City Of L.A. Renames Street Leading To Dodger Stadium After Vin Scully
Just before entering his 67th, and final, year in the broadcast booth, the city of Los Angeles voted unanimously to rename Elysian Park Avenue after legendary broadcaster, Vin Scully.
As a result of the vote passing, Elysian Park Avenue will now be known as Vin Scully Avenue. For those who aren’t familiar with the area around the ballpark, Elysian Park Avenue is the street that leads to Dodger Stadium. A much-deserved honor, as — with all due respect to Jack Buck, Harry Kalas, Ernie Harwell and Harry Caray — Scully is the greatest baseball broadcaster of all-time. Many fans feel that baseball season doesn’t officially start until you hear Vin Scully’s voice, the voice of summer. One of the greatest Dodgers of all-time, Sandy Koufax, once said, “It may sound corny, but, I enjoyed listening to Vin (Scully) call a game almost more than playing in them.”
I can’t think of a greater honor for a broadcaster to receive than having their own street named after them around the ballpark in which they worked. Here in Boston, we honor our great broadcasters by firing them. Must be an east coast thing.
Speaking of Boston, renaming streets and despicable behavior, there has been a lot of talk this offseason about renaming Yawkey Way, the street that runs alongside gates A and D at Fenway Park, which was named after Tom Yawkey, who owned the Red Sox from 1933 to 1976. Yawkey, if you’re not familiar, is a well-documented racist. As most baseball fans know, the Red Sox were the last team to integrate, finally signing their first player of color, Pumpsie Green, in 1959. Recently, there has been a movement to rename Yawkey Way because of this, which has been covered by the Boston Globe, Mass Live and the guys at Over the Monster.
But, while all the aforementioned columns are well worth the read, Marc Normandin of Over the Monster expands on his stance to rename Yawkey Way by offering a suggestion of who to rename the street after: David Ortiz. It’s perfect. In my opinion, Ortiz has meant more to the Red Sox franchise than any other player in history, so he deserves the honor based on that alone. However, covering up the Yawkey name by honoring a player of color in its place would show just how far the franchise has come.