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Dodgers Honor Vin Scully for His 67 Years of Storytelling

He was calling games before California was hosting them.

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“During the ceremony, while Mr. Scully was receiving his Honorary Doctorate from Pepperdine, the entire graduating class removed their mortar boards and put on royal blue Dodger hats”, Lagana said.

Dodgers chairman Mark Walter announced that next year Scully would have a place among the team’s list of retired numbers. The last go-round for the Los Angeles Dodger. He will not be accompanying the Dodgers to the postseason.

Legendary Dodgers broadcast/civic treasure Vin Scully on Friday began his final home series.

Actor Kevin Costner was the last guest speaker. Vin Scully, the best there ever was.

The Dodgers are using their first two games of the Rockies series as tryouts for a potential fourth starter, beginning tonight. It is an opportunity you will never have again. Of course, the style and eloquence of Vin’s voice will be missed, but his power to bring the world together will be missed even more. Willie Mays provides an excellent example of this. More than that, he’s been a member of the family. At this point, you’re probably thinking “There’s no way he can get an out from this”. Expect a fair amount of scoring at Chavez Ravine. Here he is talking about dirt at length. “You truly have been the wind beneath my wings”.

That’s the past. It’s hard to imagine the Dodgers’ future without Vin Scully. But Scully left an especially deep impression. Few people, perhaps only presidents, have had their voice and speaking style parodied more often.

Many of us feel nearly silly in proclaiming our unabashed love for a baseball broadcaster.

Down three runs after five innings, the Los Angeles Dodgers weren’t anxious. On the rare occasion there would be a Dodger home run, and Vinny would match it with a call. It’s the smaller moments that he made seem significantly more important and compelling.

Sure, Scully’s gravitas can cement a call in the annals of history, but he also knows when a moment calls for levity. “I owe you everything”.

“We always believe we’re going to win and that belief comes because we’ve done it before”, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. They shared how it would’ve been great if Vin got to announce a game that Larry was playing.

Vin Scully is a wordsmith unlike any other. It doesn’t take much to find a youtube clip where his voice got loud, but he’s not a hype man. “He’s one of the greatest announcers of all time”. Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully begins on Monday night, September 19, 2016. He understands better than anyone that when you have a crowd microphone, and you are at home, nobody needs to belt out a passionate excited call.

The Dodgers and Rockies continue their weekend series on Friday night at Dodger Stadium, but at least for one night baseball takes a back seat.

Scully, 88, has had a national presence throughout his career and because of this multiple reports indicate that the MLB Network plans to share his final game from Chavez Ravine with the entire country. So I stood in line behind Dodgers players, their wives, mothers, their infant children who’d come to the television booth – the shrine five flights above the field at Dodger Stadium. That rare combination of being refreshing while sticking to tried and true methods from over sixty years is a big part of what makes him so incomparable. To borrow a line from “Hamilton”, Vin Scully is going home. Vin has been all of those roles in and of himself. Scully called Robinson’s career when he broke the sport’s color barrier in 1947.

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A man who had seen just about everything happen on a baseball field for more than half a century hadn’t ever seen a curveball like that and wasn’t afraid to show his enthusiasm for it. “I just want to do enough to win”.

A's Announcer Korach Going to L.A. for Vin Scully Ceremony