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If you are an LA dodger fan, then you must be familiar with the voice of Vin Scully running the commentary during any LA dodgers game.
Born in 1927 to Irish immigrants, he already knew what he wanted to do with his life at an early age. According to him “I was about 8yrs old and we had a radio on four legs with crossed bars between the legs. I would come home to listen to a . . . game . . . and I would get a pillow and I could crawl under the radio, so the loudspeaker and the roar of the crowd would wash over me, and I would just get goose bumps like you can't believe. And I knew of all the things in this world that I wanted, I wanted to be the fella saying, whatever, home run, or touchdown. It just really got to me.”
Because of his love for sports, he eventually started playing baseball with the Fordham Prep baseball team. As a result of his enthusiasm for the game and his skill as a baseball player, he got into Fordham University on a partial baseball scholarship. Not long after, he had to go join the Navy and served for year before he got back to school and graduated in 1949.
Some of the activities he took part in at school include singing in a barbershop quartet, working as a reporter at the New York Times, took up a gig at a local radio station and wrote articles for the college magazine.
On graduating, his first employment was with WTOP, the CBS affiliate in Washington. While he was here, he met Red Barber who took an interest in Vin and allowed him “pinch hit” for a college game.
With this, he started his career as a sports announcer and excelled tremendously at it. In 1950, Vin joined the Brooklyn Dodgers’ radio and TV stations and has not look back since then. Up till the time of this writing, no other announcer has matched Vin’s record as an announcer for that long.
Because he started out early, he has been able to call twenty eight world series and was twenty five when he did the first call. So far, these records have not been beaten by any other sports announcer. Of the twenty eight, he has called fourteen national league pennants the 6 World Championship series that the los Angeles dodgers have won so far.
His life is even more inspiring considering that in spite of the fact that he lost his 35-year old wife in 1972, and lost his eldest son in a helicopter crash, he still keeps going on with work. According to Scully, what keeps him going is his work and his faith.
He likes working alone and always calls the first 3 innings all los Angeles dodger game all by himself. Those who have wondered why he does this have an answer in his colleague’s –Charley Steiner- reply “because poets don't need straight men”.
Vin Scully has won so many awards including Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, Ford Frick Award, Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award and the biggest of all, Broadcaster of the Century award. Fans hope they will continue to listen to his baritone voice at upcoming Los Angeles dodgers games.
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