USA TODAY International Edition
Scully would rather dodge attention
Hall of Fame broadcaster set for Oct. 2 finale
Thousands of bobbleheads with Vin Scully’s likeness will be handed out at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. Friday is “Vin Scully Appreciation Night,” and his final homestand after 67 years as the team’s announcer is being hailed as Vin Scully Weekend.
Scully said it was uncomfortable and embarrassing to have so much attention paid to his Hall of Fame broadcast career that ends when the Los Angeles Dodgers close the regular season Oct. 2.
“I attribute it to one thing and one thing only: God’s grace to allow me to be doing this for 67 years,” Scully, 88, said in a conference call with news reporters Monday. “To me, that’s really the story, not really me. I’m just a vessel that was passed hand to hand down through all through those years. I don’t take it to heart as some great compliment. I just realize since I’ve been doing this for 67 years, that’s really why everybody wants to talk about it.
“I think I kept it in proper perspective, even though it is a little embarrassing, to be honest. ... I never wanted to get out in front of the game. I mean, gee whiz, it’s the Dodgers and Giants tonight. I don’t want people to think, ‘ This is Vin’s last whatever.’ I just want them to enjoy the Giants and Dodgers.”
Scully said though the Dodgers appear primed for a playoff berth, that won’t change his plans to call his last game as L. A. faces the San Francisco Giants at AT& T Park on the first Sunday of October.
“I didn’t want to say goodbye like they do in grand opera,” Scully said. “They say goodbye 25 times in 15 minutes. ... We will tie the ribbon on the package in San Francisco, and that will be that.”
Scully has called all six Dodgers World Series titles, with five coming after the team moved to Los Angeles before the 1958 season. Scully said the move from New York was worrisome for himself and then- broadcast partner Jerry Doggett.
“There was considerable pressure on ( then- owner Walter) O’Malley because there were people in Southern California who wanted him to employ the announcers out here, and I’m sure for good reason,” Scully said. “Mr. O’Malley, the way he was, prided loyalty, and Jerry and I were extremely loyal to him. We would have done anything he wanted. There was a tremendous relief, ‘ Wow. At least I got the job.’ ”
Scully’s broadcast career encompassed more than Dodgers games. Along with broadcasting MLB postseason games nationally for the networks, he called the Masters and had a stint as an NFL play- by- play voice for CBS.
“I had been doing baseball so long I thought I could fall into a trap by doing it by rote,” Scully said. “I thought I could use a challenge. I was offered the opportunity to call ( the NFL) and golf. That gave me the ability to work hard at other sports. I used the NFL to wake me up, and I was provided with some wonderful analysts, like Hank Stram.”
His last NFL game was the 1981 NFC title game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. Pat Summerall had been tapped to call games alongside ex- Oakland Raiders coach John Madden, a job Scully was finalist for. Certainly, he would have had other opportunities to call the NFL had he pursued them, but he was at peace sticking to baseball.
“I remember doing that game known for ‘ The Catch’ by Dwight Clark in the end zone,” he said. “That game emotionally wore on me, and I remember getting on the plane thinking, ‘ I hope I didn’t make any mistakes.’ I was done. ... That was a great game to call for the final football game of my career. It had served its purpose. It reinvigorated me.”
Scully has seen the sports media landscape evolve to an a era of 24- hour sports cable networks and the Internet, but he pointed to one advance that had as big of an impact: transistor radios that fans toted to L. A. Coliseum, which wasn’t conducive to baseball because the action was far away in the stadium where the Dodgers played after the move. As for TV, he prefers radio. “Take the perfect game by Sandy Koufax that I did on radio,” Scully said of the 1965 gem against the Chicago Cubs that wasn’t televised. “By doing it on radio, I was describing him running his fingers through his hair, drying his hand on the front of his pants leg, heaving a big sigh. I was describing it in complete detail to add to the drama. Then let’s take Clayton Kershaw’s nohitter two years ago. That was done on television. All I could do was say, ‘ Well, he’s done it.’
“When you come into the radio booth there is a blank canvas, and for about three hours you’re trying to paint whatever you’re looking at. On television, the picture is already there. You’re just adding a few comments beneath the picture.”