Vin Scully, longtime voice of the Dodgers, dies

The beloved radio and television voice of major league baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers died Tuesday. He was 94. Vin Scully kept listeners and viewers riveted in a career spanning two coasts and 67 seasons, through transistor radios and smartphones. Starting in 1950, when the Dodgers still called Brooklyn, N.Y., home, Scully called the games of Dodgers greats ranging from Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax to Mike Piazza and Clayton Kershaw. “People tuned in because Vin was the voice of summer,” said longtime Dodgers fan Matt Hurst.

The call Scully most cherished came after the Dodgers won the 1955 World Series. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the champions of the world!” he said. The only series the Dodgers won in Brooklyn followed an eight-year stretch in which Dodgers fans watched their team’s hated crosstown rivals, the New York Yankees and New York Giants, combine for seven titles.

Apart from baseball, who was he? Scully’s faith as a devout Catholic helped him cope with the deaths of his first wife from an accidental drug overdose in 1972 and his son in a helicopter crash in 1994. In his final season behind the mic, Scully regularly proclaimed how God had blessed him with his career. Scully’s second wife, Sandra, died in 2021.

Dig deeper: Read my report about Rachel Robinson, the widow of Dodgers great Jackie Robinson, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday.