Before officially retiring, Bud Selig had one more very important thing to do. He must honor the man who has become the greatest baseball announcer in the history of the game, Mr. Vin Scully.
I distinctly remember sitting in my old car with a bunch of sweaty friends listening to Scully calling the legendary Sandy Koufax’s World Series no hitter was back when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn.
We were playing a pickup football game when someone came by and told us to turn on the radio, what a game it was with Vin Scully doing the play by play. I am in my late sixties now, and Mr. Scully has missed very few Dodgers games in all that time.
If nothing else, Vin Scully must surely be the most avid baseball fan ever. The sheer number of games that he has attended and called is staggering. No one else is even close and there are no words for the cherished admiration in which his many fans hold him to this day.
Of course, for the last 22 years of Scully’s tenure with the Dodgers, Bud Selig has been the commissioner of Major League Baseball and the two surely crossed paths from time to time.
So, outgoing commissioner Selig is doing a tour of all thirty MLB franchises before he steps down in January, and during his stops in Los Angeles he took time out to pay homage to one of the sport of baseball’s most endearing figures, Vin Scully.
Selig presented Scully with the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award. There have only been thirteen such extraordinary awards ever given out by MLB Commissioners, and only one other went to a non-player. Her name was Rachel and she was married to the great Jackie Robinson.
In the presentation Bud Selig said, “I thank him for a lifetime of extraordinary service to the Dodgers franchise. There’s never been anyone better behind the mic. Hearing his voice makes me feel better. He’s chronicled history, and now he’s part of that history. From Koufax to Kershaw, he’s represented the game beautifully.”
Certainly millions of baseball fans worldwide have grown up associating the familiar voice of Vin Scully with the sport of baseball. A person could be outside the house, hear that voice on the radio, and just know that there was a baseball game in progress and that the Dodgers were playing.
Selig summed it up, “I think back on his career and everything he’s done and seen. For somebody who grew up listening to the radio that was my bond with baseball for many years. You have no idea what a privilege this is.”
