Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward remembered late Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, who died on Tuesday at the age of 94.
Scully broadcast Dodgers games for 67 years, long enough to call games that featured Jackie Robinson and current Rangers infielder Charlie Culberson.
Woodward spent time with the Dodgers as a coach from 2016-18. But it was his time with the Toronto Blue Jays that he remembered most fondly about Scully.
“He was a voice I heard all the time (growing up),” Woodward said, who grew up in Covina, Calif. “The first time I played against the Dodgers I was with the Blue Jays. Back then we had DVD’s and I was watching my at-bats form the previous game and the sound was up, and the sound wasn’t always up. And I heard Vin talking about me being a hometown guy. It meant the world to me. It was a goosebump moment just to hear him say my name. I got to meet him working with the Dodgers. I got to witness the last game he called. He was a class act.”
Culberson played for the Dodgers in 2016, Scully’s final season on the mic for Dodgers telecasts. Culberson hit a walk-off home run to clinch the National League West for the Dodgers in Scully’s last home game.
The celebration was short-lived, Culberson said after Tuesday’s game. Dodgers fans quickly turned their attention to a celebration of Scully’s career.
Culberson played two seasons for the Dodgers.
“I didn’t know him when I got there,” Culberson said. “I knew of him. But to the chance to see him work, to see what he was about, to get to see his fan base and how he welcomed everyone. I talked to him on the phone last year during batting practice in Los Angeles. It was out of the blue. A guy called me over and said, ‘Hey, I want you to talk to someone,’ and it was Vin. He lived a good life. People will talk about him forever.”
Scully, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, called Dodgers games from 1950 to 2016. He also worked for CBS Sports and NBC Sports calling NFL games and professional golf, and he was the voice of NBC’s Major League Baseball Game of the Week on Saturdays throughout the 1980s.
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