Vin Scully, voice of Dodgers baseball, dies aged 94
The baseball world is in mourning following the news that Vin Scully, the legendary voice of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball, has passed away.
It has been reported that legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster, and much beloved voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Vin Scully passed away on Tuesday night at the age of 94.
For over seven decades, Scully called Dodgers baseball, both on radio and on television broadcasts between 1975-1989. His iconic play-by-play calling of the 1988 World Series is seared into the consciousness of baseball fans everywhere, when he called Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit homer in Game 1 against the Oakland A’s. Allowing the pictures to simply breathe, he was pitch-perfect for the moment, saying, “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”
Beginning with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950, he headed west with the team seven years later. The Dodgers released a statement saying, “He was the voice of the Dodgers, and so much more. He was their conscience, their laureate, capturing their beauty and chronicling their glory from Jackie Robinson to Sandy Koufax, Kirk Gibson to Clayton Kershaw. Vin Scully was the heartbeat of the Dodgers — and in so many ways, the heartbeat of all of Los Angeles.”
He called Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965 and was immortalized in the film For Love of the Game as he repeated the feat for the fictional Billy Chapel character.
He won a lifetime Emmy in 1995 and was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001, before being given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. Dodger Stadium’s press box is named in his honor and in 1982 he was elevated to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Coming just over a year after the loss of his wife to ALS, Scully’s passing is the end of an era in all of baseball, not just Los Angeles. But perhaps most keenly felt by the Dodger Nation, Los Angeles Dodgers President & CEO Stan Kasten put it best when he said, “The Dodgers’ Vin Scully was one of the greatest voices in all of sports. He was a giant of a man, not only as a broadcaster, but as a humanitarian. He loved people. He loved life. He loved baseball and the Dodgers. And he loved his family. His voice will always be heard and etched in all of our minds forever.”
From everyone here at AS English and baseball fans around the world, we send our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Vin Scully. He will be with us always.