LA City Council votes to rename street Vin Scully Avenue

LOS ANGELES (CNS / FOX 11) - A street leading to Dodger Stadium will be named after the team's longtime play-by-play announcer Vin Scully, who plans to retire after 67 seasons with the Dodgers.

The council voted 12-0 to begin the process for renaming Elysian Park Avenue between Sunset Boulevard and Stadium Way as "Vin Scully Avenue.''

"Now we're going to say, 'Hey, go up Sunset and make a right on Scully Avenue' -- that's going to be the new directions to get to Dodger Stadium,'' said Councilman Gil Cedillo, who proposed the street name change.

Cedillo called Scully "the voice and symbol of baseball, not just for the Dodgers but the entire nation.''

"I remember growing up in the city, and I couldn't always afford to go to the games,'' Cedillo said. "We had a little radio, as all young boys and girls did in that time period. While you may not have been able to afford the games, you could turn on the radio, and with that you can see the Dodgers, each and every pitch, each and every play ... just amazing storytelling that was unparalleled.''

Councilman Paul Krekorian said the recognition "is a few decades overdue.''

"I'm so glad Mr. Scully has finally consented to our doing this,'' he said. "He's a man of great humility who has resisted this kind of recognition, but it's so important that we do so.''

Dodger manager Dave Roberts told the council that "on behalf of the players, the organization, we're deeply honored, as Vin has called many great monumental moments'' in Dodger history.

Former Dodger stars Orel Hershiser, Maury Wills and others were on hand for the vote, as were several active players.

The visit by the Dodger contingent to City Hall is part of their week of service tour in the Los Angeles area, dubbed by the team as the "Dodgers Love L.A. Tour.''

The Dodger team tweeted a statement from Scully, who said he was "overwhelmed'' by the decision to rename a street after him.

"I was raised on the streets of New York and to have a street named after me in Los Angeles is almost too much to comprehend,'' he said.

"A path to Dodger Stadium is a pathway to my heart. For 55 years, it has been an honor to walk that road to one of the greatest entertainment centers in the world, a place that has brought so much joy to all of us. I
thank God for this great honor,'' he said.

The 88-year-old Bronx-born Scully has announced Dodger games since 1950, when the team played in Brooklyn. He said in August that the 2016 season likely will be his last.

Scully has been an announcer longer than anyone else in sports history. A ranking system devised by author Curt Smith for his 2005 book "Voices of the Game'' determined that Scully was baseball's greatest announcer, giving him a perfect score of 100, based on such factors as longevity, language, popularity and persona.

When Mayor Eric Garcetti made a similar street-naming proposal in 2013 in response to a viewer question on a public affairs television program, Scully said he would prefer for a street near Dodger Stadium to be renamed after Walter O'Malley, who brought the team to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, or his son Peter, instead of himself.

"The mayor of Los Angeles has a great deal more important things to do than name a street after me,'' Scully said at the time. "And if he is considering that idea, better the street should be named after Walter or Peter
O'Malley than myself.''

Peter O'Malley succeeded his father as the team's chairman of the board upon the elder O'Malley's death in 1979. The O'Malley family continued to own the Dodgers until their sale to the Fox Group in 1997.

In 2013, when Scully announced he would be returning for the 2014 season, Garcetti said that "Vin Scully is more than the voice of the Dodgers.''

"L.A. Little Leaguers hear his voice when swinging for the fences and as adults, we hear his voice during those big moments in our lives,'' Garcetti said. "Vin Scully transcends L.A.'s ever-changing 'A List.' In his seventh
decade here, he is an icon to grandparents, parents and our kids and earns new fans with each new child who tunes in to their first Dodgers game.''