Vin Scully is not only the most legendary broadcaster in baseball history. He is the most legendary broadcaster in the history of sports. Scully has been the voice of the Dodgers so long that they were actually still located in Brooklyn when he started broadcasting for them. Scully has now called his last game for the Dodgers after a 67-year career, which is the longest tenure any broadcaster has been with a team in the history of professional sports. To honor this great figure, here is a look back at the legend of Vin Scully.
Early Life
Vincent Edward Scully was born on November 29, 1927 in The Bronx, New York. He was raised in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan. He lived near the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants, and he attended many games there growing up. He served two years in the Navy, and then he enrolled at Fordham University. While he was there, Scully played centerfield for the baseball team. He also was a sports broadcaster for the school.
Professional Career Begins
After graduation, Scully mailed 150 letters to radio stations all over the country in hopes of landing a sports broadcasting gig. The only station to respond was WTOP, a CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. He was hired as a fill-in broadcaster. This led to Scully being recruited by Red Barber, the director of sports for CBS radio, to cover college football. Barber soon let Scully join the Brooklyn Dodgers broadcast team in 1950. In 1953, Scully became the youngest broadcaster ever to cover a World Series game at the age of 25, which is a record that still stands. After that season, Barber left the Dodgers to work with the Yankees, and Scully became the primary voice of the Dodgers for the next 63 years.
LA Days
In 1957, the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and Scully went with them. With his signature voice and incredible ability for storytelling, Scully quickly became one of the most popular broadcasters in the country. Many other clubs would periodically take a run at Scully to try and get him to work for them, but Scully is a man whose loyalty runs deep. The Dodgers gave him his big break when he was just a young pup, and he rewarded them with everlasting loyalty.
Although he never left the Dodgers, Scully did take on an additional role broadcasting games for NBC. He would call the nationally broadcast NBC Game of the Week, and he also called All-Star games and postseason games for NBC. Many fans would take a look at a betonline review to determine whether they wanted to bet on the games that Scully called.
Most Legendary Call
The most legendary of the calls Scully ever made by his own estimation was the call of Kirk Gibson’s incredible game-winning home run with two outs in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. His line, “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!” is one of the most famous lines in broadcasting history.
Another celebrated call made by Scully was the moment that Hank Aaron beat the all-time home record of Babe Ruth. Scully punctuated the historic importance of the occasion with his call, “A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South!”
Football
Although mostly famed for his baseball broadcasting, Scully had some memorable calls when he broadcast football games for CBS from 1975-1982. The most memorable call he made in football was in the very last game that he did for CBS, the NFC Championship Game in 1982. His call of The Catch, arguably the most famous play in NFL history, was as excellent as everything he did. Scully’s call was, “Montana…looking, looking, throwing in the endzone…Clark caught it! Dwight Clark!…It’s a madhouse at Candlestick!”
Vin Scully will be sorely missed. There will likely never be a broadcaster that reaches the legendary heights that he did. The days of one man being the voice of a team are over with the team broadcasting approach that rules today.
