Vin Scully, the legendary voice of the Dodgers for 6 decades, has died at 94

Vin Scully, the beloved Dodgers announcer who informed and entertained generations of baseball fans during a career that spanned six decades, died Tuesday at the age of 94.

Scully’s death was announced Tuesday night by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“We have lost an icon,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement. “His voice will always be heard and etched in the minds of all of us forever.”

His folksy manner, epitomized by his beaming greeting of “Hello, everyone, and a very nice evening to you wherever you are,” transcended generations of baseball lore.

His career began when the team was still in Brooklyn and Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese were regulars on the field. He followed the team when it moved west, delighting fans for the next five decades with the play of such Dodger greats as Sandy Koufax, Steve Garvey, Fernando Valenzuela and Clayton Kershaw.

Scully usually worked alone, providing both color and play-by-play during his shows, providing often-overlooked facts and decades of perspective. And even though he was paid by the Dodgers, Scully was as even-handed as a broadcaster, simultaneously praising an opponent’s play or criticizing a Dodger manager’s decision.

“I guess it’s kind of a running commentary with an imaginary friend,” is how he described his approach to the job in an interview in 2016, his final season before retiring from broadcasting.

After a brief stint at CBS in Washington, D.C., Scully began his Dodgers radio and television career in 1950 with future Hall of Fame announcer Red Barber. Three years later, Scully, 25, became the youngest person to broadcast a World Series game.

“Vin Scully was one of the greatest voices in all of sports. He was a tremendous man, not only as a broadcaster but also as a humanitarian,” Kasten said. “He loved people. He loved life. He loved baseball and the Dodgers.”

Born in the Bronx on November 29, 1927, Vincent Edward Scully was just 7 when his father died of pneumonia and his mother moved the family to Brooklyn, home of the Dodgers.

Scully grew up playing stickball in the streets and listening to college football games on the family radio. After playing the outfield for Fordham University’s baseball team for two years, Scully began broadcasting games for the college radio station.

Scully moved west with the Dodgers in 1958, and over the course of his 67-year career, he would call three perfect games – Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, Sandy Koufax in 1965 and Dennis Martinez in 1991. – and 18 non-strikers.

Scully was broadcasting the 1974 Dodgers-Braves game when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run to break Babe Ruth’s 1974 record.

“A black man gets a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the all-time baseball idol record,” Scully told listeners, well aware of the cultural significance. “What a wonderful moment for baseball.”

He is also remembered for calling Kirk Gibson’s dramatic pinch-hitter during Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, pitting the Dodgers against the Oakland Athletics. “In a year that was so incredible, the impossible happened,” Scully said as Gibson pumped his iconic fist around the bases after his home run flew over the right-field fence to give the Dodgers a 5-4 victory.

Scully was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, and in 2016 the main gate at Dodger Stadium was named in his honor, among many honors.

Always a fan favorite, Scully made several appearances at Dodger Stadium after retiring in 2016. Despite his popularity across the spectrum of sports, he said in 2016 that he didn’t want to be remembered as a sports commentator, but rather soon as “very normal. I just want to be remembered as a good person, an honest person and a person who lives by his own beliefs.”

In 2020, Scully auctioned off personal memorabilia from his decades in the sport, raising more than $2 million, some of which was donated to research into ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was preceded in death by his wife of 47 years, Sandra, who died in 2021 of complications from ALS at the age of 76.