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Tag Archives: Sandi Scully

Tribute to Vin Scully – Part V

30 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by ts4jc in About Me, Just for Fun

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1946 World Series, 1950 World Series, All Star Game, anecdotes, barnstorming, baseball, Baseball Ambassador for Inclusion, Baseball Hall of Fame, baseball writer, Bear Mountain, bigotry, Bill Veeck, Billy Bean, black players, Bob Feller, Boston, Boston Red Sox, Branch Rickey, broadcaster, Bronx, Charlie Culberson, cleanup hitter, clutch hitter, color line, Commissioner of Baseball, Dixie Walker, Dodger Stadium, Dodgers, Don Newcombe, Enos Slaughter, exhibition games, fans, Fordham University, Gay, Happy Chandler, Harry Walker, honors, ice skating, integration, International League, Jackie Robinson, Jaime Jarrin, Joe Williams, John Wright, Latin America, Leo Durocher, Leon Culberson, Los Angeles Dodgers, major leagues, minor leagues, Montreal Royals, Nashua NH, Negro Leagues, New England League, New York Giants, NL MVP, NL Playoff, NL Rookie of the Year, NL West pennant, oral history, Orient, pennant clincher, petition, Philadelphia Phillies, race, Rachel Robinson, racism, Roy Campanella, Roy Partlow, Sandi Scully, segragation, St. Louis Cardinals, Stan Musial, stolen bases, storyteller, strike, Tom Yawkey, Vin Scully, walk-off home run, winter ball, World Champions, World War II

Tying it all together

Leon’s son Charles was the first of two Culbersons drafted by the Giants.  An outfielder, he played in the minor leagues for five years, three in the Giants organization and two in Royals organization.  But he didn’t make it past Class AA and his last season was in 1988.  Two important things happened in the Culberson family in 1989.  Charles’ son, Charlie, was born on April 10.  Leon only had a short time to enjoy his grandson.  He died on September 17 at age 71.

Some might have found this to be an interesting story: the grandson of a major league player associated with a Series losing moment, getting some family redemption by hitting a pennant-clinching walk-off home run.  But what does this have to do with Vin Scully other than its connection with Vin’s last game broadcast at Dodger Stadium?

Vin Scully delivers the 2000 Fordham University commencement address

From a personal perspective, it might be said that Leon’s career ended in the Bronx about a year before Vin’s academic career ended in the same borough.  By the following year, Vin’s professional sports broadcasting career would start in the city and stadium where Leon spent most of his major league career patrolling the outfield.  And less than two years after Leon’s last major league game, while he was still playing in the minor leagues, Vin began his 67 year career as broadcaster for the Dodgers.

But from a historical perspective, there is so much more.  Simply from a baseball point of view, 1946 represented a changing of the guard in baseball.  It was the year that many players came back from World War II.  Some were able to pick up where they left off.  Some were better players than when they left.  But some found that in the years they were away, even if they were playing baseball frequently while in the military (and most were), their skills eroded during that time.  And of course there were a few who didn’t come back at all or who came back too severely injured to play the game again.

Meanwhile, there were young players waiting in the wings who had gotten an early taste of the major leagues, even as diluted as they had become during the war.  So there was a sifting process.  Some made it even with the stiffer competition and others did not.  And there were also players coming back from the war who had either not yet made the majors or barely had a taste of it before they were drafted or they enlisted.  Many of them played against established major league players and acquitted themselves well.  They were looking for their big chance.  So there was a sifting process.  There were still only 16 teams and only about 400 spots on the roster (plus a few extra on the injured list).  Some would make it and many would soon be disappointed.

Branch Rickey

And to add to the apparent oversupply, Branch Rickey and then Bill Veeck were bringing in even more players from a previously untapped source: the Negro Leagues.  Over the next 10-15 years, that would change the face of baseball and the face of America.

While the major leagues were not integrated in 1946, a few of the minor leagues had become integrated.  All the black players were on Dodger farm teams. There are few people who don’t know that Jackie Robinson signed a contract with the Dodgers late in 1945 and starred for the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers AAA team in the International League, in 1946. What is less known is that Rickey signed pitcher Roy Partlow to come along side Jackie. When Partlow didn’t pitch well, he signed pitcher John Wright.  While both were experienced Negro League pitchers, neither of them could handle the pressure and didn’t last the season. At the end of the year, Robinson was the only black player on the Montreal roster.

Rickey had also signed Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe to play in the Dodger organization.  Campy was ready for the majors and certainly would have starred with Montreal.  Newk was still rough around the edges and needed a little more time to develop.  Rickey wanted to integrate the Brooklyn Dodgers gradually, but he didn’t intend to start these two future stars at such a low level.  However, the highest level team in the Dodger organization that would take them was the brand-new Nashua team in the Class B New England League.  Ironically, blacks would play home games in 1946 for a team about 50 miles away from Boston, the home of the foot-dragging Red Sox owned by Tom Yawkey.

In addition, consider the fact that in 1946, the Cardinals had won their fourth pennant and third World Championship since Pearl Harbor was attacked.  They had to survive a best-of-three playoff with the Dodgers to win the NL pennant and the World Series.  For the first time in the modern era, two teams were tied at the end of the regular season.  They were two teams whose rosters in part were the result of Branch Rickey’s leadership.  And before the war started, they looked like they were on the verge of a lasting rivalry.  In 1941, the Dodgers were in first and the Cardinals second.  In 1942 when only a few players had gone into the military, the order reversed with both teams winning over 100 games.  Now it looked like the rivalry was resuming.  Instead, 1946 signaled the beginning of a change in the balance of power in the National League.  And it signaled the beginning of the end of a regrettable practice in major league baseball.

Through 1949, the Cardinals were contenders.  But other than Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial, their team had gotten old.  And they were not yet signing black players like the Dodgers were (and getting a head start over the rest of baseball in doing so).  From 1947 to 1963, the Dodgers finished first eight times and won three World Championships; they also finished tied for first twice and lost playoffs; they finished second three other times, one of which they were not eliminated until the final day of the season; they only had a losing record twice.  The Cardinals came up empty for that entire 17 year stretch.  Then for the next five years until divisional play started, the Cardinals won three pennants and two World Series, and the Dodgers won two pennants and one World Series.  By then we had already reached the expansion era and the free agent draft era.

Black players were also bringing a more aggressive game with them with more emphasis on speed.  Since the National League overall integrated faster, their game became more associated with stolen bases, taking the extra base and breaking up double plays.  And starting in 1950 and lasting for decades, the National League replaced the American League as the dominant team in the All-Star Game.

Roy Campanella

While Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe and a couple more black players were on Dodger farm clubs in 1946, there was no iron-clad guarantee that they would make the major league roster in 1947 or any other year.  So many things could still go wrong, from poor performance to a violent outburst.

But as it turned out, the seventh game of the 1946 World Series was the last game played in segregated major leagues.  And only one more World Series (1950) was played without at least one black player included.  By the end of the 1950’s, every team was integrated, although a few like the Yankees, Phillies, Tigers and Red Sox dragged their feet getting there.  That’s the same Red Sox who were the Cardinals opponents in the 1946 Series.  They would be the last team to integrate their major league roster.

It is a matter of debate regarding how far some of the Cardinals (and a few players on other teams) were willing to go to strike in protest of Jackie Robinson being brought to the major by the Dodgers.  We do know that there were players on the Cardinals talking about it seriously.  After all, even a group of Dodgers were circulating a petition to keep Robinson off the team until Leo Durocher put an end to it.  We know that Slaughter, the person who scored the winning run of the 1946 World Series, was one of the ringleaders of the strike talk that came to light when the Cardinals arrived in Brooklyn for a three game series on May 6. And we know that at some point during the season, Slaughter spiked Robinson on the thigh when he hit a ground ball and was thrown out by a good margin.  We also know that Harry Walker who had the Series winning hit that drove in Slaughter, as well as his brother “Dixie” on the Dodgers were among the most vocal objectors to blacks in the major leagues.

White players had opportunities to play against black players from time to time in exhibition games, during barnstorming tours and in winter ball in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Mexico.  In a few cases, they competed against each other on military teams.  So they knew how good the best black players were.  And yet many of them, such as Bob Feller, fed comments to the press that it was lack of ability that kept blacks out of the major league, not prejudice.  Feller also said that Robinson would not hit well in the majors and that he would have no problem getting out Jackie.  Bigoted baseball writers like Joe Williams seized upon these comments to decry blacks’ entry into the majors.

Jackie Robinson and Bob Feller being feted after the end of their playing days.

In delicious irony, Feller and Robinson would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame together.  Jackie would be the National League Rookie of the Year in 1947 with a .297 batting average.  In 1949, he was the National League Most Valuable Player and batting champion while finishing second in runs batted in.  He also led the league in stolen bases those two seasons.  1949 was the first of six straight seasons of hitting over .300 and he hit .311 for his career.  Although he never hit more than 19 home runs in a season, he was such a great clutch hitter that in his prime, he was usually the Dodgers cleanup hitter.

Although Jackie Robinson died at the relatively young age of 53 in 1972, his wife, Rachel, has been one of the heritage faces of the Dodgers organization ever since then, along with Vin Scully.  The close relationship between Scully and the Robinsons goes back to Scully’s earliest days with the Dodgers, including the challenge Jackie posed to Vin to race on ice skates when the three of them were sent to Bear Mountain to do a promotion on behalf of the Dodgers. Jackie had never skated before, and the race never happened, but Jackie was serious.

Rachel Robinson

Rachel, a strong positive partner for Jackie throughout his career, going back to his season in Montreal, eventually became one of the best ambassadors of baseball as well as a respected part of the conscience for the game.  Their daughter and granddaughter are picking up the mantle.  They have been and continue to be reminders of a grievous part of the history of baseball and the United States in general, the sacrifice it took for a handful of courageous people to begin to overcome bigoted attitudes, the heritage of those playing now who would have been barred at one time, and the progress (and in some cases the lack thereof) that has been made since then.

For his part, Scully’s storytelling, including stories about Jackie Robinson, has made a major contribution to the oral history of baseball.  In addition, his skill in describing the action to the fans and newly initiated, his ability to convey the mood of the game with vocal inflection and keep things interesting without rooting or losing control of his emotions, maintaining his objectivity without attacking any of the participants involved: all these things have helped develop multiple generations of baseball fans in North America and beyond.  And he has been a positive influence and role model for many other broadcasters during his career, including his Spanish-speaking counterpart on the Dodger broadcasts, Jaime Jarrin.  With his voice preserved in countless ways on the Internet, I hope he will be an inspiration to many future broadcasters as well.

Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler

The baseball world of Leon Culberson and the seventh game of the 1946 World Series was, with a few minor league exceptions, a white-only world.  When the baseball owners voted after the end of that season, they voted 15-1 against Jackie Robinson being allowed to play in the major leagues.  It took the moral persistence of Branch Rickey (the only yes vote), the ability of Jackie Robinson to play at a superior level with grace under pressure, and the courage of Major League Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler to defy that vote and integrate the major leagues for the first time since the 1880’s.

The baseball world of Charlie Culberson and Vin Scully in the final year of his career has made tremendous strides of inclusiveness based on talent.  Major league baseball has fielded players from every inhabited continent, including many star players from Latin America and the Orient.  There are currently 63 black players and managers in the Baseball Hall of Fame, 30 of whom had careers primarily in the former Negro Leagues.  There are currently 12 Latin American players in the Hall of Fame, many of them black (and therefore on more than one list).

Billy Bean

Although no major league player has come out as gay to the public during his career, two have come out after their careers.  Billy Bean was one of them.  Since 2014, he has served as MLB’s first Ambassador for Inclusion.

The racism of Enos Slaughter of the Cardinals and the Red Sox organization (and many others) eventually lost.  The walk off home run by Leon Culberson’s grandson Charlie that clinched the Dodgers 2016 pennant in the last home game announced by Scully connected the two ends of Vin’s career.  Hopefully it presages an even better future where people of every color, every nationality, every religion, every gender and every walk of life can feel welcome to participate in the glorious game of baseball without harassment, whether as player, administrator, owner, reporter or fan.

It seems to me that Vin, who developed a rooting interest in baseball for the underdog, is pleased to have seen and broadcast the growth in diversity in baseball over the past 67 years.  And if the most popular personality in Los Angeles Dodgers history is someone whose first rooting interest was the New York Giants (and still admits a soft spot in his heart for the Giants) can anyone doubt that miracles still happen?

The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate their 2017 NLCS victory. Shortstop Charlie Culberson (#37), who went 3 for 5 in the game and batted .455 in the series in place of injured Corey Seager, joins the celebration on the left.

At a time when the reputation of so many celebrities, especially male celebrities, is crumbling before our very eyes, I still feel comfortable honoring Vin Scully.  I would love to meet Vin and Sandi Scully.  My mind floods with questions I could ask them, especially Vin.

Vin was correct that baseball continued without him for the most part in 2017, although there were still a few honors to send in his direction.  But he is wrong that he will soon be an afterthought in the minds of baseball fans, not only in Los Angeles but wherever talent and class are appreciated.

Who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary. – Acts 28:10

God bless,

Lois

Tribute to Vin Scully – Part III

16 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by ts4jc in About Me, Just for Fun

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accolades, balk rule, Baseball Hall of Fame, Bill Buckner, Dodger fans, Dodger Stadium, Dodgers, DX'ing, family, Ford Frick Award, Gilmore Field, God, Hank Aaron, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Kirk Gibson, Library of Congress, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Coliseum, no-hitter, one second stop, Pacific Coast League, perfect game, popularity, Rams, Red Barber, Sandi Scully, Sandy Koufax, sportscaster, storyteller, tragedy, transistor radio, umpires, Vin Scully, Wife, World Series, Wrigley Field in LA

Vin Scully’s Incomparable Legacy

Vin Scully’s popularity in Los Angeles soon reached heights rarely achieved by anyone, let alone a sportscaster. While he protests that he is relatively unimportant and that the players are who matters, Dodger fans disagree.  By 1976, Dodger fans selected him as the most memorable personality in the history of the franchise, choosing him over star players like Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Maury Wills.  And he still had another 40 years ahead of him to grow his legendary status.

Kirk Gibson celebrates his 1988 World Series Game 1 limp off home run

I remember watching games when I was three and four years old, but I only have the faintest memory of Vin Scully at that time, even though he was already the Brooklyn Dodgers number one announcer at the tender age of 28.  Then the Dodgers departed for the West Coast and I had to be content to hear him when the Dodgers were in the World Series in 1959, 1963, 1965, 1966 and 1974.  Then, when the World Series used network announcers rather than home team announcers from 1977 to 1989 and alternated between NBC and ABC, I got to hear him in the even number years 1984, 1986 and 1988 when Vin was also NBC’s primary announcer for their Saturday Game of the Week.  As luck would have it, the Dodgers returned to the World Series in 1988 and Scully was at the mic when Kirk Gibson gimped into the batter’s box and hit the game-winning home run off of the A’s Dennis Eckersley to spark the Dodgers to a World Series victory in 5 games.

I also would have listened to Vin many times on a Saturday afternoon NBC Game of the Week from 1983 to 1989.  And I would have heard him announce the NL Championship Series in the odd numbered years during that time, as well as the All-Star Game in those same seasons.  But it was fitting that his final World Series broadcast on national television was a Dodger World Championship.   And I’m sure I put on the radio some of the time for the World Series from 1990-1997 (except for 1994 when the baseball strike cancelled the Series) when Vin moved over to CBS radio to call the games.

In recent years, I had one more series of opportunities to listen to Vin on the Internet.  I discovered that MLB.com broadcast highlights of the games, taking the feed from the local broadcasts unless the game was on national television.  As Vin’s retirement drew near, I listened more and more to get every last bit of him I could.  I’d also watch the interviews, the pre-game visits by representatives of opposing teams making their last visit to Los Angeles while he was still the Dodgers broadcaster and even the plethora of tapes of Vin from prior years, whether it was an historic call or just one of his best stories.

Over the years, Vin became known as a first rate story teller as well as the ability to coin a phrase or make an historic moment even more memorable.  Los Angeles fans learned this early on.  East coast fans, particularly those in New York, mocked L.A. fans lack of baseball knowledge when they started bringing transistor radios to Dodger games to listen to Vin describe the action on the field.  Nothing could be further from the truth as far as the fans baseball knowledge was concerned.  They had two franchises in the Pacific Coast League, a AAA level league that was given an “Open” classification from 1952-57, meaning that they were considered somewhere between AAA and the major leagues.  At one time, especially before airplane travel made teams on the west coast realistic, there was talk of making the entire PCL a third major league.  In fact, the league voted to become that in 1945, but met resistance from the two established major leagues.

In addition, due to the more moderate weather on the Pacific Coast, the PCL routinely had seasons of 170 to 200 games until the late 1950’s when the Dodgers and Giants arrived on the West Coast.  In 1905, the San Francisco Seals set a record of 230 games played.  Usually the season began in late February and ended as late as the beginning of December.  And some of the greatest players in baseball history were stars in the PCL.  Future members of the Hall of Fame who starred in the PCL include Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Tony Lazzeri, Paul Waner, Bobby Doerr, Earl Averill, Joe Gordon and Ernie Lombardi.  So L.A. fans were quite familiar with the ins and outs of baseball.

Los Angeles Dodgers first home game, April 18, 1958 at the cavernous Coliseum

The reason for the radios was the temporary home of the Dodgers from 1958-61, the Los Angeles Coliseum.  A huge stadium built for the 1932 Summer Olympics and suited for football and track and field, most of the seats were far from the action, nothing like the cozy setting of Gilmore Field (home of the Hollywood Stars from 1939-57 with seats 24 feet from first and third base and 34 feet from home plate), and L.A.’s Wrigley Field (home of the minor league Los Angeles Angels from 1925-57 and the major league Angels in their inaugural 1961 season and as cozy as its namesake in Chicago).

Dodger fans became so used to Scully’s voice while they watched home games, they continued the practice long after their team moved to spacious Dodger Stadium in 1962.  Soon after, I got my first transistor radio.  Many nights I would have that radio under my pillow, listening to Dodger games (preferably with an ear plug before it invariably broke).  Unfortunately, this meant listening to the announcers of the Dodger’s opponents as AM radio signals do not carry from Los Angeles to New York.  Of course, I easily picked up the games when the Mets played the Dodgers, but I also listened to the Pirates on KDKA, the Reds on WLW, the Cubs on WGN, the Cardinals on KMOX, the Braves (after they moved to Atlanta) on WSB and the Astros on WWL (their broadcast network station in New Orleans, the furthest I was able to DX a radio station).  At some point when the Phillies switched radio stations to one that wasn’t blocked by bleed from a NYC AM station, I listened to those games as well.  But occasionally, when the home announcer paused in his commentary, I could hear Vin’s voice from all the radios in the stands.  It created quite a challenge for the broadcast engineers to pick up the crowd noise without getting play by play to compete with the description of their own broadcast team.

Scully dared not milk his connection to the fans in the ballpark too often.  In fact the first time he tried it, he was scared to death that it would flop and leave egg on his face.  In 1963, an edict came down to strictly enforce the one second stop a pitcher was required to make in the set position with a runner on base.  Less than one second, a balk was to be called.  Not surprisingly, the early part of the 1963 season saw a sharp rise in the number of balks.  Scully, whose instincts for these things was unerring, procured a stopwatch and while another rhubarb was occurring on the field over a balk call, he instructed the crowd that when he said “one”, they were to wait exactly one second and say “two”.  The umpires and players on the field arguing were stunned when suddenly a typical Dodger Stadium crowd shouted out.  (They averaged over 31,000 per home game that season, a World Championship season for them.)  Another time, Scully delightfully surprised one of the umpires when he had the fans serenade him with “Happy Birthday” on his special day.

Sandy Koufax

Early in his career once he was the Dodgers number one announcer, Scully adopted the practice of instructing his engineer to record the ninth inning of a potential no-hitter so the pitcher, if successful, would have a memento of the event to enjoy for years to come.  He would always mention the date of the game.  With Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965, he added one more element, punctuating his play by play with the time of day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WINiz0Bfb-0

Other classic calls by Scully include Gibson’s game winning home run in game one of the 1988 World Series, Hank Aaron’s home run that broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record and Bill Buckner’s error in game six of the 1986 World Series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4nwMDZYXTI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjqYThEVoSQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ujwjqIldwU

In addition to accolades from the fans and winning the Ford Frick Award which gives him a plaque in Baseball’s Hall of Fame, Vin has been honored with a lifetime Emmy award for sports broadcasting and was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.  He was named National Sportscaster of the Year three times and California Sportscaster of the Year 32 times, being inducted into the latter’s Hall of Fame.  He was also inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame and named by them as Sportscaster of the Century in 2000 and top sportscaster of all time in 2009.  He has also been inducted into the California Sports Hall of Fame and NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame.  The MLB Network named him the number one baseball broadcaster of all time.

Vin also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the press box at Dodger Stadium has been named for him, and streets in front of Dodger Stadium (including the official address of the stadium) and at their former Spring Training complex in Vero Beach have been named for him.  He was Grand Marshal for the 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade, was the 14th recipient (only the second non-player after Rachel Robinson) of the baseball Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award and was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom last November, the highest civilian award bestowed by the President of the United States.

Recently, Scully’s commentary for the last Brooklyn Dodgers-New York Giants game has been selected for preservation by the Library of Congress.  The first major league baseball game that I ever saw was the game the day before.  I saw the last game between the two teams in New York that the Dodgers won.  The Giants won the final game between the two teams in New York in September 1957.

Barber visits Scully in the broadcast booth before a World Series game at Dodger Stadium

As good as Red Barber was, it is reasonable to say that the protégé far surpassed his teacher, both in longevity and in tributes from peers and fans.  Indeed Barber seemed to get somewhat bitter toward the game in the later years, and also tended to disparage most broadcasters who stepped from the baseball diamond into the broadcast booth.  Vin was admired throughout baseball, and his farewell year was a series of tributes from players, managers and broadcasters from the Dodgers’ opponents when they made their last trip to Dodger Stadium or from the Giants when Vin did his last broadcast in San Francisco.  And Vin was highly appreciated by the umpires.  At some point, they began to salute Vin before the start of games that he worked.  Vin never second-guessed the umpires on a call, although he would accurately report when someone on the field took exception to what one of the men in blue ruled.  Vin took the position that the umpires wanted to get every call right and did their best to do so.

Vin was the first to acknowledge that fortune smiled on him throughout his career and that only God could have made it possible to do what he loved for 67 years.  This is not to say that Vin hasn’t experienced tragedy in his life.  Vin married in 1958, a very pretty young woman named Joan.  Their first child, Michael, was born a few years later, and two more children followed.  Joan died in January 1972 at age 35 of an accidental overdose of medicine that she was taking to get relief from bronchitis and a severe cold.  And Michael died in a helicopter crash at age 33 while inspecting oil pipelines for leaks immediately following the Northridge earthquake of January 1994.

No one can replace the people we’ve lost.  But Vin would find love again, a mother for his children, plus two stepchildren and one more child with his second wife.  And there was a bit of irony to it.  The Fordham Rams alumnus was visiting the offices of the Los Angeles Rams one day.  While there, he met the executive assistant to Rams owner, Carroll Rosenbloom.  She thought it was a chance meeting, that he was there for another purpose.  In fact, he was tipped off to her presence in the Rams front office and went specifically to meet her.

(Vin Scully’s Hall of Fame induction speech upon winning the Ford C. Frick Award in 1982: many times the video features a younger Sandi Scully.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3vvbUYj0Zs )

Transplanted to L.A. from North Carolina, Sandra Jean Schaefer (nee Hunt) and Vin started to date following that setup and were married in 1973.  A big baseball fan, she is also athletic and they share a love of golf and swimming.

Vin and his beautiful bride, Sandi

No longer would Koufax or Amoros be the most memorable Sandy in Vin’s life (even if she spells it with an “i”).  Sandi Scully has been by his side ever since, including many times while he was working a game and especially on the most memorable days at the end of his career, his final games as a broadcaster and the times he has been feted on and off the field.  44 years later, Sandi Scully is still a stunningly beautiful woman and her love for her husband (and his for her) shone through every moment.  Their blended family now boasts six children, sixteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD. – Proverbs 18:22

God bless,

Lois

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