海角大神

There are occasionally people of whom one can say, 鈥淗e鈥檚 been doing x since before I was born.鈥� In the case of Vin Scully, it鈥檚 literally true.

Mr. Scully, who called his last game earlier this month, was the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers for 67 years.

When Scully started out, they were still the Brooklyn Dodgers 鈥� in reference to the 鈥渕aze of trolleys鈥� that Brooklynites were always dodging. Harry Truman was in the White House then, and the American flag had 48 stars.

Is there any more characteristically American bit of soundscape than the broadcast of a baseball game? During my southern California childhood, I spent a lot of time in the back seat of a station wagon plying the freeways, with Scully鈥檚 voice coming out of the radio. And then on return visits in later years, in later decades, that voice was still there.聽

He was what baseball sounded like.

The onetime barbershop tenor has been hailed for his musicality. Los Angeles Times columnist Chris Erskine once wrote that Scully used his voice 鈥渓ike a horn, to serenade an antebellum sport that is too slow by half and make musical the specter of grown men mostly standing around for three hours.鈥澛�

But he could be silent, too. Unusual in having no partner in the booth with him, he sometimes broadcast a game by holding his tongue.

In an interview with David Greene of NPR a few weeks ago, Scully recalled 鈥渢he most important run鈥� he ever called 鈥� the one in 1974 with which Henry 鈥淗ank鈥� Aaron broke Babe Ruth鈥檚 career home run record.聽

鈥淭he first thing I did was shut up,鈥� Scully said, because the crowd just 鈥渨ent bananas鈥� in that stadium in Atlanta. 鈥淗is family was coming out onto the field, and firecrackers were going off. So there were no words for me to express at all. And I got up from the table and went to the back of the room and let them roar.鈥澛�

Baseball Nation knew that Aaron鈥檚 homer No. 715 was likely to come sooner or later. But Scully told Mr. Greene he never scripted big moments in advance: 鈥淚 have never, ever prepared to say something about an event that might occur because I might be so interested in displaying my pearls of wisdom that I might do it prematurely, and it doesn鈥檛 work.鈥�

Instead, he let the words well up in the space formed by the moment.聽

And what welled up at that moment was this: 鈥淲hat a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world ...鈥�

As Scully suggested to Greene, 鈥淭hat a black man in the Deep South was being honored for breaking the record of a white icon鈥� was a triumph for Aaron, but really for everyone else, too.

To ask about who will come after Scully is to recall Thomas Jefferson鈥檚 line about following Benjamin Franklin as American minister to France: Scully will be succeeded by a bright young comer named Joe Davis. But he will never quite be replaced.