Harry Kalas died today. He was found unconscious in the press box at Washington, and died at 73. The news story can be found here.
Fans in Philadelphia are in some distress because Kalas had been the Phillies’ broadcaster since 1971. That’s a long time. And I’m sure they will miss their guy, perhaps better known across the nation as the voice of NFL Films, succeeding in that role the late, great John Facenda (aka, the Voice of God).
But if Phillies fans are agitated that Kalas has died … what will Los Angeles Dodgers fans feel if Vin Scully were to stop doing games because he retired or, perish the thought, died?
Vinny is only the best baseball announcer. Ever. This is not just partisan blathering. He is the best. Ever. No one has brings to the broadcast booth such a compelling mix of baseball knowledge and baseball lore, as well as profound erudition, diction, flights of poetry and love of the game. Nobody.
Vinny was anecdotal and journalistic years, decades ahead of others. If the Dodgers were playing badly, he would say so. He wasn’t a honk, like Harry Caray. He wasn’t openly partisan. He worked for the Dodgers but you wouldn’t necessarily know it by listening to him.
He knows the game, and he knows its history, and he talks about Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax from a perspective of knowing them, and seeing them play countless times.
Vinny is 81, 82 in November. Fans already have a sense this could be his final season, his 60th with the club and 52nd in Los Angeles — which is to say, every season the Dodgers have played in Los Angeles.
There are baseball fans who are 60 years old who don’t remember when Vic Scully was not doing Dodgers games.
Scully may be the single greatest public institution in all of Southern California. And that is how he always has felt, like something we all shared an interest in. That soothing, avuncular voice, the civic lullaby, seemingly omnipresent and eternal.
He is, by far, the most important Dodgers empoloyee. Thousands of players have come and gone, a half-dozen managers and GMs. He has worked for three ownership groups. Vin came before them and outlasted almost all of them. He has seemed as immutable a SoCal force as Santa Ana winds and the San Andreas Fault. With us, always.
But it is time to acknowledge the end is near. Vinny is not going to do the Dodgers forever, even though it has seemed like he might. Even though we have known no one else. But he is eight years older than a man who died in a press box today.
Scully seems in remarkably good shape. When I see him in the press box, I don’t feel as if I am looking at a feeble person, let alone a sick one. (And Kalas did not look well, before he died.) But 81 is 81, after all, and not many people are making road trips with ball teams at that age — and Vinny still does all the road games in the Western Division, which includes plane rides to Denver, Phoenix and San Francisco.
This whole concept is alarming. Vinny … gone. By retirement, we hope, at a time of his choosing. But it will happen, one way or another. It is time for us to stop behaving like children and confront the reality that it will happen.
It is time for us to begin thinking about who ought to succeed him. And see what we, as fans and unofficial stakeholders in the franchise, can do about being a part of the decision-making.
It also is time for us to treasure every moment of Vin Scully in the press box. Today, in the bottom of the second, he mentioned how Philadelphia would miss Kalas, a “great guy.”
I can’t imagine Philly can be more devastated than Southern California if we were to lose Vin Scully.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Joseph D'Hippolito // Apr 13, 2009 at 5:46 PM
Well said, Paul. When Scully leaves the booth, an era in broadcasting will go with him. Not only Scully personified that era. So did Dick Enberg and Red Barber. They represent a professionalism that has been replaced by snarkiness, incessant chatter, a lack of fundamental knowledge about the sport and a lack of historical knowledge of anything before 1980. Joe Buck might be the best example of someone who carries on that tradition today. I can’t think of any others in any other sport.
2 kevin mcdevitt // Apr 14, 2009 at 5:31 AM
The Phils lost their voice yesterday. Harry the K will no longer make those great calls that we’ll all remember. Paul, you start your story about as a memorial to Kalas and with only two paragraphs devoted to Harry’s passing, you dissolve into a comparison of Vin Scully, the Dodgers own legendary voice.
You are presumptive in assuming that LA would be more more devastated than Philadelphians if Mr. Scully were to pass…don’t you see what a terrible thought you’ve allowed to be printed?
You call yourself a sports journalist, and from all that I have read and heard regarding Harry’s passing, your story came off as the most cold and insincere “tribute.”
You should have done a little homework and told your readers something that they may not have known about Harry the K. I am sure that when Mr. Scully passes, Philadelphia journalist will do a much better job of informing their readers of his accomplishments. Your description of Philadelphians as being “agitated” by Harry’s death is inaccurate. We are NOT agitated. We are saddened. I’m a 51 year old fan. I have vague memories of By Saam and Bill Campbell doing Phils broadcast, but my memories of Phils broadcast are best represented by the tandem of Harry and Whitey Ashburn. The way these two men brought you into the stands and played off of each other are memories that ALL Phillies fan’s will cherish.
My suggestion for you, is to perhaps take some sensitivity training and perhaps crack open your old journalism textbook. The next time you go to write a story, try sticking to the subject. My hope is that when Vin Scully’s time comes, you are not the one to attempt an obituary.
Good luck with your “journalism” career.
kevin
3 Ian // Apr 14, 2009 at 6:57 AM
I would contend that Chick Hearn was nearly as important in SoCal as Vin, but I’m of that age.
I hate the Dodgers. Hate Hate Hate. Never liked them ever. And yet I would watch every Dodger game on KTTV as a kid because I liked Vin Scully. I would always change the channel or do homework when Ross Porter or (god forbid) Jerry Doggett was on. Vin could read the phone book and I would enjoy it.
Hickey and I have had this discussion before, but I’ve always been pissed that the Gibson homer in 88 is most often played with Jack Buck’s radio call. Vin’s TV call was as good or better, and he quickly and eloquently said it. From “And look who’s comin’ up…” (I can hear Padilla doing it) he let the moment build without saying a word. He barely speaks after the homer, to let the crowd the the story. And he closed it perfectly, “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”
I buy mlb.tv and listen to sirius as much for the great voices as the games. I’m an Angels fan, but you have to listen to Vin, Uecker (try him. he’s REALLY good on radio), Kalas. The day Vin is gone the the end of “the Dodgers” that we all know.
4 Chuck Hickey // Apr 14, 2009 at 1:01 PM
Grew up an Angels fan but Vin Scully was/is so great, I, too, would always listen to him. Radio or TV. Scully’s call on Gibson was great, yes, but I still think Buck nudges him out. Yes, Ian, even after all these years.
As for Chick Hearn and SoCal: Yeah, he meant A LOT. I loved Chickie Burger. He and Vin were totally different, but both had the listening audience in their grips. Whenever the Lakers were in the Finals and we were stuck with the Celtics announcing team of Dick Stockton and Tom Heinsohn, I (and many others) tuned it out and turned on the radio to listen to Chick.
And when he went, wow, that was bad. The outpouring was tremendous.
But when Vin goes, the outpouring will be 100 times more than that for Chick. He’s had that effect.
I was lucky to have grown up to listen to two titans in broadcasting. And whenever I get the chance to listen to Vin, I still do.
It’s funny you write this because on Sunday, CBS did a thing on Seve Ballesteros at the Masters. And they replayed some of the original CBS footage from Ballesteros’ first win, 1980. The 18th tower lead announcer? Vin. Many forget he did golf for CBS and NBC and he also did football for CBS.
5 Jacob Pomrenke // Apr 16, 2009 at 1:29 AM
Can’t add much more except to say I agree with Ian on Uecker (his choking-up after the Braun grand slam in the final week last year still gives me chills) … agree with Chuck on the Gibson call … and very much agree with Kevin on the cynical presumption of Philly’s “distress” and “agitation” about Harry the K.
As someone who was born on the Atlantic seaboard and has had the pleasure of listening to Kalas for pretty much my entire life, I’ve got a lot of fond memories of him and I was about as devastated to hear the news of his death as I was for the passing of my beloved Braves’ iconic voice Skip Caray last summer.
Great baseball announcers everywhere have a special bond with their listeners, and let’s not pretend that Los Angeles has more of a claim to that bond with Scully than other cities do with their legendary voices. The Southland will be devastated when Scully is gone, but no more so than Milwaukee fans will be when Uecker is gone, just like Atlanta with Skip and Philly with Kalas and St. Louis with Jack Buck and Chicago with Harry Caray.
6 Ian // Apr 16, 2009 at 6:52 AM
I have to go back and add that I would pay extra to NOT have to listen to Physioc and Hudler on Angels radio.
7 Damian // Apr 17, 2009 at 3:01 PM
I know Harry Kalas is considered more a baseball guy, but I loved his narration for NFL Films the most.
I’ll take Chicky baby over Vin. Of course, I’m a Laker fan and an Angel fan, not a Dodger fan, and I’m a bigger hoops fan than I am a baseball fan. I am susceptible to subjectivity here. But the two had different styles, as has been pointed out here and the two can’t really be compared because they called different types of games.
Vinny takes a more prose approach, banking heavily on his historical perspective of the game and its players. The tempo and nature of a baseball game lends to this. It always amazes me and cracks me up that Vin knows more about the opposing teams’ players than that team’s home broadcasters know and that Vin relays those stories along first.
Chick was more upbeat, fun and showed more personality and mojo in his broadcasts, creating his own lexicon and showing more emotion in his calling of a game. The uptempo nature of basketball lends to this and to more of a calling of the game as it happens. There is no time to interject with stories as Vinny can in between pitches and batters.
I certainly appreciate Vin, but the fan in me tends to relate with Chick’s style more.
Anyhow, they’re both timeless broadcasters that, along with the Kings’ Bob Miller, have managed to spoil SoCal sports fans for decades.
And having heard them makes it all the more torture to listen to all Angels and Lakers broadcasters, on TV or over the radio. It’s like watching a Premier League match Saturday or Sunday morning, and then forcing yourself to sit through an MLS match that same afternoon or evening.
The standard of baseball broadcasting is low, once you take Vinny out of the equation. Look no further than what qualifies as the lead announcer for baseball’s national network. Joe Buck only has a job in baseball because of his dad, knows very little about MLB’s landscape apart from the Yankees, Red Sox and Cardinals, and has nothing interesting to say in broadcast. Full of cliches, plainly calls a game and tells absolutely no stories.
8 Doug Padilla // Apr 18, 2009 at 4:28 PM
Since I have heard Vinny echo my name throughout the press box, I can die now. It’s not exactly the best story to tell, but the guy did say my name. He boomed something like this: “I got a Doug Padilla story in my newspaper and there wasn’t a score in it.”
I heard this quite clearly while sitting in the front row of the press box. Vin was by the door to the media dining room. He added something like, “I got a bad paper.”
I later explained that he had an early-deadline edition with a plugger story where the game story would eventually go. He was kind enough to say it was a good story, just not the one he was looking for. Then he added, “I’m not sure why I needed a game story since I was at the game.”
(Please put voice inflections in those Vin quotes wherever you see fit.)
9 Ian // Apr 19, 2009 at 7:56 AM
Doug, and then you said, “2 and 2 to Marty Barrett…”
Right? Please?
10 Char Ham // Apr 19, 2009 at 3:59 PM
The end of last season, when Vin was approached to renew his contract, he said he would ask his wife first. I don’t blame him. We all know that he is smart and wisely talked it over with her. Yes, as fans we might find it hard but as each of us having families I don’t blame him. She gave him her blessing and as it is known, he restricts his travel no further than the west of MS.
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