March 28, 2024

Column: A salute to a legend

Ten more games. That’s all the sports world will get to enjoy the greatest broadcaster to ever grace us with his presence.

Vin Scully is set to retire on Oct. 2 after 67 years of broadcasting Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games.

And what a career it was.

He has had many iconic moments on the microphone. He has called 19 no-hitters and three perfect games. Two of the greatest left-handed pitchers of all-time were both Dodgers and they pitched at the beginning (Sandy Koufax) and the end (Clayton Kershaw) of his career.

I am a sports radio and podcast junkie. I subscribe to a lot of different podcasts and try to catch several different sports talk radio shows whenever I get a chance.

Recently, Dan Patrick and Rich Eisen both had Scully on for interviews. He is masterful, humble and in awe of all the attention he’s getting.

Scully truly doesn’t believe he’s that big of a deal. We are all honored to have heard one of his calls. He is more honored that he was lucky enough to get put in the position he has owned for 67 years.

When he was on with Rich Eisen he was asked which one of his iconic calls was his favorite.

You can find his top five calls of all-time on youtube.com. It’s debatable which one is best, and it probably has a lot to do with what team or what sport you like or follow the most.

For me, as a live-long San Francisco 49ers fan, my favorite Scully call is the Joe Montana to Dwight Clark NFC title game touchdown pass play in 1982. Of course, my 3-year-old daughter is older than I was when that play happened, but I re-live moments like that from my teams often.

“The Catch” was a fantastic play in sports. Cowboy fans hate it. Niner fans love it. Scully makes it even better.

There are plenty of others. He was on the microphone when Kirk Gibson hit his legendary walk-off home run against the Oakland A’s in the 1988 World Series. “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened,” Scully shouted after at least 30 seconds of crowd noise. He was great at shutting up when it was time to shut up and let the crowd tell the story.

He also had the privilege to call the famous 1986 World Series that included the infamous Bill Buckner “between the legs” error that led the New York Mets past the Boston Red Sox.

Scully was present for a Koufax perfect game in 1965. My dad was just starting kindergarten that year.

Scully’s answer to which call was his favorite was Hank Aaron’s 715th home run in 1974. The impact of that homer by an African-American man at that time was pretty special to Scully, he said on the Eisen show.

Scully has been calling games since the 1950s. That was around the time color television was invented. He broadcasted over the sound waves of many transistor radios.

Scully doesn’t understand social media. He doesn’t care to either.

According to Scully, the best player he ever saw was Willie Mays. The most exciting player was Jackie Robinson.

He called games of players who are now managers. Mike Scioscia was on Gibson’s team the year he hit the walk-off homer in 1988. Scioscia is the current Los Angeles Angels manager.

Scully doesn’t take credit for anything he’s accomplished. He sees it as just him being lucky to be on the radio on that particular day.

All of the attention he’s getting as his career winds down is uncomfortable for Scully. To him, he’s just a man who grew up listening to football games under his bed on his old-school radio while eating saltines.

“Hearing the roar of the crowd absolutely intoxicated me (when I was a kid),” Scully said on the Dan Patrick Show.

No one has done it better. No one will ever do it better. In 10 days, we are truly losing a legend.

Contact Troy Hyde
at thyde@newtondailynews.com