On the occasion of his 90th birthday Wednesday, Vin Scully’s plans are to celebrate someone else.
A statue of Jackie Robinson in his full Pasadena City College football regalia will be dedicated outside of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It is a gift from the family of Thomas Tull, who produced the 2013 film “42” that focused on Robinson breaking the major-league baseball color barrier in 1947.
After Scully does his part to introduce Tull as well as members of the Robinson family in attendance, the Dodgers’ retired Hall of Fame broadcaster hopes he can slip unnoticed back to his Hidden Hills home to rejoin his wife, Sandi, who has been quietly enduring some health issues.
“She’s been my ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown,’ and any little extra time I can spend with her, that will be worth it to me,” Scully said Tuesday morning. “And as for the ceremony in Pasadena, that’ll all be about Jackie’s day, and I’ll stay out of everyone’s way.”
Easier said than done.
Less than a week after a family gathering on Thanksgiving, which included recognition to everyone who had a birthday in the month of November, Scully says his day will otherwise be “very, very quiet” and focused on giving thanks some more.
He has no secrets to longevity, other than knowing his strong, faith-guided mother made it to the age of 97, so there’s some DNA on his side.
“It’s all in the hands of the boss,” Scully quipped. “He determined when I arrived and he will certainly determine when I depart.”
He has no profound wisdom to pass along either.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever had any profound wisdom to give to the world at any time,” he said with a laugh. “It’s just been wonderful and I’ve really enjoyed my life and all the blessings God has given, as well as the pain that comes with it. It all makes for your life, right?”
Everything that goes into marking a birthday, even one as monumental as this, has never come easy for him anyway, he says.
“I remember when I was very young, we lived in a fifth-floor walk-up apartment in New York, not a tenement, but where if you looked out the window, you’d see another window,” he said. “I knew we didn’t have any money. So I always tried to downplay my birthday so that my parents wouldn’t feel obligated to spend money they really didn’t have.
“I never thought about the number itself. I just kind of pushed it aside as something personal but not for anyone else to get excited about.”
Thinking about this number, however, does remind him of a commercial about family values he sees these days on TV that gives him a moment to pause and laugh.
“It’s the one where there is a group, probably in a rest home, and a man is honored on his birthday,” Scully said. “So there is a big cake in front of him and on the cake are numbers stuck into it – a big ‘9’ and a big ‘0’.”
Can you see where this is going?
“All of the sudden the camera goes to the front door of where they’re celebrating, and a very attractive woman, maybe 75, who walks in. The guy takes one look, he reaches over and takes the ‘9’ and turns it upside down to be a ‘6.’ And the woman says, ‘You’re not fooling anyone.’
“It’s my favorite commercial, only I know I can’t turn the ‘9’ to ‘6’. That’s OK.”
More: Our top nine column memories and quotes from Scully over the last 20-plus years at www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth.
