LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Vin Scully broadcast his final game at Dodger
Stadium today, addressed the crowd for about 90 seconds, followed by the
playing of a recording of his singing “Wind Beneath My Wings.”
“I am terribly embarrassed,” Scully told following the Los Angeles
Dodgers 4-3 victory 10-inning over the Colorado Rockies that assured them of
their fourth consecutive National League West Division championship.
“I was hoping that we would win the game 10-0 and there would be no
tension and it would be a nice, easy day because I have a very, very small
modest contribution on my last day,” Scully told the crowd announced at
51,962.
“I have always felt that you folks in the stands have been far, far
important to me. You have given me enthusiasm. You have given me young at
heart.
“Believe me when I tell you I’ve needed you far more than you needed
me. I wanted to try and express my appreciation to all the players, God bless
them, and to all you folks here in the ballpark.
“It’s a very modest thing. I sang this for my wife. It was a loving
gesture. You know the song, `Wind Beneath My Wings.’
“That’s what you are. You are the wind beneath the team’s wings. You’re
my wind. I know it’s modest. I know it’s an amateur. Do you mind listening?”
After the crowd cheered, the recording played, while Scully had his left
arm around his wife Sandra.
Dodger batters tipped their helmets to Scully before their first at-bats
and several of his grandchildren visited him in the broadcast booth.
Charlie Culberson’s first homer of the season broke a tie with two outs
in the the bottom of the 10th inning. The Dodgers tied the score when Corey
Seager hit a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
Colorado had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth inning when David
Dahl hit a solo homer with two outs on a 1-2 pitch from relief ace Kenley
Jansen.
The 88-year-old Scully has said his final game will be next Sunday, when
the Dodgers will be playing in San Francisco, because it comes 80 years to
the day when he saw a sign at a laundry in his native New York City reporting
the score of Game 2 of the World Series that day — New York Yankees 18, New
York Giants 4, that prompted him to become a baseball fan.
“It seems like the plan was laid out for me, and all I had to do was
follow the instructions,” Scully said.
On the day after his final game, Scully said “maybe the first thing
I’ll do is take my watch off and put it in the drawer and just think `I can do
anything I want,’ which probably will be have a nice breakfast, read the
papers, maybe take a walk and get a good book and read that book.”
Scully said that in retirement he’ll most miss “the people who have
just made me feel so much at home.”
Scully’s 67 seasons with the Dodgers is the longest tenure for a
broadcaster with a team. He has been the Dodgers’ No. 1 broadcaster since 1954.
Either on the team or NBC broadcasts, Scully has called such memorable
moments by the Dodgers (or their opponents) as Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit home run
in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, Sandy
Koufax’s perfect game in 1965, New York Yankee pitcher Don Larsen’s perfect
game against the Dodgers in the 1956 World Series and Hank Aaron’s record-
setting 715th home run.
Scully’s many honors include the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually
by the Baseball Hall of Fame to a broadcaster for “major contributions to
baseball” and being named the greatest sportscaster by the American
Sportscasters Association.
A ranking system devised by author Curt Smith for his 2005 book “Voices
of the Game” determined that Scully was baseball’s greatest announcer,
giving him a perfect score of 100, based on such factors as longevity,
language, popularity and persona.
Scully said he would like to be remembered as “a good, honest man, a
good husband, a good father, a good grandfather. I’m not even thinking about
sports announcing.”
