He did the game in the cold not once mentioning his obvious discomfort. Not knowing the location of his broadcast booth, Scully left his coat and gloves at the hotel. Scully did the broadcast from the stadium roof on a very cold day. He was given the task of covering a football game between Boston College and Maryland, which was being played at Fenway Park in Boston. C., responded by hiring him as a fill-in.Ī story about one of his first assignments says a lot about the man. Only CBS Radio affiliate WTOP in Washington, D. There, according to Wikipedia, he helped found its FM radio station (WFUV), was assistant sports editor for the Fordham Ram (yearbook), sang in a barbershop quartet, played centerfield for the baseball team, called radio broadcasts for Fordham baseball, football and basketball, earned a degree and sent 150 letters to stations all along the Eastern seaboard. He got his start as a student journalist at Fordham University. “I mean, how much longer can you go on fooling people? So, yeah, I would be saying ‘Dear God’, if you give me next year, I will hang it up.’” Scully was a Dodgers announcer from 1950 to 2016, 67 seasons. He announced before the season that 2016 would be his last. ![]() ![]() I have heard that he retired somewhat reluctantly, but he did acknowledge that his strength was not up to working a full season. That’s a ripe old age, but what’s amazing is that he retired only six years ago, when he was 88. That got to be increasingly true the older I got and the more I enjoyed listening to the man. Once I settled down and accepted how he broadcast a game, I reveled in the differences. That is just a very small thing, but it helps one understand that Vin Scully prided himself on being able to describe a game differently than others. “That is foul ‘territory’ not foul ground.” That was my thinking because every other announcer I had ever heard used the word ‘territory’ when referring to the area beyond the boundaries. “He said that wrong,” I thought to myself. The first time I heard Scully work, he said “The ball is carrying into foul ground.” I remember doing a doubletake. He was smooth, and had a different way of describing action on the baseball field. Al Helfer, longtime Mutual Game of the Day announcer Merle Harmon, who was one of the first Kansas City Athletics’ announcers Mel Allen, who almost always was the voice of the World Series Waite Hoyt, the voice of the Cincinnati Reds whose games often boomed into North Central Kansas at night over radio station WLW and of course, Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese, television voices on CBS Game of the Week, were among my favorites.īut I have to agree with those who know more than I, Vin Scully was head and shoulders above the rest. ![]() But there were others important to my life as a baseball fan. The top of my list has almost always been Jack Buck, longtime St. Over the years, I have formed my own preferences for play-by-play guys. I didn’t have the opportunity, as some of my West Coast friends have, to hear him on a regular basis. I haven’t looked, but I would guess that every list of best in Scully’s profession would have him as No. The latest is baseball play-byplay announcer Vin Scully. It seems as if I have reverted back to that time as far too many icons in the sports world have passed on. Among my early tasks as a journalist was writing obituaries.
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