On Vin Scully’s Last Goodbye

Man, this was sad. It’s like I just lost someone I loved here. And people who visit this blog probably wonder what all the fuss is about with me and Vin Scully. So let me try to sum it up.

Aside from my children, my wife, and my family; baseball is what I love most. And within what I love most is Vin Scully – what I love most in what I love most. If that makes sense.

Some of my best memories ever enjoying the game of baseball were with him on the call. It was an added bonus to the already nice relaxation that baseball provides. The guy was completely sublime, capable of lowering blood pressure just by being in my living room.

I’m failing miserably to give the great one his due adequately. So I’ll put what Craig Calcaterra said elegantly about Scully in his post today:

Vin Scully signed off for the final time yesterday, ending his 67 years of baseball broadcasting excellence. While there were a few distractions — in the middle of the game Scully was presented with a plaque by the Giants and was warmly met by Willie Mays, the best player Scully says he ever saw — it was exactly like every other Vin Scully game I’ve heard in the 30+ years I have been listening to him.

It was relaxed. It was comfortable. On some level Scully knows that we all have lives full of important and stressful things and that, baseball, however wonderful it is, is a diversion, not the most important thing in our lives. As such, he did not treat his broadcasts as destination viewing or listening. He did not act like the game he was calling or the fact that he was calling it was the most important thing going on at that moment. No phony superlatives. No unwarranted hype, hot takes or artificial intensity. He never, ever, pretended that he had any superior insight into the game than you the fan did, even though he obviously did. He simply talked about what was happening in plain terms and let you know things that he knew that might make the game more enjoyable for you. He didn’t style himself some baseball expert. He took ample time during breaks in the action to tell us interesting and amusing stories and make our diversion pleasant in any way he could.

God bless this man for so many great times and memories. And don’t buy what he says about him needing us more than we needed him. It was never that way. Baseball; at night in Los Angeles, and in general, will never be the same.