Vin Scully’s Farewell

Vin Scully is retiring, and that’s a very big deal, indeed.

When I was kid, growing up in Fresno, I loved playing baseball on all those glorious warm summer nights.  We’d play wiffleball or hardball or softball – whatever we had on hand – late into the evening – until we couldn’t see anymore.  We’d play on the street in front of our homes, or we’d go to Fremont Elementary or Hamilton Junior High.

Once we finally ended our games for the night, we’d go home and tune into the Giants or Dodgers games.  Most of my friends were Giants fans, but I loved the Dodgers.  Those were the days of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale and Maury Wills and Junior Gilliam – but most importantly, they were the days of Vin Scully.

Incredibly enough, they still are the days of Vin Scully.  Vin has now been the Voice of the Dodgers for 67 years – 67! – longer than I’ve been alive.  When I first began listening to him – on my  little transistor tucked under my pillow when I went to bed all those decades ago – he and Jerry Doggett were broadcasting the exploits of the Boys in Blue on KFI Radio in Los Angeles.

KFI’s signal would wax and wane, and that was part of the magic of listening back in those days.  I’d squirm when the signal faded, wondering what my baseball heroes were doing.  Once the signal returned, there was Vin – describing as only he could what was happening and what already had transpired.

As everything else in sports – and society – has changed over the decades, Vin has remained the same.  He sounds the same today as he did decades ago.  He long ago was acknowledged as the greatest baseball announcer ever.  Listen to him and you won’t hear mindless cheering for the “home team” – you’ll hear a beautiful description of what’s happening on the field, along with stories about the players and an occasional historical reference related to those players or teams or stadiums.

Vin made me a Dodgers fan.  He’s been the soundtrack of my summers.  Yes, his retirement after this season will be a loss – not just for the Dodgers or for baseball.  It will be a personal loss for me.

Announcers come and go, but Vin has always been there, at least during my lifetime.  Thanks, Vin, for helping me love baseball, for helping me grow up and for “being there” – being “the rock” – of all the summers of my life.