Vin Scully: 1927-2022

It's been several days since the news broke on the death of legendary broadcaster Vin Scully at age 94. He was born Vincent Edward Scully on November 19, 1927 in the Bronx, New York. Now, unless you do not like the game of baseball or simply don't pay much attention to broadcasters, Vin Scully's voice was an iconic symbol of broadcasting...and he set a record for play-by-play baseball broadcasting with his 67 seasons with the Dodgers baseball team. The team was in Brooklyn, New York at the time of Vin's hiring in 1950. He moved West with the team when they settled in Los Angeles. He was a play-by-play broadcaster for the Dodgers from 1950 until his retirement in 2016, his 67th season. 

This is one of the later photos of Vin Scully taken at the ballpark. He worked with several broadcasters over his many decades. One of the longest lasting pairings happened to be with Jerry Doggett for 32 seasons (1956-1987) but there was also Ross Porter (1977-2004), Don Drysdale (1987-1993), and Rick Monday (1993 until Vin's retirement). The pairings weren't formatted as a bantering duo like the type of commentary you hear on sports broadcasts today...Vin called the baseball innings solo, split with whoever happened to be his on-air partner, and the on-air partner called his innings solo, too...there wasn't any conversation going on between Vin and whichever broadcaster was sharing the play-by-play duties. In other words Vin, Jerry Doggett, Ross Porter, or Rick Monday worked solo as broadcasters and didn't utilize a color commentator/analyst. I happen to live in the Midwest and so I wasn't born into a West Coast sports culture...and I didn't know of Vin Scully until I got older (around my middle teenage years). I grew up on the baseball broadcasting team of Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall with the Cincinnati Reds. I'd heard Marty talk about Vin Scully's talents a lot during Reds games and Marty often cited Vin Scully and Red Barber as major influences. Marty was play-by-play broadcaster for Cincinnati Reds games for 46 seasons (1974-2019).  

Vin's broadcasting career wasn't limited to Dodgers baseball, though. Even though he was part of the organization for 67 seasons he expanded his reach and stepped into national broadcasting in by the mid 1970s. Vin worked for CBS Sports from 1975 until 1982. In his assignments from CBS he was most often placed inside the broadcasting booth for NFL games...rather than Major League Baseball games. It's with CBS that Vin branched out into NFL play-by-play and he also had assignments covering PGA Tour Golf, the Masters Golf Tournament, and Tennis games. His Golf assignments had him broadcasting the Skins Game for NBC (1983-1989) and then for ABC (1991-1996) as well as the Senior Skins Game on ABC (1992-2000). Vin's on-air partner for PGA Tour golf at NBC (1983-1990) was Lee Trevino. Vin also did Golf broadcasts for TBS. 

Like Curt Gowdy and Dick Enberg, Vin was now becoming nationally known as a multi-sportscaster...going beyond the local radio and television markets that covered Dodgers baseball. However, Vin's NFL play-by-play career was short lived by comparison to his baseball broadcasting. Vin called his final NFL game in January 1982...it was the NFC Championship Game. In his NFL broadcasting career at CBS he was paired with a wide array of broadcast partners during his 7 years with the network. Some of them happened to be: Hank Stram, Alex Hawkins, Jim Brown, Paul Hornung, and a relative newcomer to the NFL booth, John Madden. 

While Vin did a lot of NFL games for CBS Television he wasn't completely kept out of baseball broadcasting. He did All-Star Game broadcasts for CBS Radio every year from 1977 until 1982. His on-air partner, according to research, was Brent Musburger. Vin also called the World Series games for CBS Radio, along side Sparky Anderson, from 1979 until 1982. 

Vin moved to NBC Sports beginning in 1983 and was hired to do the play-by-play of the network's Game of the Week. This nationally televised baseball game aired every Saturday on NBC stations. He was with NBC Sports until 1989. In that 6 year time period (1983-1989) he not only called the Game of the Week broadcasts but he also was the lead play-by-play broadcaster for NBC's World Series coverage (1984, 1986, and 1988); The NLCS (1983, 1985, 1987, and 1989); and the All-Star Game (1983, 1985, 1987, and 1989). His on-air partner for the national NBC baseball games was Joe Garagiola.  

A remarkable broadcasting feat arrived in June 1989 where Vin pulled off an unheard of accomplishment...calling a combined 23 innings of baseball in two different cities...in one day's time. He called a 10 inning game in St. Louis for the NBC Game of the Week...and later that day flew into Houston and ended up relieving the Dodgers broadcasters who themselves were beginning an extra inning game just as he chose to visit the Astrodome instead of going to his hotel room. That Dodgers game against the Astros went 22 innings...and Vin broadcast the final 13 innings...which gave him the unusual accomplishment of calling 23 innings of a baseball game in two different cities on the same day. Joe Buck, decades later, did something similar when he broadcast an NFL game for FOX in the afternoon and then went across town to do the national baseball Game of the Week for FOX that evening...however, Vin's accomplishment has much more awesome flavor to it because he flew from St. Louis after calling a 10 inning baseball game and arrived in Houston and called the final 13 innings of a 22 inning game.

Vin left the NBC baseball booth at the conclusion of the 1989 season and departed NBC Sports altogether in 1990. From 1990 until 1997, in addition to his Dodgers broadcasts, he'd returned to CBS Sports and called the World Series games for CBS radio until 1997. His broadcast partners were Johnny Bench (1990 through 1993) and Jeff Torborg (1995 through 1997). There wasn't a World Series in 1994 due to a player's strike. 

In 1982 Vin Scully was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. He won numerous broadcaster awards from local organizations all over California...including 33 awards as California Sportscaster of the Year.   

Vin Scully retired at the conclusion of the 2016 baseball season. His 67th season as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Dodgers. He kept an intentional low profile in retirement. He and fellow play-by-play broadcaster, Dick Enberg, both retired in 2016. The two iconic broadcasters had reached similar heights in their profession...each became noted as multi-sportscasters on a national level and each had long-held ties to Major League Baseball, particularly on the West Coast. Dick Enberg spent a decade as the voice of Major League Baseball's California Angels, the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, the UCLA Bruins...and then he become a national broadcaster known more for the NFL and College Basketball and College Football. After Dick Enberg retired from national broadcasting he remained the voice of the San Diego Padres baseball team (2010-2016). He and Vin Scully appeared together in October 2016. Dick Enberg had announced his retirement from broadcasting in 2016 followed soon after by Vin Scully's announcement of his own retirement. Dick Enberg would pass away on December 21, 2017...and Vin Scully passed away on August 2, 2022. 

In 2016, when Dick Enberg announced his upcoming retirement, Vin Scully taped this message...this shows you the kind of character and modest man Vin Scully happened to be...

Here is the footage of Vin Scully and Dick Enberg from October 2016 in the final weeks of their broadcasting careers. The two had made their retirement announcements public by this time.

Here is Rick Monday's announcement, during a Dodgers game, breaking the news of Vin Scully passing away...and I felt this would be a fitting video embed to close this overview of Vin Scully's broadcasting career...