Vin Scully deserves one last honor at Cooperstown

Of all the relics that could represent Vin Scully in perpetuity at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., items that might convey to future generations what he did and what he meant, what would mean the most to his legacy?

Audio clips of his greatest calls are already there. A few other odd pieces of memorabilia are in the vault as well.

But this one is easy: Flip the name of the Ford C. Frick Award to the Vin Scully Award.

In 1982, Scully was the sixth recipient of the honor given to broadcasters who make “major contributions to baseball.” Red Barber, his mentor, received the first one in 1978, along with Mel Allen. The Dodgers’ Jaime Jarrin was the first non-English award winner in 1998.

One isn’t really “enshrined” in the Hall when they are voted for this, however. Their black-and-white photo is actually just added to a big green wall, a display about the game’s broadcast and writing history in the “Scribes and Mikemen” wing.

The writers are honored annually with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, appropriately enough named after the longtime editor of The Sporting News.

Not to go fracking on Frick’s future, but his past isn’t all that broadcast worthy.

He was elevated to commissioner of baseball in 1951 and stayed there until 1965. His claim to fame was ghostwriting for Babe Ruth, so no wonder the mark he left on the game has to do with an asterisk — preventing Roger Maris from having sole possession of the 162-game single-season home-run record in 1961 that belonged to Ruth in a 154-game season.

Under Frick’s watch, the Dodgers and Giants moved west, and the National League expanded after threats by the Continental League to compete for talent and cities.

Frick died in 1978. So the Hall thought by putting his name on this award it would do him a solid.

Otherwise?

“Vin means so much to baseball and the broadcasting world, but at this point we are comfortable with the name of the Ford C. Frick Award,” said Jon Shestakofsky, the vice president of communications and education with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, when asked about a possible rebranding of the honor.

John Thorn, the official Major League Baseball historian, gave us this thought: “I try not to have opinions about other people’s business, but Frick is an odd namesake for the award.”

Scully would not be.

The Southern California Broadcasters Association will give out its first Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement award in January — and Scully is the first recipient. Scully’s alma mater, Fordham, has one started as well.

Cooperstown needs to figure out this is a win-Vin situation. Just do it before the soon-to-be 89-year-old Scully can live to see it and appreciate the gesture.

“I began listening and watching to Scully when I was 8, in 1955, the annus mirabilis of the Brooklyn Dodgers,” Thorn added when asked about Scully’s influence on him. “It amazes and delights me that he is still crazy about baseball — and curious about the wider world — after all these years, even if, as a player in our national drama, he exits stage right.

“I hadn’t thought that I was modeling my career after Vin’s but maybe, all along, I was.”

And the rest could be history.

• Oct. 2 might be logged in Dodgers history as Scully’s final game. But it was also the date, 50 years ago this Sunday, of Sandy Koufax’s last victory.

His most important? Could be.

In a 6-3 win at Connie Mack Stadium, Koufax gutted out eight shutout innings and a rocky ninth to register his 27th win. He started the game against future Hall of Famer Jim Bunning, who was seeking his 20th win. It was the second game of a doubleheader, and the Dodgers needed the win to clinch the National League title and a World Series trip.

The one element that may tarnish Koufax’s feat in the baseball annals?

He struck out Phillies catcher Bob Uecker twice in the game.

• When drifting back to that “Vin Scully Appreciation” ceremony Friday, wouldn’t the perfect conclusion for Kevin Costner’s nine-minute-plus speech had been: “Vin … wanna have a catch?”

VIN SCULLY ITEMS IN THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME

According to Jon Shestakofsky, the vice president of communications and education for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, these are among the Vin Scully items in their collection:

• A signed scorecard by Scully from the July 23, 1951, annual Hall of Fame exhibition game played between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia A’s. He was in his second year with the franchise at the time.

• Audio of his calls from Don Drysdale’s fifth straight shutout in 1968, and the 59th scoreless inning of Orel Hershiser’s streak in 1988 that broke Drysdale’s record; Hank Aaron’s 715th home run call; various locker room interviews from the World Series in 1959, ’63 and ’65; an LP recording of the Bill Singer 1970 no-hitter; a CD of a radio program titled “Vin Scully: Voice of Heaven” in 2005 made by Fordham University’s WFUV-AM (available at MLB.com)

• A baseball signed by Scully as well as Walter Alston, Ron Fairly and Jim Gilliam and other Dodgers

• The Curt Smith biography on Scully called “Pull Up A Chair.”

• A postcard of Scully with partner Jerry Doggett.

Said Shestakofsky about future contributions: “Vin has been extremely generous with us in the past. We have a number of items in our collection that are linked to his long and storied career, and have connected with him to see if something else can be added from this season.”