Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story

Description

In 1950, Vin Scully broadcast his first major league baseball game for the then-Brooklyn Dodgers. Nearly sixty years later he still invites a listener to "pull up a chair," completing a record fifty-ninth consecutive year of play-by-play. Recruited and mentored by the legendary Red Barber, the New York-born Scully moved with the Dodgers to Los Angeles in early 1958. His instantly recognizable voice has described players from Duke Snider to Orel Hershiser to Manny Ramirez, with hundreds in between. At one time or another, Scully has aired NBC Television's Game of the Week, twelve All-Star Games, eighteen no-hitters, twenty-five World Series, and network football, golf, and tennis. He has made every sportscasting Hall of Fame; received a Lifetime Emmy Achievement award and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; and been voted"most memorable franchise personality." In 2000, the American Sportscasters Association named Scully the Sportscaster of the 20th Century. The first biography of Vin Scully is long overdue. Curt Smith-to USA Today,"The voice of authority on baseball broadcasting"-is the ideal man to write it. Scully opens each broadcast by wishing listeners, "A very pleasant good afternoon." Pull Up a Chair will provide a reader with the same.

Curt Smith is a senior lecturer of English at the University of Rochester, a GateHouse Media columnist, and the author of sixteen books, including the classic Voices of the Game. He has written for such publications as Newsweek, the New York Times, and the Washington Post and has been named to the prestigious Judson Welliver Society of former Presidential Speechwriters.

Over 234 riveting and exquisitely reported pages in a book that clearly was a labor of love for the author, but hardly a fawning piece of fluff. "Washington Post", July 29, 2009 Curt Smith deftly shows how Scully s melodious six decades with the Dodgers . . . began baseball radio and television s longest same-team skein. . . . Vin Scully has supplied the raw material, while Curt Smith possessed the skills to bring off a gem of a book. This is a wonderful read. . . . You won t be disappointed. "The Lowell [MA] Sun", July 26, 2009 "Pull Up a Chair" isn t so much a biography of Scully as it is an elegant and eloquent appreciation of a man who may be the greatest American broadcaster of the 20th century--and who is staking claims on the 21st. "San Antonio Express", August 2, 2009 "An honest attempt to illuminate Scully's life. It is full of interesting tidbits and amusing stories from his childhood and long career." www.campuscircle.com, August 31, 2009 "No one can truly capture Scully's use of English and sense of history in a book. Smith does as well as possible by not only telling the Scully story, but also spicing the narrative with play-by-play script." "USA Today", June 11, 2009 "A great new book . . . about the life and times of Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. Author Curt Smith captures . . . the great things about this very popular man and why he has lasted so long in one job, which is basically unheard of in the media world. "The San Francisco Examiner", June 20, 2009 "[A] wonderful tribute. . . . "Pull Up a Chair" is a wonderful read and a fitting tribute to an 81-year-old broadcaster who hasn't lost anything off his fastball." scottpitoniak.blogspot.com, June 19, 2009 "Smith has as much a mastery of the English language as Scully." DemocratChronicle.com, June 18, 2009 Smith makes the perfect Scully biographer. . . . Longtime baseball fans will savor this one as they would a fine brandy. . . . Baseball used to bring out the best in those who wrote and spoke about it; Scully and Smith remind us that, in some cases, it still does. "Booklist", June 1, 2009 "I highly recommend it. . . . His life story has been beautifully sculpted by Curt Smith in "Pull Up a Chair". It makes for great summer reading." politicalmavens.com, May 30, 2009 It is fitting that Curt Smith would be the author who gives sports fans a wonderful gift: the first biography of the great Vin Scully. No writer knows baseball announcers as well as Smith does, and no one captures their voice so perfectly. If you can t get near a television or radio to listen to Scully, read this book. It s the next best thing. Christine Brennan, "USA Today " Curt Smith s salute to Vin Scully makes for what those familiar with both men would expect: one passionate but poised professional writing about another, a noble subject in the hands of a noble author. In the highest possible sense, they deserve each other. We win. Phil Mushnick, "New York Post" Curt Smith s passion for the written word and the national pastime leaps from every page. If Vin Scully is baseball s Homer, Smith is unquestionably its Boswell. Meticulously reported and elegantly written, a brilliant tour de force. Tom DeFrank, "New York Daily News" Can you believe it? There has never been a biography of Vin Scully, and this book is that and so much more. This is a book about baseball and an artist. This is a book worth waiting for. Believe it this book is a winner. Juan Williams, National Public Radio If Scully is the Perfect 10 in Smith s dead-on reckoning, "Pull Up a Chair" is a 9.8 (marred only by East German judges), as both a riveting biography and appreciation of the last Dodger link between Brooklyn and the City of the Angels. Walter Shapiro, author of "One-Car Caravan" This rhapsody is a delightful romp through a half-century of baseball. With the kind of eloquence that Scully made famous behind a microphone, Smith takes us into the broadcast booths and onto the diamonds in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and everywhere in between. Burt Solomon, "National Journal" What a great read. At a time when familiar institutions are reeling from scandal and incompetence, Curt Smith reminds us of baseball s voice of clarity, honesty, and reality. Smith is the country s pre-eminent baseball raconteur. John Zogby, author of "The Way We ll Be" There s nothing more relaxing than listening to a baseball game that Vin Scully is broadcasting. Curt Smith has captured that quality. "Pull Up a Chair" makes you want to do just that pull up a chair, pop open a beer, sit back, and read. Allen Barra, "Wall Street Journal"