Baseball announcing legend Vin Scully, who called games for the Los Angeles Dodgers for more than 60 years, has died at the age of 94, the team announced on Tuesday.
“We have lost an icon,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement: “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. 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.”
Scully began broadcasting Dodger games in 1950, back when the team is still in Brooklyn. He became the team’s main announcer in 1954 and moved along with the team to Los Angeles in 1957. He remained in the Dodgers booth for six decades, finally retiring in 2016, and became a local legend, introducing each game with his signature line: “It’s time for Dodger baseball!”
He also broadcast nationally, with his voice serving as the soundtrack to a number of memorable World Series moments, including Bill Buckner’s fateful error that led the Mets over the Red Sox in 1986 and Kirk Gibson’s storybook home run that won a game for his hometown Dodgers over the A’s in 1988. Scully worked as NBC Sports’ lead baseball play-by-play announcer from 1983 to 1989 and covered football and golf for CBS Sports from 1975 to 1982.
Watch a tribute to Scully for his final broadcast in 2016:
