NEW VIN SCULLY BIOGRAPHY OUT!
- Thread starter KCK_Halo
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I just picked up my copy this morning and plan on making it my Memorial Day Weekend "kick back and read" book.While not authorized by Scully (he thinks no one would care to read about his life!!!) it is supposedly an honest look while still being a loveletter to the best there's ever been.
P.S. I ALWAYS said that if he wrote an autobiography the title should be "Pull Up a Chair"! Imagine how I felt when I saw this title staring out at me.
Description:
In 1950, Vin Scully broadcast his first major league baseball game for the then–Brooklyn Dodgers. Nearly sixty years later he still invites a listener to “pull up a chair,” completing a record fifty-ninth consecutive year of play-by-play.
Recruited and mentored by the legendary Red Barber, the New York–born Scully moved with the Dodgers to Los Angeles in early 1958. His instantly recognizable voice has described players from Duke Snider to Orel Hershiser to Manny Ramirez, with hundreds in between.
At one time or another, Scully has aired NBC Television’s Game of the Week, twelve All-Star Games, eighteen no-hitters, twenty-five World Series, and network football, golf, and tennis. He has made every sportscasting Hall of Fame; received a Lifetime Emmy Achievement award and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; and been voted “most memorable [L.A. Dodgers] franchise personality.” In 2000, the American Sportscasters Association named Scully the Sportscaster of the 20th Century.
The first biography of Vin Scully is long overdue. Curt Smith—to USA Today, “The voice of authority on baseball broadcasting”—is the ideal man to write it. Scully opens each broadcast by wishing listeners, “A very pleasant good afternoon.” Pull Up a Chair will provide a reader with the same.
About the Author(s)/Editor(s)
Curt Smith is the author of twelve sports books, including the classic Voices of The Game, The Voice: Mel Allen’s Untold Story, and Voices of Summer: Ranking Baseball’s 101 All-Time Best Announcers. He is a GateHouse Media columnist; XM Satellite Radio and National Public Radio affiliate host; and former speechwriter to President George H.W. Bush. Smith has written for, among others, Newsweek, the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and the Washington Post. A senior lecturer of English at the University of Rochester, he lives in upstate New York.
Reviews/Endorsements:
“It is fitting that Curt Smith would be the author who gives sports fans a wonderful gift: the first biography of the great Vin Scully. No writer knows baseball announcers as well as Smith does, and no one captures their voice so perfectly. If you can’t get near a television or radio to listen to Scully, read this book. It’s the next best thing.” </SPAN>
-- Christine Brennan, USA Today
“Curt Smith’s salute to Vin Scully makes for what those familiar with both men would expect: one passionate but poised professional writing about another, a noble subject in the hands of a noble author. In the highest possible sense, they deserve each other. We win.” </SPAN>
-- Phil Mushnick, New York Post
“Curt Smith’s passion for the written word and the national pastime leaps from every page. If Vin Scully is baseball’s Homer, Smith is unquestionably its Boswell. Meticulously reported and elegantly written, a brilliant tour de force.” </SPAN>
-- Tom DeFrank, New York Daily News
“Can you believe it? There has never been a biography of Vin Scully, and this book is that—and so much more. This is a book about baseball—and an artist. This is a book worth waiting for. Believe it this book is a winner.” </SPAN>
-- Juan Williams, National Public Radio
“If Scully is the Perfect 10 in Smith’s dead-on reckoning, Pull Up a Chair is a 9.8 (marred only by East German judges), as both a riveting biography and appreciation of the last Dodger link between Brooklyn and the City of the Angels.” </SPAN>
-- Walter Shapiro, author of One-Car Caravan
“This rhapsody is a delightful romp through a half-century of baseball. With the kind of eloquence that Scully made famous behind a microphone, Smith takes us into the broadcast booths and onto the diamonds in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and everywhere in between.” </SPAN>
-- Burt Solomon, National Journal “What a great read. At a time when familiar institutions are reeling from scandal and incompetence, Curt Smith reminds us of baseball’s voice of clarity, honesty, and reality. Smith is the country’s pre-eminent baseball raconteur.” </SPAN>
-- John Zogby, author of The Way We’ll Be “There’s nothing more relaxing than listening to a baseball game that Vin Scully is broadcasting. Curt Smith has captured that quality. Pull Up a Chair makes you want to do just that—pull up a chair, pop open a beer, sit back, and read.” </SPAN>
-- Allen Barra, Wall Street Journal
In 1950, Vin Scully broadcast his first major league baseball game for the then–Brooklyn Dodgers. Nearly sixty years later he still invites a listener to “pull up a chair,” completing a record fifty-ninth consecutive year of play-by-play.
Recruited and mentored by the legendary Red Barber, the New York–born Scully moved with the Dodgers to Los Angeles in early 1958. His instantly recognizable voice has described players from Duke Snider to Orel Hershiser to Manny Ramirez, with hundreds in between.
At one time or another, Scully has aired NBC Television’s Game of the Week, twelve All-Star Games, eighteen no-hitters, twenty-five World Series, and network football, golf, and tennis. He has made every sportscasting Hall of Fame; received a Lifetime Emmy Achievement award and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; and been voted “most memorable [L.A. Dodgers] franchise personality.” In 2000, the American Sportscasters Association named Scully the Sportscaster of the 20th Century.
The first biography of Vin Scully is long overdue. Curt Smith—to USA Today, “The voice of authority on baseball broadcasting”—is the ideal man to write it. Scully opens each broadcast by wishing listeners, “A very pleasant good afternoon.” Pull Up a Chair will provide a reader with the same.
About the Author(s)/Editor(s)
Curt Smith is the author of twelve sports books, including the classic Voices of The Game, The Voice: Mel Allen’s Untold Story, and Voices of Summer: Ranking Baseball’s 101 All-Time Best Announcers. He is a GateHouse Media columnist; XM Satellite Radio and National Public Radio affiliate host; and former speechwriter to President George H.W. Bush. Smith has written for, among others, Newsweek, the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and the Washington Post. A senior lecturer of English at the University of Rochester, he lives in upstate New York.
Reviews/Endorsements:
“It is fitting that Curt Smith would be the author who gives sports fans a wonderful gift: the first biography of the great Vin Scully. No writer knows baseball announcers as well as Smith does, and no one captures their voice so perfectly. If you can’t get near a television or radio to listen to Scully, read this book. It’s the next best thing.” </SPAN>
-- Christine Brennan, USA Today
“Curt Smith’s salute to Vin Scully makes for what those familiar with both men would expect: one passionate but poised professional writing about another, a noble subject in the hands of a noble author. In the highest possible sense, they deserve each other. We win.” </SPAN>
-- Phil Mushnick, New York Post
“Curt Smith’s passion for the written word and the national pastime leaps from every page. If Vin Scully is baseball’s Homer, Smith is unquestionably its Boswell. Meticulously reported and elegantly written, a brilliant tour de force.” </SPAN>
-- Tom DeFrank, New York Daily News
“Can you believe it? There has never been a biography of Vin Scully, and this book is that—and so much more. This is a book about baseball—and an artist. This is a book worth waiting for. Believe it this book is a winner.” </SPAN>
-- Juan Williams, National Public Radio
“If Scully is the Perfect 10 in Smith’s dead-on reckoning, Pull Up a Chair is a 9.8 (marred only by East German judges), as both a riveting biography and appreciation of the last Dodger link between Brooklyn and the City of the Angels.” </SPAN>
-- Walter Shapiro, author of One-Car Caravan
“This rhapsody is a delightful romp through a half-century of baseball. With the kind of eloquence that Scully made famous behind a microphone, Smith takes us into the broadcast booths and onto the diamonds in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and everywhere in between.” </SPAN>
-- Burt Solomon, National Journal “What a great read. At a time when familiar institutions are reeling from scandal and incompetence, Curt Smith reminds us of baseball’s voice of clarity, honesty, and reality. Smith is the country’s pre-eminent baseball raconteur.” </SPAN>
-- John Zogby, author of The Way We’ll Be “There’s nothing more relaxing than listening to a baseball game that Vin Scully is broadcasting. Curt Smith has captured that quality. Pull Up a Chair makes you want to do just that—pull up a chair, pop open a beer, sit back, and read.” </SPAN>
-- Allen Barra, Wall Street Journal
I am LOVING having Vin Scully call the game on FSN tonight! He knows every little detail about every player...as opposed to OUR announcer Steve Physioc.....
I recommended a Baseball book in another thread, but it's worth repeating while we're on the topic. These should be required reading for those with a love of the game.....
"The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America" by Joe Posnanski
&
"The Corporal Was a Pitcher" by Ira Berkow. It's the story of former Tribe and Philadelphia A's pitcher Lou Brissie, who was wounded in World War II. It's baseball's version of "The Greatest Generation."
