Vin Scully, the legendary voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has died at the age of 94.
The baseball team announced Scully’s death on Tuesday. Scully was a Dodgers broadcaster for 67 years, retiring from his duties at the end of the 2016 season. His tenure included being the radio voice for the team for eight years in Brooklyn before the franchise relocated to Los Angeles in 1958. No other sports broadcaster has been with any one team for a longer period of time.
“We have lost an icon,” Dodger President and CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement announcing Scully’s death.
“The Dodgers’ Vin Scully was one of the greatest voices in all of sports. He was a giant of a man, not only as a broadcaster, but as a humanitarian. He loved people. He loved life. He loved baseball and the Dodgers. And he loved his family. His voice will always be heard and etched in all of our minds forever,” he added.
Scully, who was born in New York City and grew up the Bronx, began his broadcasting career in 1949 after studying journalism at Fordham University. He called his first Brooklyn Dodgers game in 1950, a team that fielded five future Hall of Fame players, including Jackie Robinson.
Scully himself was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as the Ford C. Frick Award winner in 1982, one of his many achievements.
He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 by President Barack Obama.
The press box at Dodger Stadium was renamed in Scully’s honor in 2011, and a section of roadway outside Dodgers’ ballpark renamed “Vin Scully Avenue” in 2016.
Over his career as the team’s local broadcaster and as national broadcaster, Scully has called some of the game’s most iconic moments, such as Kirk Gibson’s “>game winning home run for the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series and Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner’s botched attempt to field a ground ball that ended Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
Scully is survived by his three daughters, two stepchildren, 16 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. His son, Michael, died in a helicopter crash in 1994. His second wife of 47 years, Sandi, died of complications from ALS in July of last year.
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“I know he was looking forward to joining the love of his life, Sandi. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family during this very difficult time. Vin will be truly missed,” said Kasten.
