Vin Scully, the radio and TV voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers for 67 years who in the process became synonymous with the city, died Tuesday, the Dodgers organization said. He was 94.
“We have lost an icon,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said in the statement. “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. I know he was looking forward to joining the love of his life, Sandi. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family during this very difficult time. Vin will be truly missed.”
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Scully got his start with the Dodgers franchise in 1950 in his native Brooklyn, where at age 22 he became the third man in the radio booth with Hall of Famer Red Barber and Connie Desmond. He followed the team to the West Coast when it moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and was the main radio and TV announcer until retiring in 2016 at age 88 still at the top of his game.
In between all that Scully became the voice of baseball for the city. Per Scully’s official bio in Cooperstown, Sports Illustrated’s Robert Creamer wrote in 1964: “In the six years that he has been in California, Scully has become as much a part of the Los Angeles scene as the freeways and the smog.”
Scully called some of the biggest moments in sports for various networks including CBS from 1975-1982, including calling tennis, golf and NFL telecasts (the latter including Dwight Clark’s “The Catch” from Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers in the 1981 NFC Championship Game). He later moved to NBC where he was the lead play-by-play announcer for the majority of the 1980s alongside commentator Joe Garagiola. He even had a CBS daytime talk show on the Television City lot.
But baseball provided the fodder for his most memorable calls, from Hank Aaron’s 715th home run in 1974 breaking Babe Ruth’s all-time record to hobbled Kirk Gibson’s famous home run in the 1988 World Series. He also called Don Larson’s perfect game for the New York Yankees in the 1956 World Series — the only one to do that — and also charted Fernando Valenzuela’s meteoric rise in the 1980s.
All of those iconic baseball moments came calling games for the Dodgers and his legion of fans, many of whom half-eschewed the sounds of Dodger Stadium while attending games by putting one earpiece in their ears to catch Scully’s calls from above in the press box.
He was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, one of many honors that included being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
“The game of baseball has a handful of signature sounds. You hear the crack of the bat. You got the crowd singing in the seventh inning stretch, and you’ve got the voice of Vin Scully.”
From 2016, Vin Scully receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom. RIP pic.twitter.com/wmw9ZcWLOe
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 3, 2022
Scully was part of Los Angeles’ rich announcing heritage that included three other eventual Hall of Famers: Lakers announcer Chick Hearn, who like Scully has a street named after him in the city; Kings announcer Bob Miller; and Scully’s Spanish-language counterpart Jaime Jarrín who has been with the Dodgers since 1959.
As news broke of Scully’s passing, Los Angeles and beyond reacted:
There will never be another Vin Scully. You will be forever missed. 🎙💙 pic.twitter.com/WyTmXsati5
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 3, 2022
We are saddened by the loss of the great Vin Scully — a man we will all so dearly miss and a voice that will live on forever in our hearts.
Wishing comfort and sending our sincere condolences to the Scully family and all our dear friends at the @Dodgers 💙🤍 https://t.co/epsVEaAbuW
— LA Kings (@LAKings) August 3, 2022
Legends never die 💙
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) August 3, 2022
You can’t tell the story of baseball without Vin Scully pic.twitter.com/PBq5el6vwB
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 3, 2022
It was only right that Vin Scully was on the call when Hank Aaron broke the all-time home run record pic.twitter.com/PeG4CsNv6m
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 3, 2022
The voice of our game.
MLB Network mourns the passing of Vin Scully. pic.twitter.com/BgJwsxqij7
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 3, 2022