The Passing of Vin Scully

My hero has passed. Vin Scully, a voice like no other, a constant in my life since the 1960s, passed away today at 94. Sitting as I do most summer nights watching Dodger baseball when the news crawled across the bottom of the TV screen a short while ago. I’ve been in tears since. Vin, the most revered and beloved baseball broadcaster ever, a Hall Fame inductee, the greatest to put on a headset and a mentor of mine in many ways, has left us. He not only made the games come to life, he taught me how to tell stories as I listened night after night, season after season. We never met. But we were connected through the Panasonic transistor radio I slid under my pillow as a young boy on many steamy nights growing up in north Orange County. I fell asleep to his smooth and lyrical voice, only to have Mom tip toe into my darkened room and remove my prized device long after the game had ended and I was fast asleep dreaming of being in the booth calling games. Vin’s last game was in 2016, but I still hear his voice as I read the game stories every morning in the papers today. Now Vin has gone to Blue Heaven where all great Dodgers go. I am sad, grateful and forever changed because of this strange and wonderful relationship I had with Vin and that voice. Even now, after finishing this post, I thought the tears would stop trickling from my eyes. But they haven’t and may not until this night, or this season ends, or maybe ever, or as long as baseball is part of my daily existence. Thanks Vinny for making my life richer.