Funeral for a friend
Scully, left, with an occasional sidekick on national games, Joe Garagiola.
Vin Scully has left this world at age 94. He was without a doubt the greatest baseball broadcaster that ever lived. When he was calling the game, it almost didn't matter who was playing. Always well-informed, never at a loss for a compelling story, he always had at heart the best interests of both the game and the listener. Sometimes even the country, the world.
More often than not, he was downright eloquent. Sportswriters sit at their keyboards for hours trying in vain to come up with gems as good as those that would just pop into Scully's head and out of his golden throat.
It felt like you were listening to a friend, someone you knew well yet had never met. Some of us related to him especially strongly. Like Anthony Fauci, like me, he studied languages and other subjects at a Jesuit boys' high school a stone's throw from the heart of New York. That stuff can take you places.
Scully retired at the end of baseball season six years ago. Many tributes were paid to him throughout his final months on the air for his beloved Dodgers; he called their games for 67 years, going back to their Brooklyn era. Scully received the many accolades warmly, with grace and class. I hope his retirement years were happy ones. He deserved it. We who heard him will be forever in his debt.
Very sad news Jack. Believe it or not I read about it here. I wasn’t lying when I said that I get most of my news updates from this site. In a day and age where most MLB announcers just throw out pointless stats continually, Mr Scully was a real pro who knew that sometimes less is more.
ReplyDeleteI dread the day that Bill Schonely goes to “The great half court in the sky.” I imagine that LA Dodgers fans are feeling that way about now.
One of the reasons baseball is dying is that nobody is half as good as Scully was in presenting it to people.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I could say more about that topic but now is not the right time. It is heartening that in a city that is supposed’ to be as phony and materialistic as LA is, that they took this man into their collective hearts.
ReplyDeleteIncredible as it is in such a crowded field, he is appreciated and acclaimed above all others, as he should be. It's also incredible that with such a refined example of how to do the job well, that no one seems to attempt to emulate him. I started trying to catch Dodger broadcasts as often as possible in his last four years, purely to listen to him. He was that good that I would even have watched golf, which he announced way back when, and golf is terrible.
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