Crafting the Call – Vin Scully & Perfection
In Episode 2, Jesse and I listen to the entire 9th inning of Vin Scully describing Sandy Koufax’s 1965 perfect game
Crafting the Call is a YouTube series that I developed along with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler. Each week, we examine different aspects of baseball play-by-play announcing, offering our perspective as working professionals for fans, and advice for fellow broadcasters.
Vin Scully was behind the microphone for an unprecedented 20 no-hitters and three perfect games.
His most famous call was the Sept. 9, 1965 perfect game thrown by Sandy Koufax against the Chicago Cubs. Koufax was at the peak of his domination on the mound and Scully was established as the premiere baseball voice in the industry.
In Episode 2 of “Crafting the Call” — a new YouTube series with my friend Jesse Goldberg-Strassler — we listen to the entire ninth inning of Koufax’s perfect game and examine why Scully’s call is also perfect.
But to put Scully’s work into context, we start by listening to the final out of the perfect game Don Larsen threw in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series that Scully also described. Scully wasn’t yet the Scully we came to know. A few years before his death, Scully admitted when he listened back at that game, he was bored by his own performance.
In this episode, we also explain how the timing of the Dodgers moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, initially playing in the cavernous LA Memorial Coliseum, and the invention of the transistor radio made Scully a legend on the highways, beaches and even inside the ballpark to Dodgers fans.
In case you missed the first episode, here is a link to the “Crafting the Call” YouTube Channel. The topic is calling an inside-the-park home run.
Also, Jesse wrote a companion piece on LinkedIn that’s excellent. Here’s a snippet:
An optimal inside-the-park home run call means three different vocal spikes, each of which must be higher than the last: 1) the initial moment when the ball finds freedom, allowing more bases than we originally expected, 2) the sight of the third-base coach windmilling batter around (or the batter blowing through a stop sign!), 3) the play at the plate, determining whether the batter has succeeded in this breakneck 360-foot circuit.
Because there must be room for the next spike of excitement, the broadcaster must not hit their vocal peak on either No. 1 or 2, as tempting as it is. The call of No. 1 opens the play up, an elevation from the expectation of a single or double. No. 2 requires conciseness, a quick escalation of the stakes to bring the listener to the edge of their seat, or perhaps to their feet.
Future episodes include four different views of the famous Kirk Gibson vs Dennis Eckersley confrontation to end Game 1 of the 1988 World Series and a look at calling a triple play.
Hope you subscribe to the YouTube channel … or just watch them weekly as I post them here on Substack.