By Ken Reed
The sports world took a couple major hits this week with the passing of Bill Russell and Vin Scully.
Two giants in SportsWorld. And two people who positively impacted the world in ways beyond their sports role.
To many, including thousands who never met him and only knew him through their radio, Scully was a great friend, someone they could count on being in their lives for seemingly forever (in reality, it just seemed like forever; Scully was a baseball broadcaster for 67 years).
“I like people to think of me as a friend,” Scully once said.
“The nicest thing I’ve had people say to me is, ‘You know, when I hear your voice I think of some nights with my mom and dad barbecuing in the backyard,’ or ‘I remember a summer vacation.’”
Vin Scully was the GOAT in his field, yet he never appeared to have an ego.
As Tom Verducci beautifully put it, “He was an eloquent and humorous reminder that we are strongest with humility and empathy.”
Scully was a role model in the truest sense. He showed us what a human being driven by his soul, not his ego, looks like.
“We each have two voices in our heads: the soul and ego,” said author Karen Casey . “Our challenge is to live driven by the soul, not the ego. Every day. The ego is always wrong. The choice, however, is ours”
It seems like Scully chose the soul every day.
Although Scully has passed at age 94, I hope his words and actions continue to be a guidepost for what sport — make that humanity — can be at its best.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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