The other day while driving in my car, I turned on the radio to get some news and got some Vin Scully instead. I guess the Dodgers games have been broadcast for some time on KFWB, nominally one of the local "all news" stations, but I never tuned into one before, by design or accident. In fact, it's probably been a good 40 years since I said, "Hey, let's see how the Dodgers are doing." My interest in baseball was short-lived and didn't extend past the Dodgers lineup that I knew as a kid: Maury Wills, Duke Snider, Willie Davis, Tommy Davis, Don Drysdale, a few other guys…and of course, the legendary Sandy Koufax. I could not name you one member of the current team roster if you had Mr. Koufax about to fire a knuckleball right at my crotch.
But you know what hasn't changed? Vin Scully. I listened to him for the rest of the drive and I enjoyed it so much. I didn't know or care who was playing, didn't care who scored however many runs. The man is just so much fun to listen to.
I remember going to Dodgers games with my father and sometimes, my Uncle Nate. We'd sit in the cheap seats and take along our transistor radios so we could listen to Vin. It wasn't a Dodgers game without Vin…and if you forgot your radio or your battery went dead, that was okay. Because everyone around you in the bleachers brought their radios so they could listen to the Old Redhead, as he sometimes called himself, and you could hear his play-by-play all over the stands. Amazing to realize that the Old Redhead is forty years older and still doing it.
I have a theory that there's going to come a day when baseball games and other athletic events will no longer be heard on radio. This day will not come until long after Mr. Scully has given up his microphone but it will come, I believe. The world is getting just too visual and demanding of the "total" experience in every media situation: Big screen, hi-def, high-tech audio, etc. People won't want to experience even a baseball game except in ideal conditions, and ideal conditions involve seeing it.
Not only that but I believe people of that era, whenever that era comes, won't understand how anyone could listen to baseball or some other athletic events on the radio. They'll say things like, "Let me see if I have this straight. You couldn't see the game so you just heard some guy tell you what was happening? Is that how it was? Did you enjoy your porn the same way? Some guy telling you what was going on?"
And you know how you'll convince them it wasn't insane to experience a baseball game that way? Play 'em a recording of Vin Scully. That's the only way they'll get it.