grew silent once again.
Our lives—if you are a fan of sports, sometimes, can
be associated with the sound of a voice, through the magic of radio, that kept
us company at night—or when we were younger--- tuning in to listen to the World
Series during school (if you could get away with it, or better yet your Teacher
was a fan of the game as well)
The voice at the other end was comforting, and like a
warm blanket that would wrap itself around you and give you that solace that,
everything was alright in the world.
When you think, and reflect, on the voices of your
life, what impacted you, what were the sounds that were comforting. It might
have been the voices of your parents, or grandparents. It might have been the
voices that were that of your friends, or someone close to you!
I had the opportunity to meet Vin Scully when the
Dallas All Sports Association honored him in the early 2000’s at a dinner.
Listening to him talk about his career, and the greats that he had been
associated with, and being at the microphone for monumental moments, such as
World Series, Perfect Games, No Hitters, then there were College Games, and
Football games, and Golf Tournaments—his voice was marking that of time that we
spent watching the those events.
He lent his voice and talent to a movie with Kevin
Costner in it, called “For the Love of the Game” which also starred the late
Kelly Preston (John Travolta’s wife). A sports movie with a Love Story twist
and turn, about an aging pitcher, in the twilight of his career, and staring at
the perfect game, and every line uttered by Vin Scully was an absolute gem. Now
its not as quoted as those of Bob Eucker in “Major League”, but none the less
they are gems, such as “Pushing the Sun back up into the sky” or my favorite,
“The Cathedral that is known as Yankee Stadium--- belongs to a Chapel!” In
reference to the fictional pitcher, Billy Chapel in the movie.
During his talk at the DASA banquet, he spoke of his
broadcasting style, and to this day I have stolen some of this thoughts, one
was—” A picture may paint a thousand words, but we use a thousand words to
paint a picture” referring to radio broadcasters, and the other was about the
game of baseball, that while broadcasting the game its more about the drama you
bring to the game through your words, and therefore a baseball game is nothing
more than a good story interrupted by a game.”
His was about poetry, and how he could weave the
stories into the game, and make them a part of his style and his ability to
bring YOU the listener into the game.
He will be remembered for calling Kirk Gibson’s Home
Run against the A’s in the World Series, where Gibson was hobbled, and hurting
and took a swing and sent it to the right field bleachers—the Fist Pump of
Gibson rounding second, and the sounds of Vin Scully just ever so slightly come
across to emphasize the moment.
He was the master of being subtle, let the crowd tell
the story best, and you just absorb, as a listener or a viewer, to the event.
He was the same when Sandy Kofax threw a perfect game,
or when the Dodger or any other team won the World Series, Scully knew to let
the moment have its own, and let the fans enjoy what was transpiring.
Eighteen NO Hitters 3 Perfect Games- Three World
Series, and countless Game of the Weeks broadcast, along with being inducted
into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Ford Frick award winner, and other
accomplishments.
What will be missed the most, well since he fully
retired in 2016 from the booth, and his age of over 90 years of age, when you
think about it, most of what he had done in broadcasting is still archived, and
we can still go back and listen to it over and over again. So in reality, Vin
Scully, much like, Mel Allen, or Red Barber, or Jack Buck—Harry Carry, John
Facenda, Pat Summerall, Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, and the list goes on of
those voices that shaped our lives and brought to life the games that we
watched or listen to. (Didn’t wish to leave out Keith Jackson).
Its “So Long for now”, and until we meet again—from
that great Press Box in the sky—Vin Scully you have been and always be a part
of our time line of our lives.
Just a thought.
