Vin Scully

Vin Scully publicity photo, © Los Angeles Dodgers

Vincent Edward "Vin" Scully (born November 29, 1927 in The Bronx, New York) is an American sportscaster, known primarily as the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball teams.

In 47 seasons in Los Angeles, Vin Scully has become a beloved figure. His 57-year tenure with the Dodgers is the longest of any broadcaster with a single club in professional sports history. Scully has called six World Series victories and 14 National League pennants for the club.

Scully has received numerous honors: In 1982, he received the Ford Frick Award, inducting him into the broadcaster's wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Twenty-one times, he has been named California Sportscaster of the Year. He received the Life Achievement Emmy Award for sportscasting in 1995, and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame the same year. The American Sportscasters Association named him Broadcaster of the Century in 2000.

In 1976, Scully was selected by Dodgers' fans as the Most Memorable Personality (on the field or off) in the team's history. In 1998, an L.A. Times Magazine feature article called him "The Most Trusted Man in Los Angeles."

Early life

Growing up in the Washington Heights section of New York, Scully made ends meet by delivering milk and mail, pushing garment racks, and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City. His father was a silk salesman; his mother a homemaker of Irish descent with red hair like her son.

Vin knew he wanted to be a sports announcer the moment he became fascinated with football broadcasts on his radio. This is despite Vin not knowing any sports announcers, never having seen a sports announcer work before or ever having seen a sporting event in person.

Career in Brooklyn

Scully began his career as a student broadcaster at Fordham University. While at Fordham, he helped form its FM radio station WFUV, sang in a barbershop quartet, played center field, got a degree, and sent about 150 letters to stations along the Eastern seaboard. Scully ultimately got only one response, from CBS Radio affiliate WTOP in Washington, which made him a fill-in.

He was eventually recruited by Red Barber, sports director of the CBS Radio Network, for its college football coverage. Scully impressed his boss with his coverage of a gridiron match from frigid Fenway Park in Boston, despite having to do so from the stadium roof (expecting an enclosed press box, Scully had left his coat and gloves at his hotel, but never mentioned his discomfort on the air). Barber mentored Scully and told him that if he wanted to be a successful sports announcer he should never be a "homer" (openly showing a rooting interest for the team that employs you), never listen to other announcers, and keep his opinions to himself.

In 1950, Scully joined Barber and Cornelius (Connie) Desmond in the Brooklyn Dodgers' radio and television booths. When Barber got into a salary dispute with World Series sponsor Gillette in 1953, Scully took Barber's spot for the Fall Classic. At the age of 25, Scully became the youngest person to ever broadcast a World Series. Barber left the Dodgers after the 1953 season (to work for the New York Yankees). With Desmond often sidelined due to problems with alcoholism, Scully eventually became the team's principal announcer.

Scully called the Dodgers' games in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved west, along with the Giants â€" becoming the first two Major League baseball teams west of St. Louis.

CBS

From 1979 to 1982, and again from 1990 to 1997, Scully was also the lead announcer for CBS Radio Sports' World Series coverage. Between television and radio, he has called all or part of 28 World Series â€" more than any other announcer.

Like Barber and Mel Allen in the 1940s, Scully retained his credentials in football even as his baseball career blossomed. Scully called National Football League games from 1975 to 1982 for CBS television. One of his most famous calls is Dwight Clark's touchdown catch in the January 10, 1982, NFC Championship Game (which Scully called with Hank Stram), which put the San Francisco 49ers into Super Bowl XVI.

Scully also anchored the network's tennis and PGA Tour golf coverage in the late 1970s and early 1980s, usually working the golf events with Pat Summerall, Ken Venturi, and Ben Wright. From 1979 to 1982, he was part of the team that covered the Masters for CBS. He has also done golf coverage for NBC and ABC television.

Departure from CBS

Scully decided to leave CBS Sports in favor of a job calling baseball games for NBC (beginning in 1983) following a dispute over assignment prominence. CBS decided going into the 1981 NFL season that John Madden was going to be the star of their NFL television coverage. But they had trouble figuring out who was going to be his play-by-play partner. So in September (for the first four games of the season), they paired Scully with Madden while Pat Summerall was busy covering the U.S. Open tennis tournament for CBS. For the next four games of the season in October, they paired Pat Summerall with Madden while Scully called Major League Baseball's National League Championship Series and World Series for CBS Radio.

After the eighth week of the NFL season, the big wigs at CBS Sports decided that the laconic, brass-voiced Pat Summerall's style was more in tuned with the verbose John Madden than the lyric, poetic Vin Scully. As a consolation prize, CBS Sports gave Scully the "B" team assignment and the right to call the NFC Championship Game on CBS Television with Hank Stram. Meanwhile, Pat Summerall called that game on CBS Radio with Jack Buck while John Madden prepared to do the Super Bowl with Summerall in Pontiac, Michigan. Scully, reportedly wasn't happy about the demotion as well as in his eyes, having his intelligence be insulted.

NBC

Joe Garagiola and Vin Scully (right) host the 1983 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Outside of Southern California, Vin Scully is probably best remembered for being NBC television's lead baseball announcer from 1983 to 1989, earning approximately $2 million per year. Besides calling the Saturday Game of the Week for NBC, Scully called three World Series (1984, 1986, and 1988), four National League Championship Series (1983, 1985, 1987, and 1989), and four All-Star Games (1983, 1985, 1987, and 1989). Scully also reworked his Dodgers schedule during this period, as he would only broadcast home games on the radio and road games for television.

Teaming with Joe Garagiola for NBC telecasts (with the exception of 1989 when Scully teamed with Tom Seaver), Scully was on hand for many remarkable moments: Fred Lynn hitting the first grand slam in All-Star Game history (1983); the powerful 1984 Detroit Tigers winning the World Championship; Ozzie Smith's dramatic game-winning home run in Game 5 of the 1985 National League Championship Series; the mind-boggling sixth game of the 1986 World Series; the thrilling 1987 All-Star Game in Oakland, which was deadlocked at 0-0 before Tim Raines broke up the scoreless tie with a triple in the top of the 13th inning; the first official night game in the history of Chicago's Wrigley Field (August 9, 1988); Kirk Gibson's dramatic game-winning home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series; and chatting with Ronald Reagan in the booth during the 1989 All-Star Game in Anaheim.

After the 1989 season, NBC would lose the television rights to cover Major League Baseball to CBS. It was the first time that NBC wouldn't be able to televise baseball since 1946. In the aftermath, Scully said of NBC losing baseball, "It's a passing of a great American tradition. It is sad. I really and truly feel that. It will leave a vast window, to use a Washington word, where people will not get Major League Baseball and I think that's a tragedy. ... It's a staple that's gone. I feel for people who come to me and say how they miss it and, I hope, me."

Trivia

*Scully was unable to call Game 2 of the 1989 National League Championship Series between the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs (on Wednesday, October 4) because he had come down with laryngitis. Thus, NBC's number two baseball play-by-play man, Bob Costas filled-in for him. Interestingly, around the same time, Costas was assigned to call the American League Championship Series between Oakland and Toronto. Game 2 of the NLCS occurred on Thursday, October 5, which was an off day for the ALCS. NBC then decided to fly Costas from Toronto to Chicago to substitute for Scully on Thursday night. Afterwards, Costas flew back to Toronto, where he resumed work on the ALCS the next night.

1999 and beyond

In 1999, Scully was the master of ceremonies for MasterCard's Major League Baseball All-Century Team before the start of Game 2 of the World Series. Also in 1999, Scully appeared in the movie For Love of the Game.

In recent years, Scully cut back his work schedule to approximately 115 games a year (though he has no plans to retire in the foreseeable future). Usually, he will call the first three innings of a Dodgers game via a radio-and-television simulcast, then the rest exclusively for television.

Scully will normally not call a game that takes place east of the Rockies; in addition, Scully reportedly won't attend or watch a baseball game that he isn't announcing. It wasn't until the year 2004, when he and his boss, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, attended Fenway Park, that Scully was at a baseball game simply as a spectator.

Salary

The Dodgers announced on February 22, 2006 that Scully and the team had reached an agreement extending his contract through the 2008 season. Scully is expected to earn about $3 million each year.

Memorable calls

One of Scully's most memorable moments from his early years in Los Angeles is his commentary on the perfect game pitched by Sandy Koufax in 1965. [1]

1986 World Series

Concluding Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, Scully, who rarely raises his distinctive dulcet voice, uttered arguably the most famous call of his career: "A little roller up along first ... behind the (first-base) bag ... it gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight ... and the Mets win it!" Scully then remained silent for approximately 3 minutes, letting the pictures and the crowd tell the story. Scully finally said, "If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words, but more than that, you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The Mets are not only alive, they are well, and they will play the Red Sox in Game 7 tomorrow!"

1988 World Series

Two years later, on October 15, 1988, in Game 1 of the World Series, Scully made a call that no Los Angeles baseball fan will ever forget, when Kirk Gibson of the Dodgers hit a dramatic, walk-off, two-run home run to beat the Oakland Athletics 5-4. Over the course of the season, Gibson had injured both legs (to swing a bat, Scully announced, Gibson would only be able to use his upper-body strength, because "he can't push off [with the back leg], and he can't land [on the front leg].") and was being treated in the trainer's room, out of sight, during the entire game. Earlier, the TV camera had scanned the dugout and Scully observed that Gibson was nowhere to be found. According to legend, as Gibson was in the clubhouse undergoing physical therapy, he saw this on the television, spurring him to get back in the dugout and telling Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda he was ready if needed. In the ninth (and final) inning, pinch-hitter Mike Davis was awarded first base on a two-out walk, "and look who's coming up," Scully said. After two strikes, Gibson hit a ball on the ground, limped about 50 feet toward first base before the ball bounced foul, "...and it had to be an effort to run that far." Finally, on a 3-balls, 2-strikes pitch to Gibson from relief pitcher Dennis Eckersley, Scully was as stunned as anyone when he nearly screamed, "High fly ball into right field, she i-i-i-is... gone