Vin Scully

Leave a comment Posted on Andy McCullough, Bill Plaschke, Bob Miller, Chris Erskine, Clayton Kershaw, Fred Claire, Pat Morrison, Paul Haddad, Perfect Eloquence, Ron Rapoport, Sammy Roth, Stories Books and Cafe, The Last of His Kind, Tom Hoffarth, Vin Scully, Vroman's Bookstore

My Blue Heaven

When was the last time you were at a book event?  You know, where the author talks about his new book, takes questions from the audience, then signs your copy, personalizing it for you?

It has been a while since I was last at one, but this month I’ve been to two; coincidentally both books are related to the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

One book event was held at Vroman’s in Pasadena, an institution among independent bookstores since 1894; it is up for sale which makes its numerous loyal customers very nervous.

Perfect Eloquence:  An Appreciation of Vin Scully, edited by Tom Hoffarth, is a compendium of Vin Scully stories about the legendary Dodger announcer who passed away in 2022.

The physical book cover is printed in Dodger blue with an illustration of a microphone.

The top floor of the bookstore was overflowing with people.  This is the effect Vin Scully has on people two years after he passed away at age 94.

In addition to editor Hoffarth, seven other contributors were also in attendance:  journalists Chris Erskine, Paul Haddad, Pat Morrison, Ron Rapoport, Sammy Roth, and two very special guests, Hall of Fame announcer for the Los Angeles Kings Bob Miller and former Los Angeles Dodger executive Fred Claire.

Each one spoke about the piece they wrote for the book.  Each remembrance shared one thing in common:  that Vin Scully was the most generous man they every knew.  Notice that the focus is on the man, not the voice, which is how Vin Scully himself would have preferred to be remembered. 

Paul Haddad reminisced about the one time he met Vin Scully a couple of hours before a ballgame.  When he was escorted to the Press Box by a Dodger official, he saw Vin speaking into a microphone.  Haddad asked the official, “Is he recording commercials?”  The man responded, “No, he’s practicing.”  This story underscored how prepared Vin Scully was no matter how long he did the job, and he did the Dodger announcing job for 67 years.

The stories shared by Fred Claire were the most significant ones for he had a 50-year friendship with Vin.  He knew him better than anyone.

Fred Claire said that Vin had a perfect life in that he grasped the meaning of how to live one’s life:  being gracious to others.  He mentioned one time at Dodger Stadium a young reporter armed with a tape recorder came to interview Vin Scully before a ballgame.  The interview lasted 45 minutes.  Afterwards, Claire looked at the reporter who had tears in his eyes.  It turned out the tape recorder wasn’t working.  So Claire explained the situation to Vin, who said, “Tell the young man we’ll do the interview again.”

Claire spoke about how Vin and Jackie Robinson were very similar in their temperament.  At one of the last baseball events Jackie attended, when his vision was so diminished that lights had to be turned off whenever he was inside, a fan from the stands threw a baseball towards Robinson for him to sign, unaware about his poor eyesight.  Not seeing the ball, it bounced off his shoulder and hit his head.  People around him were yelling at security to throw the man out, but Jackie asked for the ball, signed it, and told people, “Return this to the gentleman.”

As Robinson famously said, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”  In Jackie’s and Vin’s case, they were very important people indeed.

The second event took place at Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park.  Andy McCullough, a senior writer at the Athletic, wrote The Last of His Kind:  Clayton Kershaw & The Burden of Greatness about future Hall of Famer pitcher Clayton Kershaw.  Andy was a beat writer for the Los Angeles Times covering the Dodgers which is how he knew Kershaw.  His former Times colleague, famed columnist Bill Plaschke, was the moderator.

What made the event extra special for me was that both McCullough and Plaschke visited my journalism classes.  When I did the high school newspaper, I would reach out to professional journalists to inspire my young students. 

When I mentioned this to both men that night, they did recall those outings.  Plaschke even remembered the name of a couple of my students who have remained in touch with him over the years.  I told him that I retired from teaching in 2020; he went up to me, shook my hand and said, “Bless you for what did.”

I happened to be the first person in line to have McCullough sign a book.  He didn’t have a pen, but I did and gave it to him.  After opening the book to locate a place to sign, he paused, puzzled and said, “I’ve never done this before, what do I write?”  That day was the release of the book so this was his very first signing event.

My initial thought was to tell him that I had two books published and had signings, but instead told him blandly, “Write ‘thanks for your interest’.”

If you’re a Dodger fan, you will have “interest” in having these two insightful new books published in the same month.  They will put you in Blue Heaven.

Editor Tom Hoffarth, contributors Sammy Roth, Paul Haddad, Ron Rapoport, Fred Claire, Chris Erskine, Bob Miller, Pat Morrison at Vroman’s Bookstore.

Author Andy McCullough and Moderator/Columnist Bill Plaschke at Stories Bookstore.

Leave a comment Posted on Dodgers, Vin Scully

Vinny is Gone

Whenever an unbelievable major news event occurs, I absorb all readings and viewings of the event so that the reality finally registers.  And so it is with the passing of Hall of Fame Dodger announcer Vin Scully.

Even though I never met him (a wish that never came true), Vin Scully’s death at age 94 hits me hard.

Vin Scully outlived my father and my mother during my lifetime.

I was 14 when my father died.

I was 47 when my mother died.

I am 64 when Vin Scully died.

The year 1958 is very precious to me.  It was the year I was born.  And it was the year the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

Perhaps that explains why I am a lifetime Dodger fan.  However, the person responsible for that love for baseball and the Dodgers is Vinny.

He was always Vinny to me because he was talking to me on my transistor radio, describing what he was seeing on the field.

I held on to each precious word he broadcast from the time he greeted us with “Hi everybody and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be” to signing off with a “Good night, everybody.” His dulcet tones were soothing, comforting.  He was our security blanket from April to September.

If I was driving home and putting away my car in the garage, I wouldn’t turn off the radio until Vinny finished the half-inning.

It is why whenever Vinny would do a playoff game on the radio, I would turn off the TV volume so I could hear his unique depictions of the game, always adding personal stories of baseball players he knew that spanned much of the 20th century.

I always looked forward to his history lessons on Memorial Day and Independence Day.  He was a true patriot, a lover of this country as when he remarked “Can you imagine that?”

when two spectators at Dodger Stadium ran onto the field to burn an American flag (then Chicago Cub outfielder Rick Monday famously rescued it).

His calming but firm words at the start of the first Dodger game after the Sept. 11th attacks in 2001 were the appropriate way to soothe all of us shaken from that dastardly terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

All of us were truly fortunate that he had such a long life and broadcast for 67 years working for the same employer. 

There will never be another Vin Scully.  Besides the gentlemanly traits that he imbued—decency, kindness, class—he broadcasted in an era where only one announcer was in the booth meaning that he had a personal connection to the listener or viewer.  Even when it became fashionable to have one or two analysts sit with the play-by-play announcer, Vinny held his ground that he didn’t want to lose that attachment with the fans and so the Dodgers never forced him to change his ways.

That is why the Dodger games haven’t been the same since he retired in 2016.  Hearing two people talk to one another instead of talking to the fans feels remote as if we are eavesdropping on buddies joking with each other in the broadcast booth, instead of a person who we feel is a friend or a member of the family.

Here is just a small sample of the type of calls I will forever remember Vinny making:

On using poetry:  “Deuces wild.  Second inning, two on, two out, two and two count, tied at two.”

On a home run:  “Away back, she is gone!”

On a bases clearing double:  “In comes Buckner, in comes Russell, here comes Cey on a double by Garvey!”

Eerily, the very day before his passing, I emailed Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke about his health.  I noticed that the last post on his Twitter account was from May 6.

“I find this odd considering normally he would comment on the Sandy Koufax statue ceremony last month,” I wrote.  “Is he doing okay?”

“Good catch Brian,” Plaschke wrote back. “I haven’t spoken to him in a while…no idea how he’s doing…but as always, it’s worth monitoring.”

Twenty-four hours later he was gone.

This is a difficult column to write, not just because of Vinny’s passing, but it means that this will be the final time I will write about him.

There are few people we encounter in life that we wish would live forever.  For me, Vin Scully would be on that short list.

Leave a comment Posted on Los Angeles Dodgers, Vin Scully, World Series

It’s time for Dodger anxiety!

I cannot remember when I first became a Dodger fan because I was too young to remember such a thing.  I simply grew up loving the Dodgers through the decades as a boy during the 1960’s. 

Some of my all-time favorite Dodgers include:   Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Don Drysdale, Ron Fairly, Wes Parker, Willie Davis, Don Sutton, Jim Brewer, Steve Garvey, Claude Osteen, Davey Lopes, Tommy John, Reggie Smith, Manny Mota, Al Downing, Dusty Baker, Orel Hershiser, Pedro Guerrero, Mike Scioscia, Fernando Valenzuela, Steve Yeager, Rick Monday, Kirk Gibson, Mike Piazza, Bob Welch, Eric Karros, Brett Butler, Paul Mondesi, Ramon Martinez, Adrian Beltre, Hideo Nomo, Shawn Green, Jeff Kent, Chan Ho Park, Eric Gagne, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Hanley Ramirez, Juan Uribe, Adrian Gonzalez, Manny Ramirez, Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, Yasiel Puig, Justin Turner, Zach Greinke, Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, Walker Buehler, Mookie Betts.

My favorite Dodger of all time, of course, is Vin Scully.

As of this writing, the Dodgers will be playing in their 21st World Series, third in the last four years.  In their history, they have won 6 titles out of 20—a 30% winning percentage.

Here are the top all-time World Series champions in baseball.  The first number is titles won over the total trips with the winning percentage.

Yankees:  27/40, 67.5%

Cardinals:  11/19, 61%

Red Sox:  9/13, 69%

Athletics:  9/14, 64%

Giants:  8/20, 40%

Dodgers: 6/20, 30%

If you are a lifetime Dodger fan, then you know a lifetime of heartache.  The Dodgers have lost the World Series more times, 14, than any other ball club in history.  That is why it is tough to root for them when they make it that far.  Imagine if you are a Yankee, Cardinal, Red Sox or Athletic fan:  about two-thirds of the time those teams win it all.

What’s extra frustrating about the current group of Dodgers is that they have won 8 straight division titles, second only to the 14 straight won by the Atlanta Braves.  However, the Braves did win one title; the Dodgers nada.

The Dodgers should have won the title in 2017 against the Astros since everyone now knows they cheated; even with that dishonest advantage, the Dodgers pushed them to seven games.

In 2018, most people viewed the Boston Red Sox as the superior team so, no surprise, they lost that series 4-1.

This year, however, most pundits favor the Dodgers to win it all.  Imagine how heartbreaking it would be for them if they don’t. If baseball gods exist, L.A. will win its first championship in 32 years.

Back in 1988, I was studying to become a teacher.  Both the Lakers and Dodgers won championships that year.

This past June, I retired after 31 years.  From 1989 to 2019, the Lakers won 6 championships; the Dodgers not a one.

Laker fans know how long it felt before they won a title, longer than the actual 10 years it took.  Dodger fans have been waiting three times as long for the drought to end.

And that is why whenever there is a Dodger playoff game day, I get the DPA’s:  Dodger Playoff Anxiety.  My mind obsesses about DODGER BASEBALL.  I can’t keep focused on anything.

I read all the stories online, hear all the sports talk shows on the radio, watch the pre-game show on the Dodger cable channel.

And when they start playing ball, I will go from watching it on TV to hearing it on the radio depending upon what is happening on the field.

For example, in last Sunday’s Game Seven against the Atlanta Braves for the pennant, in the later innings, I hid in my bedroom with the radio on when the Braves were batting, then come out to the living room to watch the Dodgers bat.

When the situation is extremely intense, I can’t be still so I drive aimlessly. listening to the game on the radio.

Everyone has a Kirk Gibson story where they were when he hit his famous home run to win Game One against the A’s in 1988.  Here is mine.  I was in my car driving west on the 134 Freeway going from Pasadena to Glendale.  I heard Don Drysdale’s call, not Vin Scully’s or Jack Buck’s.  And, if you have never heard it, do yourself a favor and listen to it:

It will put goosebumps on your arms.

So, Dodger fans, keep your fingers crossed, light some candles and keep your radios handy.

Go Dodgers!