The Last Days of Vin and Roses

The inflection point of the Dodger’s season did not have Vin Scully calling the game. It is surprising since he has been there for every memorable moment of Dodger history. Scully was in the booth for all six World Series Championships that the Dodgers have ever won. He was also there to call the nine times that they lost in the World Series. Vinny called nine World Series that pitted the Dodgers against the Yankees. That those two storied franchises have played in nine World Series is remarkable but Mr. Scully calling all of them is unprecedented. He was there when the Boys of Summer won their first title in 1955. And he was in the booth one year later to watch Don Larsen pitch the only perfect game in WS history to beat the Dodgers. But he was not in the booth on a dreary night in Colorado. Mr. Scully has gradually pared back his travel with the Dodgers since 2006. The east coast travel was rugged and gradually anything outside of CA was rugged. Scully always conceded that having his broadcast partner Don Drysdale die of a heart attack alone in his Montreal hotel room in 1993 was terrifying. He felt for Drysdale and his family but he also feared the same fate. So Vin was not there on the final day of August on another miserable Colorado summer night. The Dodgers were coming off a playoff like six game stretch they went 4-2 against the Cubs and Giants. I was able to attend both defeats during that stretch which was nice. The first loss against the Giants was on Corey Seager Bobblehead night. The head might be worth something someday but the Dodgers were worthless this night. Seager did get the Dodgers only hit with two outs in the bottom of the 9th. We were some of the taillights leaving that night before the Texas leaguer fell in to break up the no no. The following night the Cubs got off the deck to tie and win the game in the 10th. In between, the Dodgers dusted the Giants and the Cubs for 2 of 3 each. Better to suffer through the losses for the greater good. The Blue Crew bolted to Colorado to play the lukewarm Rockies who are always tough at home. Vinny was relaxing at home turning the duties over to Slick Monday and Charlie Steincooler. It is not a future we ever envisioned. And the Dodgers got steamrollered in Colorado. Colorado has biblical weather in August and the series was vexed with its vagaries. The opening game was rain delayed and then dissolved into an 8-1 loss. The Tuesday game was rained out with a split doubleheader to be played on Wednesday. The first game was a 7-0 beat down on a sunny afternoon. The night game started with a Rocky first inning Grand Slam and had the Dodgers trailing 8-2 in the 8th. A three game sweep by the Rockies was all but assured. Then the improbable happened. The Dodgers scored three in the 8th and five in the 9th to win. On a night, when the team had every reason to fold up the tent and move on, the team rallied to an impossible win. It was at that moment this team figured out they were keeping up the tents and storming the palace. It was a moment I heard Vinny call in my head. Coming of sports age in the 60’s Yard youth was rewarded with the brilliance of Scully. The bar for Los Angeles sports was set high with Vin broadcasting the Dodgers, Chick Hearn was setting records with the Lakers and Dick Enberg was announcing John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins. Beyond these historical sportscasters, Jim Murray was a Hall of Fame LA times sportswriter. The seeds of the Yard were planted amongst this furtive expanse of sports legends tied to the legends of our sports heroes. Since that lonely night in Colorado, the Dodgers had bounced up to win 17 of 26 games. They had expanded to a seven game lead while previously trailing the Halloween colors managed by the pumpkin head at the All-Star break by eight games. So in Vinny’s final season, with Vin back home tuning up for his final broadcasts, the team rallied and made it all relevant. Vin called the game when the Dodger clinched the NL West for the 4th straight season. Vin was there today when the Giants clinched their fourth Wild Card Berth in the last six years. Scully was a Giant fan first and Dodger fan through his course of employment. If the Dodgers get to big dance, and it is a long way off, Vin will be relaxing at home that night as well. He is leaving us all with memories beyond our own and a legacy larger than any other human connected to Los Angeles sports. He is our first memory and his will always last. One of my most prized possessions as Dodger youth, was an LP of the 1959 season’s highlights as broadcasted by Vin Scully. My parents had acquired this record after the miracle 1959 season, the Dodgers second season in Los Angeles. The Dodgers first season in 1958 started with 75,000 fans to see the first professional baseball game ever played in Los Angeles. The vinyl carried the cherished radio calls by Vin Scully 58 years ago mesmerized by a scrawny kid with limited skills and a vivid mind. I listened to the LP 100’s of times on my parent’s old turntable. I did not listen to it until 1966 but Vin Scully’s voice, story-telling ability and skill took me back to 1959 and I lived for each moment over and over. During that miracle 1959 season, the Dodgers picked no better than 5th in the NL ended up winning the pennant. The season started with a tribute to Roy Campanella who was paralyzed in a car crash before the Dodgers moved west. There are memorable clips that pepper the vinyl. Vin called a Giant Dodger dust ups as bitter as they are now. A young Sandy Koufax struck out a then record 18 players who all were Giants at the end of that season. The Dodgers had to play the Atlanta Braves in a three game series to get into the World Series. In the 12th inning of the deciding game with runners in scoring position it was the call I still recall to this moment with Carl Furillo at bat Vin started, “A big bouncer over the mound, over second base Matilla up with hit throws in the dirt, Hodges score, we go to Chicago!” It was magic that still gives me goosebumps. The record ends there but the Dodgers did go to Chicago and sweep the heavily favored White Sox. Alas, the impact on vinyl in hot summer vehicles were not fully appreciated until Led Zeppelin. God bless, you Vin Scully, God bless you for all you have done for all of us mere mortals. The American political process has become farcical. The Yard does not have a dog in the national fight. Herr Donald has become a caricature of the caricature that is Donald Trump. He does not seem to be well versed on the topics and he wants to drop the Bill Clinton cherry bomb but does not want to hurt Chelsea. She might have heard about some of Billy’s sordid transgressions over the last 20+ years. Trump has a point if Hillary is going to throw stones at Trump for being a misogynist. Trump may say a lot of bad things but her husband did a lot of really bad things. Trump was a businessman at that time but Bill Clinton was President of the United States. A position that Hillary now wants us to trust her to elevate. The Clinton Foundation is a far shadier enterprise or at least as shady as Trump University. Trump U misled their students, Hillary Rodham has misled our nation with her activities as Secretary of State. The striking connection between foreign nationals that the Secretary met with on her many self-aggrandizing trips that in turn donated to their foundation is startling. It shows an egregious lack of judgment under the banner of a do-gooding family foundation. The lack of transparency and the volumes of money flowing to this family owned and operated foundation should be thoroughly investigated. From what is publicly available, the foundation spends more money on salaries and travel than on outlays for their initiatives. The foundation employs nearly 300 well paid people who are also part of the Hillary political machine. To shake down faithful domestic donors has been going on for hundreds of years. To pass the basket to foreign nationals with shadowy agendas is borderline criminal. Forget the emails, they are a diversion to keep eyes off the Foundation. Bush senior and junior never passed the basket for themselves in the overstepping way the Clintons have. Bill, Hillary, Chelsea and the Minions will continue to as long as people see them as they wish to be seen not as they are. In the fall, we will only vote for the senators and congress folks who support the initiatives my tax dollars are subsidizing. The person in the Oval office has far less influence than these debates would lead us to believe. Just look at the last eight years.