Vin Scully, 59 years on the job. God bless him!
One Race Decided, a Slice of Baseball Heaven, and One Race Still Going On
What a pleasure it was to watch the Colorado Rockies playing the Los Angeles on the MLB network broadcast by the local LA network. Hall-of-fame broadcaster Vin Scully was at the microphone performing his art, an art he has practiced as a Dodgers’ broadcaster since 1950 in Brooklyn becoming the youngest announcer to call a World Series in 1953 at the age of 25. Scully has been with the Dodgers ever since moving west to Los Angeles when the team relocated to the West Coast in 1958. Nothing about his skill has diminished in the slightest and what fan of baseball doesn’t recognize the famous red head for his numerous appearances on national radio and television calling games of the week, all-star games, playoffs, and World Series.
Just a few days ago we heard Tigers retired announcer, Ernie Harwell, bid farewell to the Detroit fans honoring him for his many years of service to the team. It was Harwell’s final curtain call as he has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer, and sadly he’ll not be with us much longer with his gentle way, his subtle sense of humor, and brilliant knowledge of the game.
The baseball announcers from the great generation are a special breed, brilliant story tellers who knew their sports approaching their craft with professionalism, humility, and style. Having learned their trade on radio, they learned how to perfect the craft of vivid imagery and precise description able to create the splendor of Yankee stadium, the come-as-you are hominess of Wrigley Field, the autumn chill settling in with a cold breeze sweeping through Fenway Park or the glorious sunset over the left field bleachers at Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street in Baltimore.
Today’s announcers are surely professional, but without that unique background and having the aid of computers and volumes and volumes of information, they are much more stat geeks than storytellers. While they do splendidly on television where the pictures guide the presentation, baseball on radio will never be the same.
Still, Vince Scully soldiers on and every Sunday during football season, some market will be lucky enough to hear Dick Enberg call the action for an NFL game. These professionals are a dying breed. We’ll miss them terribly.
The Dodgers, of course, finally prevailed, closing out their NL West championship, a feat that has eluded them for far too long. How priceless it was to hear Vin Scully call the action as the Dodgers broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 7th inning en route to a five run decisive shutout victory and then to call the final out as the Dodgers secured their division championship.
Meanwhile, since the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins played four games to a two to two draw keeping Detroit up by two games, the Tigers have lost two games hosting the White Sox while the Twins won two in the Metrodome versus Kansas City. This sets up the scenario for the final day of the season where if one team wins and the other loses, the winning team moves on to the playoffs. If both teams win or both teams lose, they’ll play a one game playoff in Minnesota on Tuesday delayed one day because the Minnesota Vikings face the Green Bay Packers in Monday Night Football.
The National League Field is set:
The Philadelphia Phillies host the Colorado Rockies.
The Los Angeles Dodgers host the St. Louis Cardinals.
The American League sets up with the Central division to be determined.
The New York Yankees host either the Tigers or the Twins
The Los Angeles Angels host the Boston Red Sox
There will be no 20 game winners this year, an interesting highlight given all the playoff teams except the AL Central winner are finishing with more than 90 wins.
For the Baltimore Orioles, it was win one for the skipper again Saturday night as they did what they needed to do to avoid losing 100 games after it was announced late Friday afternoon the manager, Dave Trembley, would return to manage the team in 2010.
What a pleasure it was to watch the Colorado Rockies playing the Los Angeles on the MLB network broadcast by the local LA network. Hall-of-fame broadcaster Vin Scully was at the microphone performing his art, an art he has practiced as a Dodgers’ broadcaster since 1950 in Brooklyn becoming the youngest announcer to call a World Series in 1953 at the age of 25. Scully has been with the Dodgers ever since moving west to Los Angeles when the team relocated to the West Coast in 1958. Nothing about his skill has diminished in the slightest and what fan of baseball doesn’t recognize the famous red head for his numerous appearances on national radio and television calling games of the week, all-star games, playoffs, and World Series.
Just a few days ago we heard Tigers retired announcer, Ernie Harwell, bid farewell to the Detroit fans honoring him for his many years of service to the team. It was Harwell’s final curtain call as he has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer, and sadly he’ll not be with us much longer with his gentle way, his subtle sense of humor, and brilliant knowledge of the game.
The baseball announcers from the great generation are a special breed, brilliant story tellers who knew their sports approaching their craft with professionalism, humility, and style. Having learned their trade on radio, they learned how to perfect the craft of vivid imagery and precise description able to create the splendor of Yankee stadium, the come-as-you are hominess of Wrigley Field, the autumn chill settling in with a cold breeze sweeping through Fenway Park or the glorious sunset over the left field bleachers at Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street in Baltimore.
Today’s announcers are surely professional, but without that unique background and having the aid of computers and volumes and volumes of information, they are much more stat geeks than storytellers. While they do splendidly on television where the pictures guide the presentation, baseball on radio will never be the same.
Still, Vince Scully soldiers on and every Sunday during football season, some market will be lucky enough to hear Dick Enberg call the action for an NFL game. These professionals are a dying breed. We’ll miss them terribly.
The Dodgers, of course, finally prevailed, closing out their NL West championship, a feat that has eluded them for far too long. How priceless it was to hear Vin Scully call the action as the Dodgers broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 7th inning en route to a five run decisive shutout victory and then to call the final out as the Dodgers secured their division championship.
Meanwhile, since the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins played four games to a two to two draw keeping Detroit up by two games, the Tigers have lost two games hosting the White Sox while the Twins won two in the Metrodome versus Kansas City. This sets up the scenario for the final day of the season where if one team wins and the other loses, the winning team moves on to the playoffs. If both teams win or both teams lose, they’ll play a one game playoff in Minnesota on Tuesday delayed one day because the Minnesota Vikings face the Green Bay Packers in Monday Night Football.
The National League Field is set:
The Philadelphia Phillies host the Colorado Rockies.
The Los Angeles Dodgers host the St. Louis Cardinals.
The American League sets up with the Central division to be determined.
The New York Yankees host either the Tigers or the Twins
The Los Angeles Angels host the Boston Red Sox
There will be no 20 game winners this year, an interesting highlight given all the playoff teams except the AL Central winner are finishing with more than 90 wins.
For the Baltimore Orioles, it was win one for the skipper again Saturday night as they did what they needed to do to avoid losing 100 games after it was announced late Friday afternoon the manager, Dave Trembley, would return to manage the team in 2010.
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