Any Los Angeles Dodger fan who ever lived knows they're not really listening to or watching a Dodger game unless they hear the familiar-yet-perfect baritone of Vin Scully calling the action.
Vincent Edward Scully was born to Irish immigrant parents on November 29, 1927, in the Bronx borough of New York. He knew his heart's desire early. “I was about eight years old and we had an old radio on four legs with crossed bars between the legs,” said Scully. “I would come home to listen to a...game...and I would get a pillow and I would crawl under the radio, so the loudspeaker and the roar of the crowd would wash all over me, and I would just get goose bumps like you can't believe. And I knew of all the things in this world that I wanted, I wanted to be the fella saying, whatever, home run, or touchdown. It just really got to me.”
Vin actually began his love affair with sports as a player on the Fordham Prep baseball team. He matriculated at Fordham University on a partial baseball scholarship in 1945. He then served a year in the Navy and returned to Fordham, eventually earning his degree in 1949.
While at school, Vin began doing part time work for a local radio station, writing for the college paper, working as a stringer for the New York Times, and (surprise) singing in a barbershop quartet.
After college his first job was with WTOP, the CBS affiliate in Washington. There, the legendary Red Barber picked Vin to “pinch hit” as an announcer for a college game. Scully's mother took the telephone call from Barber and scribbled a message for Vin. “What kind of mother would I have?” says Vin. “Irish, red-headed, and excitable. She took the message, but she said it was from Red Skelton.”
Thus began a professional sports announcing career that is without parallel. Scully joined the Brooklyn Dodger's radio and television booths in 1950 and has been affiliated with the team ever since. No other announcer has greater longevity with a single team in any sport.
Scully called his first World Series in 1953, at age 25. He still holds the record for youngest person to ever broadcast a World Series and has called 28 of them altogether, another record. He continued to call Dodger games in Brooklyn until 1957, then moved west with the team to Los Angeles. Since then, he has called six Dodger World Series championships and 14 National League pennants.
His dependable tenure is all the more remarkable when you know that his personal life has not been free of tragedy. In 1972, his 35-year old wife, Joan, died of an accidental medical overdose. Vin was suddenly a widowed father of three after 15 years of marriage. He married his current wife, Sandra, in 1973, and joyously had another child with her. Tragedy struck the Scully family again in 1994, when eldest son Michael was killed in a helicopter crash. Vin credits his faith and his work for helping him cope with those painful burdens.
Scully is one of the last broadcasters to work alone. He calls the first three innings of every Dodger game solo, simulcast on radio and TV. When asked why Scully goes solo, colleague Charley Steiner answered, “because poets don't need straight men.”
The beloved announcer's awards are literally too many to list completely in this space. Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown inducted him in 1982 and honored him with the Ford Frick Award the same year. The television profession honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Emmy® in 1995. The honor accorded him by his peers is perhaps the most telling of all. In 2000, the American Sportscasters Association polled its members seeking to elect one person as Broadcaster of the Century. In the final tally, Vin Scully received every vote except one: his own.
When asked recently about his future plans, Vin noted that his contract doesn't expire until after the 2008 season. “We'll see what happens then,” he says. Millions of fans hope the pure magic of our Vin Scully at the microphone will continue as long as possible.
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