Bloom: Vin Scully talks Dodgers, reflects on legendary career

From SABR member Barry Bloom at MLB.com on July 5, 2013:

The best part of this job is the people you meet and the relationships developed over the course of the years. To that end, it was an honor to sit down recently and talk with Vin Scully.

It’s mindboggling to realize that Scully has been broadcasting Dodgers games on radio-television in Brooklyn and Los Angeles since 1950, a year before I was born.

“Sixty-four years is a long time to live, let alone broadcasting or doing anything,” Scully responded when asked if it was even more mindboggling to him. “God has been very kind to me. I should be on my knees most hours of any day giving thanks. I got what I wanted to do ever since I was 8 years old. It came early. My health and the job itself have lasted all these years. You are looking at the most grateful person who walks the planet.”

He’s one of the best at what he does. But greater still, I’ve known the 1982 Ford C. Frick Award winner for nearly 40 years and I can safely say he’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

As a rookie covering my first game at Dodger Stadium in 1976, Vinny treated me with the same courtesy and grace that he offers to many a veteran scribe today. I’ve never seen him raise his unmistakable voice or have a harsh word toward anybody.

During the course of a 20-minute conversation, I asked him about his stellar career and the Dodgers of yesterday and today. You may be surprised at some of his answers.

Read the full article here: http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130705&content_id=52770198&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb



Originally published: July 5, 2013. Last Updated: July 5, 2013.