Vin Scully’s storied broadcasting career began in Philadelphia
Scully spent nearly seven decades as the voice of the Dodgers, but he called his first game for the team at Shibe Park in North Philadelphia.
Vin Scully, the beloved voice of the Dodgers for 67 years, died at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was 94.
Scully is widely considered one of the best broadcasters in sports history, and his time in the booth — which dates back to the Dodgers’ time in Brooklyn (they went to Los Angeles in 1958) — earned him widespread respect from players and announcers alike. His work on CBS and NBC also garnered nationwide acclaim, and he was voted “the greatest sportscaster of the 20th century” by members of the American Sportscasters Association in 2010.
Scully’s list of famed calls includes Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run in 1974; Kirk Gibson’s game-winning homer in the 1988 World Series; Bill Buckner’s notorious error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series; and Dwight Clark’s gravity-defying touchdown reception in the 1981 NFC championship game, which later became known simply as “The Catch.” He retired in 2016 after nearly seven decades in the booth.
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While Scully announced the bulk of his games in Los Angeles, his storied career for the Dodgers actually began in Philadelphia, where he called the opening-day game of the 1950 season.
In his first game in the radio booth, Scully was the Dodgers’ No. 3 announcer, calling games alongside Red Barber and Connie Desmond. A peek at the box score of that April 18, 1950, game at Shibe Park reveals a who’s who of historic players, including Phillies Hall of Famers Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts.
According to former Inquirer sportswriter Frank Fitzpatrick, Scully called the third and seventh innings of the game, but things didn’t go well for the defending National League champion Dodgers. The Phillies ended up winning in a 9-1 blowout, and the only Dodgers run was scored in the seventh inning by Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, then in his fourth season with the team.
Unfortunately, there are no surviving tapes of the radio broadcast, and Scully said he didn’t remember much about his first time behind the Dodgers microphone.
“But the one thing I do remember was that I was terrified,” Scully recalled in 2015.
For Phillies fans, there are lots of interesting nuggets about Scully’s first game. For starters, it was the first time the Phillies wore their home white jerseys, which they brought back in 1992 and feature the same red pinstripes 72 years later.
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The 1950 season opener also featured the return to action of Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus, who had been acquired from the Cubs after the 1948 season and was shot by an obsessed fan in Chicago on June 14, 1949. The shooting became part of the inspiration for The Natural, a book that became a 1984 movie starring Robert Redford.
Ruth Ann Steinhagen, who became known in newspaper headlines as “Baseball Annie,” had invited Waitkus to her hotel room, where she shot him in the chest with a rifle. She was judged to be insane and sent to a mental institution, which she left three years later.
And the Phillies’ roster of young talent — dubbed the “Whiz Kids” — won the National League pennant in 1950, for the first time since 1915. In fact, Waitkus was on base when Dick Sisler hit the famous 10th-inning home run at Ebbets Field against the Dodgers in the last game of the season that clinched the pennant for the Phillies. Scully’s first season in the booth ended the same way it began — with a Dodgers loss to the Phillies.
The Phillies lost the World Series in four games to the New York Yankees. The 1950 World Series is also infamous for being baseball’s last all-white World Series. (The Phillies didn’t integrate their roster until 1957.)
Thirty years later, the Phillies would finally make it back to the World Series, and earn their first title by defeating the Kansas City Royals in six games. And of course, Scully was in the booth, calling the game on radio for CBS alongside Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson.
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