Meet Vinnie From Brooklyn

The latest episode of Channel 33’s The Press Box is part of The Ringer’s Undeniables series — a few things we can all agree on. Below is an edited transcript from the podcast, and you can listen to the full episode here.

Here’s my [Undeniables] nomination: 88-year-old Vin Scully, who’s been calling Dodger baseball games on radio and TV since 1950. There’s just one problem with enshrining Scully. Ever since he announced this would be his 67th and final year in the booth, Scully’s been enshrined nonstop.

A few months back, I watched the dedication of Vin Scully Avenue. And I see people on Twitter saying, “Vin Scully is the soundtrack of summer!” — and I’m pretty sure some of these people never even lived in L.A. It’s as if Vin is so beloved, so undeniable, that we forget to say how it is he came to be great.

Here’s my proposal: First, forget Vin Scully of L.A. — the grandfatherly voice of the Dodgers. Focus, instead, on Vinnie from Brooklyn. The guy who was hired at the absurd age of 22 years old to call Dodgers games at Ebbets Field. The guy who put a soundtrack on the exploits of Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson.

Back in the 1950s, there were three baseball teams in New York. And Vinnie’s voice provided not only a play-by-play call, but a kind of ambient noise. You could hear it on beaches and coming out of living room windows as you walked around. Scully spoke for a borough as much as he did a baseball team. And don’t worry — you don’t have to take it from me. I recruited three kids who grew up in the ’50s New York to explain “Vinnie from Brooklyn.”

MLB Audio Footage of Vin Scully in the podcast is used with permission of MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All Rights Reserved.