The End of an Era: Vin Scully retires after 67 years of announcing Los Angeles Dodgers Games

Throughout the years, Samo has seen great scholars and athletes that all started with a dream and went on to achieve the impossible. Like those students, Vin Scully was a young, fiery red-haired boy who was inspired by looking up at a billboard showing the postseason score of the underdog of the World Series, the Giants. Little did he know that one day, he would be the symbol of San Francisco’s rival: the Dodgers. The recently retired Dodgers’ announcer gave way to a stream of generations that listened in on 67 years of baseball lessons. From little kids who slept with a transistor radio under their pillows to old men trying to stay awake to hear the final score, Scully knew how to turn a game into hope and bring out the magic in our nation’s pastime. Isabel Gusman (’19) has listened to Dodger games for her entire life, and she recalls Scully’s broadcasting as a voice that she could never forget.“He made the radio sound like reality and made the game even clearer than the TV,” Gusman said. “With the imagery and descriptions he [portrayed], Scully is known as the storyteller.”When he first started as the Dodgers’ broadcaster in 1949, the transistor radio was the only way to be in the game without buying a ticket, and Jackie Robinson was still stealing bases and breaking barriers that had never been touched before.Cindy Garcia (’18) has been a Dodger fan since the day she was born and grew up listening to Scully every night.“[I’ll remember Scully’s] presence and the way he spoke; he was super sweet and warming,” Garcia said. Scully’s gentle yet overarching presence not only touched the lives of students at Samo, but the kids that grew up to become teachers, those who continue to savor the lasting memories of the voice that spoke of legends.“[My favorite Scully moment was] Kirk Gibson’s home run,” history teacher Doug Kim said. Almost forty years after the start of Scully’s career, Kirk Gibson led the Dodgers into the World Series on two injured legs. Despite this setback, Gibson launched the ball into the headlights of the stadium during the bottom of the ninth and a silence swept through the crowd. Scully sat still and a sold out stadium watched in awe until the headlights burst and the crowds roared once again. Scully’s most famous call in baseball was spoken after leaving listeners silent for minutes to soak in the sound of history being made: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”“What I’ll miss most about him is how he used to paint a picture of the game using his voice,” Kim said.Scully inspired the Dodgers each year to live up to the words of the story that has lived on for generations through the announcer’s voice. Perhaps this will be the break of a curse, as Los Angeles proceeds in the postseason, and maybe this will be the year that Scully’s legend echoes in the clubhouse like the start of a new story.“When I was younger, I was at a Dodgers game with my dad and my sister and they were going around on camera talking about all the father-daughter pairs there,” Sammy Breuer (’20) said. “And Vin Scully was talking about how guys get lucky to have daughters. The camera went on me, my dad and my sister, and Vin Scully said, ‘And some guys get double lucky.’” That day, Breuer became part of Scully’s story and knew that she would always remember the way he was able to affect all fans on both sides of the field.“He was a great announcer, and I’m sad that my kids won’t get to witness his talent,” Breuer said. In 67 years, one person has touched the lives of those who have been exposed to his illustrious speeches; from a little girl now a freshman to a veteran teacher who has been living in Los Angeles for 32 years. Each season, the same box in the same corner blares a voice so loud and historic, our ancestors can still hear the reverberations.