On October 2, 2016, the iconic Vin Scully, at eighty-nine years young, broadcast his last game for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were facing the New York Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Nonetheless, the Dodgers lost 7-1. But victory was still had in the form of Vin Scully’s poise-laden professional career.
Vin Scully’s fidelity to the Dodgers was legendary – he was with the Dodgers for sixty-seven straight seasons, including remaining with them when they left New York for Los Angeles in 1957. Vin Scully has the record – in all of professional sports history – for the most time that a broadcaster has remained with one team. This record will not easily be matched. Scully was the broadcaster for multiple memorable moments in baseball history. However, his commitment to baseball and the Dodgers has not been his only level of devotion – in fact, his faithfulness to the Lord in how he practices his Catholic faith is even more prominent.
Vin Scully always makes it to Sunday mass, and would attend at Dodger Stadium when his broadcasting schedule required it. Vin Scully has likewise made recourse to his faith when dealing with tragedies in his life, including losing his first wife, Joan Crawford, to an accidental overdose of medication in 1972, and his eldest son Michael in a helicopter accident in 1994.
According to a June 15, 2016, article by George Weigel on First Things, “Vin Scully has lived through tragedies that would have crushed or embittered others: the death of a wife; the death of a son. He openly credits the Catholic faith with which he grew up in the Bronx as his life’s anchor. You can find him on Sunday at St. Jude the Apostle Church in Westlake Village, California, being fed by word and sacrament before he brings a lifetime of learning and that melodious voice into the homes, cars, and ear-buds of millions later in the afternoon, from his post behind the microphone at Chavez Ravine.”
Vin Scully has been an ardent proponent of the Rosary, which he narrated for Catholic Athletes for Christ, who honored him recently. He has also even earned the esteem of various bishops, including Archdiocese of Los Angeles auxiliary bishops Robert Barron (the founder of Word on Fire Ministries) and Joseph Brennan, both of whom met with Scully while attending the first ever “Catholic Night” in Dodger Stadium on September 2.
Throughout the years, the extent of Vin Scully’s Catholic faith has even been further underscored by – among other journalistic outlets – the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Catholic News Service and the Jesuit-operated America magazine. As Vin Scully enters retirement to spend time with his family, his extended family in faith will continue to appreciate his witness to living so openly according to Catholic principles, in the interest of the kingdom of God, as the example of his faith continues to shine brighter than the lights at Dodger Stadium.
