SF Giants Tribute To Vin Scully

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://www.mlb.com/video/giants-honor-life-of-vin-scully

 

When the news of his death came the Dodgers were playing the Giants in San Francisco.  The Giants CEO went to the broadcast Booth and asked that they not mention it during the game so as not to upset the Dodgers.  He went to the Dodgers locker room after the game to tell them and give condolences.

I think every team had some sort of tribute to Mr. Scully in the past few days.  Shows how much respect there was for him.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

Class act. What more needs to be said.

JHC

[Subdeacon Joe]

Another one.

 

As a baseball-loving boy, my allegiance was completely with the Giants (and still is). I saw my first Giants game at Seals Stadium and listened raptly to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons call the games, which in those days were only broadcast on radio.

There were 9 games on TV a year in the '60s, all against the hated Dodgers in LA. I knew the Dodgers broadcast on a powerful station, KFI, and out of curiosity, tuned in one night when the signal came through to hear how their announcer called the game.

I was transported.

In the next few years, I would check the signal on my transistor radio many nights as I climbed into bed, hoping the signal would be clear enough to hear that voice tell wonderful stories, extemporaneously and effortlessly. It didn't seem to matter to me that I hated the team he worked for.

Even after I started my own broadcasting career at KSFO, occasionally writing for Russ and Lon (and feeling like a rookie ballplayer would feel to be on a team with Mays, McCovey, and Marichal), that voice - that VOICE - weaving those wonderful stories at the other end of the state, kept going through my mind. Look up "dulcet" in the dictionary, and his photo should be there.

More recently, when our own Hall of Famer, Jon Miller, would break into his spot-on impersonation of his Dodger counterpart, I couldn't stifle a smile. As great a storyteller and smooth a broadcaster as Miller is, he always acknowledged the greatest of all.

I went to the last game the Greatest One broadcast, the final game of the 2016 season, fittingly against his team's arch-rivals, my team. The Giants handed out these cards to everyone. Mays personally showed up to pay tribute. The team played his familiar broadcast welcome to everyone in the park, and the cheers were overwhelming.

This for a man who had been voted by Dodger fans their "favorite Dodger". Over Koufax. And Drysdale. And Wills. And all the rest.

The voice of the enemy was our hero. And he had earned it. Look no farther than his call of the Hank Aaron homer that broke the Babe's record.

Fond memories are perhaps the most important things we carry through life. I'll carry the fond memory of that voice and those stories until I join him.

Another legend, Jerry Garcia, once said, "You don't just want to be the best at what you do; you want to be the only one who does what you do."

And he was.

Thank you Vin!

 

 

[Calamity Kris]

Yes Vin was a class act.  He was an incredible person and will be greatly missed.  Bless you for all you did for the Dodgers, Mr. Scully.  We will miss you.

[Subdeacon Joe]

2 hours ago, Calamity Kris said:

Yes Vin was a class act.  He was an incredible person and will be greatly missed.  Bless you for all you did for the Dodgers, Mr. Scully.  We will miss you.

 

Not just the Dodgers, but all of baseball.