Tale of Two Artists

Courtesy of the L.A. Daily News

Vin Scully & Greg Maddux - A Couple of Shooting Stars

Light up Los Angeles. Catch Them While You Can.

By Devra Maza,
Special to the Daily News
LA Daily News

Several seasons ago, I was researching a baseball screenplay and the Dodgers opened their stadium to me. I was sitting with the scouts during an extra-inning game when two pitchers got up for the Braves in the visitors' bullpen. The scouts, busy with their radar guns, asked me to ID the relievers with my binoculars.

"The one on the left is John Smoltz," I told them. The scouts exchanged incredulous looks. "And the one on the right is Greg Maddux." Just as they were about to give up on me entirely, the distinctive voice of Vin Scully was heard on the radios that played throughout the ballpark, imbued with the sense of wonder and awe that would soon fill the scouts' faces: "... And look who's throwing in the pen. ... There's a combined five Cy Youngs warming up ..."

Now that four of those Cy Youngs is a Dodger, Scully has the opportunity to impart that sense of awe and wonder every fifth day when Greg Maddux makes his start. "I'll drive to the ballpark thinking I hope he has a good game, because he's such fun to watch," says Scully. "I love how he works the hitters."

While Scully admires what Maddux can do with a baseball, Maddux in turn says of Scully, "I always loved his voice, and admired what he's been able to do with a microphone. As a kid, I was a big Reds fan, and we used to come to Dodger games, and Vin Scully was always on the radio. You could hear him during the game in the stands."

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