Another baseball season has begun and I still miss not hearing his voice and seeing his smile.
We knew Vin Scully couldn’t be replaced, that he was an original. He didn’t pattern himself after any of the great sportscasters. He was the pattern.
It doesn’t seem possible, but it’s been eight years since he called his last Dodger home game in 2016 — a walk-off home run win. Somehow, Vin had scripted the perfect goodbye.
When former Los Angeles Daily News sportswriter Tom Hoffarth said he was compiling stories for a book about Vin, I thought he was a little late to the game.
It had been two years and many tribute books since Vin passed away at 94 in 2022. What could he possibly find that hadn’t already been written about Vin? Was there one more accolade to be squeezed out of his remarkable life that was missed?
Turns out there were plenty.
“Perfect Eloquence — an Appreciation of Vin Scully” puts him behind the microphone for another season.
It opens the gates early and allows all his fans into the press box to watch him warm up for another start — taking all the stats and old scorecards he stored in the back of his mind for 67 years, and turning them into flesh and blood stories we never knew.
Vin earned the respect, and yes, love, of the toughest crowd in the game — the sportswriters sitting just a few yards away from his booth covering the game. You don’t get anything by this crew.
Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully looks upon thousands as he tell a story during the fourth annual offseason FanFest on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer)
When they put you up on a pedestal, you belong there.
“I often dined with Associated Press reporter Beth Harris in the Dodger Stadium press cafeteria,” wrote former Los Angeles Daily News sportswriter Jill Painter Lopez. “Lucky for us, we were usually done about the same time as Vin.
“I can’t count the number of times he skipped ahead of us to open the door with a ‘Hello, Jill. Hello Beth.’ We were giddy every single time. It never got old.
“On the day of his final home game, I went to Mass that Sunday morning in the Dodgers’ press conference room. It was special to watch Vin being honored that day and to start his day with his faith.”
She talks about watching the late press box chef Dave Pearson carefully putting a dollop of applesauce — Vin’s favorite — on his plate “as though it were to be eaten by a king.”
Hands down, the best sports columnist to ever grace the pages of the Los Angeles Daily News, Steve Dilbeck, spent 40 years covering sports and was fortunate to meet many of his childhood heroes.
“Some were jerks, most decent, and a few what you’d hope,” he said. “But only one was more than I dare to dream, only one exceeded every possible expectation: Vin Scully.”
Former Dodger announcer Ross Porter brought back his good friend’s voice as he arrived at Dodger Stadium before the game.
“When I walk into the ballpark, I say hello to Marie on the elevator and ask about her family. I walk into the press room and talk to David, the chef. There is Maria and Martina, the ladies who work in the back.
“I go out and all the writers are throwing arrows at each other, laughing and having fun. I go into the booth, and the fellows I work with every day laugh and joke.
“All of that is as important to me as actually doing the game. It really is.”
It was the Dodgers’ 30th anniversary in Los Angeles in 1988, and I was writing a story on Vin. We talked about the old days in Brooklyn when Hilda Chester and a cast of characters would yell up to him in the press box at tiny Ebbets Field, which held a maximum 35,000 fans.
Nobody yelled up to him from the stands of 56,000-seat Dodger Stadium when he arrived, but he knew he was starting to connect with them. He could tell by the number of transistor radios he would see as he looked down from the press box.
These fans had spent hard-earned money to buy a ticket and come to the ballpark to watch the game in person, but they didn’t want to miss all those flesh and blood stories Vin was telling the fans at home.
So, they brought their transistors to the ballpark just to hear him.
It was a huge compliment, Vin said, especially when they would turn in their seats, look up at him in the press box, and give him the thumbs up sign.
“Perfect Eloquence” is a thumbs up sign for all the Dodger fans who still miss his voice and smile.
You can’t help but wonder what stories Vin would have dug up this season as he filled out his scorecard with the names Ohtani, Betts and Freeman penciled in.
You just know they would have been great and come with a dollop of applesauce on top — fit for a king.
Dennis McCarthy’s column runs on Sunday. He can be reached at dmccarthynews@gmail.com.
Related Articles
Couple rescues old but good hospital equipment, to save lives in poverty-stricken Belize
Former youth baseball coach says give the kid in right field an infield try
A dad’s heartfelt video before his death helps now-grown children cope with grief
This winning team at Dodger Stadium doesn’t use balls or bats
Saluting Barney Leone, a World War II vet who shared stories of war and peace
