Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully acknowledges cheers after it was announced Tuesday night during a Dodgers-Braves game at Dodger Stadium that he would come back for a 66th season in 2015. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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on July 30, 2014 at 7:25 AM, updated July 30, 2014 at 8:05 AM
The Los Angeles Dodgers went all out Tuesday night to celebrate legendary broadcaster Vin Scully deciding to return in 2015 for a 66th season in the booth.
On Vin Scully 65th Anniversary Talking Microphone Night at Dodger Stadium, FoxSportsLA sportscaster Alanna Rizzo appeared on the scoreboard after the visiting Atlanta Braves were retired in the second inning with “breaking news.”
Seated at a table in the Dodgers press room were Korean pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu, Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig and Southern California-born utility infielder Justin Turner for a bit that had been shot before the game.
The camera zoomed in first on Ryu, who stated in Korean that Scully would be back next season, then Puig did the same in Spanish.
Turner finally chimed in with the English translation:
“Hey everybody, what these guys are trying to say is that Vin Scully is coming back for another season of Dodgers baseball!”
Hearing the news, four more Dodgers players seated in the first row of the press room jumped up to hoot and holler in celebration.
Dodgers fans watching this scripted announcement play out between innings loved it, as the crowd of nearly 50,000 immediately stood to give Scully a 75-second ovation.
Scully, who turns 87 in November, looked emotional seeing the crowd reaction. He stood up in his television booth for fans to see him and touched his heart with a smile on his face. When his wife entered the booth during the ovation, they shared a hug and Vin kissed her forehead.
The ovation continued until the Dodger Stadium PR man announced outfielder Carl Crawford as the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter for the home second.
Back on the air, Scully told his viewers, “Boy, it’s tough to get over that. Atlanta leading the Dodgers 1-to-nothing here in the second inning. We’d like to thank Hyun-Jin Ryu, Yasiel Puig and all the boys who put on a show on the screen. All I can say is thank God and please God for another year. But let's get back to work now; 1-0 in favor of Atlanta.”
Scully plans to keep his current work schedule in 2015 – calling all Dodgers home games as well as road divisional games in San Diego, San Francisco and Phoenix.
"Naturally there will come a time, when I will have to say goodbye, but I've soul-searched and this is not the time,” Scully said in a statement.
A native of the Bronx, Scully served two years in the US Navy after high school, then began his broadcasting career as a college student at the University of Fordham when he called football and basketball games as well as play center field on the school baseball team, serve as editor of the school paper and sing in a barbershop quartet.
Scully began his professional broadcasting career in 1949 calling college football games for CBS, whose sports director at the time was popular Brooklyn Dodgers announcer Red Barber.
The next year, Scully joined the Dodgers in 1950 as the third man on a broadcast team that included Barber and Connie Desmond, and he took over as the lead announcer in 1954 after Barber joined the Yankees' broadcast team.
Scully has called 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games in his great career.
Scully’s name came up during a dinner between four Baseball Hall of Fame writers last weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y.
“Would Scully return,” a writer asked?
Another responded that he’d recently talked to Scully and it sounded like he’d either return with a reduced schedule or retire.
Scully was elected to the broadcaster’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, four years after Mel Allen and Barber were the inaugural Ford C. Frick Award winners in 1978.
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