Jump to content

The Pie and Bovril Dead Pool 2022


Recommended Posts

Brooklyn/LA Dodgers play by play guy of 67 seasons Vin Scully strikes out at 94


Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully, whose dulcet tones provided the soundtrack of summer while entertaining and informing Dodgers fans in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for 67 years, died Tuesday night, the team said. He was 94.


Scully died at his home in the Hidden Hills section of Los Angeles, according to the team, which spoke to family members.


As the longest tenured broadcaster with a single team in pro sports history, Scully saw it all and called it all. He began in the 1950s era of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, on to the 1960s with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, into the 1970s with Steve Garvey and Don Sutton, and through the 1980s with Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela. In the 1990s, it was Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo, followed by Clayton Kershaw, Manny Ramirez and Yasiel Puig in the 21st century.


The Dodgers changed players, managers, executives, owners and even coasts but Scully and his soothing, insightful style remained a constant for the fans.


He opened broadcasts with the familiar greeting, “Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be.”


Ever gracious both in person and on the air, Scully considered himself merely a conduit between the game and the fans.


Although he was paid by the Dodgers, Scully was unafraid to criticize a bad play or a manager’s decision, or praise an opponent while spinning stories against a backdrop of routine plays and noteworthy achievements. He always said he wanted to see things with his eyes, not his heart.


Vincent Edward Scully was born 29 November 1927, in the Bronx. He was the son of a silk salesman who died of pneumonia when Scully was 7. His mother moved the family to Brooklyn, where the red-haired, blue-eyed Scully grew up playing stickball in the streets.


As a child, Scully would grab a pillow, put it under the family’s four-legged radio and lay his head directly under the speaker to hear whatever college football game was on the air. With a snack of saltine crackers and a glass of milk nearby, the boy was transfixed by the crowd’s roar that raised goosebumps. He thought he’d like to call the action himself.


Scully, who played outfield for two years on the Fordham University baseball team, began his career by working baseball, football and basketball games for the university’s radio station.


At age 22, he was hired by a CBS radio affiliate in Washington DC.


He soon joined Hall of Famer Red Barber and Connie Desmond in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ radio and television booths. In 1953, at age 25, Scully became the youngest person to broadcast a World Series game, a mark that still stands.


He moved west with the Dodgers in 1958. Scully called three perfect games Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, Sandy Koufax in 1965 and Dennis Martinez in 1991 and 18 no-hitters.


He also was on the air when Don Drysdale set his scoreless innings streak of 58 2/3 innings in 1968 and again when Hershiser broke the record with 59 consecutive scoreless innings 20 years later.


When Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run to break Babe Ruth’s record in 1974, it was against the Dodgers and, of course, Scully called it


“A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol,” Scully told listeners. “What a marvelous moment for baseball.”


Scully credited the birth of the transistor radio as “the greatest single break” of his career. Fans had trouble recognizing the lesser players during the Dodgers’ first four years in the vast Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.


“They were 70 or so odd rows away from the action,” he said in 2016. “They brought the radio to find out about all the other players and to see what they were trying to see down on the field.”


That habit carried over when the team moved to Dodger Stadium in 1962. Fans held radios to their ears, and those not present listened from home or the car, allowing Scully to connect generations of families with his words.


He often said it was best to describe a big play quickly and then be quiet so fans could listen to the pandemonium. After Koufax’s perfect game in 1965, Scully went silent for 38 seconds before talking again. He was similarly silent for a time after Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.


He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that year, and also had the stadium’s press box named for him in 2001. The street leading to Dodger Stadium’s main gate was named in his honor in 2016.


That same year he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from US president Barack Obama.


“God has been so good to me to allow me to do what I’m doing,” Scully, a devout Catholic who attended mass on Sundays before heading to the ballpark, said before retiring. “A childhood dream that came to pass and then giving me 67 years to enjoy every minute of it. That’s a pretty large thanksgiving day for me.”


In addition to being the voice of the Dodgers, Scully called play-by-play for NFL games and PGA Tour events as well as calling 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games. He was NBC’s lead baseball announcer from 1983-89.


While being one of the most widely heard broadcasters in the nation, Scully was an intensely private man. Once the baseball season ended, he would disappear. He rarely did personal appearances or sports talk shows. He preferred spending time with his family.


In 1972, his first wife, Joan, died of an accidental overdose of medicine. He was left with three young children. Two years later, he met the woman who would become his second wife, Sandra, a secretary for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. She had two young children from a previous marriage, and they combined their families into what Scully once called “my own Brady Bunch.”


He said he realized time was the most precious thing in the world and that he wanted to use his time to spend with his loved ones. In the early 1960s, Scully quit smoking with the help of his family. In the shirt pocket where he kept a pack of cigarettes, Scully stuck a family photo. Whenever he felt like he needed a smoke, he pulled out the photo to remind him why he quit. Eight months later, Scully never smoked again.


After retiring in 2016, Scully made just a handful of appearances at Dodger Stadium and his sweet voice was heard narrating an occasional video played during games. Mostly, he was content to stay close to home.


“I just want to be remembered as a good man, an honest man, and one who lived up to his own beliefs,” he said in 2016.


In 2020, Scully auctioned off years of his personal memorabilia, which raised over $2m. A portion of it was donated to UCLA for ALS research.


He was preceded in death by his second wife, Sandra. She died of complications of ALS at age 76 in 2021. The couple, who were married 47 years, had daughter Catherine together.


Scully’s other children are Kelly, Erin, Todd and Kevin. A son, Michael, died in a helicopter crash in 1994.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 04/08/2022 at 16:04, Lord Snooty said:

My little tribute. Deadpool -60 :(

 

mm.jpg

I read an article somewhere where her niece said she'd still be alive today if it hadn't been for her father.  She would have been 96! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

I read an article somewhere where her niece said she'd still be alive today if it hadn't been for her father.  She would have been 96! 

Wait to you hear folk telling you that Hitler is in Argentina.... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Week 32 update

Three deaths this week, so no fucking about. Up first, Nichelle Nichols: Nichelle Nichols obituary | Star Trek | The Guardian

Quote

The actor and singer Nichelle Nichols, who has died aged 89, was one of the first black women to be featured on American television in a non-subservient role when she played the communications officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series (1966-69). She was also involved in the US’s first small-screen kiss between a black woman and a white man, Uhura and Captain Kirk (played by William Shatner), in 1968.

When Nichols considered leaving Star Trek at the end of the first run, a chance meeting with the civil rights leader Martin Luther King at a fundraising event changed her mind. “He said I had the first non-stereotypical role, I had a role with honour, dignity and intelligence,” she recalled in a 2011 television programme. “He said: ‘You simply cannot abdicate. This is an important role. This is why we are marching. We never thought we’d see this on TV.’”

Returning to the part that she had seen simply as a stepping stone to Broadway, Nichols took it more seriously and reprised it in the original Star Trek’s spin-off films. She saw Uhura – her name was based on uhuru, the Swahili for “freedom” – not only as a role model for black people, but also for women with ambitions to become astronauts or scientists.

I actually found an original series Star Trek episode on the telly the other week. It looked a bit rubbish. She wasn't there.

Nichols died at 89 so she's worth 36 Base Points for @scottsdad and @weirdcal, with a Deadly Duo bonus taking that to 61 points apiece. 

============

Up next was baseball commentator Vin Scully: Vin Scully, the 'voice of the Dodgers', dies at the age of 94  | Daily Mail Online

Quote

Broadcasting legend Vin Scully - the 'voice of the Dodgers' who called the iconic team's baseball games for 67 seasons - has died at the age of 94.

Scully died at his home in the Hidden Hills section of Los Angeles, according to the team, which spoke to family members. The hallmark of Scully's career was a storytelling style combined with what he called 'kind of a running commentary with an imaginary friend,' he once told the Los Angeles Times in an interview.

In a statement posted on Twitter late on Tuesday night, the Dodgers said: 'He was the voice of the Dodgers and so much more.

'He was their conscience, their poet laureate, capturing their beauty and chronicling their glory from Jackie Robinson to Sandy Koufax, Kirk Gibson to Clayton Kershaw. 

'Vin Scully was the heartbeat of the Dodgers - and in so many ways, the heartbeat of all of Los Angeles.' 

'We lost the greatest ever to do it,' Dodgers play-by-play man Joe Davis, who succeeded Scully, said during Tuesday night's broadcast. 

Just imagine Liam Macleod doing Sportscene when he's in his 80s. Of course, for many non-Americans there's one thing they'll know the voice of Vin Scully for - being imitated in The Simpsons:

Scully died at 94 so he's worth 31 Base Points for @Arch Stanton and @Savage Henry, with a Deadly Duo taking that to 56 points apiece.

============

Final death this week was Celtic player John Hughes: Legendary Celtic striker John ‘Yogi’ Hughes dies at age of 79 | Celtic | The Guardian

Celtic have a fairly comprehensive profile of him on their website: John Hughes | Celtic FC Profile | celticfc.com

I've done the great former footballer with a seemingly impossible statistical record obituary so many times. 188 goals in 383 appearances in all competitions. It's not a bad rate.

Hughes died at 79 so he's worth 46 Base Points for @thisal with a Solo Shot taking that to 96 points.

As a result, the standings look like this:

1. Bishop Briggs 586
2. Indale Winton 530
3. JustOneCornetto 431
4. chomp my root 403
5. Billy Jean King 382
6. sparky88 372
7. Ned Nederlander 371
8. Arch Stanton 358
9. Sweaty Morph 342
10. weirdcal 320
11. Moomintroll 293
12. Savage Henry 286
13. gkneil 271
14. mathematics 269
15. peasy23 259
16. Arbroathlegend36-0 255
17 The Master 244
18. psv_killie 242
19. The DA 204
20. scottsdad 199
21. Desp 188
22. pawpar 187
23. The_Craig 178
24. Florentine_Pogen 173
25. thistledo 167
26. Melanius Mullarkey 163
27. thisal 160
28. Blootoon87 151
29. gingette, microdave 150
31. buddiepaul 146

32. cdhafc1874 130
33. pub car king, Raidernation, tamthebam 122
36. nessies long lost ghost, The Naitch 113
38. senorsoupe 108
39. Miguel Sanchez 105

40. Bully Wee Villa 104
41. jimbaxters, lichtgilphead, sleazy 92
44. scorge 85
45. Lofarl, Mark Connolly 75
47. The Hologram 73
48. ThomCat 69
49. Hamish's Passenger 61
50. Fuctifano, Willie adie 57
52. Bert Raccoon, speckled tangerine, statts1976uk 39
55. ayrunitedfw, cambozpar, Karpaty Lviv, Les Cabbage 30
59. Ray Patterson 22

60. Everyone else 0

The spreadsheet has also been updated with these scores: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mup1IJllKHs0a47J8G6IXUkvShJrV28Iuc-Kkn7RKuo/edit?usp=sharing

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 06/08/2022 at 11:21, hk blues said:

He's my next door neighbour actually.  I hope I look as good at 123 as he does. 

There was an absolutely batshit crazy QAnon theory that JFK is still alive and was going to reappear at Dealey Plaza and announce Trump as president in 2021.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...