Interview: Vin Scully

Legendary baseball broadcaster Vin Scully sat down with Referee during last season to offer a perspective readers of this magazine don’t always get – that of the game announcer. Periodically Referee interviews non-officials, like coaches, sports reporters and game announcers. During the last 30 years, we’ve interviewed such media luminaries as Brent Musberger, Bob Ryan, Billy Packer and Frank DeFord. But this is the first time we’ve talked with a baseball Hall of Famer.

Referee: You’ve seen more than your fair share of major league umpires. From your perspective, what makes a good umpire?

Scully: What makes you a good umpire is what makes a good ballplayer, what makes a good anything – enthusiasm for the job, knowledge of the job, patience and understanding in the heat of battle, realizing that the players are high strung and battling for great rewards. Umpires should take all of that into consideration, and the good ones do. They’re not interested in getting out in front of the game; they’re interested in umpiring, and if a player is irate for a moment, let him blow off steam, maybe turn around and walk away, clean off home plate, anything but have a confrontation.

Referee: How do today’s umpires stack up against those in the past?

Scully: The comparison isn’t really fair. To say one generation’s umpiring was more arduous than another’s, it doesn’t quite stack up. The umpires in the old days had 154 games, but they did have doubleheaders. The modern day umpire has 162 games with a rare day off. But then they have in-season vacation time, too. I don’t believe that either age was any better than the others, no.

Referee: You’ve broadcast games umpired by Hall-of-Fame umpires like the late Al Barlick, the late Jocko Conlan and Hall-of-Fame nominee Doug Harvey. What do you think made them great?

Scully: It’s not for me to judge who’s great, and therefore you could ask me who isn’t great and that wouldn’t be fair either. I might be able to tell you who I think is a great broadcaster. But certainly all three of those umpires received not only the recommendation of those who observe the game, but they also were saluted by their own kind. That’s what makes them special. The other umpires realized that men like Al, Jocko and Doug fulfilled the definition of a great umpire, all those things that I gave you earlier about what constitutes a good umpire. Do that in spades and you have a Hall of Fame umpire.

Referee: There has been a sea change not just in umpiring but in all of officiating over the past 20 years in which the umpiring personalities of yesteryear are replaced with a more refined, more uniform and some might say less interesting breed of umpire. You’ve witnessed both styles. Do you think today’s umpires need to be more colorful?

Scully: I don’t think so at all. Umpires are not paid to be colorful. They’re paid to be accurate, they’re paid to be in the right position and they’re paid to be patient, not to make a hurried call but rather make a correct call. No, no, not colorful at all.

Referee: Major League Baseball consolidated the NL and AL umpiring staffs a few years back. Do you think that’s been a help to the game?

Scully: I would think so. When I started in this business the AL umpires all wore the outside chest protector, like the big mattress of a bed. According to those who played, because of that big outside chest protector the AL umpire would not give the low strike. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s what many have said. The NL umpires wore an inside chest protector and had more maneuverability, so consequently I’m told that they did give the low strike. Now they’ve blended the two leagues, and of course there’s no such thing as the outside chest protector anymore, but I’m sure any lingering differences between the two staffs have been disappearing since the consolidation. Consequently I think it has certainly helped the game.

Referee: Technology has come a long way since you started with the game. We have more and better camera angles every year and MLB has been using certain cameras (the QuesTec system) to look at the umpires’ ball-and-strike calls. Obviously baseball doesn’t use any form of replay, but do you think the introduction of all that technology has helped the umpires at all?

Scully: I’m not sure if it’s helped them any. It’s served to help the rest of us see things that we normally wouldn’t from our vantage points. I will say this: As far as I’m concerned, all of the high technology to show an umpire’s call has served the purpose of illustrating just how accurate umpires are 99 percent of the time. I really and truly believe that they do a remarkable job, and they’re vindicated most of the time by the high technology. It’s amazing.

Referee: Do you think the time will ever come when they will use instant replay in baseball?

Scully: I doubt it. More and more we see these days the umpires are willing to huddle to get the call right. We didn’t see that as much years ago. One umpire makes a call, and the other umpires say, "You were out of position; let’s see if we can help you," and they have a meeting occasionally and reverse the call. That’s just one of the reasons I doubt they will introduce replay, because they don’t need to. But you start talking about the future, who knows?

Referee: Plenty of announcers jump all over the umpires for a perceived bad call. What’s your philosophy about broadcasting when a call is obviously missed? How do you inform the listeners?

Scully: My only philosophy is to soften the blow in the sense that first of all I know the umpire was trying. Secondly he’s human and we all make mistakes and I try to point that out. I also bring up the fact that 99 percent of the time they’re accurate. So I try to temper the blow. We had a play (last season) in which an umpire was obviously fooled on a ball that took a bad hop. He thought that the baserunner had interfered with the fielder. The only mistake made was that the other umpires in that one case didn’t come to the rescue and say, "Hey, the ball just took a bad hop." That was the only mistake. I felt badly for him because it was so obviously wrong.

Referee: In the case of a confusing call, something that the viewer might think was a blown call, anything controversial, a lot of times umpires aren’t able to comment on it because of gag rules. The leagues don’t want their officials commenting directly to the media in most cases. Do you think that’s a good idea, or do you think that umpires should be available to explain controversial plays?

Scully: Well, I’m one of those who follows the rules. If they have a rule whereby they don’t want the umpires to get into any confrontational interviews, that’s good enough for me. They’ve done their job between the lines during the game. That’s enough.

Referee: Which umpires do you most look forward to seeing on a game that you’re broadcasting?

Scully: I look forward really to most of them. I try to wave or applaud when they come to home plate a lot of times. The only umpires I have some trouble with – and I won’t mention anyone specifically – would be the umpires who give a very slow, rhythmical call on balls and strikes. That takes maybe an inning before you realize his tempo, because a lot of times you’ll get an umpire who might call the pitch as far as the batter and pitcher are concerned, but there’s a beat or two before he suddenly raises that right hand for the rest of the stadium to see. That trips me up a little as a broadcaster. Until you realize that umpire’s cadence or have a good scouting report on the umpire, you might be contradicting yourself quite a few times.

Referee: How important is it for a broadcaster to know the rules?

Scully: I think it’s important. The rules can be very complicated. What you would try to do if there is a big dispute on the field, you might be able to look it up in the rulebook and try to explain why they’re ruling the way they are. If you don’t know all the rules, at least you should have a book and be able to look them up. It’s not always easy.

Referee: Do you have that book with you every game?

Scully: You bet.

Referee: Maybe you should have gone into umpiring.

Scully: No, no. I’d need the book with me on the field then. But I truly respect the umpires because I know what a difficult job it is; I know what a lonesome job it is. They’re on the road all the time. I truly admire the job that they do day in and day out.