Vin Scully didn’t want the award or the interview to be about him.
The longtime Dodgers announcer did a slew of press calls on Wednesday promoting the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be given to Verne Lundquist on Thursday night in Midtown.
“At first I wasn’t too happy about having my name on it,” Scully said, recalling a meeting he had with Fordham University President Father McShane in 2008.
“I wanted to shy away from that, but then I realized it’s not an ego trip for me, what it does is spotlight the award and the man who achieves it. So, we agreed to do it and then of course he said, ‘OK, you’ll get the first one.’ I said, ‘That’s terrific. It was all the things I didn’t feel like doing, but let’s get it out of the way.’”
The award has gone to a who’s who of announcers: Dick Enberg, Ernie Harwell, Pat Summerall, Al Michaels, Bob Costas and now the CBS legend Lundquist. Scully taped a message for Lundquist that will be played at the ceremony while Scully prepares to call a Dodgers-Giants game. It’s one of about 110 games the 86-year-old will call this season. Bill Raftery will give Lundquist the award, which is presented by WFUV Radio, Fordham’s 50,000 watt public radio station, where Scully started his radio career.
Scully has reduced the number of games in recent seasons to avoid “those long, arduous road trips,” but has no definitive plans to step away from the microphone.
“The love affair continues. I still truly enjoy doing the games,” Scully said.
“And my own personal thermometer is goosebumps. When there is a great play, dramatic play, exciting play, if I get goosebumps, I know I still have that honest enthusiasm because you can’t create that otherwise. As long as I get that, I check and say, ‘You’re still in love with it, you still get excited, so enjoy every minute of it.’ And that’s exactly what I am doing.”
Though Scully remains one of the most famous announcers in the world, it’s been almost 25 years since Scully departed the national scene to concentrate solely on Dodgers games. The Bronx-born Scully started calling games for the team in Brooklyn in 1950 and traveled west with them seven years later.
“I did dip my toe in network broadcasting – 15 network years, along with the Dodgers. But the Dodgers and the O’Malleys [former owners], I just felt absolutely part of the family and I never wanted to leave. All the other stuff was under the heading “know thyself” and a chance to explore: Do the NFL, do some golf, just to make sure you can do other things, besides baseball.
“Because when you do one sport it’s human nature to do things by rote and by challenging myself with the networks, I think it helped my local broadcast. And till today, going to back when I was in school, I’d always prepare out of fear, so it didn’t make any difference to me where I was. I could leave the Dodgers family to do The Masters, but as soon as that was over, I was back a member of the family once again. I would never leave the Dodgers just to do something else. Never.”
When will he leave for retirement?
“The one thing I don’t want to do is still be on and not have it and have people say, ‘Gosh, he used to be this, he used to be that, he’s not that anymore,’” Scully said.
“I wouldn’t want that. I’ll make an honest appraisal and we’ll just see. But as I’ve told so many people and it’s something I truly believe, ‘If you want to make God smile tell him your plans.’ I feel that way every day of my life.”