The Greatest One
There was The Great One. Wayne Gretzky. He once won nine Hart Trophy MVP awards in a ten year span of his NHL career and broke nearly every meaningful record in hockey history. No one ever denied that his nickname of The Great Gretzky was undeserved. There was Muhammad Ali, the iconic boxer who was a four-time Heavyweight Champion of the World. He announced his intentions for excellence in his sport (and brought with him a new era of utilizing the new medium of television for self promotion) with his quote, “I am the greatest.” Over time, many have agreed with his bombastic assessment and handed over the title to Ali that he bestowed upon himself. He now is simply referred to as The Greatest.
But there is someone in the sports world who is even better at what he does than what Gretzky was in hockey or what Ali was in boxing. His name is Vin Scully, and he announces baseball games for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He has done his job so well for such an extended period of time at such a superior level of excellence, and has done this job to a degree that clearly surpasses all of his competitors by a such wide margin, he should be referred to as The Greatest One. (Why not, he is after all a member of “The Greatest Generation.”)
Vin Scully started broadcasting Dodger games back in 1950 when they played at Ebbets Field as the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson was still making history while playing on the team. Scully has been braoadcasting Dodger games for the entire time that they have been in the city of Los Angeles and was once voted as the most memorable Dodger of all time, ahead of all of the players. He has seen and broadcast so much baseball during his career that the entire stretch of baseball history during the second half of the 20th Century and of course all that has happened during the 21st Century has taken place “under his watch.”
He has won so many Broadcaster of the Year and Sportscaster of the Year awards that he probably can’t even remember most of them. He probably DOES remember that he was named as the Sportscaster of the Century (20th), the TOP sportscaster of all time in another poll and was named to the National Baseball Hall of Fame when he won the Ford Frick Award in 1982. The Halls of Fame he’s been named to and the awards he has won are so numerous it is safe to say that his status as the best broadcaster/sportscaster ever is not even questioned any more.
But the part of Vin Scully’s greatness that is most impressive is the effect he has on the people who have listened to his words. For he not only broadcasts games, but in between the pitches, when games can sometimes be boring, he illuminates, he tells stories about the game and its people. And while doing that, he teaches the people in his audience some of the things he has seen and heard and learned over his many years, and after awhile, they haven’t just heard a baseball game described, they have learned some of the important lessons of life.
It is the words Vin Scully speaks that makes his broadcasting presentations so memorable. The descriptions he uses, the phrases he turns, the ideas that are expressed and ultimately remembered, that make him stand so far above the rest. Just like the way great writers like Hemingway and Steinbeck painted great pictures with their written words, so has Scully been able to paint those great pictures with his spoken words — all while describing such simple things as baseball games. You don’t just get a game with Scully, you get the wisdom of the ages.
But the problem is, The Greatest One is 86 years old. He won’t be around doing this for much longer. There will come a time when he will retire and someone else’s voice will fill the air waves, and it won’t be as good. It will pale in comparison. So, we must appreciate the man and his words for each and every day that he continues to speak them. We cannot take a single day for granted. This is not just a once in a generation broadcasting talent. We’re talking once in a lifetime. A national treasure. There aren’t a whole lot of those types around anymore. Enjoy him while you can.
