FLAG DAY, BASEBALL AND VIN SCULLY

By Tom Hoffarth

Everything we have come to believe the flag of the United States of American represents -- pride, hope, governance, citizenship, civility, perseverance and allegiance -- Vin Scully did as well. Probably more.

Those values were important enough for him to amplify as seamlessly as possible into a Los Angeles Dodgers broadcast if a game landed on a day like today -- Flag Day, June 14. We understood the moment to listen and process.

A very young Vin Scully works a game in Brooklyn for New York station WOR Ch.9.Photo byWOR-TV

When Scully died at age 94 in August of 2022, about five years after his retirement from a 67-year broadcast career with the team, we searched our files, notebooks and audio tapes to create a better appreciation for lessons he left for us. It became a book project soliciting essays and remembrances. His adoration of patriotism and history became an important chapter to include.

Scully admits his experience stationed in San Francisco with the U.S. Navy between 1944 and ’45, bridging a high school graduation and entrance into Fordham University, was nothing like what he saw friends endure as they were drafted into World War II.

The National Anthem may be one of the most difficult songs to sing before a baseball game, but to Scully it was more difficult to imagine what the country would be like without understanding of its meaning, underscoring our freedom to assemble and enjoy another ballgame that he would describe.

Here are three things related to the American flag we still connect to Scully.

== April 25, 1976. Amidst the nation’s bicentennial year, and a year removed from the official end of the Vietnam War, Scully is describing a Dodgers-Cubs game from Dodger Stadium on a Sunday afternoon. In the bottom of the fourth, Chicago relief pitcher Ken Crosby is facing the Dodgers’ Ted Sizemore.

“Outside, ball one … and wait a minute there’s an animal loose … two of ‘em, all right … We’re not sure what he’s doing out there … It looks like he’s going to burn a flag … and Rick Monday runs and takes it away from him! (Crowd cheers) … I think the guy was going to set fire to the American flag! Can you imagine that? … Monday, when he realized what he was going to do, raced over and took the flag away from him.”

And Scully took our breath away. Especially now as we read a transcript to see what adjectives he picked in the moment.

As Cubs center fielder Rick Monday snatched up the flag just a man and his son knelt down, doused it with kerosene and kept striking a match but couldn’t get it lit, we are reminded that in the Retrosheet.org recreation of the box score, it notes in bold letters that before Sizemore popped up to second, “Rick Monday saved an American flag from being burned by protestors.” It’s on the record. Monday, who spent six years in the Marine Corp reserve, would be in a Dodgers uniform the next season.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1976/B04250LAN1976.htm

== Six days after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, MLB games returned, and Scully came on the air for a Dodgers-Padres telecast from Dodger Stadium. On the TV broadcast, Scully spoke:

https://www.mlb.com/video/scully-s-touching-speech-c18652293

“All of us have experienced a litany of emotions, whether it would be shock, disbelief and horror, followed by grief, mourning and anger. … We’ve lost some self-confidence. We have lost some of our freedom and certainly we have lost a way of life.

“All the ballplayers in the major leagues are wearing the American flag. Out of patriotism, yes. Out of love of country, yes. But more so, out of duty and of courage and to pronounce a national firmness of will. God bless us in our effort. God bless America.”

The broadcast then went to a scene of a large American flag unfurled across the field.

I talked to him about how he choose those words.

“This is a country that defeated the German army and air corps, the Italian army, and the Japanese armies and air corps in our time, but 19 people brought us to our knees,” he said. “I guess America’s strength is resilient and baseball has been helping the inspiring Americas to play again.”

That sentiment aligned every June 6 when Scully would recount the importance of D-Day. Or every Memorial Day, as his broadcasters were sent out over Armed Forces Radio and he would read the poem “In Flanders Field.” Or every July 4. Amazing how all that aligned within a baseball season’s schedule.

== After Scully’s 2016 retirement, he participated in a Southern California speakers’ series event. One night in front of about 3,000 in Pasadena, he declared he would no longer watch NFL games because some players were kneeling during the National Anthem in protest.

His remark drew applause in the auditorium and made local news.

I asked Scully if he understood what was behind the actions of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Scully not only stood firm in his opinion, but he doubled down.

“I certainly defend their right to protest,” he said. “What has bothered me is that this looks like a way to dishonor our veterans. When I turn the TV on, I see flag-covered coffins, and warriors returning from the war without arms or legs … suicides of veterans because of post-war stress. When I see players kneeling, it absolutely kills me that anyone dare do that. If they really wanted to do something, instead of taking a knee, they’d get down on both knees and thank God they live in America …”

I reminded him that Jackie Robinson wrote in his 1972 memoir: “I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a Black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.”

I asked Scully: What do his words mean to you then, and now?

“I think I have said enough,” he responded.

It was a perfectly eloquent response then, and still is now.

Tom Hoffarth has covered sports in Southern California for more than 40 years. His new book, “Perfect Eloquence: An Appreciation of Vin Scully,” was released in May 2024 by University of Nebraska Press. His website is www.fartheroffthewall.com/blogs. He is on X as https://x.com/TomHoffarth ; on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhoffarth/ and on Instagram as @tomhoffarthscribe.