During a Los Angeles Dodgers broadcast back in May of 2012, legendary announcer Vin Scully told a short story about the time he raced Jackie Robinson on ice skates. Scully, who fancies himself an avid skater, said he took a trip to a resort with Jackie and his wife Rachel when he decided to go skating. Jackie offered to go with him, though he had never been on ice skates.
“Now Jackie’s putting his skates on alongside me in the dressing room and he says, ‘When we get out there I’d like to race you,'” Scully recalled. “I said, ‘Jack, I didn’t know you ice skated. You’re from southern California, I knew football and baseball but I didn’t know ice skating.’ Jackie said, ‘I’ve never been on skates in my life.’
“So I started to laugh and said, ‘Hey, Jack, let’s face it — I’m not a great skater but I can skate.’ He said, ‘I know. I want to race you because that’s how I’m going to learn.’ If you’ve never been on skates before, the first thing you do is walk on your ankles. And, sure enough, he was running on his ankles on the ice trying to beat me.”
Scully may have been 85 years old at the time he shared that story, but this is a man who still very much has his wits about him. And now, we have photo proof.
Vin Scully once raced Jackie Robinson on ice skates. Vin is one of a small group who ever beat Jackie in any race. pic.twitter.com/bbMAS8Ft38
— Dodgers History (@Dodgers_History) December 19, 2013
I’m sure Scully has plenty of awesome stories from his 65 years as the Dodgers play-by-play man, but that has to be one of the best.
H/T Big League Stew
