Sometime after college when I started to watch the MLB.tv Free Game of the Day on a daily basis, I was always thrilled to get Dodgers games. In one instance, I remember watching the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw (my favorite pitcher at the time) face the Marlins and Jose Fernandez (the most exciting pitcher at the time). It was September of 2016 and the game lived up to it's hype (or at least, the amount of enthusiasm that I was willing to drum up for a September baseball game when fantasy football drafts were right around the corner). Kershaw didn't last long (3 innings) and Fernandez was dominant (14 k's in 7 scoreless). I knew to cherish what I was witnessing in the moment but the one thing missing was Vin Scully, as he had already stepped out of calling road games and this particular match took place in Miami. Even at 88 years old and in his final season calling games, his tales of times with the Jackie Robinson-era Brooklyn Dodgers would be effortlessly weaved into the top of the third inning of a random LA Dodgers-Rockies game and I'd be on the edge of my seat for it. Very few play-by-play voices or color commentators have the capability of keeping me from pressing the mute button, let alone shushing others and tuning out everything around me just so I could hear the man paint pictures with his words of a sport that is constantly at odds with keeping itself captivating. Vin Scully was and is the greatest to ever call any event of the sporting kind and he did more than just Dodger games too. Thank you for helping me reach new heights with my fascination of the sport of baseball and may Vin Scully Rest in peace.
Here is his finest moment,
