Dodgers’ Legend Vin Scully Dead At 94
• As RAMP was wrapping up for the evening on Tuesday we were deeply saddened, along with sports fans around the world – to learn of the passing of Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully, whose dulcet tones provided the soundtrack of summer while entertaining and informing Dodgers fans in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for 67 years. As reported by the AP, Scully, 94, died at his home in the Hidden Hills section of Los Angeles on Tuesday evening according to the team, which spoke to family members.
As the longest tenured broadcaster with a single team in pro sports history, Scully saw it all and called it all, starting in the 1950s era of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, on to the ’60s with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, into the ’70s with Steve Garvey and Don Sutton, and through the ’80s with Orel Hershiserand Fernando Valenzuela. In the ’90s, it was Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo, followed by Clayton Kershaw, Manny Ramirez and Yasiel Puig in the 21st century.
Over the decades, the Dodgers changed players, managers, executives, owners — and even coasts — but Scully and his soothing, insightful style remained a constant for the fans, always opening his broadcasts with his familiar greeting, “Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be,” and his signature line, “It’s time… for Dodger baseball!”
In addition to being the voice of the Dodgers, Scully called play-by-play for NFL games and PGA Tour events as well as calling 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games. He was NBC’s lead baseball announcer from 1983-89. Scully was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1982, and had the Dodger Stadium press box named for him in 2001. In 2016, the year he retired, the street leading to Dodger Stadium’s main gate was named in his honor, and Scully was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
“God has been so good to me to allow me to do what I’m doing,” said Scully, a devout Catholic who attended mass on Sundays before heading to the ballpark. “A childhood dream that came to pass and then giving me 67 years to enjoy every minute of it. That’s a pretty large thanksgiving day for me.” He added, “I just want to be remembered as a good man, an honest man, and one who lived up to his own beliefs.”
Scully was preceded in death by his second wife, Sandra, who died of complications of ALS in 2021. The couple, who were married 47 years, had daughter Catherine together. Scully’s other children are Kelly, Erin, Todd and Kevin. Another son, Michael, died in a helicopter crash in 1994.
