And so the biggest thing, when the ball was hit, was that I got this tremendous rush of goosebumps for this marvelous accomplishment, and the place went bananas, I mean just crazy. So I didn’t want to say anything; the crowd noise to me was like a symphony, and I took the headset off and I walked to the back of the booth. I stood back there and just watched it, and loved listening. There I was, the eight-year old boy—I was under the radio again, just listening to this crowd. When I came back again, I just said what I felt, and what I felt was that it was great for Henry and his family; it was great for the team and the city and the state. But eventually, my mind kept saying, This is bigger than that. This is huge. This is a great sociological thing because a black man is being honored in the Deep South. I mean you’ve got yourself a monumental moment. So all of that came out. That was it. When Henry hit the home run, I guarantee you that’s the longest uninterrupted crowd noise, maybe in the history of sports because there was nothing else to say. Everybody tuning in knew where he was, what happened, what it meant. There was nothing else to say—just that roar of the crowd.

George Plimpton actually wrote a small book about Aaron and the chase. He came up to me the night of that game and said, ’Did you prepare anything to say on the home run?’ I said ’Oh noooo.’ And he said ’Why? Milo Hamilton said he had it all prepared.’ I said ’No, I’d be frightened to do that.’ He said ’Frightened? Why do you say that?’ I said, ’Well, if I’m going to write it out, then I’m thinking, This is my priceless statement. And if you remember, George, it wasn’t for sure; Buckner climbed the little fence and reached up. He didn’t catch it but he could’ve caught it.’ And George, not knowing anything about baseball, he said ’Is he good at that?’ I said ’No George, no one’s good at climbing a fence!’"

Kirk Gibson’s Home Run

1988 World Series, Game 1 (October 15, 1988)

The Call: Scully relays the blow-by-blow of the bottom of the ninth, culminating with what he considers to be "the most theatrical home run" he’s seen in his career. Check out a clip of the home run here.

"In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened."

Listen to the original Gibson call and Scully’s comments

"If I categorized home runs that I’ve seen, without a doubt the monumental one is Henry’s... but I’ve seen a lot of classic, great home runs. Gibson’s was probably the most theatrical home run I’ve ever seen. In the ninth, after the outs were made, we went into commercial, so I talked to the truck, which I rarely do, and I said ’Fellas, when we come out of commercial, stay with me.’ So the first shot out of commercial was the dirigible floating above, so I said, ’If you’re here in the ballpark, and if you have a pair of binoculars, the first thing you’d do is look in the Dodger dugout’—and wham! there was a shot of the dugout. And I said, ’If you look the length of the dugout to see where Kirk Gibson is...’—and they panned the whole dugout—’...obviously, if he’s not in the dugout, he’s not gonna play tonight.’ Meanwhile, Kirk is sitting in the dressing room, he’s got bad legs, can’t play. He’s got two huge sacks of ice, one on each leg, and he’s sitting there by himself looking at the TV monitor at that dramatic sweep of the dugout, and listening to my ’He won’t play,’ and all that stuff. It did something to him, and so he yells out, ’Bullshit Vinny!’ and throws the ice down. And he said to the kid in the locker room, ’Tell Tommy [Lasorda] I’ll be right down.’ Now, as the inning progressed, we had Mike Davis up there—outfielder, aggressive hitter, didn’t walk that much. But fate had it so that Mike walked, and while he’s heading to first, the camera [snaps] takes a shot of the dugout, and I said something like, ’Guessss whooo’s comin’...’ And here he comes, with a bat as his cane, hobbling, and then of course, fouling off those little pitches, any one of which if stays fair he’s dead ’cause he can’t run, and I kept saying, almost praying, please don’t let him strikeout. He’s had such a great year that on this national stage, just let him hit a ball hard. So when he hits the home run, the whole building... from the empty dugout to the walk, to him suddenly using the bat as a cane... it was just the most theatrical home run. And the place went crazy. I don’t know where it came from, but out came a line that later on I thought only could’ve come from The Boss. That line, ’In a year of the improbable, the impossible has happened’—which, I must admit, is a pretty good line—it just totally came out of nowhere. My heart, that’s where it came from, and God helped me out."

Bill Buckner’s Blunder

1986 World Series, Game 6 (October 25, 1986)

The Call: Scully deviates from his Dodgers duties to call the ’86 World Series.

"A little roller up along first.... Behind the bag.... It gets through Buckner! Here comes [Ray] Knight, and the Mets win it!"

Listen to the original Buckner call and Scully’s comments

"You know the story: the Red Sox and the Mets, and what looked like an easy ground ball... It was the shock of it, more than anything. You just don’t expect a big leaguer to have it happen. Home runs are thrilling, but the shock of this little ground ball going through his legs, I don’t know how else to describe it. It was a lightning bolt. That’s probably what I would call it. Here the game is progressing nicely, and then suddenly: hit by lightning. When it was all over, I felt badly because Billy had played with the Dodgers. To this day, if I saw it I’d be startled. It’s what makes this game so great, you just can’t take anything for granted."