Second Thoughts

Mrs. Scully never turned Vic's mic off

Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully said he always sought the approval of his wife, Sandi, (left) when making a decision whether or not to return for another year.
Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully said he always sought the approval of his wife, Sandi, (left) when making a decision whether or not to return for another year.

For years, whenever Vin Scully was asked whether he would return for another season as the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he responded that he needed the blessing of his wife, Sandi.

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MLB

San Francisco Giants outfielder Angel Pagan

He did so in 2008, before returning for his 60th season. And it was up to Sandi again in 2013, as it was in 2014 and 2015. Each time, he said, he checked first with Sandi, or Mrs. Scully, as he has always called her in public.

She always obliged.

"She's so selfless that she'll probably say, 'Whatever you feel you should do, we'll do,' and then we'll go back to Square 1," he said in 2008.

But after today's game against the Giants in San Francisco, Scully will retire after 67 seasons, stretching back to the Brooklyn Dodgers days. It is a decision Sandi Scully said was always his to make, not hers. But people who know the couple say he would not have returned to the booth all those times if she had been against it.

"He gave me a lot of power in the press," she said in a telephone interview last week, after a weekend filled with tributes as he called his final games at Dodger Stadium. "How can somebody say whether he should or shouldn't do what he loves?"

Sandi Scully, 71, is a regular at Dodger Stadium, sitting behind him in the booth. At home, they watch Dodgers road games on television. But, she admitted, "Sometimes, we flip the channel."

Through much of his career, she has been the stay-at-home parent, helping to raise their several children. She served as the chairman for a charity, Share Inc., which helps abused and developmentally disabled children.

Although she mostly has stayed out of the limelight, friends of the couple said she had been a powerful force on decisions large and small in her husband's life.

Dennis Gilbert, a friend who is a former agent, said she had weighed in on everything from what to eat to when to walk away.

"He would never make any decision without her," he said. "His world revolves around her, and hers around him."

Sandi Scully, however, insists it was her husband's decision to step away from the microphone.

"He's going to be 89 in November," she said. "His children are in their 40s and 50s. There's a time to fold 'em. He came to the conclusion that he's done what he can do."

Angel slam

San Francisco Giants outfielder Angel Pagan just might have a future in pro wrestling after he's done with baseball.

At the very least, he produced Major League Baseball's most bizarre highlight in quite some time by body-slamming a fan who rushed the field during Friday night's Giants-Dodgers game in San Francisco.

In the fourth inning of the game, a few mischievous fans rushed the field. One approached Pagan in left field with a handful of white flowers. The fan extended one toward Pagan as a gift. Pagan initially acted as if he would accept the offering -- then grabbed the fan and executed a textbook body-slam to raucous cheers from the crowd as security guards closed in to apprehend the interloper.

That's some old-fashioned street justice for the misguided, attention-seeking fan in question.

Sports quiz

What team has played in the most Major League Baseball wild-card games?

Sports answer

Pittsburgh Pirates with three.

Sports on 10/02/2016

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