Vin Scully had the unenviable task of delivering the news of Muhammad Ali’s death during a Dodgers broadcast.
Vin Scully has been calling baseball games ever since the 1950s, but he may have had to do the hardest thing of his broadcasting career yesterday.
Muhammad Ali passed away at approximately 12:15 am Eastern time, which was during the Atlanta Braves vs. Los Angeles Dodgers contest, and while the viewers’ attentions were fixed on the game, Scully had to deliver the sad news to the Dodger faithful.
The Los Angeles Dodgers posted his reaction on Twitter and supercut it with pictures of the legend himself:
"Vin Scully on ‘The Greatest of All Time’, Muhammad Ali.https://t.co/A8eH3SEM47— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 4, 2016"
After he delivered the news, hardly anyone knew or cared that the Dodgers won. Ali’s death doesn’t just affect the boxing world, it affects the sports world altogether. What he stood for also made him a courageous figure during the Civil Rights era, and there’s no doubt that world leaders will attend his funeral.
For Scully, this is the last year that he will be calling baseball games, and it’s a good thing that he stayed on. While his replacement will be good in his own right, it would suck to have him deliver this news in just his first year, and it wouldn’t feel right for anyone else but Scully to announce the news in Dodger country.
Scully was clearly broken up over the matter, and his touching tribute is just one of many that the sporting world has delivered this morning.
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