Legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, whose voice captivated baseball fans for 67 years from starting the team in Brooklyn until his move to Los Angeles, died Tuesday night. He was 94 years old.
“We have lost an icon,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement. “Vin Scully was one of the best voices in all of sports. He was a gigantic man, not just as a broadcaster, but as a humanitarian. He loved people. He loved life. He loved baseball and the Dodgers. And he loved his family. His voice will always be heard and will be etched in our minds forever. I know he was looking forward to meeting the love of his life, Sandi. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. Vin will be sorely missed.”
Scully died at her home in Hidden Hills in Los Angeles, according to the team. Her cause of death was not reported.
Scully began his career calling games in the 1950s for Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, as well as in the 1960s for Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, and in the 1970s for Steve Garvey and Don Sutton. He also went through the eighties of Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela. In the 1990s, he called games for teams led by Mike Piazza, Hideo Nomo and Clayton Kershaw, Manny Ramírez, among others.
“He was the best there was,” Kershaw said after the Dodgers’ game Tuesday night in San Francisco. “Simply such a special man. I am thankful and grateful that I got to know him as well as I did.”
According to LA Times reporter David Wharton, “When Vin Scully called a baseball game, it was like meeting an old friend. There were stories to tell and memories to share, her reassuring jokes as familiar as green grass and a warm breeze on a sunny afternoon.”
Generations of Southern California fans grew up with him, listening to his narrations in their cars and later on their televisions.
