Missing vin (1)

22d annual

Baseball in Literature and Culture conference -

March 31, 2017Ottawa, KS

agenda

“Missing Vin”celebrating the unrivaled coast-to-coast broadcast legacy of Vin Scully, Brooklyn 1950 - Los Angeles 2016

Phil Oliver

[email protected]

mMiddle Tennessee State

University

Alternate (if more enigmatic) title:

“Whoosh”: finding secular meaning in the booth

(along with humility, gratitude, and classic virtue, arete)

“Hi everybody and a very pleasant good afternoon to you, wherever you may be.”

officialvinscully.com

The 1950 Brooklyn Dodgers Yearbook made mention of their newest broadcaster with the following excerpt: "Third and youngest member of the Dodger airlanes trio (with Red Barber & Connie Desmond) is Vince Scully, a 1949 Fordham University graduate who in his closing college days covered Ram football, basketball and baseball games over the school station after lettering for two years as an outfielder on the diamond. Vince is 23, single, makes his home in New York." BA

Vin’s equanimity about endings, and his reluctance to be the story (and not the teller), echoes Barber’s advice. The night Red died, in October 1992, Vin went on the air recalling his old mentor’s words. “I could almost hear him telling me, ‘Vinny, don’t spend any time during the game talking about me. The people have not tuned in to hear about me. You want to talk about me, talk after and before the game. But when you go into that booth you do the game.’” The game went on; life went on...

Vin Scully: Dodgers' announcer reflects on Hall of Fame career | SI.com

“I’m not a military general, a business guru, not a philosopher or author,” Scully told the graduates in

the adjacent Vincent Lombardi Fieldhouse. “It’s only me.”

Only me? Vin Scully is only the finest, most-listened-to baseball broadcaster that ever lived, and even

that honorific does not approach proper justice to the man. He ranks with Walter Cronkite among

America’s most-trusted media personalities, with Frank Sinatra and James Earl Jones among its most-

iconic voices, and with Mark Twain, Garrison Keillor and Ken Burns among its preeminent

storytellers...

Tom Verducci

Baseball's poet laureate and painter

"Vin Scully has the most musical voice in baseball. He doesn't have the clipped, old-time-radio cadence of most broadcasters who date back to the '50s and beyond. Although his timbre is thin, everything is smooth and rounded. The words slide into each other. He has flow. The melody rises and falls on the tide of the game. You can almost hum along to Vin Scully. He's often referred to as baseball's poet laureate, and those who don't get him parody him by quoting Emerson or spouting flowery language. But even though he will occasionally toss off some verse (he's likely to find the lyrics of an old show tune more apt) or call a cheap base hit "a humble thing, but thine own," the real metaphor for Vin Scully isn't poetry, or even music: It's painting...

Other radio announcers can tell you what's happening on the field, and you can imagine it. With Vin Scully, you can see it. His command of the language and the game is so masterful that he always has just the right words to describe what's going on. He paints you a picture." - Gary Kaufman in Salon (2000)

He was eventually the only living constant in the game year after year, for many of us, the charming and elegant storyteller with the bottomless memory. His retirement, so long anticipated, is hard not to regret. What an iconic, celebration-worthy career! But it’s over. Can’t we be sad about that, AND glad it happenend? But getting the sad-glad ratio right is always a challenge.

Tyler Kepner: "The Farewell Tour Comes to Vin Scully", "Extra Bases", The New York Times, August 27, 2016.

Bryce Harper, who grew up in Las Vegas and listened to Scully’s broadcasts, met with him during the Washington Nationals’ visit in June. Harper — who does a Scully imitation but calls it “terrible” — proudly owns a copy of Scully’s broadcast of his major league debut in Los Angeles in 2012.

“He talked about my mom and dad on it, where I was from, said my dad was an ironworker from Vegas, things like that,” Harper said. “But growing up, it wasn’t just about the game to him. It was about the beauty of the game, the beauty of the fans, how much he could bring the fans together and the Dodgers together, things like that. When you think of the Dodgers, you don’t just think about all the greats that played for the Dodgers, you think of Vin Scully as well.”

...Scully, 88, is not only greeted by umpires on the field. A procession of players, managers, coaches and umpires has made the trek — in uniform — up the ballpark elevator or escalators and into the Vin Scully Press Box to say goodbye to the man himself…

So, this is a paean to one of baseball's elite chroniclers as well as a meditation on finitude, gratitude, and the continuity of life that our best storytellers enshrine in living memory. Vin was treated to a summer of gratitude and appreciation himself, as representatives of team after team made a point of meeting and saluting the Dodger legend. Umps and legends too. Even “J’ints” fans.

Even “J’ints”...

“One thing stands out - gratitude…” Jaime Jarron

“Welcome to my Thanksgiving…”

He received the presidential medal of freedom in December, a fitting postscript to his final season. His humble reply, when White House press secretary Josh Earnest phoned with the news: "Are you sure? I'm just an old baseball announcer." Humble indeed, for someone who'd been enshrined in Cooperstown for 35 years already! Public acknowledgment of those who ennoble us with their narrative eloquence is itself a crucial chapter in our story. The larger point of "Missing Vin" is to underscore the importance of telling our whole story, and the stories of our best storytellers, year after year, with dignity and respect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPuIOY1TDhg

HoF class of ‘82 (Aaron, F.Robinson)… Ford Frick Award winners… Spink Award winners

President Barack Obama on Vin Scully...

His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was placed there on June 9, 1982 — about the time he was enshrined at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Joe Buck on Vin

Vin Scully memories, quotes from broadcasters | MLB.com

Farewell, Vin Scully

Scully ends career as he lived it, with class

Cut4: Scully's final sign-off

Scully's amazing career infographic

Lupica: Summers won't be the same anymore

Fellow broadcasters on mark Scully has left

Scully's 10 greatest calls

Ten best Vin Scully stories

Scully pens heartfelt letter to Dodgers fans

Enjoy Scully's fnniest calls

Vin Scully: Broadcasting Royalty

Watch: Vin Scully

10 of his most enthralling stories● The time Jonny Gomes was almost eaten by a wolf● The time Madison Bumgarner chopped up a snake and saved a rabbit● The Beatles narrowly escape Dodger Stadium● Vin Scully's Fun Flag Facts● Yogi Berra made sure he protected himself during a brawl● The plight of the endangered redheads● The little-known tale of J.D. Salinger, D-Day hero● A Dodgers fan and a Giants fan become a moral parable● He thought Sandy Koufax was too tan● The proliferation of beards in Major League Baseball● Mike Matheny owes his college career to bird poop

More than any particular story, though, what was always so enthralling about Vin was the way he crafted the interweaving and backgrounding of larger (though not always more profound) human stories with the immediate unfolding story of the “child’s game” he was describing.

“We’ll miss you, Vin Scully…”

“Fun fact, his father was one of those soccer players who ate his teammate after a plane crash in the Andes…”

“29,000 people and a million butterflies”Vin Scully's radio call of the ninth inning of Sandy Koufax's 1965 perfect game against the Chicago Cubs is pure baseball literature.

Three times in his sensational career has Sandy Koufax walked out to the mound to pitch a fateful ninth where he turned in a no-hitter. But tonight, September the 9th, nineteen hundred and 65, he made the toughest walk of his career, I’m sure, because through eight innings he has pitched a perfect game. He has struck out 11, he has retired 24 consecutive batters, and the first man he will look at is catcher Chris Krug, big right-hand hitter, flied to second, grounded to short. Dick Tracewski is now at second base and Koufax ready and delivers: curveball for a strike… (continues)

One and 1 to Harvey Kuenn. Now he’s ready: fastball, high, ball 2. You can’t blame a man for pushing just a little bit now. Sandy backs off, mops his forehead, runs his left index finger along his forehead, dries it off on his left pants leg. All the while Kuenn just waiting. Now Sandy looks in. Into his windup and the 2-1 pitch to Kuenn: swung on and missed, strike 2!

It is 9:46 p.m.

Two and 2 to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away. Sandy into his windup, here’s the pitch:

Swung on and missed, a perfect game!

(38 seconds of cheering.)

On the scoreboard in right field it is 9:46 p.m. in the City of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of 29,139 just sitting in to see the only pitcher in baseball history to hurl four no-hit, no-run games. He has done it four straight years, and now he caps it: On his fourth no-hitter he made it a perfect game. And Sandy Koufax, whose name will always remind you of strikeouts, did it with a flurry. He struck out the last six consecutive batters. So when he wrote his name in capital letters in the record books, that “K” stands out even more than the O-U-F-A-X.

Koufax's 9/9/65 perfect game, final inning: Scully's call and its transcript

When asked why he goes solo, partner Charley Steiner said "Poets don't need straight men." Scully himself says that broadcasting solo allows him to have a conversation with the listener rather than a broadcasting partner, and this allows a rapport with the listener that could not otherwise occur.

"All year long they looked to him (Kirk Gibson) to light the fire and all year long he answered the demands. High fly ball into right field. She is gone! [pause] In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened."

"Andre Dawson has a bruised knee and is listed as day-to-day (pause). Aren't we all?"

"He (Bob Gibson) pitches as though he's double-parked."

"It's a mere moment in a man's life between the All-Star Game and an old timer's game."

It’s not too surprising that Vin the storyteller/poet, though always up to speed on the numbers of the game, did not think they told the most important part of the story. "Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamp post: for support, not illumination."

Vin Scully's Last Time on the Air for the Dodgers Is Another Solo Flight …

Oct 3, 2016 - Vin Scully's final game on Sunday was something close to a miracle in sportscasting — an 88-year-old man performing a solo act, conversing ...

Beyond Baseball, Vin Scully Leaves Behind an Archive of Oddities …

This year, he recited the speech from “Field of Dreams” for the Hall of Fame tour that made its first stop at the film’s original cornfield location in Dyersville, Iowa. Performing a cover version of James Earl Jones’s orationenabled Scully to deliver words that may have felt poignant to him and his fans as he approached his final game:

“The memories will be so thick,” he said, “they’ll have to brush them away from their faces.”

Vin’s last sign-off - "I have said enough for a lifetime, and for the last time, I wish you a very pleasant good afternoon." The screen faded, and those words led into this essay Scully had prepared ahead of time: Scully then came back on air for an encore after that essay to share these words and a final goodbye (watch here)

There will be a new day and eventually a new year, and when the upcoming winter gives way to Spring, oh-ho, rest assured, once again it will be time for Dodger baseball.” October 2, 2016

“You and I have been friends for a long time… I’ll miss our time together more than I can say. But you know what? -

Vin’s Top 5 Calls

...Hank Aaron’s 715th home run in 1974, during which he announced the homer and

then remained silent for one minute and 44 seconds while fans cheered and fireworks

boomed. When he finally spoke again, his words were poetry.

“What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and

the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black

man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the record of an all-

time baseball idol, and it is a great moment for all of us,’’ he said.

Voice for the Ages

In Homer's world, lack of gratitude is one of the surest signs that a character is Deficient. (72)

[Lou Gehrig] described his heartfelt gratitude for the kindness and encouragement he had gotten from the fans… (191)

All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age

...I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.

“...perhaps the most powerful example of American rhetoric ever produced outside the political sphere… For the moments that led up to and were held together by Gehrig’s speech, 62,000 people knew exactly what they were about…

Sports may be the place in contemporary life where Americans find sacred community most easily.”

Dreyfus and Kelly continue: “The most important things, the most real things in Homer’s world, well up and take us over, hold us for a while, and then, finally, let us go. If we had to translate Homer’s word physis, then whooshing is about as close as we can get. What there really is, for Homer, is whooshing up… These [are] the shining moments of reality…”

They are the moments when delight springs up into our lives, lights them up with particular and personal significance, returns us to the meaning, the meanings, of our lives. Those moments may feel unbidden, but they have to be cultivated and appreciated. (I wish I could report that William James was himself a baseball fan who delighted and found deep meaning in the game, perhaps even the moral equivalent of war. But, his student Morris Raphael Cohen observed, “all great men have their limitations.”)

“When something whooshes up it focuses and organizes everything around it. The great athlete in the midst of play rises up and shines… And everyone around him--the players on the field, the coaches on the sidelines, the fans in the stadium, the announcers in the booth--everyone understands who they are and what they are to do…”

The thing about Vin is, he wasn’t just another random “announcer” - he was one of the whooshers. In Dreyfus’ and Kelly’s terms he was a master practitioner of the art of poiesis, a “sacred nurturing practice” that “puts physis [or whooshing] in its proper place.”

Like Hephaestus, the craft and fire god, Vin’s narrative craft “brought forth shining things,” made our games mean something more than we could see for ourselves, helped us understand ourselves as more than spectators and listeners but as active participants in the cultivation of meaning.

Further - but we can save this for next year, maybe - he filled the vital meta-poietic function of holding us at arms’ thoughtful length from the mindless crowd, gently inducing us to think about our place in the panorama, to recognize “when to rise up as one with the ecstatic crowd and when to turn heel and walk rapidly away.”

This is something other than Wm Carlos Wms’ “crowd at the ballgame” that delights in its mere uselessness, something far more useful to a citizen of what some of us still hope is not yet a defunct democracy.

Point is: “One cannot expect every moment of one’s existence to be a sacred celebration of meaning and worth,” but “there must be moments when we rise up out of the generic and banal and into the particular and skillfully engaged.” Those are the celebratory moments when routine rises to ritual, when some of us celebrate ourselves and our environment by tuning in, wherever we may be, to a familiar whooshing sound.

But as the late Douglas Adams said, “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

This year it won’t be the same.

...I was assailed by memories, both good and bad. Most were in a mode of gratitude— gratitude for what I had been given by others, gratitude too that I had been able to give something back.

Gratitude, by Oliver Sacks

Dr. Sacks may have spoken for Vin, and for those of us who face with some sadness and trepidation a first season without our favorite bard. “I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude…

I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”

But before you go...

Who first said that? Vin credited Dr. Seuss, but one “”Quote Investigator” says “Ludwig Jacobowski should be credited with coining this saying in German. There is no substantive support for assigning the statement to Dr. Seuss.”

From now on, I say Vin said it.

Now I’m ready...