The Heroic Vin Scully

(Written August 3, 2022)

Since the news of Vin Scully’s passing broke the previous evening, my timeline has been a deluge of anecdotes, obituaries, and tributes to the greatest broadcaster who ever lived.

I never had the pleasure of meeting him, like many of the eulogizers touched by his voice, but he was a role model for me. As a 19-year-old working in a cell phone store, sick on my lunch breaks from the pressures of making sales, I examined what I wanted my life to look like. After a few moments of reflection, I determined I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. I knew I was good at trivia and talking about sports, so how hard could it be? It’s extremely hard, Vin just made it look easy.

In my first ever professional sports job, I worked as the scorekeeper for the Lancaster Jethawks. On my first day at Clear Channel Stadium, I talked to the team’s broadcaster and my boss Jeff Lasky. We talked about our love of Vin Scully and how we both hoped to reach the big leagues one day. I don’t think I’ve ever reached out to Jeff directly to tell him how much I appreciated his sincerity and patience with me as a college kid who would panic over whether to score a play as a passed ball or a wild pitch. While we were discussing our admiration for Mr. Scully an older man popped into the conversation to tell us we were wrong, and that Harry Caray was the best broadcaster ever. Jeff was so gracious to the fan and made sure he was going to have a good time at the ballgame. Very Vin.

That same summer, I became a radio intern at Fox Sports Radio. I would wake up at 3:30 a.m. and drive to the skyscraper in the San Fernando Valley that housed the studio. Bleary-eyed and trying to meet the demands of the producer, I got to hurt my knuckles each morning when I would fist bump the Super Bowl ring of one of the show’s hosts. It was a hyper-macho environment and people liked to argue and demonstrate how right they were on whatever topic. Not very Vin.

I found that there were more people like that in the sports media realm. People who were adamant about their opinions and determined to take the next step in their careers. Machismo and swagger from people who are very successful in their field today. Seldom was there someone who wanted to discuss poetry – the kind Vin would recite when the sunset was particularly distracting from the ball game – or talk about how much they loved their spouses like Vin did Sandi.

When I worked as an intern and eventually as someone making minimum wage for the LA Kings, Jon Rosen was my boss. He had been a contemporary of Jeff Lasky in the Cal League and I’m sure Jeff put in a good word for me even though I hadn’t reached out to him in years. In the moments before warmups, during intermissions, and during late-night strolls to the parking facilities at Staples Center, Jon talked about baseball, music, film, and how very in love he was with his girlfriend Jen. A few months later he proposed to Jen, and they got married before having two beautiful kids. Jon’s Instagram feed is full of his fatherhood adventures. Very Vin.

Vin Scully was my role model for being a man. I wanted to be a tough guy firefighter like my father, but he knew I was too sensitive for such a vocation. So, as I spent those days in the cellphone store mad at myself that I couldn’t keep my lunch down, and stressed about making sales, Vin Scully gave me a direction for my adulthood.

While I loved sports, I also loved music, literature, poetry, my faith, and so many other things outside of sports. Vin provided me with the roadmap to love those things and to be me.

He demonstrated how to be a man without being hyper-macho, combative, or alpha, with huge biceps and a high-protein diet. Vin taught me, and many other men, that being passionate about your interests and caring for the people around you was the best way to be a man.

Hopefully, following Vin's lead, I can more freely tell people how much I love them. If you're reading this, I love you. Chances are you heard Vin Scully call a ball game at some point. Throughout the entirety of all of time, we are the lucky few who got to hear him and that will always bond us.