Why Vin Scully Rules

Vin Scully has been broadcasting Dodgers games since the team was in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn.

The place they left after the 1957 season.

In over 50 years of broadcasting baseball, Scully has seen his share of big moments. His call of the 9th inning of Sandy Koufax's perfect game against the Cubs in 1965 has been deemed so perfect that university English departments have studied it.

And though Milo Hamilton's call of Henry Aaron's 715th home run is the one most widely known, Scully, too, called the record-breaker that night in Atlanta.

When Aaron connected off of Al Downing, Scully's call was as follows:

"There's a high drive into deep left-center field. Buckner goes back, to the fence, it is gone! (Scully then paused about 25 seconds as the crowd cheered.) What 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. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it's a great moment for all of us and particularly for Henry Aaron, who is met at home plate not only by every member of the Braves but by his father and mother."

In one paragraph Scully captured the history of the moment, the fact that Aaron had been the victim of death threats and racial epithets during his chase of Babe Ruth; and in a region of the country where it is believed many of those threats originated, the fans in Atlanta showed an outpouring of love that was, to that point, never bestowed on a professional athlete in that city - regardless of race.

That brings us to Barry Bonds, still just one home run from tying Aaron as of this writing.

And ironically, the Giants are in Los Angeles to visit Scully's Dodgers. With games remaining both tonight and Thursday in the series, it's possible Scully could be called on again.

So how will this legend, who has been very careful not to offer any opinion on Bonds personally and who has said he'd rather not be put in a position to make another such call, handle the situation?

Most likely with silence. Scully said he'd likely "shut up" and let the fans tell the story.

Classic Scully. Ultimately, the game is the most important thing.

“I don’t think really I’m going to have any feelings, outside of the fact that it’s a home run that might decide the game,” Scully told the New York Post. “I’m not going to judge him in any way, shape or form. I really do believe the old adage that a man is innocent until proven guilty.”