Vin Scully is expected to announce today or tomorrow that he'll come back for another season announcing Dodgers games. That'll make 65 seasons.
Let's think about that number for a second: 65 seasons. That would be impressive even if he wasn't any good at it.
I am not a fan of the Dodgers. I am not even much of a fan of baseball. Once upon a time, I had some interest in both largely because my father did. This was back when the Dodgers were Maury Wills, Frank Howard, Willie Davis, Tommy Davis, Jim Gilliam, Johnny Roseboro, Don Drysdale, and Duke Snider.
And — oh, yeah — Sandy Koufax.
Only one member of the team is still at it today: Vin Scully. No, he didn't put on the uniform but he was the single most indispensable person in the stadium when the Dodgers played. And I always suspected he was secretly managing the team. Walter Alston was officially the manager then but it was easy to imagine Alston, just sitting in the dugout during the game, listening to Vin Scully like everyone else in the place. I'd hear Scully say, "This is the time when Walt Alston is probably deciding to take out the pitcher and bring in Ron Perranoski to throw to the next batter" and I was sure Alston would listen to that, then turn to someone and say, "Bring in Ron Perranoski to throw to the next batter."
At least, it sure felt like that.
There's a certain beauty in anyone doing anything about as well as it can possibly be done. This is the beauty of Vin Scully. In the window below, you'll see what someone thought had been his five greatest "calls" as of the date this video was made. They're all gripping, exciting moments when games were won…and frankly, they miss the whole point of Vin Scully.
I mean, come on. It's the World Series. It's the bottom of the ninth with two outs. The Dodgers are two points down and they have two men on and who comes to the plate? Kirk Gibson, most likely at the suggestion of Vin Scully. Gibson is injured and ill. He was not expected to play at all. But he steps up to the plate, runs the count up to 3 and 2, then wallops a back door slider over the right field fence to win the game.
Exciting? Of course. And I could have called that "at bat" and made it exciting. So could you. That moment didn't need Vin Scully. You know what needs Vin Scully? When no one cares about anything happening on the field. The outcome of the game doesn't matter. One team is six runs ahead. The stands are two-thirds empty because even the people who showed up decided that the fifth inning was a good time to head home and beat the non-existent traffic. That's when somehow Vinnie manages to make it interesting. Even I sometimes listen to him then. What a great talker.
Here are five moments when he didn't matter, which is not to say they still aren't great moments in baseball — or in one case, football…
