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MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 19, 2016

Vin Scully

JOE JARECK: Good morning, on behalf of the Dodgers and Vin, I want to welcome everyone and thank you for joining us today. Thank you, and thank you to Vin for agreeing to do this.

Q. Vin, congratulations on everything.
VIN SCULLY: Oh, bless your heart, John. Nice to hear your voice, and look forward to seeing you next week.

Q. Of course, that will be great. You walked to the Polo Grounds as a kid, a fan of Mel Ott, both teams moving to the west coast together, and the Giants have been a big part of your broadcast, obviously. What was it like broadcasting games at Seals Stadium and later Candlestick Park with all the wind and now at the new place, the differences and how have the accommodations changed? I understand Seals Stadium might have been different from today's standards?
VIN SCULLY: First of all, when we arrived at Seals Stadium, they did not really have any kind of a radio booth. We didn't televise. So we actually were one row behind the regular fans, and once they realized that we were doing, for instance, a beer commercial live, why, they'd start hollering, just good‑naturedly, but they'd start hollering the names of all the other brands of beer that they could possibly think of. So that taught us to record all the commercials rather than be heckled by the fans.
And they'd also do, in all honesty, I'd be doing the game at Seals Stadium, and a fellow would turn around and just say to me, "Do you have a match?" It was that informal and that close. So that was an experience. But it was new, it was exciting, and the fans were fun.
At Candlestick, the wind was a nightmare, but I also thought that the surroundings affected the personality of the audience. I could be completely wrong, but it was cold and raw, windy, and I think the people in the stands were unhappy and sometimes would take their unhappiness out‑‑ I mean, we actually had one or two players, if I remember correctly, go up into the stands over somebody making some terrible remark.
But once they moved to AT&T Park, it's completely different. The fans are good‑natured, they're happy, they're fair, they're wonderful. And although I certainly know nothing about mass psychology and all that stuff, I think the weather at Candlestick kind of embittered the fan, and the weather at AT&T has made it a wonderful party atmosphere. No meanness at all.

Q. How significant is it to call your last game in San Francisco, considering the rivalry going back so many years?
VIN SCULLY: Oh, I love it. In fact, I couldn't believe it. I actually got a fan, I'll try to speed this up for anybody else listening, they might want to use it. I was not quite nine years old. I was walking home from grammar school. I went by a Chinese laundry, and in the window was the line score of the World Series game, that would be October 2nd, 1936, and the Yankees beat up the Giants 18‑4.
As a little boy, my first reaction was, oh, the poor Giants. Then my grammar school was 20 blocks from the old Polo Grounds, so I could walk after school at 2:30, catch the game at 3:15 for nothing, because I was a member of the Police Athletic League and the Catholic Youth Organization. So that's when I fell in love with baseball and became a true fan. My last game with the Giants will be October 2nd, 2016. That will be exactly 80 years to the minute from when I first fell in love with the game.
So it seems like the plan was laid out for me, and all I had to do was follow the instructions.

Q. Could you speak to, you've done television also, what was the difference when you were doing radio? It seems to me that the fans see the game almost imaginatively, translating it into their own pictures through your voice, and I don't know if that's correct or not. But also to how much by being on every day you and the other play‑by‑play announcers around baseball have become almost parts of the family to fans and shut ins and things like that?
VIN SCULLY: Well, first of all, the best way to describe the difference between radio and television, I could take Sandy Koufax's perfect game which I did on radio, and by doing it on radio I could describe him running his fingers through his hair, drying his hand off on his pants leg, heaving a big sigh, describing in minute detail, if I could, to add to the drama.
Then let's take Clayton Kershaw's no‑hitter two years ago. That was done on television. Well, I couldn't describe anything that I did on radio because you were looking at it, and when I had a whole big deal on Sandy, all I could say for Clayton Kershaw when his no‑hitter took place, well, he's done it. So there's a big difference.
You could also make a cliche out of it, that when you come into the radio booth there is a blank canvas, and for about three hours you're trying to paint whatever you're looking at. But on television when you walk into the booth, the picture's already there, so immediately you're just trying to add a few comments beneath the picture.
And as far as day after day, you're absolutely right. Growing up in New York, I mean, as a child and as I grew older, I mean, the voices of Mel Allen and Red Barber, but they were part of my family, just listening every day. So I understand that and I know for all of us I can say we're all extremely grateful to have that reaction from the fans, sure. And of course you're going to get criticism as well, but it keeps you in line.

Q. I know you don't always feel comfortable with all the attention being placed on you during this time and this entire season. But what's this been like for you this year dealing with all of the attention and questions and interviews and accolades? Is there anything about it that's surprised you? Has it been fun? Has it been awkward?
VIN SCULLY: First of all, I attribute it to one thing and one thing only. God's Grace to allow me to do what I've been doing for 67 years. To me, that's really the story. Not really me, I'm just a vessel that was passed hand to hand, down through all those years. So I don't take it to heart as some great compliment. I just realize that because I've been doing this for 67 years, that's why everybody wants to talk about it. So I think I've kept it in proper perspective.
Even though it is a little embarrassing, to be honest. I'm uncomfortable with it. I've never wanted to get out in front of the game. I mean, gee whiz, Giants and Dodgers tonight, I don't want people to think this is Vin's last whatever. I just want them to enjoy the Giants and the Dodgers. So I am uncomfortable having been pushed out into this spot.
But again, to be repetitive, I realize the only reason there is all this fuss and fury is the fact that I've lasted 67 years, to be honest.

Q. Is that also essentially the reason why you've decided not to do the playoffs just because of not wanting to take away from the games?
VIN SCULLY: Exactly, then it would be even worse. And I also didn't want to say goodbye like they do in grand opera, and they say goodbye 25 times in 15 minutes. I'll be saying goodbye to the people here at Dodgers Stadium. I'll be saying goodbye to baseball in general when I leave in San Francisco, and I couldn't possibly think and then I'm going to say goodbye from let's just say Washington or New York, doing radio in the playoffs. It just didn't work right for me. So to me, we'll tie the ribbon on the package in San Francisco, and that will be that.

Q. Two questions for you, one, have you thought about what your emotions might crop up particularly Sunday against the Rockies in your final game at Dodger Stadium? That's my first question. The second question, have you ever thought what would you have done if you had not been a baseball broadcaster for 67 years?
VIN SCULLY: Well, I'll take the second one first. When I was growing up as a little boy, I didn't really‑‑ the only thing I loved in the beginning at 8 years old was the roar of the crowd. I would crawl under this big old radio we had, and the only sports in those days would be college football on radio. And I would listen to a game that really meant nothing. Alabama‑Tennessee, Michigan‑Ohio State, but it was the roar of the crowd that poured out of the loud speaker like water out of a shower head, and I would just be covered in goose bumps.
And each time, every Saturday I would listen, and eventually I got into, gee, I love the roar, I'd love to be there. And then later on I projected I'd love to be the announcer. But I figured, the announcer that was somewhere in never, never land.
So when I went off to school and went to high school, I thought I'd be a writer. I wrote a column for the high school paper. The column that I wrote at Fordham University was a pretty impressive column because of those who had written ahead of me. John Kieran who was a genius, Arthur Daley of the New York Times who won all kinds of awards. So I followed in their footsteps writing the column called Looking Them Over.
So that's what I thought. I worked as a copyboy for the New York Times, and I really thought that I'd wind up writing for a living.
But then I went into the Navy for a year. Didn't go anywhere, didn't do anything. And when I came back, Fordham had an FM station, and that was the opportunity and that began going in the opposite direction. Although for times I would write my own material, which I would then use on the air. So there was a definite change in direction only with the good fortune of having an FM station.
As far as emotions are concerned, I think I've got them in check, but you never know. You never really know. And I don't think I'm going to stress anything about me. I will try to just do the game. I mean, I really will. I'll concentrate on Denver as if they're challenging the Dodgers for first place. And the game will take its place, and hopefully carry me along with it to the very end. So I think I'll be okay.

Q. Thank you, Vin. I think for everyone that's listening, I think it's more than just 60 years. You are one of the most enjoyable parts of the pastime. You really are?
VIN SCULLY: I tell you, I'm deeply touched for that remark. I'll put it aside, and maybe I'll think about it as I gaze at a flower or something during my retirement.

Q. As you know, baseball has been blessed over the many decades to have so many great announcers. Unfortunately, not as many as there used to be. But we have one here in Milwaukee, very unique, Bob Uecker. And I was just wondering, if you had any special, funny meetings with him or things that you remember? Maybe even as a player, he always makes fun of his playing career. But he's so unique because not a lot of people took him serious at first and then he became a beloved broadcaster here in Milwaukee. Do you have any funny Uecker stories?
VIN SCULLY: Offhand, no. I will say, number one, all honesty, I love Bob. I loved him as a player who would always, as you said, downgrade his own abilities. But he was also very popular with his own teammates so you knew he was a good guy. When he eventually got into the radio and television booth, I would see him and I would absolutely enjoy. We used to get together, usually in Atlanta when he started, and I'd meet him in the press box, and I'd be able to watch an inning or two with him before going back on the air, and he would just keep me in stitches. Down through the years I've really looked forward to seeing him anytime that we were playing his team.
I did regret when I cut traveling and he cut traveling when I didn't have a chance to see him again. I do remember, I did an interview with him in Milwaukee, and we sat on two chairs and it was the hardest interview I've ever done because he had me crying inside with laughter, and I'm trying to continue without just falling down on the ground. It was the usual stuff about how when he found out that he was no longer a member of the team, when he went to the dressing room and they said to him, sorry, no visitors allowed. That was a marvelous way to get the news, I guess. But I just love him, and any treasured minute with him is worth a lot.

Q. That's so true. I'm sure Dodger fans can't imagine what it's going to be like without you. Do you think Milwaukee fans wonder the same thing about Bob Uecker when it will be like when we don't have him anymore?
VIN SCULLY: Oh, I think so. But I've been asked or told a lot about oh it won't be the same or we miss you, et cetera. And that's very nice. But you know what? I look back over my career, and I can remember Mel Allen leaving the Yankees. I thought the Yankees can't play without Mel Allen, and Russ Hodges leaving the Giants, and Jack Buck leaving St. Louis, and Harry Caray leaving Chicago, Red Barber leaving Brooklyn. I mean, all these were, oh, my gosh, they'll never be the same. But you know what, a year or so, however long it takes and you'll be history, and I know that, and someone else will hopefully ride and have a great career in your place.

Q. Well, that may be true, but I think I speak for everybody that knows you who says there will never be another Vin Scully. I just want to say your greatness is only exceeded by your graciousness, and thank you so much.
VIN SCULLY: Well, that's again, awfully sweet. Probably the best part of this, I loved the New York writers. When I started they took me in, so to speak. Dick Young then of the Daily News called me Schooly. Kind of moved my final name, but what it was really for was like school boy, like school boy row, and I was Schooly. And all of the writers just helped this kid along in every imaginable way and they gave me a tremendous boost.

Q. Well it's gone both ways, so thank you so much.
VIN SCULLY: I appreciate it, Tom. Thank you very much.

Q. I echo everything that Tom just said. I grew up in Los Angeles loving you. I'm 59 years old now. My son enjoys you, my father did. The way you connect generations now, fathers, sons, grandfathers, great grandfathers, does that make you feel really good when you hear about that, someone who listened to you years ago and now their son or grandson is doing the same?
VIN SCULLY: You know, one of the great residuals of the job, and I hear this a lot, again, because of all the years that have flown by, people will say to me, you know, when I hear your voice, I think of backyard barbecues with my mom and dad. Or painting the garage with my father and your radio on listening to the ballgame.
It's nice to be a bridge. It really is from one generation to another. I keep saying it because I mean it so much. God has been so good to me to allow me to do what I'm doing at a very young age, a childhood dream that came to pass. Then giving me 67 years to enjoy every minute of it, that's a pretty large Thanksgiving Day for me. So, yeah, I've loved it, and I loved the connection with people and to hear about it too.

Q. What concerns did you have coming out to Los Angeles? And at what point, whether it was a moment or a monster season, did you know that you'd been accepted here in L.A.?
VIN SCULLY: Well, I think the first emotion was it was somewhat bittersweet. Maybe that's not the proper word. But the thought of leaving New York was somewhat overwhelming. All my friends, my relatives, my high school, my college, everything was back in New York, and it was a little scary. But the other side was, oh, thank God, I've got the job because there was a fear, and I was told this for sure, there was considerable pressure on Mr.O'Malley that the people in Southern California wanted him to employ the announcers out here. And I'm sure for good reason.
But being Mr.O'Malley the way he was, he prided loyalty, and Jerry and I were extremely loyal to him. We would have done anything he wanted. So there was tremendous relief that, wow, at least I've got the job.
Then of course when I came out here, the greatest single break, and my life is just full of breaks, but the greatest single break was the transistor radio, and the fact that people came to the Coliseum, and they were, well, what, 70‑some odd rows away from the action, they knew the superstars. I mean, they knew Willie Mays, and Stan Musial, and some of the other great stars. But the rank and file, they didn't.
So they brought the radio to find out about all the other players and maybe to help out to see what they're trying to see down on the field. So I think that was the biggest single break for any broadcaster coming to a new community to be able to talk directly to the fans. We had the crowd sing happy birthday to an umpire. I had a big deal going one night asking the crowd how long is a second because the balk rule, you had to hold the ball set for one second before the pitcher would throw. So we got to where they would laugh, they would grown at a bad pun, and it was fun.
When they started to respond, I'll always remember the worst pun I ever gave was in the Coliseum. Joe Torre was the catcher and he caught a foul tip off his hand. He had to come out of the game. But the next day he played third base, and I was just talking to the fans and somehow this came out. I said, "Well, there is Joe playing third. If he does not ever put the gear back on behind the plate, he will forever be known as Chicken Catcher Torrey. The grown from the crowd of 50, 60,000 was something that I'll still remember to my dying day.

Q. I had the opportunity yesterday to talk with your old friend Larry Miggins.
VIN SCULLY: Oh, my gosh. Did you really?

Q. I did. He said he's been thinking of you. That he had been thinking about the lines of an old Irish poem about retirement that he was thinking of you about it. He put his wife, Kathleen, on the phone and she recited all three verses of Farewell! But Whenever You Welcome the Hour by Thomas Moore, in your honor.
VIN SCULLY: Oh, my goodness, great. I'll look that up.

Q. I have two questions. One I realize that calling Larry's first home run was very, very early in your career. But I didn't know if that was still something that you hold dear in terms of the memory of your broadcasting career?
VIN SCULLY: Oh, absolutely. Whenever I'm called upon to give some small speech somewhere, especially if there are a lot of young people in the audience, I always wind up with that story for the simple reason I tell the kids don't be afraid to dream. Don't be afraid to think, oh, well, I can never do that or that could never happen. And that story has a pretty good impact on a lot of young people to get them to try to what they aspire to be.

Q. Well, he's thinking of you here as you come toward the end of your career.
VIN SCULLY: Oh, bless him. He is such a sweetheart, so is Kathleen. They're about as Irish as you can get, I think.

Q. That's very true. My second question, I realize there was one weekend in 1989 when you called 38 innings over two days at the Astrodome. I didn't know if there were any memories of that or any memories of your time in Houston?
VIN SCULLY: Yeah, what happened was I was doing the game of the week as well as the Dodger games. So on Saturday I forget whether I was in Chicago or St. Louis, but I did a game on Saturday afternoon. Then got an airplane to fly to Houston, and I actually walked into the booth just as they were announcing the National Anthem. So I then did that game.
Well, the game in Chicago or St. Louis, that was like ten innings. Then the game in Houston that night went 23, and then Sunday another 13 innings. So I did something like 46 innings in whatever many hours. And the best part of the story, when the game ended, I came out of the booth admittedly a little tired, and there was a telegram waiting for me, and it was from one of my dearest friends in the world who was a sports writer in San Diego by the name of Phil Collier, and it was just perfect. The telegram read Lou Gehrig was a wimp.

Q. I wouldn't be in broadcasting if it were not for you. You inspired me.
VIN SCULLY: Oh, my gosh. I'm so glad that you've made it.

Q. Yeah, I sold my soul to the devil, I'm in news. The question I have for you is you have often said you never, ever wanted to take away from the moment, and silence was often a key to your broadcasting. Can you talk about that?
VIN SCULLY: Well, I mentioned earlier that when I was very small, about 8 years old the only thing we had was radio, and the only sports on radio would be college football, basically, with an occasional Joe Louis heavyweight championship fight, something like that.
And I had my parents had this big old four‑legged radio with a cross piece underneath it. And I would get a pillow and maybe a glass of milk and some saltine crackers or whatever, and I would crawl underneath the radio on a Saturday, put the pillow on the crossbar, put my head on the pillow, and I was directly underneath the speaker. And I was absolutely carried away by the roar of the crowd. It wasn't the announcer; it was just the roar of the crowd. And I've made it a cliche. It came out of the speaker like water out of a shower head, and I would get goose bumps and think, oh, my gosh, this the greatest sound I've ever heard.
When I got into broadcasting, I was again captivated by the roar of the crowd. So what I've tried to do ever since the beginning was to call the play as accurately and quickly as possible, then sit back, and revel in the roar of the crowd. And for that brief few seconds, I was 8 years old again, I guess.

Q. If the Dodgers were to make a dramatic run, reach the World Series, would you try to attend any of the games in person?
VIN SCULLY: Probably not. First of all, I've certainly had experience with large crowds, so probably not. I'm not sure because the last time they won was 1988. I would probably watch, however, for sure, and maybe if I was invited to the last game or whatever, maybe I would go. But basically once I call it an end, which will be October 2nd, I'll try very hard to kind of just stay back and be the very normal guy that I am.

Q. I wanted to know if there's anything that you haven't gotten to call that you wish you could have? I know you've seen pretty much everything over 67 years, but is there anything over this final couple weeks that you'd like to see?
VIN SCULLY: Oh, gee, no. I really, my cup does runneth over. I've been so fortunate. They're not my accomplishments, and I stress that, but I've done 20‑some odd no‑hitters, and X‑number of perfect games and X‑All‑Stars and X‑World Series games, and a big football game, and the Masters golf.
No, God has been incredibly kind to allow me to be in the position to watch and to broadcast all of these somewhat monumental events. So, no, I really am filled with thanksgiving and the fact that I've been given such a chance to view. But none of those are my achievements. I just happen to be there.

Q. What will you miss most about your job, and how hard do you think it will be for you to not be broadcasting next year?
VIN SCULLY: Well, it would only be very human to miss something that I've been doing for 67 years. It's really been a major portion of my life. It's not been my life, but it's been certainly a major portion of it. I think more than anything, I will miss people.
When I come to Dodger Stadium, for instance, I know the lady on the elevator, and when I get off the elevator, I know the men who run the press box. And then I see all my pals who are writers and fellow broadcasters and people who are all assigned to cover the game and I really love all of that. Then the thrill, the opportunity to sit there and try to describe as best as possible what I'm looking at. The challenge is great as well. And I sure will miss all of that, and I know I will, and I'll try to do the best I can to live with it.
I'm fortunate, I have a wonderful wife. I have 16 grandchildren. We have three little great grandchildren, and I'm going to spend some time watching balm games, I think. Because a couple of the grandboys are good players. They really are. That's what I'm looking forward to. But I will miss it. Oh, I know that, dramatically, sure.

Q. Your final broadcast is going to take place in a broadcast booth that's named after Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons. What do you think about when you think about those guys?
VIN SCULLY: I knew them both very well. First of all, with Russ, when I was back in New York, I can actually remember one night in his kitchen harmonizing with Russ and Ernie Harwell, one of the beautiful memories in my entire life.
Russ was just terrific. He was a wonderful broadcaster, very emotional. I just loved being with him. So we spent a good bit of time together. Then on the west coast, when I met Lon, every time I went to San Francisco, I think Lon and I played golf. And when he came down here, he could play at my place.
So I remember them both very well. We had a lot of good kidding, of course, about our rivalry and the two teams. But they were dear, wonderful friends, as well as a great team of fine broadcasters.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the Dodgers‑Giants rivalry. Having grown up in L.A. and listening to you talk about the Dodgers and the Giants rolling in the dirt, it always seemed to have a special place for you that you really were into this as much as anybody and as into any other baseball rivalry. I just wonder if you could tell us what this rivalry meant to you? What was the essence or what is the essence of the Dodgers‑Giants rivalry?
VIN SCULLY: Well, you really have to go back to New York. Number two, you have to realize that the Dodger fans and the Giants fans were, in a lot of cases, shoulder to shoulder all year long working at their jobs. I can remember as a kid working for the post office during the Christmas holidays trying to make some money, and we'd be sliding mail, hundreds of them, standing in front of hundreds of cubby holes and putting mail in the holes. And we'd spend all the time, slotting and arguing about who was better, Duke Snider or Willie Mays, et cetera, et cetera.
Also, the borough of Brooklyn had an atmosphere of it's us against the world. So the Giants were the Lordly team on the Harlem River, and they'd come over to Brooklyn. In the olden days they tell me that McGraw would bring the Giants over to Brooklyn in horse drawn carriages, and the people in Brooklyn, the real fans, would throw things down on top of them. So the rivalry was somewhat bitter because of the fact there was a great deal of friction.
At least now you have several hundred miles separating the cities. Oh, sure, there are Giants fans down here, and there are Dodger fans in San Francisco. There's not quite the bitter rivalry they had in New York. And I'm delighted for that. I really am.
And I grew up really in the bleachers in the old Polo Grounds, so my seat would probably be, oh, thinking back, maybe 450 feet from home plate. Or if I was lucky, I'd be in the grandstand, but no matter where you sat you felt the rivalry. Because the people worked together, lived together, and argued all year long. So it's a little different.

Q. Also, growing up in L.A., and listening to you at the ballpark on transistor radio and at home, listening to the perfect game calls and things like that, everybody in town felt they had a relationship with you and you were part of the family. And I think part of that was because you were the one announcer in the booth as opposed to having a team in the booth.
VIN SCULLY: I'm sure.

Q. How important was that to you and your style being alone in the booth and as it relates directly to the fans?
VIN SCULLY: Yeah, I talked about that a little while ago. The greatest single break I feel that Jerry Doggett, my partner and I had, was we arrived in Los Angeles at the same time the transistor radio came out. The transistor radio and the fact we were playing in the Coliseum. The people would come. They were maybe 70 rows away from the ballgame. They'd look at players who were just little dots on the field. And they might have known the superstars. They knew Willie Mays and Stan Musial, but they didn't know the rank and file players.
So the combination of an opportunity to learn about the other players and to help them from a disadvantage of the distance from where they sat to where the game was being played, it became a great obligation to be as accurate as we possibly could.
Then after a few years I started actually doing things that were not usual. We had the crowd singing happy birthday to an umpire. We had crowds trying to figure out how long a second is. I would tell a joke or a bad pun, and the crowd would joke or laugh. It was the transistor that really opened everything up for us.

Q. Charley Steiner told me recently Vinny's amazing because he's the only guy that has a farewell tour come to him. A lot of players from David Ortiz, Joe Maddon, Manny Machado make their way to the booth, umpiring crews, other announcers. How touched are you by that?
VIN SCULLY: It's, first of all, I'm deeply touched and overwhelmed with gratitude that they would take the time. And it is kind of an awkward situation because at Dodger Stadium, the visiting clubhouse is way down near the right field foul pole, and yet a lot of them have made that trek in uniform just to come up and say hello. And I really am greatly touched. It's just one of the loveliest things that's ever occurred in my life. Then of course the umpires come in.
Years ago, Bruce Froemming, who was a friend, we'd see Bruce at Spring Training in Vero Beach, and one night no one knew it would happen, Bruce and his umpiring trio came out, went to home plate, had the exchange of lineup cards. They turned around and they all took their caps off and held it out in the air in saying hello to me, and I was absolutely blown away.
The other umpiring crews have done the same. All of them, when they come in, after the exchange of lineups, they take their hats off, they look up, some bow kiddingly and I wave or bow or do whatever I do. It's just a wonderful emotional bridge. And now they're coming up to say hello and goodbye.
So it's just a marvelous opportunity to meet a lot of people whom I could not meet because of the fact of the way the ballpark is built and the work that I have to do in the booth before the game.

Q. I know you've got a long road ahead of you. Retirement isn't the end of anything. I know you hate talking about yourself, but if someone mentions your name ten years from now, 20 years from now, what would you like them to say about you? When someone says Vin Scully, what would you like them to say?
VIN SCULLY: I really and truly would rather they remembered, oh, yeah, he was a good guy, or he was a good husband, a good father, a good grandfather. The sportscasting, that's fine if they want to mention it. But that will disappear slowly as, what is it, the sands of time blow over the booth. But the biggest thing is I just want to be remembered as a good man, an honest man, and one who lived up to his own beliefs.

Q. You may know this already, but sometimes in the New York area the traffic‑‑
VIN SCULLY: Oh, yeah, I've heard of that.

Q. I was driving over the GW this morning to come to New Jersey. I live in jersey, and the traffic backed up. And I knew I wanted to get on this call, so I thought the only thing I could do that was appropriate was pull into Bogota?
VIN SCULLY: Oh, really? Isn't that something.

Q. So I'm here in Bogota. I have no idea what street I'm on, but I'm glad I got on this call?
VIN SCULLY: Well, I'm delighted to hear from you. Your voice is very familiar to me. If you wind up on Palisades Avenue in Bogota, you'll probably go by our little house.

Q. Two things I've got to tell you. I heard you say that in your life you've had so many breaks, big breaks. But I'm sure you have said this on broadcast, the best teams make their own breaks. I suspect your breaks came from being as great as you are.
VIN SCULLY: Well, Marty, you're a dear friend, and I appreciate it. But I don't know how I could have made the breaks. I was riding the crest of a Brooklyn Dodger team that's produced so many All‑Star, Hall of Famers so they gave me the big push. And of course I was fortunate to have a hand in broadcasting their only World Championship.
So I really, and I know some people will not quite understand it, but I just think it's been God's generosity to put me in these places and just let me enjoy it.

Q. Well, he does make good choices, you know, once in a while.
VIN SCULLY: Yeah. That could be. That could be.

Q. You were talking about the Giants and Dodgers. Steve Jacobson told me this, and I'd like to hear it from you to make sure it's a hundred percent. He got it secondhand. I'm talking to you. I think that's firsthand. Snider told him that the dislikes of the Dodgers dislike for the Giants was so great that they didn't like Halloween because it had Giants colors.
VIN SCULLY: Yeah, orange and black (laughing). Yeah, well, you know, one thing too you might very well want to sum up a Giant‑Dodger rivalry. In Ebbets Field, the home dressing room was separated from the visiting dressing room by a door, a very simple door. And there were some bad moments. Really, I think around the time that Carl Furillo was beaned, and Leo was running the Giants and all of that, and they nailed up that door so you couldn't open it. You couldn't get into either room. To me that's silent testimony to the fact that the feelings really ran high.
And as I was talking earlier, the difference in California, oh, sure, we have Giants fans in L.A. and Dodger fans in San Francisco, but in New York, they were shoulder to shoulder all year long. And I'm repeating now, but I worked in the post office during Christmastime slotting mail to make a little money, and we'd be shoulder to shoulder 50 guys slotting mail arguing all through the winter about who was better, Mays or Snider or mantle or whatever.
So I don't think there is the intensity, except maybe momentarily when the game is on, like we had back there.

Q. Gary Thorne, I spoke to him about you mostly, and he said something I found fascinating. If Vinny came along today, he probably couldn't get a job. And that's probably true.
VIN SCULLY: Well, I really don't know. You know, one of the biggest breaks, and you talk about breaks, one of the great breaks I had was the fact that I was so young when I joined the Dodgers in Brooklyn that the writers kind of adopted me. Dick Young would always call me Schooly, and it wasn't just to twist my last name. It was school boy, like school boy row.
And the writers became good friends. They would help me. They would advise me. Really, I owe a great deal to the writers in Brooklyn, and the ones out here. They've been nothing but generous in their comments and it's been overwhelming, really.

Q. Well, one of the best things Jack Lenny ever did for me was to introduce me to you.
VIN SCULLY: Oh, and the same. Believe me, Marty, I don't know if we'll ever see each other or not, but I'll say it in all honesty, God bless you.

Q. Thank you, Vinny. Take care of yourself, enjoy retirement.
VIN SCULLY: All right, Marty, you too.

Q. Did you ever think about the path not taken? You had a chance to go kind of bigger into the NFL a few decades ago. Obviously, you stayed with the Dodgers and you continued to cover some calls. But do you ever look back at all about possibly becoming a bigger name nationally through the NFL?
VIN SCULLY: Oh, no, not at all. The reason I did the NFL was, first of all, I was offered the opportunity and I gave it a thought. And I kept thinking, you know, I've been doing baseball so long that I could fall into a trap of just doing it by rote and I thought I could use a challenge. So I was offered the opportunity to do football and golf. And I thought, you know, that's the best thing I should get now is a boost. I need to work harder in another sport.
So I used the NFL as much as I possibly could just trying to wake me up. And I was privileged to work with some wonderful experts, the analysis. And then I wound up with Hank Stram doing a game that will be memorable, I guess, the one called A Catch, with Joe Montana and Dwight Clark. When that game ended, I got on the airplane and I was emotionally worn out from doing it and making sure I didn't make some horrific mistake. But when I got on the airplane I thought, okay, I've done it. I've gotten the boost that I needed for my energy and that was it.
When the plane landed and I got home, I told my family, that's a great game on which to call it a football career, and that was it. It served a marvelous purpose to just to reawaken me, I guess.

Q. Thanks a lot. You'll be missed.
VIN SCULLY: You're welcome indeed. Thank you so much.

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