On Vin Scully’s Happy 87th birthday, enjoy our favorite Scully calls in 2014
It bears repeating every season. One of the things we’re most thankful for is Vin Scully, the legendary voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On Saturday, the broadcasting legend is celebrating his 87th birthday, and in tribute the folks over at MLB have released many of his greatest calls on video. With that in mind, we thought we might share a few of our own favorite Scully calls and moments from just this past season.
Yes, even in his 65th season as the Dodgers play-by-play voice — he’ll make it a remarkable 66 seasons in 2015 — Scully is on top of his game, spitting knowledge, humor and memorable calls on a nightly basis.
Take a listen.
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Vin Scully broadcasts from the land Down Under
Scully doesn’t travel to many Dodgers road games these days, but he was on hand for their historic season-opening trip to Australia in March. While there, he welcomed us to Dodgers’ baseball with a “G’day, mate” in his best Australian accent.
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Scully calls play-by-play of LA earthquake
After returning from Australia, the Dodgers were back playing exhibition games the following weekend against the Los Angeles Angels. Right in the middle of the game at Dodger Stadium, a 5.1 earthquake shook the Los Angeles area. Never rattled, Scully calmly and succinctly described the event as the center field camera bounced around wildly.
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“Don’t aim, throw it.”
In another game against Arizona, Scully got a chuckle and delivered a great line after Chris Owings tossed a double play relay throw about 15 rows up.
“They tell young infielders especially, don’t aim, throw it. Well, Chris Owings — if you’re going to throw it away, boy, that was a dandy. That was 10 feet over the dugout.”
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Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter
Baseball history always sounds a little better when it’s Scully providing the sound track. He was on the call back on June 18 when Clayton Kershaw overpowered the Colorado Rockies en route to his first career no-hitter, and the most dominant no-hitter in MLB history. Scully, as always, was great calling the play-by-play, but perhaps his most memorable line came when telling viewers to call their friends to alert them of Kershaw’s gem.
“I’m always saying call your friends. You can text your friends. #Kershaw, or something.”
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Clayton Kershaw’s ejection
On Sept. 8, Clayton Kershaw was ejected by umpire Laz Diaz in a game Kershaw wasn’t even pitching. The three-time Cy Young winner was actually displeased that home plate umpire Scott Barry warned both benches after Oliver Perez plunked Andre Ethier.
“It’s not — don’t tell me it’s Clayton Kershaw!”
Oh, but it was. And Scully’s call was fantastic.
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For more great calls from Scully’s amazing career, head over to Cut 4.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813