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Thread: RIP Vin Scully

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    Plutonium simpdog's Avatar
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    RIP Vin Scully

    At least he lived to see another Dodgers World Series***

    *** covid doesn’t count

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    Plutonium Sanlmar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by simpdog View Post
    Rip Vin Scully

    At least he lived to see another Dodgers World Series***

    *** covid doesn’t count
    I listened to Vin Scully call Dodger games when I was a kid out west. Transistor radio late at night. The best there ever was.

    The news Scully’s passing was broken by the worst Dodger announcer of all time, Joe Davis. Bit of a sacrilege to listen to Davis talk about Scully.

    Keep Scully’s name out your mouth Davis

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    Plutonium Sanlmar's Avatar
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    Scully loved jazz. Studies have been made of Scully’s cadence and pattern of speaking and jazz timing.

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    Platinum ftpjesus's Avatar
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    Condolences to Druff. Vin Scully donkdown at age 94.

    If ya didn’t know who Vin Scully was then you aren’t a baseball fan. Vin was the announcer for the Dodgers for over 60yrs and just retired last season. Guy was one of a kind end of story. Glad he got to see one last Dodger World Series win before he passed away

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    Platinum GrenadaRoger's Avatar
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    As a solo radio broadcaster of baseball, Scully was the best...but baseball's pace is slow a second person in the booth is required to fill air and provide tech analysis that modern audiences prefer...but Scully never was comfortable working with a second, and in that sense, the industry had passed him up years before he retired imho.
    (long before there was a PFA i had my Grenade & Crossbones avatar at DD)

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    Plutonium Sanlmar's Avatar
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    Jessica Mendoza is great

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    Platinum Jayjami's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ftpjesus View Post
    If ya didn’t know who Vin Scully was then you aren’t a baseball fan. Vin was the announcer for the Dodgers for over 60yrs and just retired last season. Guy was one of a kind end of story. Glad he got to see one last Dodger World Series win before he passed away
    Three voices were the soundtrack to my life: Vin, Chick, and mom.

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    I grew up listening to Vin.

    From as far back as I can remember, his voice would be on the radio on the TV, in the car, or in my house.

    When you think "Dodgers icons" dating back to the 1960s, three names immediately come to mind, but two weren't known for their on-field play:

    Sandy Koufax -- still alive.

    Tommy Lasorda, who was a lifetime beloved Dodger coach/manager/ambassador, even though he originally had a short career with them as a failpitcher. Died last year at 93.

    Vin Scully -- radio/TV game-caller from 1950 to 2016.

    Vin's astounding 67-year career wasn't just known for its amazing longevity. He had a pleasant way about him, a storyteller who always veered off onto interesting tangents, but never missed a beat of the current action. This was a guy who everyone loved. In the '60's through '90s, fans would actually bring small radios to Dodger Stadium to listen to him while watching the game live, so you'd usually hear him in the background even if you went to see a game in pesron!

    Vinny loved the Dodgers and truly got excited when they succeeded, but he wasn't a company stooge. When he had criticism for the team or a particular player, he typically voiced it, though always maintained his pleasant, polite manner. He came off as positive even when expressing negativity.

    He really was the best of all time. In his final 15 years or so broadcasting, he started to lose a step. He got confused occasionally. He would call players by their father's names sometimes, if they were the son of a former player. (I can't tell you how many times he called Todd Hundley "Randy Hundley"!)

    However, even at the end of his career, when he was almost 89 years old, Scully was still great. He wasn't like some other elderly longtime broadcasters who were kept on out of loyalty or nostalgia. Vin's mind wasn't 100% at age 89 -- and nobody's is -- but he was still sharp, and his skills, memory, and storytelling were all still there.

    Physically, I knew Vin didn't have that long. When they brought him out post-retirement to throw the first pitch, he had a hard time walking to the mound, and the ball barely left his hand. It was clear that his body had deteriorated a lot, and we probably weren't going to ever celebrate his 100th birthday. He ended living another 5+ years, so he actually did better than I expected.

    Vin Scully's positivity remained despite two major tragedies in his personal life. In 1972, his first wife died at the age of 35 of an accidental medical overdose. This was not a drug abuse overdose, but rather the accidental misuse of prescribed medication. He remarried the following year. However, one of his four children -- his eldest son Michael from his first wife -- died in 1994 in a helicopter crash, at the age of 33. Michael's death was an indirect result of the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles. He was working for a company inspecting oil pipelines for leaks in the aftermath of the quake, and was in a helicopter bringing him to the site when it crashed.

    Scully was a religious Catholic, but never brought his faith into his broadcasting, except for the occasional mention of God. He was a conservative Republican, but never discussed politics during his broadcasting, and in fact never expressed them publicly except at occasional appearances at small, non-broadcasted Republican events. He felt that politics and baseball should be separate. Wouldn't that be nice if everyone felt that way?

    He lived in Hidden Hills, California, which isn't far from me. I would occasionally see his car with license plate VNSCULY driving around, but the windows were tinted, so I couldn't see who was in it, and who was driving. Presumably he had someone driving him in his final years. I never did get to meet him in person. Wish I did. He spoke at the Reagan Library once, which I would have attended, but I didn't know about it until afterwards.

    I do know one tidbit about Vin Scully which most don't.

    The Dodgers had missed the playoffs from 2010-2012, but came fairly close in both 2011 and 2012. However, in 2013, they got off to a horrendous start, and the year looked like a disaster. Scully was 85 years old at the time, and was about to hang it up. He was as much a Dodgers fan as he was a broadcaster. He didn't need to waste his final years on earth broadcasting for a failteam. He made the decision to quit at the end of the likely disasterous 2013 season, where the Dodgers sat in last place at the beginning of June. However, then they promoted an exciting, new Cuban player from the minors -- a young man named Yasiel Puig.

    Scully loved Puig's enthusiasm and hustle, and it seemed he could do everything. He had a gun for an outfield arm. He hit for power. He hit for average. He turned routine singles into doubles when the outfielder was sleeping. Between Puig's hot hitting and the return of an almost-equally-hot Hanley Ramirez, the Dodgers went 42-8 and rocketed from last to first. Scully nicknamed Puig the "Wild Horse", and absolutely loved watching him play.

    The Dodgers won the division that year, and Scully felt a World Championship was coming. He decided to keep broadcasting, but the Dodgers kept flopping in the postseason. Finally, after the 2016 season, after yet another postseason exit, he felt he had to give up at age 89, as he no longer had the energy to continue. But credit those last 3 years of work to Yasiel Puig. Otherwise, Vinny would've retired in 2013.

    https://twitter.com/YasielPuig/status/1554702784561197056

    RIP Vin Scully

     
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      BCR: Good write up.
      
      country978:
      
      Sheesfaced: Nice post Druff
      
      Sanlmar: Bravo

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    Diamond BCR's Avatar
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    67 years is astounding. That’s unbreakable.I know the guy from KC has been forever and the Dodgers Spanish language guy also has long stint, but they’d have to live to 100 and be on air.

    Those guys will still be longest tenured in 100 years I think.

    Good luck trying to make it a decade with 162 games a year to not offend someone and get canceled. I don’t think I enjoy many things as much as being at a ballgame. It’s just below being a PGA golfer as to a job I’d absolutely enjoy every day of work. What a life.

    Puig is one of the most baffling players ever. Reminds me of Carlos Baerga. Guys who were amazing at 23 and 24 and fell of a cliff. I remember thinking Baerga at 23 and 24 hitting .315/20/110 RBIs back to back was a sure fire HOF. The rumor was always drugs, like cocaine. Puig was so gifted, but a head case. With him it might have been drugs also. Had a lot of arrests quickly for dumb shit.

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BCR View Post
    67 years is astounding. That’s unbreakable.I know the guy from KC has been forever and the Dodgers Spanish language guy also has long stint, but they’d have to live to 100 and be on air.

    Those guys will still be longest tenured in 100 years I think.

    Good luck trying to make it a decade with 162 games a year to not offend someone and get canceled. I don’t think I enjoy many things as much as being at a ballgame. It’s just below being a PGA golfer as to a job I’d absolutely enjoy every day of work. What a life.

    Puig is one of the most baffling players ever. Reminds me of Carlos Baerga. Guys who were amazing at 23 and 24 and fell of a cliff. I remember thinking Baerga at 23 and 24 hitting .315/20/110 RBIs back to back was a sure fire HOF. The rumor was always drugs, like cocaine. Puig was so gifted, but a head case. With him it might have been drugs also. Had a lot of arrests quickly for dumb shit.
    Puig was a headcase, hard to coach, and irritated teammates with his antics. When he was killing it, they tolerated it. When he became closer to an average player (or at some times worse), nobody wanted him.

    But that's not the whole story.

    In 2019, he hit .267, with 24 HR and had a .785 OPS. Not huge numbers, but far from useless. However, he hasn't had a job since then in MLB, and is currently playing in Korea for $1 million.

    Why?

    This is why. He was set up for a phony sexual assault lawsuit by a lesbian (seriously), and no team wanted to touch him after that.

    By all appearances, Puig is completely innocent, and was targeted by an opportunistic woman who set up a fake "assault" in a Staples Center bathroom. But no team wants to deal with this in today's day and age, especially for a player over 30 with inconsistent results, who is already a headache.

    Kinda sad, though. This should have been a non-factor once it was seen as the bullshit that it was.

     
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      BCR: Yeah, I’m in that thread and recall it. He www easy to believe almost anything about by that point.

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    One of Scully's career highlights crushed me in 1986. I think he also called Gibson's HR off Eckersly in the 80's.


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    Platinum ftpjesus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BCR View Post
    67 years is astounding. That’s unbreakable.I know the guy from KC has been forever and the Dodgers Spanish language guy also has long stint, but they’d have to live to 100 and be on air.

    Those guys will still be longest tenured in 100 years I think.

    Good luck trying to make it a decade with 162 games a year to not offend someone and get canceled. I don’t think I enjoy many things as much as being at a ballgame. It’s just below being a PGA golfer as to a job I’d absolutely enjoy every day of work. What a life.

    Puig is one of the most baffling players ever. Reminds me of Carlos Baerga. Guys who were amazing at 23 and 24 and fell of a cliff. I remember thinking Baerga at 23 and 24 hitting .315/20/110 RBIs back to back was a sure fire HOF. The rumor was always drugs, like cocaine. Puig was so gifted, but a head case. With him it might have been drugs also. Had a lot of arrests quickly for dumb shit.
    Only guy I know currently in sports who comes close is the radio guy for the Phoenix Suns Al McCoy, whos in his late 80s now and has been their announcer almost since the Suns came into the league in the late 60s

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    Plutonium Sanlmar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post

    By all appearances, Puig is completely innocent, and was targeted by an opportunistic woman who set up a fake "assault" in a Staples Center bathroom. But no team wants to deal with this in today's day and age, especially for a player over 30 with inconsistent results, who is already a headache.


    I submit today’s headline sexual miscreant DeShaun Watson. Yet Mr Watson will be starting the first offensive play of the NFL season.


    The sexual assault stuff is usually just ammo to quit a troublesome player. Puig was a mess and under a LOT of pressure. He was threatened and haunted to the end by his Cuban smugglers. Extortion & threats of physical violence. He was always a little preoccupied. As success grew his problems with them grew.

    If you were a baseball player and told by the smugglers they’d cut off your fingers I’m not sure you’d be the picture of calm. He was fucked with by the world since he was an adolescent. He never had a chance.

    As well, Puig antics were frowned upon 7 years ago. There was still the “unwritten rules”. Today that stuff is closer to the new normal.

    I was absolutely transfixed watching the guy the first two years. I’d almost trade a year of Mookie Betts for a year of watching Puig. He was electric. You could not take your eyes off him.

    BCR, I highly recommend spinning up a YouTube video on Puig.. let me help.


     
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      BCR:

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    Canadrunk limitles's Avatar
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    Hanging on too long takes the shine off this shrivelled carcass of a broadcaster.

    His last game was notable because uncontrolled urination resulted in an inaccurate pitch count.

    The blithering old fool was dragged off by the back-up grounds crew.

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    I like to cite this stat to demonstrate how long Scully's career was with the Dodgers.

    My mom was a preschooler in Brooklyn when she heard Vin Scully first broadcasting a Dodgers game. So that preschooler got to her mid-20s, had a kid, and that kid was close to 45 years old when Scully finally called it quits. Amazing.

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    Diamond BCR's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sanlmar View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post

    By all appearances, Puig is completely innocent, and was targeted by an opportunistic woman who set up a fake "assault" in a Staples Center bathroom. But no team wants to deal with this in today's day and age, especially for a player over 30 with inconsistent results, who is already a headache.


    I submit today’s headline sexual miscreant DeShaun Watson. Yet Mr Watson will be starting the first offensive play of the NFL season.


    The sexual assault stuff is usually just ammo to quit a troublesome player. Puig was a mess and under a LOT of pressure. He was threatened and haunted to the end by his Cuban smugglers. Extortion & threats of physical violence. He was always a little preoccupied. As success grew his problems with them grew.

    If you were a baseball player and told by the smugglers they’d cut off your fingers I’m not sure you’d be the picture of calm. He was fucked with by the world since he was an adolescent. He never had a chance.

    As well, Puig antics were frowned upon 7 years ago. There was still the “unwritten rules”. Today that stuff is closer to the new normal.

    I was absolutely transfixed watching the guy the first two years. I’d almost trade a year of Mookie Betts for a year of watching Puig. He was electric. You could not take your eyes off him.

    BCR, I highly recommend spinning up a YouTube video on Puig.. let me help.

    That’s amazing. Never knew his backstory at all. Honestly, after Cespedes and Arnoldis and others had already done it, I just assumed some agent had paid off people there and they were essentially letting them go.

    I see now those guys had to defect also, but clearly they were a lot better at it than him and had better help. I’m guessing he was already considered a headcase then if some agent didn’t just lay out $250k for a shot to have him with your agency given he was a 5 tool Bo Jackson clone. All that shit for $250k just seems amazing for what a blue chipper he was. I’d have thought Boras would charter a helicopter to pick you up once you got 15 miles off the coast into international waters.

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    Diamond BCR's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    I like to cite this stat to demonstrate how long Scully's career was with the Dodgers.

    My mom was a preschooler in Brooklyn when she heard Vin Scully first broadcasting a Dodgers game. So that preschooler got to her mid-20s, had a kid, and that kid was close to 45 years old when Scully finally called it quits. Amazing.
    Yeah nuts. Calling Jackie Robinson games to 2016 is hard to fathom. Reading up, he married his second wife who was almost 20 years younger and buried her last year. That’s a long run.

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    Plutonium Sanlmar's Avatar
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    The way Scully weaves the story around the pitches is beautiful. No other word for it.

    People might complain about pace of play today but they never did when Scully was behind the mic.

    I put this game around 2014 which makes Vin Scully around 86. The greatest ever.




     
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      Dan Druff: great clip

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