Roy Exum: Vin Scully’s Last Time

  • Wednesday, September 28, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

It is said that the opening paragraph of my favorite ode to baseball should be the centerpiece for the canon of sports literature. It was written by former commissioner Bart Giamatti in "The Green Fields of the Mind,” a most marvelous essay to the last day of the regular season in the major leagues.

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops (Sunday afternoon, Oct. 2) with rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stops, and summer is gone.”

This Sunday more than the game will stop. The afternoon game in San Francisco will mark the last day in the past 67 seasons that the incomparable announcer Vin Scully will switch off his mic, high above the San Francisco Bay as his Dodgers meet the Giants before Los Angeles heads on to the playoffs. Sunday will be Vin’s last time. No playoffs for him, with this finale it is over. And it has already been pronounced as one of the saddest days in the history of baseball.

As Giamatti’s second paragraph goes, “Somehow, the summer seemed to slip by faster this time. Maybe it wasn't this summer, but all the summers that … slipped by so fast. There comes a time when every summer will have something of autumn about it. Whatever the reason, it seemed to me that I was investing more and more in baseball, making the game do more of the work that keeps time fat and slow and lazy.”

Throughout this season, the accolades and the respect and the nation’s adoration have followed Scully from one road stand to the next. He called his first Dodgers game at Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn, this before moving west with the club. In 1950 there were just 16 teams and, of the ball yards, only Wrigley Field and Fenway Park remain. But Vin Scully has been a steady voice and today, at age 88, it has now been certified by Guinness that no man has served any team anywhere any longer. My goodness, he’s out-endured 11 Presidencies!

Scully called his last game in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, a 10-inning tingler until Charlie Culberson had his first homer of the season in the bottom of the extra inning and the Dodgers won the NL West Title for the fourth straight season.

You can go anywhere on the Internet and hear his greatest calls – I love Sandy Koufax’ perfect game in ’65 – and millions of stories are out there but I am an old “wag,” a loose term for news journalists, and I’ve got a different favorite than most. My favorite sports writer of all time was Jim Murray of the LA Times and I’ve tried to follow his style, albeit with poor results.

For years I’d see him at the Masters, or the Derby, or at a big bowl game, and we became “press box” pals, friends who you would share drinks and dinner and laughs. Vin Scully, on the other hand, was one of Jim Murray’s dearest friends, they were together all of the time and here is how Jim Murray once characterized Scully:

“Football requires screaming,” Murray wrote. "They're on the five and it's second down and goal to go!" "They're on the three and its third down and there's 29 seconds left to play!" Baseball requires humor, deft drama, a sprinkling of candor, mix well and serve over steaming hot tradition.

“Scully knows the sport as few do. He learned it at the knee of Branch Rickey at the time he was most impressionable, a young, ambitious, career-oriented student out of Fordham. Scully will tell you why a batter should try to hit to right with a man on first and none out. ("The first baseman has to stay on the bag to keep the runner close. The second baseman has to cheat a step toward second in the event of a steal or a double play. There's a hole there you could dock ships.") Murray added.

Jim Murray’s eyesight went bad way too soon and, with other ailments, he died about this time 18 years ago. There was a huge memorial service at Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine for the departed wordsmith and, as eulogies were told, the last was from the second-most recognized voice in the state, Vin Scully. To me, this tribute to his dear friend was his greatest call ever:

* * *

“This is not an overcast day, nor is it a gloomy day. The Irish would call it a soft day. And considering the man whose memory we honor today in this hard-hearted world, it's a perfect day. A soft day. I wear a smile today like so many of us because I smiled whenever I saw Jim. I smiled whenever I talked to Jim. And I will smile whenever I think of him.

“And yet for me this is a very precious and poignant moment. You know, for many of us, looking back over our lives, there is a period of time where it honestly took courage to live. Courage and strength and hope, and humor. But courage and strength and hope and humor have to be bought and paid for with pain and work and prayer and tears.

“Jim Murray had all of those virtues during his lifetime. And he also had those crosses to bear. There was a decency about him that was glorious to behold. There was an indomitable spirit. And he gazed upon life and the world with somewhat of a bemused sense of humor.

“I once introduced Jim at a dinner, and I said this from the heart. I said that if I ever had to be stranded on a desert island with a man, he would be the man. And I meant it. He was a great raconteur, especially of Irish stories. He was literate and well-read without being stuffy. He had a God-given talent that was out there for the world to enjoy whether he was covering the fields of entertainment or sports. And yet, with all the honors he received, he remained ever humble, somewhat shy and self-deprecating.

“Jim Murray was my dear friend, and I sincerely thank God for the gift of his friendship. You know, the great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. And Jim Murray used his life to the extent that he has indeed outlasted it. Wherever and whenever there will be sporting events, and wherever and whenever the media will gather to cover those events, Jim will live on as an icon to emulate.

“About 35 years ago, Jim and I were playing golf at Riviera - it was his favorite golf course. And somehow we got on the subject, he had just been starting to write the column, and he was talking about mail that you receive. And I told him I would always remember the first letter I ever received, and it was addressed to Mr. Ben S. Kelly.

“From that moment on, I was always either Kell or Kelly.  And to go along with that feeling, he then became Murph or Murphy.  And we would meet in crowded pressrooms and press boxes at all-star games and World Series and a voice would cry out, "Kell!" And I would turn around and say, "Murph!" And everybody would look at each other as if to say "The poor devils don't even know their own last names."

“You know, Shakespeare said it best, as he usually did, and when he wrote it, he might very well have been writing about Jim Murray. He wrote, "His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world, "This was a man."

“And in closing, I have one personal request and I hope you don't mind me doing it … ‘Hey, Murph! It's Kell! Save me a seat!’

* * *

What an exact description of Vin Scully himself.

royexum@aol.com

Latest Headlines
Opinion
Democratic View On Top State Senate Issues - March 18, 2024
  • 3/18/2024

Campbell bill seeks to save lives by studying suicide trends in Tennessee 3 p.m. Senate Regular Calendar — SB 1787 , by Sen. Heidi Campbell, would require state health officials to produce ... more

The Odor Of Mendacity - And Response (2)
  • 3/16/2024

The Fulton County judge, Scott McAfee, overseeing the Fani Willis prosecution of Donald Trump and eighteen other defendants has spoken. In response to a motion by defendants to remove Willis ... more

Capitol Report From State Rep. Greg Vital For March 15
  • 3/15/2024

General Assembly confirms new Tennessee State Supreme Justice Members of the General Assembly confirmed the appointment of Mary L. Wagner to the Tennessee Supreme Court in a joint session ... more