RIP Vin Scully

[HawkeyeJet]

The term goat is thrown around too much in today’s  world, but he truly is the greatest sports broadcaster in history.  A true icon. As a Dodger fan in the middle of Iowa and I stayed up until 1am local listening Vin call games dang near every night for a decade until he retired.  I did not realize until reading tributes this morning he also did pro football games back in the day.  By all accounts one of the nicest human beings you could ask to meet.  
 

 

[Jet_Engine1]

A true pro and class act.

[Bungaman]

RIP. One thing I remember is that he would announce a game and you almost didn't notice - because he just smoothed the game out, rather than make it about himself. 

[GKnight83]

I loved listening to his radio broadcasts. 

Then seeing him on TV on Saturday when the Dodgers were on the game of the week was awesome too.

You did not need to be at the game to understand what was going on. 

The man had a way with words and a delivery that everyone loved.

RIP Vince.  You were a class act.

[TuscanyTile2]

The GOAT.  And nobody will ever even get near his level of excellence.  And he seemed like a total class act too.

RIP Vin

[IndianaJet]

As a kid I was spoiled.

I got to watch Phil Rizzuto and Bill White calling Yankees games on WPIX and then on Saturday afternoons I got to watch the NBC game of the week called by Scully and Garagiola.

 

 

[Gastineau Lives]

Little roller up along first...BEHIND THE BAG IT GETS THROUGH BUCKNER HERE COMES KNIGHT AND THE METS WIN IT

[playtowinthegame]

12 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

The GOAT.  And nobody will ever even get near his level of excellence.  And he seemed like a total class act too.

RIP Vin

Vin Scully and the late Keith Jackson were those golden voices. They made the games more enjoyable to watch. 

[65 Toss Power Trap]

A complete gentleman. People gravitated towards him. 

[peekskill68]

That call on the Gibson HR...  RIP

[peebag]

I'm old enough to remember him calling NFL games for CBS - he was the play by play for "The Catch" game in 1981

https://youtu.be/pcflzu8bKc0?t=19

[Warfish]

RIP

[HawkeyeJet]

15 minutes ago, Gastineau Lives said:

Little roller up along first...BEHIND THE BAG IT GETS THROUGH BUCKNER HERE COMES KNIGHT AND THE METS WIN IT

I was probably 3 or 4 years old at that time, obviously too young to actually have memory of it, but I can hear the call in my head as you type it.  It’s that iconic of a call that I know it by heart even though I’m too young to remember it happening live .  Awesome stuff.

[Gastineau Lives]

21 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

I was probably 3 or 4 years old at that time, obviously too young to actually have memory of it, but I can hear the call in my head as you type it.  It’s that iconic of a call that I know it by heart even though I’m too young to remember it happening live .  Awesome stuff.

It's the highlight of my sports fandom. They came back in game 7 too but that was almost anti climax.

[chirorob]

1 hour ago, Bungaman said:

RIP. One thing I remember is that he would announce a game and you almost didn't notice - because he just smoothed the game out, rather than make it about himself. 

He did such an amazing job of letting the game tell the story, and just adding to it, rather than taking over.

[TuscanyTile2]

42 minutes ago, Gastineau Lives said:

Little roller up along first...BEHIND THE BAG IT GETS THROUGH BUCKNER HERE COMES KNIGHT AND THE METS WIN IT

"If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words, but more than that, you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series." - Vin Scully, describing the aftermath of the play after a long silence. One strike from defeat, the Mets tie the game on a wild pitch and then, thanks to Bill Buckner's error, win Game 6, knotting the Fall Classic

[TuscanyTile2]

2 minutes ago, chirorob said:

He did such an amazing job of letting the game tell the story, and just adding to it, rather than taking over.

Today's broadcasters really need to take a lesson from that.  It's amazing how far the profession has fallen.  Today these idiots never shut up.

[TheNuuFaaolaExperience]

If someone asked me who was the voice of baseball, the answer would naturally be Vin Scully. I wouldn't even have to think about the answer. 

[Biggs]

Hate the Dodgers.  Hope Scully's Dodger hell is calling Yankee wins in game 7 for eternity.

RIP

[chirorob]

48 minutes ago, peekskill68 said:

That call on the Gibson HR...  RIP

Sitting at the dining room table at my Dad's house, eating pizza when that happened.

What a great moment.  Plus, I hated the A's

[FootballLove]

Heard on TV he was the youngest announcer of a World Series game (25). Still a record. Must of been a true 'natural'.

[peekskill68]

26 minutes ago, FootballLove said:

Heard on TV he was the youngest announcer of a World Series game (25). Still a record. Must of been a true 'natural'.

The guy was calling BROOKLYN Dodger games.  They left for LA 65 years ago...

[Saul Goodman]

Grew up in Pasadena listening to Vin call games in the early 80’s and for many years after. What an amazing life he lived. Rest easy, Vin. 
 

Edit: to share a more personal story, my brother and I would hide in the closet and turn up the radio while my parents would be fighting. He definitely provided a respite from some tough times for two little dudes. 

[Jets1958]

A gentleman and a true professional. And his way with words - wow. Started announcing Brooklyn Dodger games in 1953. - that's 69 years ago!

I could listen to him tell stories forever. RIP Vin.

Below: 1953 World Series - his first and was paid $200.

[TuscanyTile2]

Apparently this was the last NFL game he ever called.

[Jetsfan80]

"A black man [Hank Aaron] is receiving a standing ovation in the deep south for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol.  What a marvelous moment for baseball."

-- Vin Scully (April 8, 1974)

[Jets1958]

7 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

Apparently this was the last NFL game he ever called.

Wow - "the catch". What a way to go out. I like how he just let the crowd roar for 20 seconds then said... "it's a madhouse in Candlestick. Dwight Clark is 6'4" but he stands 10 feet tall in this crowd's estimation."

[faba]

A legend RIP

[munchmemory]

2 hours ago, Jets1958 said:

A gentleman and a true professional. And his way with words - wow. Started announcing Brooklyn Dodger games in 1953. - that's 69 years ago!

I could listen to him tell stories forever. RIP Vin.

Below: 1953 World Series - his first and was paid $200.

What a great shot.  And true to those days, a carton of Lucky Strikes in the foreground.  Classic.

RIP, Vin Scully.  

[doitny]

best call ever! R.I.P

 

[redlichtie]

What an absolute legend of a commentator, one of the few who’s voice was as familiar across the Atlantic to many as it was Stateside. I remember the Mets/Redsox series like it was yesterday, it’s what got me into baseball as a kid.

The genius of Scully was that he understood that silence is sometimes way more articulate than any words he could say. As a primarily radio commentator he understood the power of Television was in the images. Any TV cameraman or director will tell you, let the pictures tell the story and Vin Scully just knew when to let the shots ‘breathe’

A few years ago the Guardian newspaper ran a feature on all time great commentaries and commentators, obviously it was mainly for a UK audience but Scully made it in there and the analysis of his Kirk Gibson home run moment is about as classic an example of a truly great commentator understanding the power of the moment and instead of getting In the way of it, he steps aside to allow the viewer in to the bedlam on screen before finally delivering his perfectly judged analysis….it’s magnificent, the sheer bravery and intelligence of the man in that moment….68 seconds of nothing….genius

RIP Vin Scully

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/jan/09/the-joy-of-six-great-moments-in-sport-commentary

2) Vin Scully, LA Dodgers v Oakland Athletics, 1988 World Series, Game One

If Benaud is the voice of cricket, an avuncular and comforting presence that anyone with any passing interest in the game can’t remember a time without, then his baseball equivalent is Vin Scully. Scully has been attached to the Los Angeles Dodgers since 1950, and is such an institution that in 1976 he was voted as the ‘most memorable personality’ in Dodgers history, which is remarkable enough for a ‘mere’ broadcaster, but for someone associated with a club that had seen greats of the game such as Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, it’s astonishing.

Part of his appeal is that Scully hits that rare sweet spot between being relaxed and relatively uncontroversial but by no means boring, but it’s also his voice. Even now, aged 87, the sounds are soothing, laid-back, perfect for an afternoon or evening at a sporting event that will take around three hours to unfold in front of you. Writing on Salon.com back in 1999, Gary Kaufman said of the voice: “Vin Scully has the most musical voice in baseball … Although his timbre is thin, everything is smooth and rounded. The words slide into each other. He has flow. The melody rises and falls on the tide of the game. You can almost hum along to Vin Scully.”

Scully’s masterpiece is often said to be his call of Koufax’s perfect game in 1965, in which he spoke with such a perfect mixture of functional description and elegiac imagery that, reading it written down, you’d assume that it was an essay that took hours, days to write (particularly when he said the home fans were “starting to see pitches with their hearts” as umpiring calls went against Koufax), but it was all off the top of his head. It’s an astonishing piece of writing, never mind talking.

Yet it was his description of another great moment in Dodgers history that makes this list. Kirk Gibson had been the Dodgers’ star player through the 1988 season, but when the World Series against the Oakland Athletics came around he was in a bad way, left hamstring and right knee injuries and a stomach virus meaning he didn’t start game one, and furthermore looked unlikely to take any part in it. However, halfway through the game Gibson told the manager Tommy Lasorda that he “had one good swing in him” and was available as a pinch-hitter, so when the game reached the ninth inning with Oakland 4-3 in the lead, he hobbled to the plate, barely able to walk.

“Look who’s comin’ up!” exclaimed Scully, noting that throughout his long at-bat Gibson shook his leg, “making it quiver, like a horse trying to get rid of a troublesome fly.” Then, when Gibson finally summoned what strength was left in his ailing body and threw his bat at the ball, muscling the ball into the air …

“High fly ball into right field,” yelled Scully, the sound of a man trying to maintain his cool, almost losing it but then bringing it back under control. “SHE I-I-IS … GONE!” as the ball disappeared over the fence for the game-winning home run.

And here’s the art of great commentary, of someone who knows the game: Scully said absolutely nothing for the next 68 seconds. He understood, as Benaud did and does, that there was little he could add to this utterly extraordinary moment. He let the viewers watch 56,000 people in Dodger Stadium lose themselves, the portly Lasorda relinquish control of his limbs and just about run, astonished and flailing, to celebrate at home plate, and Gibson himself hobble around the bases, pumping his fist, eventually into the throng of his celebrating team-mates, desperately trying to stop them manhandle his disintegrating body too much.

“In a year that has been so improbable,” Scully eventually said, “The impossible has happened.” And as the replay showed the reaction of Dennis Eckersley, the star closing pitcher for the Athletics who delivered the fateful pitch: “And look at Eckersley – shocked to his toes!”

It’s often more about the notes you don’t play as the ones you do.

[Bugg]

Don't speak ill of the dead.

Recall druing the 1986 World Series he kept calling Bill Buckner "Billy Bucks" to the point people were throwing empties at their TVs . He had a pleasant voice and...yeah, that's about it. Also insisted on calling Dodgers games by himself. Reason he was able to weave so much florid dreck into his calls was because baseball is boing. NOTHING HAPPENS. And since the game has become so awful, no surprise that MLB is acting like a pope or president has died.  

Crazy; the enitre country watched the World Series rather than just the fans of the teams playing. MLB doesn't appear to know why. 

 

 

[Dunnie]

Legend storyteller ... was never bigger than the moment he was calling ... a truly rare trait these days ... Closest the NFL ever had ... probably Al Michaels. And not close.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[Jetsfan80]

22 hours ago, Gastineau Lives said:

It's the highlight of my sports fandom. They came back in game 7 too but that was almost anti climax.

I love that in Game 6, the mentality of each Mets hitter with 2 outs in that 9th inning was "I'm not going to be the one to make the last f**king out in this series", and that mentality was an enormous reason why they were able to come back.

[Jetsfan80]

13 minutes ago, Bugg said:

Don't speak ill of the dead.

Recall druing the 1986 World Series he kept calling Bill Buckner "Billy Bucks" to the point people were throwing empties at their TVs . He had a pleasant voice and...yeah, that's about it. Also insisted on calling Dodgers games by himself. Reason he was able to weave so much florid dreck into his calls was because baseball is boing. NOTHING HAPPENS. And since the game has become so awful, no surprise that MLB is acting like a pope or president has died.  

Crazy; the enitre country watched the World Series rather than just the fans of the teams playing. MLB doesn't appear to know why. 

No one wants to read the "baseball sux and is boring" tripe in this thread.   Pick another one please.