“It is 9:46 p.m. Two and two to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away. Sandy into his windup, here’s the pitch. Swung on and missed, a perfect game!”
Those were the words said by Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully as he called the final out of a perfect game by Sandy Koufax.
There have only been 23 perfect games in MLB history, but Koufax’s on Sept. 9, 1965 was just the eighth.
Scully said he always added the date to the call for no-hitters, but he wanted to add something else for the perfect game to make it stand out even more, and he did that by giving the time too, as he discussed in a Twitter video:
Here's a story I shared with @SchiavelloVOICE, the author of "The Commentators: 100 Years of Sports Commentary" about calling no-hitters, including Sandy Koufax's perfect game. Now I'd like to share with all of you. pic.twitter.com/DWiCXNaAsQ
— Vin Scully (@TheVinScully) November 10, 2021
Scully called his decision to add the time as a moment where he lucked out in his broadcasting career because the time didn’t really matter, but it ended up helping the call.
“Time is useless as far as baseball is concerned — it wasn’t in the old days but it is now,” Scully said in the video. “So I did the game and I would start calling off the time, only thinking of Sandy Koufax and the kids listening of his perfect game.”
Koufax, of course, ended up finishing off the perfect game, and Scully recalled that for the next few days, all he heard about was how dramatic it was to have the time included in the call.
Scully told the story to Micahel Schiavello, author of The Commentators: 100 Years of Sports Commentary, which releases on Dec. 1, but shared the video on Twitter as part of the promotion for the book.
Scully hopes Gil Hodges is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
In addition to the players included on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot for the class of 2022, the National Baseball Hall of Fame is giving others an opportunity to be inducted via the Early Baseball Era Committee and the Golden Days Era Committee.
Among those who will be considered for election this year include longtime Brooklyn and L.A. Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges.
Hodges spent the first 16 of his 18 seasons with the organization, batting .274/.360/.488 with 1,884 hits, 361 home runs, 1,254 RBI and 1,088 runs scored. He earned eight All-Star selections, three Gold Glove Awards and helped the Dodgers win two World Series championships (1955, 1959).
Hodges is considered one of the most accomplished players to not be in the Hall of Fame, so Scully hopes that changes this year.
