He was also a celebrity beyond the world of baseball, named the grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, California on New Year’s Day 2015.
He chronicled a succession of great events in baseball history and knew when to be quiet.
Mr. Scully was on the microphone in 1955 when the Brooklyn Dodgers won their only World Series championship, and in 1956 when the Yankees’ Don Larsen threw a perfect game against the Dodgers in the World Series.
When Sandy Koufax retired all 27 Chicago Cubs batters at Dodger Stadium on September 9, 1965, Mr. Scully put her stamp on the moment:
“On the scoreboard in right field, it’s 9:46 in the City of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of 29,139 sat to see the only pitcher in baseball history to throw four no-hit, no-run games. He’s done it four years in a row and now he’s topping it off: In his no-hitter in the fourth, he turned it into a perfect game. And Sandy Koufax, whose name will always remind you of punches, did it hard. He struck out the last six batters in a row. So when he capitalized his name in the record books, that K stands out even more than the OUFAX.
When Hank Aaron of the Braves hit his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s record, on April 8, 1974, in Atlanta against the Dodgers, Mr. Scully said simply, “On the fence. He’s gone.”
He then made his way to the back of the broadcast booth, removed his headphones, took a sip of coffee and waited as the roar of the crowd echoed.
Finally, he returned to the microphone: “What a wonderful time for baseball. What a wonderful time for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a wonderful time for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the all-time baseball idol record.”