Professional sports leagues suspend seasons due to coronavirus outbreak
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Legendary baseball broadcaster Vin Scully joined Ed Henry on Monday's "Fox News Rundown" podcast to discuss the coronavirus pandemic and the delayed start to this year’s Major League Baseball season.
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The 92-year-old Scully, the radio and TV voice of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1950 to 2016, told Henry he belives many people will use the downtime to rediscover their faith.
VIN SCULLY SHARES HOW HE'S SOCIAL DISTANCING DURING COROANVIRUS PANDEMIC
"Now that I have some leisure time and we're all locked in at home, I read an article and it was talking about what happened to Americans in World War II," said Scully, a devout Roman Catholic. "It was such a terrible time. Three-quarters of Americans belonged to a house of worship."
"Today ... half of Americans are involved in a house of worship, prior to this pandemic," he added. "So there's your answer ... Although they might not be able to go to a house of worship, probably more Americans will be praying since World War II.
"More people will be coming back to the faith," Scully went on. "And now that this terrible thing is upon us, people might very well get back to the center. And it's a better world. We'll see ... "
Shifting the conversation to baseball, Scully discussed his childhood dream of being a broadcaster and his trademark of keeping silent after a big play.
"Now that this terrible thing is upon us, people might very well get back to the center."
"When I was about eight years old, we had a big old fashioned four-legged radio with a crosspiece underneath it. And on Saturdays, we could get college football and I would be listening to a football game that actually didn't mean anything to me," he explained. "But what got me was the roar of the crowd. I would lay there and somebody would do something. And the crowd would roar. And it would come out of that speaker like a coming out of a showerhead with water. And I would get goosebumps from head to toe."
"So that when I eventually got the privilege -- and it was a privilege -- of doing ballgames, as soon as something happened where the crowd roared, my trademark was not to speak. I would sit there a few brief seconds. I was eight years old again."
"The crowd would roar and I would disappear behind the curtain. Never to be seen again."
Major League Baseball's 2020 season was scheduled to begin on March 26, but Opening Day has been pushed back to mid-May at the earliest in deference to CDC guidelines discouraging gathering in crowds of 50 or more people.
Whenever the season begins, Scully told Henry that if he is invited to take part in Opening Day festivities at Dodger Stadium, he would stick to a routine familiar to generations of Dodgers fans.
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"Well, first of all, I would say what I always said [at the top of each broadcast]: 'Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good afternoon to you, wherever you may be.' ... or an evening as the case may be."
"And then finally," he added, "'It's time for Dodger baseball.' The crowd would roar and I would disappear behind the curtain, never to be seen again."
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