Vin Scully Trivia | 80 facts about the sportscaster

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.

1. His full name was Vincent Edward Scully
2. He was born on November 29, 1927
3. He died on August 2, 2022
4. He was an American sportscaster
5. He was best known for his 67 seasons calling games for Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers
6. Beginning in 1950 (when the franchise was located in Brooklyn) and ending in 2016
7. His run calling games constituted the longest tenure of any broadcaster with a single team in professional sports history
8. 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
9. He retired at age 88 in 2016
10. Ending his record-breaking run as the team’s play-by-play announcer
11. In his final season behind the microphone, Scully announced most Dodgers home games (and selected road games) on SportsNet LA television and KLAC radio
12. He was known for his distinctive voice, lyrically descriptive style, and signature introduction to Dodgers games
13. 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”
14. He is considered by many to be the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time, according to fan rankings, Bleacher Report and Fox Sports
15. In addition to Dodgers baseball, Scully called various nationally-televised football and golf contests for CBS Sports from 1975 to 1982
16. He was NBC Sports’ lead baseball play-by-play announcer from 1983 to 1989
17. He also called the World Series for CBS Radio from 1979 to 1982 and again from 1990 to 1997
18. Born in the Bronx, Scully grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan
19. His father, Vincent Aloysius, was a silk salesman; his mother, Bridget, was a homemaker
20. He was of Irish descent
21. His biological father died of pneumonia when Scully was 4
22. His mother later married an English merchant sailor named Allan Reeve
23. Scully considered him his dad
24. Scully attended Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx
25. He worked delivering beer and mail, pushing garment racks and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City
26. 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
27. Since he lived near the Polo Grounds
28. He was a member of the NYC Police Athletic League and Catholic Youth Organization
29. Thus, he was able to attend games for free and became a “very big Giants fan”
30. Scully received the Ford Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982
31. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award for sportscasting and induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995
32. 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
33. He was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1991
34. He was the 1992 Hall of Fame inductee of the American Sportscasters Association
35. He was also named Sportscaster of the Century (2000) and top sportscaster of all-time on its Top 50 list (2009)
36. The California Sports Hall of Fame inducted Scully in 2008
37. Scully was inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2009
38. On May 11, 2009, he was awarded the Ambassador Award of Excellence by the LA Sports & Entertainment Commission
39. On an episode of MLB Network’s series Prime 9, about the nine greatest baseball broadcasters of all-time, Scully was named No. 1
40. Scully has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6675 Hollywood Blvd
41. Since 2001, the press box at Dodger Stadium has been named for Scully
42. And a street within the team’s former Dodgertown spring training facility in Vero Beach, Florida was named “Vin Scully Way”
43. WFUV, the Fordham University radio station that Scully helped found, presents an annual Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award for sports broadcasting
44. Scully himself was the inaugural recipient of the award in 2008
45. Scully served as the Grand Marshal for the 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade
46. Also, he participated aboard the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 50th anniversary float in the 2008 Tournament of Roses Parade
47. On September 5, 2014, Bud Selig presented him with the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award
48. He was the 14th recipient and (after Rachel Robinson) second non-player to receive the award
49. The award was created to recognize accomplishments and contributions of historical significance to the game of baseball
50. Several honors were bestowed in 2016, Scully’s final year
51. 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
52. July 8 was dubbed “Vin Scully Day” by the acting governor of California, Kevin de León
53. During the pre-game ceremony on September 23, 2016, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti presented Vin Scully with the key to the city
54. On November 22, Scully received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor given by the President of the United States
55. 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”
56. Also in 2017, Scully won the Icon Award as part of that year’s ESPY Awards ceremony
57. At Game 2 of the 2017 World Series, being played at Dodger Stadium, Scully participated in a pre-game ceremony
58. Addressing the crowd over the PA system, he implied that he was about to throw the ceremonial first pitch
59. He introduced Steve Yeager to serve as a ceremonial catcher
60. 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
61. Scully also uttered his famous introduction, “It’s time for Dodger baseball!”
62. In 1972, Scully’s 35-year-old wife Joan Crawford died of an accidental medical overdose
63. The couple had been married for 15 years
64. In late 1973, he married Sandra Hunt
65. She had two children of her own, and they soon had a child together
66. Scully’s eldest son, Michael, died in a helicopter crash at the age of 33 while working for the ARCO Transportation Company
67. He was inspecting oil pipelines for leaks near Fort Tejon, California in the immediate aftermath of the Northridge earthquake in January 1994
68. 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
69. He encouraged devotion to the Virgin Mary
70. 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
71. An unauthorized biography of Scully, Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story, written by Curt Smith, was published in 2009
72. For many years, Scully reportedly did not attend (or even watch on TV) a baseball game he was not announcing
73. In 2004 and 2010, he and then-Dodgers owner Frank McCourt attended games at Fenway Park as spectators
74. 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
75. Vin Scully had four children, two stepchildren, sixteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren
76. He resided in Thousand Oaks, California
77. He attended St. Jude the Apostle Church in Westlake Village, California
78. Vin Scully was a second cousin of the former Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mary Freehill
79. Vin and his second wife Sandra were married for 48 years until Sandra’s death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on January 3, 2021
80. On August 2, 2022, Scully died at his home in Hidden Hills, California, at the age of 94