Scully Talks About The Move West

Vin Scully’s decorated 67-year career as the voice of the Dodgers will come to an end in a week, when the Dodgers face the Giants in San Francisco on Oct. 2 in the final game of the regular season.

Scully’s final home game, however, is today against the Rockies. It will mark the end of a long tenure in Dodger Stadium that began when the franchise moved from Brooklyn in 1958, and Scully is in many ways to final connection to the Dodgers’ East Coast past.

Scully discussed his memory of the move and how things are different for the Dodgers in Los Angeles than they were in Brooklyn in a conference call with reporters earlier this week. Here is the third and final part of our transcript from that interview as Scully begins the final countdown to the end of his broadcasting career.

On the move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles:

Scully: Well, I think the first emotion was it was somewhat bittersweet. Maybe that’s not the proper word. But the thought of leaving New York was somewhat overwhelming. All my friends, my relatives, my high school, my college, everything was back in New York. But the other side was, “Oh, thank God I’ve got the job” because there was a fear, and I was told this for sure, there was considerable pressure on (longtime Dodgers owner Walter) O’Malley that the people in southern California wanted him to employ announcers out here. And I’m sure for a good reason.

But being Mr. O’Malley the way he was, he prided loyalty, and Jerry (Doggett) and I were extremely loyal to him. We would have done anything he wanted. So there was tremendous relief that, wow, at least I’ve got the job.

Then of course when I came out here, the greatest single break, and my life is just full of breaks, but the greatest single break was the transistor radio. The fact that people came to the Coliseum, and they were well, what, 70-some rows away from the action, they knew the superstars – I mean, they knew Willie Mays and Stan Musial, and some of the other great stars – but the rank and file they didn’t.

So they brought the radio to find out about all the other players and maybe to help out to see what they’re trying to see down the field. So I think that was the biggest single break for any broadcaster coming to a new community to be able to talk directly to the fans. We had the crowd sing Happy Birthday to an umpire. I had a big deal going one night asking the crowd how long is a second because the balk rule, you had to hold the ball set for one second before the pitcher would throw. So we got to where they would laugh, they would groan at a bad pun. It was fun when they started to respond.

I’ll always remember the worst pun I ever gave was in the Coliseum. Joe Torre was the catcher and he caught a foul tip off his hand and had to come out of the game. The next day he played third base and I was just talking to the fans and somehow this came out. I said “Well, there is Joe playing third. If he does not ever put the gear back on behind the plate he will forever be known as Chicken Catcher Torre.’ The groan from the crowd of 50, 60,000 fans was something that I’ll still remember to my dying day.

On the essence of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry and how it changed after the move west:

Scully: Well, you really have to go back to New York. You have to realize that the Dodger fans and Giants fans were, in a lot of cases, shoulder to shoulder all year working at their jobs. I can remember as a kid working for the post office during the Christmas holidays trying to make some money, and we’d be sliding mail, hundreds of them, standing in front of hundreds of cubby holes and putting mail in the holes. And we’d spend all the time slotting and arguing about who was better, Duke Snider or Willie Mays, et cetera.

Also, the borough of Brooklyn had an atmosphere of it’s us against the world. So the Giants were the Lordly team on the Harlem River and they’d come over to Brooklyn. In the old days they tell me that (Giants manager John) McGraw would bring the Giants over the Brooklyn in horse-drawn carriages, and the people in Brooklyn, the real fans, would throw things down on top of them. So the rivalry was somewhat bitter because of the fact there was a great deal of friction.

At least now you have several hundred miles separating the cities. Oh, sure, there are Giants fans down here, and there are Dodger fans in San Francisco. There’s not quite the bitter rivalry they had in New York. And I’m delighted for that. I really am.

And I grew up in the bleachers in the old Polo Grounds, so my seat would probably be, oh thinking back, maybe 450 feet from home plate. Or if I was lucky, I’d be in the grandstand, but no matter where you sat you felt the rivalry. Because the people worked together, lived together, and argued all year long. So it’s a little different.

On the Giants-Dodgers rivalry being so passionate that Dodgers didn’t like Halloween because it had Giants colors as the theme:

Scully: Yeah, orange and black (laughing). One thing too you might very well want to sum up a Giant-Dodger rivalry: In Ebbets Field, the home dressing room was separated from the visiting dressing room by a door, a very simple door. And there were some bad moments. Really, I think around the time that Carl Furillo was beaned (in 1950), and Leo (Durocher) was the running the Giants and all that, and they nailed up that door so you couldn’t open it. You couldn’t get into either room. To me that’s silent testimony to the fact that the feelings really ran high.

And as I was talking earlier, the difference in California, oh sure, we have Giants fans in LA and Dodgers fans in San Francisco, but in New York they were shoulder to shoulder all year long….So I don’t think there is the intensity, except maybe momentarily when the game is on, like we have back there.

On making his own breaks in his career:

Scully: I don’t know how I could have made the breaks. I was riding the crest of a Brooklyn Dodger team that’s produced so many All-Star, Hall of Famers so they gave me a big push. And of course I was fortunate to have a hand in broadcasting their only world championship. So really, and I know some people will not quite understand it, but I just think it’s been God’s generosity to put me in these places and just let me enjoy it.

On one of his favorite memories, calling the first ML home run of childhood friend Larry Miggins in 1952:

Scully: Whenever I’m called upon to give some small speech somewhere, especially if there are a lot of young people in the audience, I always wind up with that story for the simple reason I tell to the kids don’t be afraid to dream. Don’t be afraid to think, oh well, I can never do that or that could never happen. And that story has a pretty good impact on a lot of young people to get them to try to what they aspire to be.

On is foray into calling NFL games and if he thought about ever leaving baseball for football?

Scully: Oh no, not at all. The reason I did the NFL was, first of all, I was offered the opportunity and gave it a thought. And I kept thinking, you know, I’ve been doing baseball so long that I could fall into a trap of just doing it by rote and I thought I could use a challenge. So I was offered the opportunity to do football and golf. And I thought, you know, that’s the best thing I should get now is a boost. I need to work harder in another sport. So I used the NFL as much as I possibly could just trying to wake me up. And I was privileged to work with some wonderful experts, the analysts. And then I wound up with Hank Stram doing a game that will be memorable, I guess, the one called “The Catch” with Joe Montana and Dwight Clark. When that game ended, I got on the airplane and I was emotionally worn out from doing it and making sure I didn’t make some horrific mistake. But then I got on the airplane I thought, okay, I’ve done it. I’ve gotten that boost that I needed for my energy and that was it. When the plane landed and I got home I told my family ‘That’s a great game on which to call it a football career,’ and that was it. It served a marvelous purpose to reawaken me, I guess.

On if he’d attend any of the games if the Dodgers made it to the World Series this year:

Scully: Probably not. First of all, I’ve certainly had experience with large crowds, so probably not. I’m not sure because they lost time they won was 1988. I would probably watch, however, for sure, and maybe if I was invited to the last game or whatever, maybe I would go. But basically once I call it an end, which will be Oct. 2, I’ll try very hard to kind of just stay back and be the very normal guy that I am.

On if there is anything he hasn’t gotten to call that he wishes he had?

Oh gee, no. I really, my cup does runneth over. I’ve been so fortunate. They’re not my accomplishments. I’ve done 20-some odd no-hitters, and x number of perfect games and x All-Stars and x World Series game and a big football game and Masters golf. No, God has been incredibly kind to allow me to be in the position to watch and to broadcast all of these somewhat monumental events. So no, I really am filled with thanksgiving and the fact I’ve been given such a chance to view. But none of those are my achievements. I just happen to be there.

On David Ortiz, Joe Maddon, Manny Machado and others coming up to the booth to say goodbye this year:

Scully: It’s, first of all, I’m deeply touched and overwhelmed with gratitude they would take the time. And it is kind of an awkward situation because at Dodger Stadium the visiting clubhouse is way down near the right field foul pole and yet a lot of them have made the trek in uniform just to come up and say hello. And I really am greatly touched. It’s just one of the loveliest things that’s ever occurred in my life. Then of course the umpires come in.

Years ago, Bruce Froemming, who was a friend, we’d see Bruce at spring training in Vero Beach and one night no one knew it would happen. Bruce and his umpiring trio came out, went to home plate, had the exchange of lineup cards (and) they turned around and they all took their caps off and held it out in the air in saying hello to me, and I was absolutely blown away.

The other umpiring crews have done the same. All of them, when they come in, after the exchange of lineups, they take their hats off, they look up, some bow kiddingly and I wave or bow or do whatever I do. It’s just a wonderful emotional bridge. And now they’re coming up to say hello and goodbye. So it’s just a marvelous opportunity to meet a lot of people whom I could not meet because the fact the way the ballpark is built and the work that I have to do in the booth before the game.

On how he wants people to remember him:

Scully: I really and truly would rather they remembered, of yeah, he was a good guy, or he was a good husband, a good father, a good grandfather. The sportscasting, it’s fine if they want to mention it. But that will disappear slowly as, what is it, the sands of time blow over the booth. But the biggest thing is I just want to be remembered as a good man, an honest man, and one who lived up to his own beliefs.