L-A Radio: MLB Dodgers Honor Vin Scully

Vin Scully with wife Sandy

The Dodgers rolled out the blue carpet for Vin Scully, literally. They rolled out the dignitaries too, and the videos, and even a symphony orchestra, report the LA Times.

At its heart, however, the Vin Scully tribute Friday was the world’s biggest thank-you card, come to life. The greatest broadcaster in baseball history came to say thank you to the fans, and the fans came to say thank you to him.

When Scully was introduced, to a sellout crowd seemingly hoping to applaud long enough to persuade him to reconsider retirement, he fought back tears, then put his hand over his heart. The crowd would not sit down before he did.

For nearly an hour, in person and on video, speakers from Sandy Koufax to Kobe Bryant and from Bob Costas to Kevin Costner extolled the virtues of Scully. The occasion was so special that players from the Dodgers — and the visiting Colorado Rockies — gathered in their dugouts to watch.
Then the guest of honor stepped to the microphone, and again the fans rose as one, for so long and with such gusto that Scully sheepishly interrupted the fans he has called friends for 67 years.

“Aw, come on,” Scully said. “It’s just me.”

And then he brought the house down by dropping the line with which he greets his listeners, his viewers, his friends.

“Hi everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you,” he said, almost mischievously. “I thought I’d get that out of the way right away.”

Dodgers Chairman Mark Walter said the team would add Scully’s name to the stadium “ring of honor,” next to the retired numbers. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti gave Scully the key to the city. Commissioner Rob Manfred said the league would donate $50,000 to the Jackie Robinson Foundation, in honor of Scully.

Jamie Jarrin, who calls the Dodgers in Spanish and like Scully is in the Hall of Fame, thanked Scully for teaching him the game. Charley Steiner, the Dodgers’ radio voice, said Scully’s 67 years with one team would be as unbreakable a baseball record as Cal Ripken’s streak of 2,632 consecutive games played, Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, and Cy Young’s 511 victories.

Don Newcombe, 90, the Dodgers’ starting pitcher in Scully’s 1950 debut, was there. So were Koufax and Clayton Kershaw, the greatest left-handers in team history. Scully called no-hitters for each, half a century apart.

Kershaw, on behalf of Dodgers players past and present, thanked Scully for “painting a picture for us.”