On New Year’s Day 2015, he was the grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, a celebrity beyond the baseball world.
He covered major events in baseball history and knew when to keep quiet.
When the Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series Championship in 1955, Mr. Scully was on the microphone, and in 1956 Dan Larsen of the Yankees pitched a perfect game against the Dodgers in the World Series.
When Sandy Koufax retired all 27 Chicago Cubs batters at Dodger Stadium on September 9, 1965, Mr. Scully put his stamp on that moment:
“The scoreboard in right field reads 9:46 in the City of Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of 29,139 sat down to watch the only pitcher in baseball history throw four no-hit, no-run games. He’s done it four straight years, and now he’s hit it: In his fourth no-hitter, he turns it into a perfect game. And Sandy Koufax, whose name will always remind you of strikeouts, did it with a bang. He then struck out the last six batters. So when he capitalized his name in the record books, that K stood out even more than OUFAX.
When Hank Aaron of the Braves hit his 715th home run on April 8, 1974 against the Dodgers in Atlanta, breaking Babe Ruth’s record, Mr. Scully simply said: “To the fence. It’s gone.”
Then he went to the back of the broadcast booth, took off his headset, sipped his coffee and waited for the crowd to roar.
Finally, he returned to the microphone: “What an amazing moment in baseball. What an amazing moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a wonderful moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a big reception in the Deep South for breaking the all-time baseball idol record.
