What I learned from Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully
For over 67 seasons, legendary Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully has regaled fans with amusing anecdotes while calling baseball games. It’s not simply the way Scully tells those stories, it’s the various topics he covers. One day, he’ll decide to tell you about what is like to watch Jackie Robinson run the bases. The next, he’ll teach you the meaning behind Friday the 13th.
When we first came up with the idea of “Vin Scully Day” at Yahoo Sports, it became obvious that passing along our favorite Vin Scully clips would make for a fun idea. Considering the wide range of options, we were sure to get some excellent contributions.
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But as we reached out to other writers, that idea shifted to something slightly different. People were more than happy to share specific clips of Scully, but many had stories that expanded beyond his broadcasting career. Some of the people we reached out to had personal interactions with Scully they wanted to share. One found a newspaper column written by Scully in 1958.
As you might expect, all of them were entertaining enough to share.
If anything, the stories below confirm that Scully’s contributions to the game expand far beyond his role as a broadcaster. Calling Vin Scully a legendary broadcaster doesn’t do justice to his legacy. Vin Scully is a legendary baseball icon, on par with the greats who have played the game, changed the game and governed the game. We’re going to miss him so much when he’s gone.
CEE ANGI, THE ATHLETIC
Vin Scully has taught me about life lessons, baseball, musicals, and history. There have been many great history lessons from him (baseball and non-baseball related), but there have been a few that have stuck with me, particularly the history of the Star Spangled Banner, deep thoughts on D-Day, and even a fairly comprehensive history on fish and rays during a game against, predictably, the Tampa Bay Rays.
But one of my absolute favorite history lessons came earlier this season when the Los Angeles Dodgers played the San Diego Padres on the history of beards. Vin noted that he noticed more and more beards on the faces of players around the majors and wanted to inform his reader on the history of beards. Mind you, it wasn’t research on baseball and the history of beards, but on the history of facial hair in general, dating back to Biblical times.
There were some gems in the discussion: That ladies like them, that beards were first seen as ways to frighten off adversaries and wild animals, and some contextual conversation on beards relating to Alexander the Great (who believed he was too handsome to cover his face with facial hair), that beards were a Divine mandate in the Bible, and that a female pharaoh of Egypt, Hatsheput wore a fake beard to convince people that she was a man.
It was a bit of a silly topic, but one that stuck with me, as not only was it a subject matter that the listener might not have known about, but that he is seamlessly calling an inning with two outs in the middle of it all.
SAM MILLER, ESPN
In 1958, right after the Dodgers (and Vin Scully) moved to Los Angeles, Scully filled in for a vacationing L.A. Times columnist by writing a piece about how nervous he was. Along the way, he talked about a man who’d had an influence on his life:
“He was the headmaster at Fordham Preparatory School. A tall, well-groomed priest with a polished air of refinement, a tremendous faculty for understanding and a lifetime pledge to a vow of poverty. He had devoted his life to the schooling and upbringing of other people’s children and he interested me in dramatics, debating and oratory. I represented the school in an oratorical contest and he was rather upset when I didn’t have black shoes to go with a navy blue suit. The day of the contest he summoned me to his office and in front of his desk on the floor there were 13 pairs of black shoes. He had borrowed them from every priest in the school and I had to try them all on until I found a pair that fit. He taught me to be myself at all times, to be honest and not to fear mistakes. He made me believe in myself.”
It’s easy to read Scully’s tribute to his former headmaster and toss it on the pile with all the other tributes to teachers you’ve ever read—who doesn’t say nice things about teachers, after all? Writing a nice thing about a teacher is as reflexive as saying thank you when you’re trick-or-treating, the sort of easy trained behavior that we all pretty much do without trying. But Vin gets to something so much more personal in just a few sentences—in just one sentence—indeed, in just one clause: “He had devoted his life to the schooling and upbringing of other people’s children.” There’s a whole novel about this headmaster in that clause, a chapter each on unpacking what we mean by “Devoted,” to unpacking “Life,” to what we mean by “Schooling and Upbringing,” and, of course, “Other people’s children.” You are convinced by that one clause that Vin Scully didn’t ever stop thinking about this headmaster, and that he didn’t ever stop thinking about other people.
What I learned from Vin Scully, and from his titanic success as a broadcaster: The world really does need good people. The media business might have a bias toward conflict, but we personally have a bias toward dignified people who have an orientation toward love. If there’s a comp for Vin Scully, it’s Fred Rogers, another person who so stood for love and dignity that he made you feel loved and dignified. Mr. Rogers never met you, but he convinced you that if he did he would love you and care deeply about you as an individual. Vin Scully is the same. From afar, he makes us believe in ourselves.
CRAIG GOLDSTEIN, BASEBALL PROSPECTUS
I was raised a Dodgers fan and thus have been listening to Vin most of my life — or at least since the advent of MLB.TV. This means I’ve heard most of his stories (several times) and it becomes harder to separate things I’ve known forever versus things I’ve known forever that I’ve also learned from Vin. In this vein, I’m sure I had heard him talk about the Sword of Damocles many times before — in fact, as a lover of Greek mythology, I’m sure I’d heard it elsewhere too — but this particular instance has always stuck with me. It involves former perennial dark-horse Cy Young contender Chad Billingsley, who had been working his way back from injury and former Padres journeyman Eric Stults. Billingsley is on the mound, Stults at the plate, when Scully begins to unfurl the story of Damocles.
Click here to read a transcript of Scully reciting the tale.
This is Vin at his best, in my eyes. Telling a story, fictional or historical, that applies to the situation at hand. Nothing about Damocles (or many of the yarns he spins) is inherently related to baseball, but he fleshes out details of a player’s story, emotion, or otherwise. His usage of the Sword of Damocles in this situation is a window into the pressures and anxiety shouldered by pitchers whose very careers hang by a similarly thin thread (or ligament). I know with Vin retiring the one-man booth is likely gone for good, and there’s good reason — it’s a really hard thing to pull off. One of the benefits though, is that it forces the broadcaster to talk to the audience rather than to another person, something Scully has excelled at, and something that continually reinforces his connection to his audience. He speaks to us. We are not merely passive listeners of a conversation being had by two (or three) knowledgeable people, but rather we are engaged in that conversation.
There are plenty of good broadcasts that are still around, but few of them are able to weave in off-topic threads as capably and as comfortably as Scully, which means the days of learning about Greek mythology during a baseball broadcast number in the precious few.
MARK TOWNSEND, BIG LEAGUE STEW
We all know what happened on Dec. 7, 1941. Honestly though, it’s not a subject I ever broached with my grandparents — all of whom are now gone — so it was a history lesson for me when Scully recently recounted the attack on Pearl Harbor through his eyes.
This wasn’t one of Scully’s typically upbeat anecdotes. This was a personal account of a life-changing day in our world’s history. The Vin Scully we’ve seen, heard and grown to love is always sturdy and always sharp. On that day, and in those moments, he let us in a little deeper while putting the impact that day had on his life and the importance of sports into perspective. That’s the magic of Vin Scully.
MIKE FERRIN, ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS PRE & POSTGAME HOST
Vin Scully taught me a very important lesson: Be Yourself.
At SiriusXM, we’ve been working on a career retrospective on Vin, that’ll run right after the season ends. His long time broadcast partner, Ross Porter, recently confirmed a story I’d heard long ago. The Dodgers, going back to Red Barber, had always been a single announcer broadcast. So, even though Vin would work with Jerry Doggett, Don Drysdale and Porter, they’d always work “one at a time”. When Vin’s innings off would come up, he wouldn’t sit in the broadcast booth. The reason behind it was that Vin didn’t want to pick up the mannerisms of the other broadcasters.
See, Vin realized that what made him unique was, well, him. His interest in drama, and history and storytelling. Those are the things that made Vin Scully unique. It’s understandable when you’re on a career path, that you would mimic the things your heroes do. But, and I realize this is some schmaltzy, Mr. Rogers level analysis, but, you can only be who you are. That’s a pretty important lesson, in any industry. Your strengths will make you successful, trying to be someone else will limit who you can be.
Even though I’ve only met him once in passing, and have never talked about this with him. I’m forever grateful to Vin for that lesson.
CHRIS CWIK, BIG LEAGUE STEW
With Vin Scully, there are just so many different clips to choose and stories to tell. Among all of them, one sticks out above the rest for me. I’ll never forget when Scully recounted the time he raced Jackie Robinson on ice skates.
It’s not so much what the story says about Robinson that sticks with me, it’s the fact that Scully saw Robinson play, and knew the man on a personal level. Every baseball fan knows Robinson’s story. He remains one of the game’s greatest players, but also one of the game’s most transcendent ones. He’s an inspiration to so many people.
I never saw Jackie Robinson play. In fact, he died many years before I was even born. But Vin Scully did see him play, and he knew him well. Because of Vin Scully, I know what Robinson was like. I have some knowledge of how he approached life, and got a peak at his competitive nature.
Robinson is far from the only baseball legend Scully saw. He’s a walking, talking encyclopedia of baseball knowledge. Through him, younger fans are able to get a true look at what the game and its stars were like long before they were born. I’ll miss those history lessons.
ISRAEL FEHR, BIG LEAGUE STEW
What makes Vin Scully so incredible as a broadcaster is his ability to make anything interesting and paint a vivid picture of something completely random. I can’t exactly explain why this specific story sticks with me but it does. Roy Oswalt was pitching for a not-so-great Astros team against a fairly mediocre Dodgers team in the middle of August. In most cases there wouldn’t much to take from that game, but that’s never the case when Scully is on the call.
Oswalt took the mound for the bottom of the first inning and after a quick introduction of the right-hander’s season and career stats, Scully launched into a story about Oswalt’s impressive ranch. Haven’t you heard? It’s 1,000 acres right in the middle of Mississippi and you can hunt and fish there to your heart’s desire. As Oswalt fired eight innings of one-run ball, Scully continued to weave in details about Oswalt’s offseason home – a visiting player, no less – while expertly calling the game.
That’s the magic of Scully, at least for me. He brings the viewer even closer to the action with these kind of personal stories without sacrificing the nuts and bolts of the game. You leave the broadcast feeling like you know the players you’re watching a little bit better and it really does add a lot to the experience.
MOLLY KNIGHT, AUTHOR OF ‘THE BEST TEAM MONEY CAN BUY’
What did Vin teach me? Well, he’s the most important person in the Dodgers organization, the all-time absolute big dog MVP, and he still held the door for me in the press box whenever we crossed paths, which was often. That might not seem important, but how often do venerated icons hold doors for young nobodies? I learned more from watching the way Vin treated everyone who came into his orbit, from Sandy Koufax and Willie Mays to the Dodger cafeteria workers, the same. He is as classy as ever a human that lived.
MIKE OZ, BIG LEAGUE STEW
You’ve probably never, in your life, turned on a baseball game and thought to yourself, “Gee, I wish someone would explain to me the history of Friday the 13th while I watch this game.” But that, my friends, is the beauty of Vin Scully. He accentuates your baseball experience with things you never knew you wanted to know.
The Friday the 13th stories are my favorite. Best I can tell, he’s told them a few times, but I remember Sept. 13, 2013 against the Giants. Vin’s nearly four-minute dive into the how and why of Friday the 13th is really a great example of what makes him such a treasure. You learn things like: Tuesday the 13th is an unlucky day in Mexico. Or Friday the 17th is unlucky in Italy. And which celebrities died on Friday the 13th — including Tupac.
What makes all this even better is how Vin makes it happen between pitches, between the heartbeat of a baseball game. It’s something that not many people could pull off. More proof that we’ll never see another like Vin Scully.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
