Vin Scully:
Fellow broadcasters reminisce about the longtime Dodgers announcer, whose career will end this weekend at AT&T Park.
Eighty years from when he became a Giants fan and 67 years from when he began broadcasting Dodgers games, Vin Scully is signing off for the last time after Sunday’s call of the Dodgers-Giants regular-season finale at AT&T Park.
The Chronicle sat down with longtime broadcasters from in and out of the Bay Area, past and present, for their thoughts on the 88-year-old legend who’s widely considered the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time.
The inspiration
Mike Krukow, Giants broadcaster: Vinny is the guy who taught me baseball. He got to Los Angeles when I was 6 years old, and the Dodger game was on our Victrola every night. When I signed my first pro contract with the Cubs, it was my goal to have him say my name on the radio. In 1977, it happened. It was my rookie year, and I trotted out to the Dodger Stadium mound on a Friday night and was standing in front of 50,000 people, half of them with transistor radios. I could hear Vin Scully talk about me. It was such an unbelievable, emotional feeling. I felt I planted a flag on a mountain. I had arrived. Jon Miller, Giants
broadcaster: In ’69 or ’70, I was driving home from Eugene, Ore., coming back from my grandmother’s house. It was nighttime, and it was me alone in the dark driving down I-5. The Dodger game was on the radio, and there was nothing notable about it. There wasn’t a no-hitter, there was no pennant won, there were no records set. I don’t even know who won the game. But I was just thoroughly entertained and captivated by what Vinny was doing, with the great stories and interesting anecdotes. When it was over, I was just thinking, “Wow.” By that time, I was starting college and wanted to be a broadcaster, and it made a huge impression on me. Dick Enberg, Padres broadcaster: When I was doing Angels games, the Dodgers would be in the East, so I’d be listening to Scully on my drives to Anaheim Stadium. He didn’t know it, but he was in my car hundreds of times. He’s the Poet Laureate of our profession. Tim McCarver, Cardinals broadcaster: He’s Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, John Wayne, every star wrapped into one. He’s relevant with reverence — I don’t think I’ve ever said that before. He conveys so much in his language and intonation. There’s so much to learn from him.
Miller: Russ Hodges would say, “Bye-bye, baby” for a Giants home run, and Lon Simmons would say, “Tell it goodbye.” Vinny would just say, “A-waay back, and she is gone.” As a 10year-old, I’m thinking, “Oh, that’s terrible. No wonder he works in a jerkwater town like L.A. If that’s all he can do, he’ll never get out of that town.” I was pretty partisan toward the Giants, but that was one thing I was right about: All these years later, he never got out of L.A., and I don’t think he ever tried.
The respect
Hank Greenwald, former Giants and A’s broadcaster: As a kid, I listened to Harry Heilmann in Detroit, a San Francisco native and Hall of Famer who played with Ty Cobb and against Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Walter Johnson and Lefty Grove. When you’re 8-, 9-, 10-years-old listening to his stories, you’re mesmerized. It has been that way with Vinny. He was there with Jackie Robinson, who’s part of American history, not just baseball history. Amaury Pi-Gonzalez, A’s Spanish broadcaster: Scully’s storytelling is legendary, the way he weaves stories between pitches. Anyone can say “grounder to short,” but he gives you the wonderful stories from 50, 60 years ago. Duane Kuiper, Giants broadcaster: He always had a kind word after every win or every loss. It’s really unique because half the time when we lose to another team, we’re mad at the other broadcasters as if they had something to do with it. Vinny’s not like that at all. Charlie Steiner, I can’t stand after a loss. Vinny, I think he’s great. Enberg: We had the good fortune to grow up with black and white radio. Without television, we could all sit in the same room listening to the same ballgame, but we all saw it differently. Our minds painted a different picture for us, and our imagination was teased. Kuiper: I always thought it was interesting how a guy who didn’t play professional baseball taught the game to so many people. That’s about as high a compliment as you could give someone. McCarver: What I remember more than anything was when I was a player and how hard he worked to get it right. I saw it. I caught (Bob) Gibson and (Steve) Carlton and guys like that, and he wanted to know about them, about me, about the Cardinals. He wanted to know everything, and he found out everything. Miller: The best thing about the Giants and Dodgers playing so often, I’ve gotten the chance to see Vinny so many times, have dinner with him before games, pick his brain, hear stories. That’s the real treat, finding out what a wonderful, warm person he is, not just a great broadcaster. And hearing his stories over dinner, it’s exactly the same as listening to a broadcast. I wish could have recorded all those conversations because there were so many great stories. I’ve asked him for 30 years to do a book, and he’s adamantly opposed. Ken Korach, A’s broadcaster: The way Vinny has handled his celebrity, his Vinniness, is incredible. People can’t wait to introduce themselves to him, and he makes time for everyone. With his humility and graciousness, it’s been an exemplary life. Miller: My favorite Vin call is the Hank Aaron home run because of the way he transcended being a baseball broadcaster. You usually hear Milo Hamilton’s call on the home run, but Vin did the radio broadcast back to L.A. and calls the homer and just lets you hear the roar of the crowd and fireworks, the atmosphere in the ballpark. Then he comes back and instills the larger picture. Not only has this man broken this cherished record by a cherished and beloved former player, the Babe himself, but he’s a black man in the deep South and 50,000 people are on their feet cheering for him for taking this record from this beloved figure, a black man who wouldn’t have been allowed to play when the Babe was doing all those things. Vin spoke of how it was such a great moment for the city, state, country and world. I heard it 25 years after the fact, and it was perfect. It plays like a narration, just the ideal call. I got goose bumps. It made me teary-eyed. Pi-Gonzalez: The most memorable call for me was the Kirk Gibson home run. I was calling the 1988 playoffs so I had the game, and afterward, I listened to Scully’s call, and it was awesome. ( Jose) Canseco hit the early home run off the camera, and (Dave) Stewart gave the ball to (Dennis) Eckersley, who was almost a sure thing. Gibson wasn’t supposed to play. He couldn’t even walk, and then hits a slider for a home run. Vinny’s call impressed me. It was so fair. He didn’t gloat. He’s always fair to the other team. Korach: Koufax’s perfect game. I listened to it live in 1965. The ninth inning was brilliant work. Some of the lines are etched in my memory: “The mound at Dodger Stadium right now is the loneliest place in the world,” and after the final strikeout of Harvey Kuenn, “When he wrote his name in capital letters in the record books, that K stands out even more than the O-U-F-A-X.” Kuiper: I do think Montana-to-Clark (the Catch) is his greatest call ever, and I’m saying that just to hack off the Dodgers’ fans. Also, Will Clark’s grand slam off of Maddux, I thought that was a great call. I think those two and then maybe the third would be … Kirk Gibson’s home run. The future Greenwald: To put it mildly, it’s not going to be the same. I mean, when you’re a person like myself who’s been in the business and always wanted to listen to him, whether it was on the way home when I was working games or on satellite radio now, that tells you all you need to know about the respect as broadcasters we have for him, wanting to hear every word of his, and I think a lot of guys feel that way. Enberg: He’s taught three different generations to love baseball. He’s enhanced relationships between the fans and this game. If I could have that on my tombstone, that would be perfect: “He enhanced the game and made fans love it all the more because of his presentation.” Miller: I’m still holding out hope that he’ll feel so great on October the 2nd that he’ll say, “Ya know, I feel so marvelous, I’ve decided to come back for another year,” and we’ll all jump up and start cheering.