Vin Scully Makes Everything Better

[Lefty Specialist]

http://m.mlb.com/video/v740700783/vin-scully-recites-famous-field-of-dreams-speech

[Edgy MD]

It should be a movie. Vin Scully Reads the Phone Book, coming soon to a theater near you.

[Zvon]

I'm sure I have something in my little bag of tricks for Vin. Huge fan.
*shuffle
There ya go.
[fimg=600:1ebm0kp8]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sniz7mecvZs/VzqlSax1aEI/AAAAAAAAn_E/f2zLpj1_WyA3MaRf4J0MXvlAgMOI2nIrgCCo/s1333/Scully4PRESIDENT-z16.png[/fimg:1ebm0kp8]

[RealityChuck]

I'm still looking for confirmation about something I thought I heard Scully say.

It's the sixth game of the 86 series. Ninth inning. Mets have runners on first and second and they send Howard Johnson up to pinch hit. Scully thinks Johnson should be bunting, but he swings away and strikes out. Scully makes it clear he doesn't like that strategy.

Inning ends without a run scored. Cut to commercial.

Back to the show. Scully, obviously talking about the inning with the other guy in the booth, says "If he's good enough to swing away, why isn't he good enough to start?" He then realizes the mic is live and goes back to the game.

Am I misremembering?

[Frayed Knot]

RealityChuck wrote: Am I misremembering?

About Scully disapproval of the swing-away strategy? No. Vin made it clear he was pro-bunt in that situation and, like most bunt advocates, talks about the decision to do so as if its success was 100% guaranteed. In his criticism of the move he neglected to mention that HoJo DID try to bunt at the first pitch and looked miserable doing so.

About his subsequent statements over a mic he didn't realize was live? Not sure. I don't remember it but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

[RealityChuck]

Oh, I know he disapproved of having Johnson hit away. But if he was being sent up there to bunt, why not just have Elster do it instead of wasting a bench player?

And, as things worked out, a successful bunt may have led to a win. Mazzilli hit a fly ball at the next AB. How far did it go?

[bmfc1]

RealityChuck: you remembered it correctly. I watched some of Game 6 today. In the bottom of the 10th, before the fun began, they showed tape of Davey sitting down on the bench and literally hitting his head against the wall. Scully says something like "it's a hard enough game but it's even harder when you make a decision that is going to stick in your craw all winter long." He was referring to letting HoJo swinging away.

[Centerfield]

bmfc1 wrote: RealityChuck: you remembered it correctly. I watched some of Game 6 today. In the bottom of the 10th, before the fun began, they showed tape of Davey sitting down on the bench and literally hitting his head against the wall. Scully says something like "it's a hard enough game but it's even harder when you make a decision that is going to stick in your craw all winter long." He was referring to letting HoJo swinging away.

I remember this clear as day. I was livid with Johnson for not bunting the runners over.

Mazzili's fly ball scores the run easily.

Of course, you never know if he would seen the same pitch yyybbb

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah that's the problem, first the bunt has to be successful (questionable since HoJo whiffed on his first attempt) and then the same stuff has to happen subsequently.

I remember Scully going on assuming that the A-B-C progression was a sure thing and therefore Davey's strategy cost them the game and therefore the series.
Maybe, but hardly a sure thing; hitters pop-up bunts, K trying to bunt, bunt into force plays, bunt into double plays, etc. all the time. Mookie Had bunted the previous play which would have been a force out at 2nd but for a Rich Gedman high throw/error.

I suspect Davey figured that, had he left the 21 y/o rookie call-up who was 5 for 30 in his ML career to that point in to hit, it's a sure signal to Boston that it's bunt all the way and he at least wanted the option of making their defense guess and/or taking it off after one strike.