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66 Years Ago, The Dodgers Hired Vin Scully

I am 29 years old. By the time October rolls around and the Dodgers (hopefully) are in contention for the World Series, I’ll pass the three-decade mark and my chances of ever getting a big contract from Stan Kasten will be completely diminished.

It’s a tough pill to swallow, but life goes on.




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The reason I give that background information isn’t some attempt at an early mid-life crisis. No, it’s to further point out how incredible Vin Scully’s run with the Dodgers has been.

One could live my lifetime over again and still not add up to the length of time Vin has been call games and telling his stories for Dodgers fans. 66 years ago Monday, the Dodgers hired a 22-year-old Vincent Edward Scully to become their broadcaster. The rest has been history.

This newspaper clipping, courtesy of Dodgers Insider’s Cary Osborne, is pretty incredible.

2016 will be Scully’s final season and his potential replacement, Joe Davis, is getting ready to step into the biggest shoes potentially ever in sports. He’s up to the challenge, there’s no doubting that.

It’s just crazy to think that, at some point, Scully would be in the same position as Davis: Seeing newspaper clippings about what he might offer as the voice of the Dodgers. Here we are, more than half a century later, and the thought of the Dodgers without him is somehow even more unfathomable.

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8 Comments

  1. By the time “next” October rolls around…yes, it will be a sad day when Vinny says those final words on the final game of the season…

  2. I am 62 years and, like you, have never experienced Dodger baseball without Vin Scully. This is a trait most Dodger fans share and is one of the things that makes us special. I can’t imagine what my emotions will be on the day Vinny calls his last game.

  3. I’m 70 years old, and started “obsessively” listening to Mr Scully on the patio of my parents home in 1959, on an old plugin radio that would shock me every time I turned it on!!  56 years later, and due to the squabble that for whatever reason TWC and Direct TV are 
    having over Dodger telecasts I’ve been back to listening to Dodger broadcasts on the radio!!  Scully’s certainly the main reason for my becoming a Dodger fan, and I wish Joe Davis the best as his replacement!!  As for the Dodger ownership, the fan base in LA has 
    suffered enough without an all encompassing TV contract, DON’T YOU THINK!!??!!

  4. It’s  good to hear from  my peers, the older generation.  I’m from Chicago and love the Dodgers  and Lakers. We have and had the best one two punch in maybe sports history in Vin and Chick. I remember  well the first time that I heard Vin Sully anounce. It was 1963 when NBC let the home team announcer on air. The Dodgers  swept  the Yankees.  Koufax  set the strick out record that series, and vin gave  so much imformation that we out of towers didn’t know. My dad loved Red Barber, but that was the point  that I feel in love with Vin Scully. And beating those big bad Yankees  put me in heaven. I love you Vin!

  5. Thanks Robert……I might be in the minority, but always felt that Vin Scully’s NBC delivery was different than what I was so used to on his everyday Dodger broadcasts, but he was still head and shoulders above the rest!!  Your reference to that Yankee series brought back great memories of Koufax, who I was lucky enough to watch in person on multiple occasions.  And his stories to this day make me stop what I’m doing and listen to him, no matter what’s going on around me.  He’s told many on air stories that took most of an entire inning to complete, and if the 3rd out was made he’d finish the story in the next frame.  For many years he used to say at least once a year, “you can outrun a fly ball, but you can’t outrun a throw”, and it wasn’t until I started playing the game that I fully understood that.  Because of the dispute between Time Warner Cable and the rest of any tv stations in SoCal I’ve missed the last 2 seasons of his broadcasts, but will bite the bullet and switch from Direct TV to TWC for his final season, and then switch back.  More than 50% of the Dodger fan base has been shutout from hearing Scully during that time, but home attendance continues to be over 4 million!!  Not sure how this current Dodger ownership group (truly) feels about all this, deep down, but ultimately their focus is about the dollars, AND THE FANS BE DAMNED!!!!!!  🙁

  6. booyaa33 yes buddy! Some anouncers have a good  story going on when commercial  time interferes and we never hear the ending.Vin never left his audience  hagging. I just can’t  imagine  an announcer better than Vin coming anytime  soon. You were blessed  to hear him day in and out. You had me laughing. Thanks!

  7. booyaa33 I’m  sorry that I forgot  to mention  that I turned  68 on New years eve. Like vin we have seen the evolution  of baseball. If Koufax  pitched today he would  not be that mythical figure. Baseball would have made him give up the ball. We may have lost that 65 series against the Twins. Vin midht not say it but since  maybe 2000 baseball’s culture  of using pitchers is flawed.

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