By: TOM HOFFARTH for the Orange County Register.
In the final home run of Vin Scully’s Dodger Stadium broadcasting career, the Dodgers players provided all the necessary drama and more to set the stage for one last virtuoso performance Sunday afternoon.
Building on an emotionally charged storyline that hit all the vintage Vinny touchstones, a 10th-inning walk-off home run that gave the Dodgers a 4-2 victory and clinched the National League West title provided a tailor-made send-off script for Scully to deliver to the radio and TV audience.
“Swung on and a high fly ball into deep left field … Would you believe a home run!? And the Dodgers have clinched the division and they’ll celebrate on schedule,” said Scully, who had been describing both the game on the field in front of him and the nail-biting ending to the San Francisco Giants’ game in San Diego against the Padres.
Either a Dodgers win or a Giants loss would have clinched the title for the Dodgers, and both games seemed to want to end at about the same time. Moments after Culberson’s homer, the Giants’ 4-3 loss was registered in San Diego.
As the Dodgers-owned SportsNet LA telecast was carried locally on over-the-air broadcast by KTLA/5 and nationally by the MLB Network, Scully also had the chance to call a dramatic two-out, ninth-inning homer by rookie star Corey Seager that tied the game at 3-3 to send it into extra innings.
“I’m terribly embarrassed,” Scully said over the public-address system to the crowd just minutes after the game ended and the players began to celebrate. “I was hoping the team would win the game 10-0, there’d be no tension, and it would be a nice easy day.”
In his final game at Dodger Stadium – he will do the last of his three broadcasts next Sunday when the Dodgers play in San Francisco – Scully, 88, thanked the sellout crowd for keeping him young at heart and asked if they could oblige him and by listening to a recording of his singing the Bette Midler song, “Wind Beneath My Wings.”
As the climax to an already-emotional send-off for Scully by the team and the fans, the song elicited even more tears from those in the stadium.
Scully began his last day of work at the stadium by attending a Catholic Mass in a room near the team locker room, and when asked to speak at the conclusion, he wept over the news about the death of Miami Marlins 24-year-old pitcher Jose Fernandez.
Yet when the game and the broadcast began hours later, Scully focused on the play on the field and made just a brief mention of the Fernandez death as it pertained to his friend, Dodgers outfielder and fellow Cuban escapee Yasiel Puig.
Scully did not notice at first that, as the Dodgers players were coming to bat in the first inning, all would stop before stepping to the plate and either tip their cap or wave up to him in the Vin Scully Press Box.
“Are they waving up here? Oh, that’s terrific … holy mackerel,” Scully said. “I saw (second hitter) Justin (Turner) and I thought he’s waving to someone in the stands, but (leadoff man Howie) Kendrick did the same thing.”
The TV camera occasionally caught a shot of Scully acknowledging it back as he continued to read his notes that he wanted to get into the broadcast.
“No score, first inning … and it’s not about me, this is a big day for the Dodgers with a chance to win the Western Division,” Scully said as many in the crowd could hear him with their transistor radios as his voice was simulcast for the first three innings.
In typical Scully fashion, he noted the sun was “bearing down unmercifully right now” at 95 degrees and reminded people to get plenty of water, sunblock and wear a hat, “even if you have to put a scorecard over your head.”
In the bottom of the second, he started to do a promotion about 2017 season tickets with the phrase: “Want to talk about next year?”
At one point, many of his 16 grandchildren came into the broadcast booth and posed for a photograph with him, one put up on the Dodger Stadium video screen. Scully’s wife, Sandi, was with him in the booth the entire game.
“I don’t think the (video) board is big enough,” Scully said. “Well, it’s just kind of a rare and special day.”
As the game ran its course, Scully told stories about the first time he met Babe Ruth as a kid when he was at the old Polo Grounds in New York. Instead of signing autographs, Ruth was giving out business cards with his autograph already printed on it.
“I got one,” Scully said. “I lost it.”
Scully also talked about his relationship with former owner Walter O’Malley, who moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958. After Scully completed his first full season in 1950, he said he was “absolutely flabbergasted” that O’Malley himself called “this third-string announcer” to tell him that he would be retained for another year after there was an ownership group change.
“My relationship and love for him grew and grew,” said Scully. “If he was not my second father, he was like an uncle. I really miss him.”
The Dodgers announced the attendance 51,962, pushing the home season total to more than 3.7 million, best in the majors. Scully took the moment late in the game to credit the fans for their support on that achievement.
“Can you imagine if there was no one at the ballpark and we were televising a game? It would be awful,” he said. “How about a movie (with) a dramatic moment and no music? As flat as yesterday’s ginger ale.”
The crowd, Scully would also say, had gone through a day when they were “thoroughly frustrated, then depressed, then elated” after the two-out ninth-inning homer.
By the time the 10th inning happened – or “extra Vin-nings” as some called it – they were exhausted.
“And, boy, did it work out perfectly for the final home game of the regular season,” Scully tied it all together.
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