Major League Baseball will lose two icons after the 2016 season.
Boston Red Sox fans are well aware that slugger David Ortiz is retiring after this year, but the Los Angeles Dodgers also will bid farewell to a legend in longtime play-by-play announcer Vin Scully.
Scully offered a nice tribute to Ortiz during the Red Sox’s weekend series in Los Angeles, and Boston later did the same for Scully. But the two decided to share their own private moment Sunday, when Ortiz surprised Scully with a visit to his broadcast booth before the teams’ series finale.
Scully obviously is a legend in his own right, but the humble announcer had high praise for Ortiz during their meeting.
“I must tell you this,” Scully told Ortiz, according to ESPN.com, “I’ve admired the way you play, but I have respected, with great admiration, the human being that you are.”
Ortiz had his own interesting tidbit for Scully, admitting he came very close to signing with the Dodgers back in 1992 when he still was in the Dominican Republic. Big Papi ended up signing with the Seattle Mariners before being traded to the Minnesota Twins in 1996.
Scully and Ortiz both will be deeply missed next season, but we’re glad the two charismatic figures got the chance to talk before their storied careers end.
Thumbnail photo via Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports Images
