Rose Bowl Grand Marshal Vin Scully: 'My life has been the fulfillment of a dream'

By Dakota Gardner

December 4, 2013

Can you believe it's been over a month since we last heard Vin Scully call a baseball game? If you need a Scully fix (and, let's be honest, you do), the legendary broadcaster will serve as the Grand Marshal of the 125th Rose Bowl Parade on New Year's Day.

Scully talked about his role in the parade in an interview published in the Pasadena Star-News:

I'm not much for being in a parade, and maybe instinctively I shied away from it. But the more I thought about it, it is a rather prestigious moment and, gee, if I turned it down, it would probably hurt a lot of people's feelings. I didn't want to do that.

It goes back to the old line about squeezing the juice out of life before life squeezes the juice out of you. This is the perfect moment to meet a lot of nice people, to see what's going on, see the inner workings. I'm now excited and thrilled to be part of it.

The parade's theme this year, "Dreams Come True," has a very special meaning to Scully:

My life has been the fulfillment of a dream. I wrote for the nuns an essay when I was 8 years old on what I wanted to be when I grew up. The boys were all about being policemen and firemen and doctors and lawyers, while the girls were about nursing or ballet dancers or becoming mothers. There was no TV and just a few things on the radio, maybe a Saturday afternoon football game between Ohio State and Notre Dame. So when I said I wanted to be a sports announcer, that was way out in left field. So when I eventually got that job with the Dodgers, in December of 1950, when I was 23, it really was the fulfillment of a dream just 15 years later. That's rather remarkable in itself. I have a great deal to be thankful for.

That's just a taste. The whole thing is well worth reading to hold you over until January.