Thoughts While Enjoying A 2nd Cup of Coffee
I know I’m a big person – 6 feet tall, and too many pounds – but I still get teary-eyed over a good love story…. and this is one of them.
It’s about a red-haired kid and his love for the game of
baseball.
Baseball is a game for radio. You can listen to a game on
the radio, and do other things while you are listening, and never miss a thing.
Let’s face it, other professional sports didn’t really become popular – football,
basketball, golf, etc. – until TV was invented. To appreciate those sports you
have to WATCH them. No so with
baseball.
Vin Scully was the master of baseball broadcasting on the
radio, and he has done it for 67 years. Today, October 2nd, 2016, he
made his last broadcast before retiring.
Eighty (80) years ago to this day, when he was only eight years old, he was
walking by a Chinese laundry in his New York City neighborhood, when he saw the
score of the 2nd game of the 1936 World Series displayed in the
store window – New York Yankees 18, New York Giants 4.
How awful for those poor Giants, he thought, and
instantly became a Giants fan.
The following year he started going to Giants’ games. They
didn’t have Little League Baseball back then, but he played Police Athletic
League Baseball, and a P.A.L. membership card would get him into the Giants
games for free. Yeah, it was in the center field bleachers, over 400 feet from
the batter’s box, but he was IN the stadium…. and he was watching BASEBALL.
Night games were unheard of then, and the Giant games started at 3:15pm, after
school had let out for the day. This little red-haired kid had fallen in love –
with baseball.
As an adult, Vin would use his dulcet voice, and lyrical
descriptive manner to keep our ears glued to whatever radio station carried his
broadcasts. Each broadcast was like an entry in a diary – Vin was sharing his
love affair with his listening audience.
Scully learned to broadcast while attending Fordham
University, and in 1950, was hired by the Brooklyn Dodgers, as an understudy
announcer to the legendary Red Barber. In 1953, Barber got into a dispute with
the Gillette Razor Company about the fees for broadcasting the World Series,
and Scully took over. At the age of 25, Vin became the youngest person ever to
announce a World Series game – a record that still stands.
Vin kept on broadcasting, until his final game, today.
What a joy it was to listen to him one last time.
He opened the way he has always opened a broadcast –
“It’s time for Dodgers baseball! Hi everybody, and a very pleasant afternoon to
you, wherever you may be.” That’s when the first tear appeared…. more would
follow.
Today’s final broadcast was from San Francisco – technically
“enemy” territory - but you’d never know it. The Frisco announcer told the
crowd they had the privilege to have Vin Scully doing his final broadcast, and
the entire stadium gave him a standing ovation.
His first baseball comment today was typical Vin Scully.
“The starting pitcher for the Giants today is left hander Matt Moore. Matt is
like that proverbial girl in the poem – when he’s good, he’s very, very good,
and when he’s bad, he’s very, very bad.”
Later he would tell us….. “Brandon Belt hits a high, room
service fly to Josh Riddick in right field. Josh takes one step to his left,
and just like room service in a 5-star hotel, the ball is delivered to his
glove.”
When the Giant pitcher, Matt Moore, a very poor hitter,
came up with a runner on 3rd base, Moore tried a sacrifice bunt to
score the run. It failed. The bunt was atrocious. “Well”, said Vin, “if Major
League Baseball ever decides to add a bunting contest to the All-Star break
festivities, if that bunt is any indication, Matt Moore will not be
participating.”
During the top of the 6th inning, he told how
the Dodgers and Giants came to be such rivals. It goes way back to 1933. The New
York Giants had not only won the National League pennant, but the World Series
as well, while the Brooklyn Dodgers had finished the year 29.5 games behind the
Giants.
The next year, during spring training, the local
newspaper people were asking the Giants manager, Bill Terry, what he thought
his chances were for a repeat win in the World Series. He had every expectation
they would repeat. The reports then asked how he felt his neighbors, the
Brooklyn Dodgers would do, to which Terry replied, “The Dodgers? Are they still
in the league?”
Well, after a summer of baseball, with only 2 games to go
in the 1934 season, the Giants were tied for the lead in the National League
with the “Gashouse Gang” St. Louis Cardinals. Their final two games were
against the Dodgers. The Dodgers swept both games, and the Cardinals won the
pennant AND the World Series. A rivalry was born.
Today, as each batter came to the plate for his last turn
at bat, he turned to the broadcast booth and tipped his cap. A fitting tribute.
The final accolade came when the last out was made, and the umpires put their
hands to their hearts, and then pointed up to Vin.
After the game, Vin Scully signed off for the last time.
“I’ve said enough for a lifetime. It’s time for me to go.
The most precious gift we can give is our time, and for 67 years you have
generously given me yours. I thank you deeply, for that honor…. And so my many
friends, for the last time, I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon.”
P.S. – The Giants won the game, 7 – 1. Matt Moore was
very, very good.
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