Vin Scully
|
|
Vincent Edward Scully (born November 29, 1927 in The Bronx, New York) is an American sportscaster, known primarily as the play-by-play voice of Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games.
Growing up, Scully made ends meat by delivering milk and mail, pushing garment racks, and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel (http://www.hotelpenn.com) in New York City. Vin's father was a silk salesman while his mother was Irish and had red-hair just like her son.
Vin Scully has also had to endure several personal tragedies in his life. In 1972, his 35 year old wife Joan Crawford (not the actress) died of an accidential medical overdose. Vin was suddenly a widowed father of three. In late 1973 though, Vin married Sandra Schaefer, who had two children of her own. In 1994, Vin's eldest son Mike died in a helicopter crash.
Scully began his career as a student broadcaster at Fordham University. While at Fordham, Scully helped form its FM station, sang in a barbershop quartet, played center field, got a degree, and sent about 150 letters to stations along the seaboard. Scully ultimately got only one response wich was from WTOP in Washington, who made him a fill-in. He was eventually recruited by Red Barber, sports director of the CBS network, for the network's college football coverage. In 1950, Scully joined Barber in the 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.
Scully called the Dodgers games in Brooklyn until 1957, when the club moved west with the Giants -- the first two teams west of St. Louis.
In 47 seasons in Los Angeles, Scully has become a beloved figure. His 55-year tenure with the Dodgers is the longest of any broadcaster with one club in pro sports history. Scully has called six Dodgers' World Series victories and 14 National League pennants.
Outside of Southern California, Vin Scully is probably best remembered for being NBC television's lead Major League Baseball announcer from 1983 to 1989. Scully earned aproximately $2 million a year for the NBC gig. Scully also and reworked his Dodgers schedule around this period as he would only do home games on the radio and road games for television. Teaming with Joe Garagiola for NBC telecasts, Scully was on hand for such remarkable moments like 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 thrilling 1987 All-Star Game in Oakland which was deadlocked at 0-0 before Tim Raines broke it up with a triple in the top of the 13th inning, and Scully chatting with Ronald Reagan in the booth during the 1989 All-Star Game in Anaheim.
During conclusion of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, Scully uttered arguably the most famous call of his career: "A little roller up along first . . . behind the bag . . . it gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight! And the Mets win it!"
Two years later in Game 1 of the World Series, Scully had another famous call when Kirk Gibson of the Los Angeles Dodgers hit a dramatic walk-off two-run home run to beat the Oakland Athletics 5-4: "High fly ball to deep right field! She is....gone!!!" Scully followed it up by saying "In the year of the implausible, the impossible has happened!"
From 1979 to 1982 and again from 1990 to 1997, he was also the lead announcer on CBS Radio's World Series coverage. Between television and radio, Scully has called all or part of 28 World Series (more than any other announcer).
Scully called National Football League games from the 1975 to 1982 for CBS television. He called Dwight Clark's touchdown catch that put the San Francisco 49ers into Super Bowl XVI. He also anchored golf coverage for CBS, NBC and ABC television.
In 1999, Scully was the master of ceremonies for Master Card's 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.
Scully has been honored with many awards. In 1982, he received the Ford Frick Award from 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. Finally, the American Sportscasters Association named him the Broadcaster of the Century in 2000.
The Press Box at Dodger Stadium has also been named for Scully.
The X-Files character Dana Scully was named after him, as Chris Carter is a great fan.
External links
- Baseball Hall of Fame - Frick Award recipient (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/frick_bios/scully_vin.htm)
- Salon.com tribute (http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/1999/10/12/scully/)
- Directory > Recreation > Sports > News and Media > Sportscasters > Scully, Vin (Yahoo!) (http://dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Sports/News_and_Media/Sportscasters/Scully__Vin/)
- MLB '99 Game Page (http://www.us.playstation.com/content/ogs/scus-94233/site/scully.html)