Cubs broadcasters pay tribute to Vin Scully
Since 1950, Vin Scully has been a big-league baseball announcer.
But, oh, he's so much more than that.
He is a writer, a poet, a musician, a composer and a storyteller.
To be convinced of that, all you have to do is accept Scully's invitation to “pull up a chair,” and then listen. Just listen.
“I totally agree,” said Pat Hughes, the Cubs' radio play-by-play man and likely a future Hall of Famer himself. “If you read the transcripts of the ninth inning of Sandy Koufax's perfect game against the Cubs back in September of 1965, it is almost as if someone has taken a year to think about it and written it out instead of speaking extemporaneously as, of course, he was doing at the time. Not only is that a remarkable thing about that piece of work, but he was 37 years old at the time. Thirty-seven!
“He was in the first one-third of his remarkable career. Nobody else that I've ever known at the age of 37 could even come close to duplicating that kind of a masterpiece.”
Scully, 88, is retiring at the end of this baseball season as the voice of the Dodgers, a job he took in 1950 when the team was in Brooklyn before it moved to Los Angeles for the 1958 season.
So let us take Pat Hughes' advice and look - and listen with our mind's ear - to perhaps the most wonderful call of an inning of baseball ever.
The wording, the timing, the pace are perfect, something few writers could get right on their second or third drafts, let alone Scully's first verbal draft:
“Three times in his sensational career has Sandy Koufax walked out to the mound to pitch a fateful ninth where he turned in a no-hitter. But tonight, September the ninth, nineteen hundred and sixty-five, he made the toughest walk of his career, I'm sure, because through eight innings he has pitched a perfect game.”
That night at Dodger Stadium, Koufax pitched a perfect game against the Cubs, whose starting pitcher, Bob Hendley, tossed a 1-hitter in a 1-0 loss to Koufax.
The game began just after 8 p.m. local time, 10 in Chicago, and there was no TV coverage in either Los Angeles or Chicago.
In L.A., all fans had was Scully's tapestry on the radio, with many in the crowd of 29,139 pressing transistor radios to their ears to hear Vin.
“And you can almost taste the pressure now. Koufax lifted his cap, ran his fingers through his black hair, then pulled the cap back down, fussing at the bill. Krug must feel it, too, as he backs out, heaves a sigh, took off his helmet, put it back on and steps back up to the plate ... And there's 29,000 people in the ballpark and a million butterflies.”
The most difficult part of broadcasting baseball, both on television and radio, is filling the gaps between pitches. Whether it's with a story or describing what he sees in front of him, nobody does that better than Scully.
“No, and I don't know if anyone will ever work alone again like he has for as long as he has,” said Len Kasper, the Cubs' TV voice. “I understand why he does it, because in this game, it's nonlinear. It's not play-by-play-analyst, play-by-play-analyst. You can do whatever you want, and it's this landscape that allows him to spin these incredible stories in a way that he blends in so beautifully, and it's almost like he knows how much time he has before the inning ends.
“The rest of us will start a story with one out and a guy will hit into a 6-4-3 double play. But for whatever reason, Vin just has this impeccable timing.
“He broadcasts like a great writer would write. You look at transcripts of any of his great calls, they read like a great novel. I've never heard anyone like him in that regard. I don't know if we ever will again.”
Hughes sounded almost the same theme as Kasper.
“He's a wonderful storyteller,” Hughes said. “That's a natural gift. I think people either are able to tell stories or they are not. And he certainly is in the former category. And he starts them at the right time. He starts them early in innings. He doesn't wait until there are two outs and two strikes and then begin a story.
“He did that not too long ago, and he made a joke of it. He said, 'I must be getting older. I never used to tell a story this late in the inning.' So he made light of it. He's got such a quick wit. He's got charm.
“It's almost like he's a musician singing the play by play. He's so artistic.
“And Koufax with a new ball, takes a hitch at his belt and walks behind the mound. I would think that the mound at Dodger Stadium right now is the loneliest place in the world. Sandy fussing, looks in to get his sign, 0-and-2 to Amalfitano. The strike-two pitch to Joe: fastball, swung on and missed, strike three! He is one out away from the promised land and Harvey Kuenn is coming up.”
As fine a broadcaster as Scully is, others will attest to him being just as fine a man.
On a Sunday morning a few years back, as the writers were getting ready to make their pregame clubhouse rounds, Scully came over to the press box. He was wearing a crisply pressed white shirt and tie, even on a warm Southern California morning. He came over just to talk to us, about his love for Chicago and baseball and about life itself.
Cubs radio analyst Ron Coomer, who was with the Dodgers as a minor-leaguer early in his career but didn't play for them until the end of his career, has his own story.
“It was unbelievable,” he said. “I remember when I came back to Los Angeles, 2003 was my last year, and I had played with the Dodgers coming up but never made the team. But when I got back, I remember getting on the team bus the first day and Vin coming back. I didn't see him coming, but he wanted to say hi and welcome me back to the Dodgers. What do you say? He's a super nice, classy guy. He's the best in our business. He's kind of the voice of baseball. But one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.”
Kasper winced a bit at being mentioned in the same breath as Scully.
“I would use the term 'colleague' very loosely,” he said. “I don't really consider myself in his category. He's the standard-bearer, not only in baseball but I think in sports broadcasting history. When you look at all the categories of things you have to do well, I would give him an A-plus in every category. He has total command of the subject, knows the sport, can tell stories better than anybody.
“And I just think that what stands out to me about Vin as much as anything else, and I don't know if this has ever really been said very much, is that the guy you hear on the broadcast is the guy you talk to before the game. It is Vin. It's not an act. It's not a different part of his personality. I think the guy you hear every night on television and on the radio is the guy you would talk to four or five hours before the game. I think that's the best compliment I think any broadcaster could ever get.”
“Sandy backs off, mops his forehead, runs his left index finger along his forehead, dries it off on his left pants leg. All the while, Kuenn just waiting. Now Sandy looks in. Into his windup and the 2-1 pitch to Kuenn: swung on and missed, strike two! It is 9:46 p.m. Two-and-2 to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away. Sandy into his windup, here's the pitch: Swung on and missed, a perfect game!”
After that, Scully, as is his custom, allowed the crowd noise wash over his audience before he came back to the microphone.
“On the scoreboard in right field it is 9:46 in the City of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of 29,139 just sitting in to see the only pitcher in baseball history to hurl four no-hit, no-run games. He has done it four straight years, and now he caps it: On his fourth no-hitter, he made it a perfect game.”
For Scully, it has been a near-perfect career, one that also has launched thousands of other careers for men and women who could only emulate, but never duplicate.
“Role model,” Hughes said. “Amazingly gifted man, blessed with a wonderful voice and great intelligence and command of the language. But he's combined the natural gifts with a superior work ethic. And I think that's what really makes him as special as he is.
“The first words I said were 'role model.' He's by far the best that's ever done what we do, and everyone else is kind of shooting for second place.”
Follow Bruce's Cubs and baseball reports on Twitter @BruceMiles2112.