Los Angeles Dodgers: Vin Scully Will Not Call Playoffs
The baseball legend will not broadcast any Los Angeles Dodgers playoff games, ending his career October 2 against his childhood favorites, the San Francisco Giants.
Vin Scully—the heart and soul of the Los Angeles Dodgers—will call the last game of his 67-year career Sunday, October, 2 in San Francisco. Deciding enough is enough, he will not follow the Dodgers for their playoff run.
Telling the Los Angeles Times:
“As things turn out, the last game of the season, and my last broadcast, will be against the Giants, in San Francisco, Oct. 2, 2016 — exactly 80 years to the day that I saw that Giant-Yankee scorecard.“That is a fitting conclusion, I think, to my career.”
The scorecard in question comes from Game 2 of the 1936 World Series. The eight-year-old Scully saw a scorecard in a window of the New York Yankees pounding the cross-river New York Giants 18-4 and he felt sorry for the Giants. So much so, he became a fan of the team as a child. Growing up in the Bronx, the old Polo Grounds was a close walk and tickets were easy to come by.
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Now 88, you can see why Scully wants to go out this way. He started a Giants fan and will finish his career calling one more game from these historic rivals.
Over the years, he has travelled less and less. First, it was to games in the Pacific Time Zone and Arizona. The last few years, only games in California with maybe an east coast trip for the playoffs or another special occasion. Coaxed back for this year, the only road games Scully did was Opening Day in San Diego and the games in Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels. The trip to San Francisco to end the season will be as far as he strays from home.
To paraphrase the man, it is a fitting conclusion to a career that made millions of people not only Dodger fans, but baseball fans. From his first season with the stern Red Barber and Connie Desmond in 1950 for the Brooklyn Dodgers to today, Scully’s strength came in passing along his love and passion for the game. For every player there was a story. Every pitch had context and every Farmer John commercial sold more Dodger Dogs.
A man modest to a fault, he would beg off talk of his legacy and importance to the game he taught millions. On this point, he is wrong, slightly.
All season, as teams and umpires make their last swing through Dodger Stadium, they pay tribute. Umpires turn and bow before games. Players make the trek up to his booth for a picture, story, gift-giving and a handshake. For them, and us, Scully is the soundtrack of summer and early fall. Paying tribute to him is the least they can do.
Yes, we would love to hear him call one more World Series, but Scully has given so much to us he deserves the chance to say goodbye on his terms.
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