How Much Will We See Vin Scully In 2015?

By Bobby DeMuro
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Updated: February 18, 2015

Vin Scully holding a Sandy Koufax bobblehead. In September, he will receive his own bobblehead day at Dodger Stadium [Image via @variouspenguins]

Vin Scully holding a Sandy Koufax bobblehead. In September, Scully will receive his own bobblehead day at Dodger Stadium [Image via @variouspenguins]

Last July, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced that Vin Scully, their legendary broadcaster, would return in 2015 for his 66th season calling the team’s games. The 87 year-old Scully, who has called thousands of Dodger games in his career, has had an eventful offseason including a near-tragedy averted at Costco back in December. But as we look ahead to 2015, what will we get from the Hall of Fame broadcaster?

From a logistical perspective, we can expect him to call virtually every home game at Dodger Stadium, but only about 29 road games next season. In September, he told the L.A. Times that he was “going to try to cut back on nights on the road” in 2015, citing only Arizona, San Diego, San Francisco and Anaheim as places he would definitely travel to with the team. The Dodgers play nine games in San Diego, nine in San Francisco, nine in Arizona, and two in Anaheim.

That means we will get to enjoy Scully 110 times, give or take. Longer road trips and east coast swings will be taken by other broadcasters. Should the Dodgers make the playoffs, though, Scully has said he will travel to those games, regardless of location.

As a Colorado Rockies fan with the misfortune of having to suffer through George Frazier’s word vomit for far, far too long, watching Scully in the booth is a revelation. He started in radio, of course, so his delivery is descriptive and clear. Even as an octogenarian, he’s lost barely a step on picking up nuances of the game, and his awareness of what’s happening on the field is still better than a majority of broadcasters thirty years younger.

Speaking of those Rockies, and Scully picking up on the nuances of the game, here he is calling the final at-bat of Todd Helton’s career:

Helton’s career didn’t end like Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera; he wanted it to finish quietly with no fanfare and no year-long celebration in every stadium on the road. In light of Helton’s desire for relative anonymity, that final at-bat underscores Scully’s subtle understanding and immense appreciation for the game and its moments – moments like these that would slip over the heads of some other broadcasters facing the same situation.

Scully is at once charitable with one of baseball’s greats, while appreciating the gravity of the moment and reacting honestly to the at-bat’s outcome. It’s a thing of beauty that comes from watching and appreciating baseball for more than six decades. Ain’t life the pits?

After 65 years, Scully is still arguably the best broadcaster in baseball. Certainly, he is light years ahead of the Rockies’ Frazier and guys like Hawk Harrelson in the White Sox booth (though, regional credit where credit is due: the San Diego Padres’ broadcast team helmed by Dick Enberg and Mark Grant is very, very good as well).

With a sharp and honest delivery, and a sterling reputation in his career and charity work, Scully has earned the right to man the Dodgers’ booth for as long as he wants. If 2015 is his swan song, or he decides to call games well into his 90s, Scully will forever be synonymous with Los Angeles, and with Major League Baseball.

At the very least, if this is it, we’ll be able to see him for nearly 70% of Dodger games in 2015. And who knows – maybe the 2015 Dodgers will give Scully an opportunity to top this legendary call from 1988:

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