Vin Scully was an American sportscaster. He died on August 2 2022. He was best known for calling games for the Dodgers.
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about his life and career.
- His full name was Vincent Edward Scully
- He was born on November 29, 1927
- He died on August 2, 2022
- He was an American sportscaster
- He was best known for his 67 seasons calling games for Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers
- Beginning in 1950 (when the franchise was located in Brooklyn) and ending in 2016
- His run calling games constituted the longest tenure of any broadcaster with a single team in professional sports history
- Vin Scully was second only to Tommy Lasorda (by two years) in terms of number of years associated with the Dodgers organization in any capacity
- He retired at age 88 in 2016
- Ending his record-breaking run as the team’s play-by-play announcer
- In his final season behind the microphone, Scully announced most Dodgers home games (and selected road games) on SportsNet LA television and KLAC radio
- He was known for his distinctive voice, lyrically descriptive style, and signature introduction to Dodgers games
- His signature introduction was: “It’s time for Dodger baseball! Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good (afternoon/evening) to you, wherever you may be”
- He is considered by many to be the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time, according to fan rankings, Bleacher Report and Fox Sports
- In addition to Dodgers baseball, Scully called various nationally-televised football and golf contests for CBS Sports from 1975 to 1982
- He was NBC Sports’ lead baseball play-by-play announcer from 1983 to 1989
- He also called the World Series for CBS Radio from 1979 to 1982 and again from 1990 to 1997
- Born in the Bronx, Scully grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan
- His father, Vincent Aloysius, was a silk salesman; his mother, Bridget, was a homemaker
- He was of Irish descent
- His biological father died of pneumonia when Scully was 4
- His mother later married an English merchant sailor named Allan Reeve
- Scully considered him his dad
- Scully attended Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx
- He worked delivering beer and mail, pushing garment racks and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City
- Scully discovered his love of baseball at age eight when he saw the results of the second game of the 1936 World Series at a laundromat and felt a pang of sympathy for the badly defeated New York Giants
- Since he lived near the Polo Grounds
- He was a member of the NYC Police Athletic League and Catholic Youth Organization
- Thus, he was able to attend games for free and became a “very big Giants fan”
- Scully received the Ford Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982
- He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award for sportscasting and induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995
- The National Sports Media Association (formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association) named Scully as National Sportscaster of the Year four times (1965, 1978, 1982, 2016) and California Sportscaster of the Year 33 times
- He was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1991
- He was the 1992 Hall of Fame inductee of the American Sportscasters Association
- He was also named Sportscaster of the Century (2000) and top sportscaster of all-time on its Top 50 list (2009)
- The California Sports Hall of Fame inducted Scully in 2008
- Scully was inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2009
- On May 11, 2009, he was awarded the Ambassador Award of Excellence by the LA Sports & Entertainment Commission
- On an episode of MLB Network’s series Prime 9, about the nine greatest baseball broadcasters of all-time, Scully was named No. 1
- Scully has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6675 Hollywood Blvd
- Since 2001, the press box at Dodger Stadium has been named for Scully
- And a street within the team’s former Dodgertown spring training facility in Vero Beach, Florida was named “Vin Scully Way”
- WFUV, the Fordham University radio station that Scully helped found, presents an annual Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award for sports broadcasting
- Scully himself was the inaugural recipient of the award in 2008
- Scully served as the Grand Marshal for the 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade
- Also, he participated aboard the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 50th anniversary float in the 2008 Tournament of Roses Parade
- On September 5, 2014, Bud Selig presented him with the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award
- He was the 14th recipient and (after Rachel Robinson) second non-player to receive the award
- The award was created to recognize accomplishments and contributions of historical significance to the game of baseball
- Several honors were bestowed in 2016, Scully’s final year
- On January 29, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to rename Elysian Park Avenue, which changed the address of Dodger Stadium to 1000 Vin Scully Ave
- July 8 was dubbed “Vin Scully Day” by the acting governor of California, Kevin de León
- During the pre-game ceremony on September 23, 2016, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti presented Vin Scully with the key to the city
- On November 22, Scully received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor given by the President of the United States
- In 2017, Scully’s commentary for the final Brooklyn Dodgers/New York Giants game in 1957 was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant”
- Also in 2017, Scully won the Icon Award as part of that year’s ESPY Awards ceremony
- At Game 2 of the 2017 World Series, being played at Dodger Stadium, Scully participated in a pre-game ceremony
- Addressing the crowd over the PA system, he implied that he was about to throw the ceremonial first pitch
- He introduced Steve Yeager to serve as a ceremonial catcher
- However, Scully then claimed that he could not actually pitch because he had hurt his rotator cuff, resulting in him introducing the actual ceremonial pitcher, Fernando Valenzuela
- Scully also uttered his famous introduction, “It’s time for Dodger baseball!”
- In 1972, Scully’s 35-year-old wife Joan Crawford died of an accidental medical overdose
- The couple had been married for 15 years
- In late 1973, he married Sandra Hunt
- She had two children of her own, and they soon had a child together
- Scully’s eldest son, Michael, died in a helicopter crash at the age of 33 while working for the ARCO Transportation Company
- He was inspecting oil pipelines for leaks near Fort Tejon, California in the immediate aftermath of the Northridge earthquake in January 1994
- Although Michael’s death still haunted him, Scully, a devout Roman Catholic, said in numerous interviews that he credited his religious faith and being able to dive back into his work with helping him ease the burden and grief from losing his wife and son
- He encouraged devotion to the Virgin Mary
- In 2016, Scully narrated an audio recording of the Rosary for Catholic Athletes for Christ in which he recites the Rosary mysteries and leads a group of responders
- An unauthorized biography of Scully, Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story, written by Curt Smith, was published in 2009
- For many years, Scully reportedly did not attend (or even watch on TV) a baseball game he was not announcing
- In 2004 and 2010, he and then-Dodgers owner Frank McCourt attended games at Fenway Park as spectators
- In November 2017, Scully stated that he would “never watch another NFL game again,” due to some of the league’s players kneeling during the playing of the national anthem prior to games
- Vin Scully had four children, two stepchildren, sixteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren
- He resided in Thousand Oaks, California
- He attended St. Jude the Apostle Church in Westlake Village, California
- Vin Scully was a second cousin of the former Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mary Freehill
- Vin and his second wife Sandra were married for 48 years until Sandra’s death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on January 3, 2021
- On August 2, 2022, Scully died at his home in Hidden Hills, California, at the age of 94
Paul Schueller says
which elementary school did Vin Scully attend in Washington Heights? Was it PS 169?