A Remarkable Prayer from a Remarkable Man
A lot has already been written about the great Vin Scully, the long-time play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mr. Scully has officially retired after calling 67 seasons of Dodgers’ baseball. It is absolutely amazing to realize that Mr. Scully moved with the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1957 and has, therefore, been the Dodgers’ play-by-play man the entire time the team has been in Southern California.
I’m a big fan of listening to baseball on the radio. There is something about the pace of play (sometimes slow, I know) that lends itself to listening on the radio while playing with the kids outside. While I mostly listen to the Yankees broadcasts over the Internet, I had a chance to tune into Vin Scully Day from Dodger Stadium last Friday night while driving home from my son’s football game.
The Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax spoke at the ceremonies and he told a story about Mr. Scully that will stick with me for a long time.
Mr. Scully is a devout Catholic and before the World Series, he would make it a point to go to church. Mr. Scully didn’t pray for victory, though. He didn’t pray for good luck, or good pitching or good hitting either. As Mr. Koufax related the story: “Before the World Series, Vin would go to church and pray — not for a win, but that there would be only heroes in the World Series, no goats,” Koufax said. “He didn’t want anyone’s future to be tarnished with the fact that they lost the World Series for their team.”
What strikes me about that story is the amount of perspective displayed by Mr. Scully. It’s part of who he is. As part of another recent broadcast, I heard him honor Los Angeles’ first responders as the “real heroes” before returning his attention to the “child’s game” of baseball. Of course, he didn’t mean to demean baseball. He only meant to keep it in perspective and to understand its relative importance in a life filled with joy, tragedy, family and faith.
For a man that has devoted his entire professional life to baseball, I admire the fact that he was able to keep his job, and the sport, in its proper perspective. That perspective will be missed.
