After the close of the 2010 maj0r-league baseball season, it appears that a living legend will finally hang up the microphone after more than 60 years. Summers in Southern California will never be quite the same.
Reported Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune noted that Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully gave himself a little wriggle room if he changed his mind:
Nothing is guaranteed, as Scully himself wryly noted in an oft-repeated line from a 1991 Dodgers-Cubs broadcast. “Andre Dawson has a bruised knee and is listed as day-to-day,” he said, pausing before adding, “Aren’t we all?”
Rosenthal noted that although Scully was an impeccable play-by-play man and entertaining storyteller, he also was reserved, especially when it was the most appropriate:
Part of Scully’s longevity is probably is in the way he carries himself. Everything about him is precise, from the part in his hair to his language. He is conversational and not given to shouting, which has to wear better over time — on him, and perhaps his audience as well.
Scully also adheres to a maxim of the late Rep. Tip O’Neill: Speak only if it improves the silence.
Scully is so belovedthat fans have long been known to take portable radios with them to Dodger games. Sure, fans could see the action on the field. But to hear Scully’s voice also describing the action was apparently an even bigger treat.
Here’s Scully’s ninth-inning call of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965:
Having listened to longtime St. Louis announcer Jack Buck provide details of Cardinals games on KMOX radio for many years before his death in 2002, I understand all too well what Dodger fans eventually will lose. Those in the L.A. area who are traveling the paths of Route 66 — including the Arroyo Seco Parkway right next to Dodger Stadium — ought to listen even more attentively to their car radios and savor Scully’s voice during the days of summer.