Vin Scully

            I have three apologies, nay, two observations and one apology, to make about the 2011 baseball season. 1. Congratulations to Clayton Kershaw, whom I knew was on the verge of great things, for a fantastic season. 2. Congratulations to Matt Kemp for anything I ever said or thought about him. He was absolutely terrific. No. 3. I wish to apologize for saying the Dodgers had no heart. I was wrong because one person definitely has heart. In fact, he is the heart of the Dodgers, and he celebrates his 84^th birthday Nov. 29. I speak of the greatest – not one of the greatest – the greatest sports announcer who has ever lived – Vincent Edward Scully.

 The announcement from Vin that he would be back to broadcast all home games and selected road games in 2012 was indeed the bright moment of 2011. .Scully, who started announcing Dodger games in 1950, is simply the best sports announcer ever. That includes play-by-play announcers, color analysts, sports talk guys or sports news commentators. Now  I realize this is no bombshell. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992. He was named the National Sportscaster of the Year three times and the California Sportscaster of the Year only 29 times. The National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association named him as the best sportscaster of all time in 2009.
            But what makes Scully so special?

           His personality. He is so likable that you just want to listen to him. He apparently is the same way in person as he is on the air. He doesn’t seem like just one of the family; he is family. .

           His voice. Talk about someone easy to listen to. His voice is soothing, unpretentious and undemanding but at the same time vibrant and full of life.

        His knowledge. Nobody knows the game better. He certainly could be a coach but wouldn’t be paid as much. Every little nuance enlightens and entertainers the listener.

         His stories. Nobody tells stories better than Scully, and nobody could possibly have more. Every inning of every game he has something funny, dramatic or human to tell.

          His fairness. Vin never was a homer. His fairness is legendary. He calls the game they way he sees it, and always lets the listener know where the home and the away players stand. He does not hesitate to reveal the faux pas by his own team.

           His use of language. Legendary could be the word. Here are some of his memorable descriptions:

         "Andre Dawson  has a bruised knee and is listed as day-to-day (pause). Aren't we all? On the Air radio broadcast, 1991.
        “He Bob (Gibson) pitches as though he’s double parked, Baseball Digest, 1972.

        “It's a mere moment in a man's life between the All-Star Game and an old timer's game. On the air broadcast, 1980.
      "Let’s all take a deep breath as we go to the most dramatic ninth inning in the history of baseball. I’m going to sit back, light up, and hope I don’t chew the cigarette to pieces." Don Larsen’s perfect game, 1956 World Series. 

         “The Dodgers are such a .500 team that if there was a way to split a three-game series, they'd find it. On radio, 1990.

          "When he(Maury Wills) runs, it's all downhill." 1962 on the air.

         “Statistic are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost for support, not illumination.” Unknown.

            As long as you live, keep smiling because it brightens everybody’s day. Unknown.

            Nobody tells stories like he does. This is from ESPN ARCADE.COM.
           “When Adam Dunn steps in against Derek Lowe, he isn't just a hitter with 28 home runs and 104 strikeouts. He's also a kid from Porter, Texas, where there are streets named Dunn because every house on the block belongs to one of his relatives. And Ramon Ortiz isn't just a diminutive pitcher from the Dominican who's had an up-and-down ride in the bigs; he's also a man whose first glove was a folded-over piece of cardboard and whose mother stitched together his baseball pants out of old dresses….
              “ Every Scully call is full of welcoming gestures (‘Hi again everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be’), signature turns of-phrase (a seeing-eye grounder is ‘a modest thing but thine own’; a pitcher waiting in the bullpen conjures the Milton line ‘They also serve who only stand and wait’), newly minted flourishes (‘Swing and a miss and down goes Griffey, glistening credentials and all’) and a singular, easy-like-Sunday morning pace.
           “One night in July, he set a Dodger Stadium scene during the fourth inning of a Reds-Dodgers game that came on the heels of a heat wave back in Cincy: ‘A beautiful sunset coming now. And there's a light breeze rippling the flags. Seventy three degrees at the start of the game, and a nice crowd on hand on a lovely summer's evening. Earlier we were talking about playing in the heat, back in the days before air-conditioning. They say the old-time ballplayers would sometimes go back to the hotel at night and take water and pour it all over the bed and then sleep on a wet mattress. And I remember one time in Milwaukee when it was really hot. The Dodgers stayed at the Schroeder Hotel in those days, and everyone slept with the doors open, and a lot of guys, I remember, actually slept on the floor, with their pillows and heads in the doorway, just hoping to catch a bit of air coming down the hallway.’”

       That’s  Vin-tage Scully  - our national institution.

       Don Lechman is a former reporter, arts critic and editor for the Daily Breeze. He te4aches writing at Harbor College in Wilmington.