During Tuesday night's Dodgers win over the Marlins, Vin Scully called on his 66 years of major league broadcast experience to tell a wonderful story.
"The Miami Marlins were a Triple-A ball clup owned by Bill Veeck. Yes, that Bill Veeck," Scully recounted. "One of the things that Bill Veeck did as a promotion, he signed Satchel Paige, who was very close to being 50 years old, and still pitched very well in Triple-A. On that ball club back in 1956 was Whitey Herzog, now a Hall of Fame manager. But Whitey was an outfielder.
[Editor's note: Herzog played for the Marlins in 1957, not 1956. Herzog was with the Washington Senators in 1956, playing 117 games in his rookie year in the majors]
"They were playing in Rochester, and he noticed a promotional thing in the Rochester ballpark. There was a hole in the fence in center field and above it was a sign: 'If you hit the ball in the air through the hole, you get $10,000.' So Herzog went back into the clubhouse, got a bunch of balls, and went out to center field and tried to throw a ball through the hole, and he couldn't do it.
"When he went back in before the game started, Whitey was talking to Satchel Paige.
"He said, 'Satch, do you see that hole out in center field?' and Paige said, 'Yes, Wild Child.'
"He said, 'I'll bet you a bottle of bourbon that you can't throw the ball through that hole. So the next day before batting practice, Herzog had a bunch of balls and he took Satchel Paige out, and Herzog marched off 60 feet, six inches from the hole.
"He gave Satchel Paige the ball and said, 'Wild Child, does the ball fit through the hole?' and Whitey Herzog said, 'Satch, it sure does.'
"Satch said, 'Then you have a bet.'
"He held the ball up and looked over the ball like he was aiming a rifle. Now, Paige winds up and throws. The ball goes into the hole, spins around, and pops out again. Herzog thinks, holy mackerel he'll never come closer than that.
"Paige picks up the next ball, aims. Right through the hole, clean as a whistle. He said, 'Wild Child, I will take that' and walked off the field."
The best part of this, and many Scully stories was how Scully weaved he telling into the at-bat, mixing in play-by-play as he told the tale. Adrian Gonzalez picked the perfect time for a nine-pitch at-bat, including four foul balls with two strikes. The story ended, almost perfectly, at the exact moment Gonzalez struck out.
"My thanks to Adrian Gonzalez for fouling off all those pitches," Scully said.
[h/t to Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider]